I believe everyone should know Napoleon, the French "emperor" who was the most powerful on the European continent at that time. Did he know anything about China? Why did he say that China is a sleeping lion? Is there a second half of this sentence? What is it? Under what circumstances did he say it to whom?
"Door-to-door" trade was denied
In the twenty-first year of Jiaqing, that is, in 1816, the British envoy Lord Amsterdam sent an envoy to China, hoping to open the door to China's trade and trade with China.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty in the hands of Emperor Jiaqing was in the process of turning from prosperity to decline, because Emperor Jiaqing was adhering to the policy of closing the country to the outside world. Especially after experiencing the heyday of the reigns of Yongzheng and Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing did not take these "foreign barbarians" seriously, which also led to the following officials also having a superior posture.
After Lord Amsterdam arrived in China, he prepared to meet the Jiaqing Emperor. At that time, the official in charge of the reception was the Ministry of Industry Shangshu, according to the etiquette of the dynasty, to meet the emperor need to perform the "three kneels and nine bows" ceremony. Since Amsterd is also a generalist in the UK, his uncle is a British army general, and he is also representing Britain this time, so he naturally refuses to "bow down".
He asked to change "three kneeling and nine bows" to "three hats off and nine bows", the Ministry of Industry Shangshu reported the matter, of course, the Qing court did not agree, thinking that the envoy was not sincere, and did not follow the etiquette of the dynasty to meet the audience, Jiaqing Emperor refused to meet, so Amesde could only return in vain.
In fact, this was not the first opportunity for the Qing Dynasty to trade with the world, as early as the Qianlong period, the British sent the Earl of Macartney to negotiate trade matters. Although he met Emperor Qianlong that time, he was unable to negotiate trade in the end. Therefore, Lord Amsterdam thought that the two visits were fruitless, and that the only way to open the door to China was to use force.
Napoleon who was finally defeated
As the emperor of the First French Empire, Napoleon was once brilliant. For domestic affairs, he has suppressed domestic uprisings and riots many times, and has also defeated the anti-French alliance composed of Britain, Russia and many other countries abroad, and has also carried out many wars of aggression. According to statistics, he has participated in and commanded more than 60 wars in his life, and has won more than 50 times, which can be described as a "winning marshal".
However, in 1814, the war with Russia was frustrated, and it was finally defeated by the common hostility of numerous anti-French coalitions. After abdication, he was exiled to the island of Elba, fled back to Paris the following year, and established his own dynasty, but within a hundred days, he was defeated by the British and the Dutch at Waterloo, and was finally exiled to St. Helena. He remained on the island for the rest of his life until his death in 1821.
However, Napoleon, as a hero of his time, was also well aware of the countries and situations of the world during his captivity on St. Helena. This is just like modern entrepreneurs, who don't understand how to conduct business wars if they don't understand the market.
Therefore, as Napoleon, if he can have a brilliant record, he must have a very thorough analysis of the situation and the strength and weakness of the country. It's just that he didn't expect that he could analyze China so thoroughly and predict the Chinese people so accurately.
Conversation on the island of St. Helena
In 1816, the year after Napoleon was imprisoned on St. Helena, Lord Amsterdam was denied a meeting by the Qing Dynasty, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the door to China should be opened by force. Thinking of this, he wanted to visit the former "emperor" of France, so he made a special detour to St. Helena, wanting to hear Napoleon's opinion, and also wanted to ask how the use of force should be deployed?
After landing on St. Helena, he told Napoleon about his trip to China, and immediately stated his desire to solve the problem by force. But before he could ask Napoleon how to deploy his forces, Napoleon interrupted him. Napoleon said: "China is a sleeping lion, and when the lion sleeps, flies dare to bite a few bites, but once this lion wakes up, the whole world will be shaken."
Lord Justin was naturally scoffed at this, and he looked at Napoleon in astonishment, wondering how the former French emperor could have said such a thing, not because he was "stupid" in captivity. He continued: "China seems to be huge, but it is nothing more than a sick lion, scary to look at, but in fact it is completely vulnerable."
Napoleon responded: "You may win when you first attack this country, but they will think, learn, summarize, and even buy ships and guns from other countries to fight back against you, and they will eventually defeat you."
So Napoleon thought it was foolish to go to war with China, but Amsterd thought the opposite, and Amsterd left unimpressed.
In a word, Napoleon's prophecy was not bad at all
As soon as these words came out, these great powers in the world scoffed at them, and they did not believe Napoleon's "prophecy" and began to fight China's idea.
With the start of the Opium War, the door to China was opened. In the early stage, China was losing and retreating, but the Chinese people continued to learn from their failures. At that time, a group of officers led by Lin Zexu realized the power of the Western Navy and advocated the establishment of a navy to resist the enemy. As Napoleon said, the Chinese will think for themselves and will buy ships, guns, shells from abroad to fight back against these invaders.
Including the subsequent Westernization Movement, the establishment of arsenals, and the learning of weapons manufacturing technology from abroad, although many movements eventually failed, China's national will is awakening little by little.
With the step-by-step aggression of foreign powers, our China experienced the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Civil War, and the War of Liberation, thinking step by step from defeat, summing up experience, and later the establishment of New China, gradually growing up to the present, and officially realizing the "prophecy" of Napoleon at that time.
The sleeping lion gradually awakens and transforms into a dragon
From the sleeping lion at the beginning to the dragon standing in the east of the world, today's China has stood at the forefront of the world in all aspects of economy, science and technology, military and culture.
First of all, in terms of economy, China's manufacturing industry is among the best in the world, and many countries need to rely on China for most of their import and export trade. The second is technology, such as Chinese-made mobile phones, automobiles, new energy vehicles, high-speed rail, maglev trains, etc., which are all manifestations of scientific and technological progress. In addition, militarily, the mainland's military spending ranks second in the world, second only to the United States, but you must know that the development of New China has only been a few decades. These advances are astonishing in any country, and they are also incomparable to other countries.
epilogue
Now it seems that Napoleon's original "prediction" has become a reality, and China's rapid development has indeed amazed many countries in the world. Moreover, I believe that in the future, China's development will get better and better, and it will certainly play an important role in peace construction around the world.
Resources:
"The Battle of the Nations": The Death Knell of Napoleon's Empire" Author: Hong Jian; Liu Wei
"The Failure of Sino-British Diplomacy: The Amsterdian Mission to China" Author: Li Jing; Yang Huiling
"Sustainable Development of China and the World Sharing Opportunities" Author: Zhang Na