During the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty was politically corrupt and closed off from the country, which deprived China of the opportunity to communicate with the Western powers. The British king sent a mission to China, hoping to reach a trade agreement with the Qing court, open up the Chinese market, and obtain huge commercial profits.
However, in his dealings with the Qing court, the Qianlong Emperor was conceited and arrogant and refused to engage in dialogue with the British on an equal footing, which ultimately led to the failure of the diplomatic incident.
The failure of the British mission's visit to China profoundly reflected the internal and external contradictions of the Qing government during the Qianlong period. On the one hand, the Qing court was highly conceited, believing that the Celestial Empire was of high status and disdained to trade with small Western countries. On the other hand, the Qing government's long-term policy of closing the country to the outside world made the Qing Dynasty increasingly lagging behind the development of the Western powers.
While the British mission brought advanced technology and weapons in the hope of communicating with the Qing court on an equal footing, the Qianlong Emperor blindly rested on his laurels and was unwilling to break the established mindset, which exposed his narrow worldview and ignorance of reality.
Emperor Qianlong believed that as long as the Qing court assumed a condescending posture towards the British mission, the British would obediently submit. However, he did not realize that Britain, as a Western power that rose rapidly after the Industrial Revolution, had long since far surpassed the Qing Dynasty. The visit of the British mission was not a "tribute envoy" to a small country that came to worship, but a representative of the country as equals.
This display of "Celestial Empire self-esteem" not only dissatisfied the British mission, but also caused a cultural conflict between the two sides to a large extent. Emperor Qianlong demanded that the British mission submit to him and follow Qing etiquette, which was contrary to the position of the British representative of equal diplomatic relations.
The stalemate between the two sides eventually led to a compromise between the Macartney mission, which delayed the time and prevented the realization of the original purpose of the negotiation. On the other hand, Emperor Qianlong, who was blindly arrogant and arrogant, did not realize China's backwardness in many aspects such as military and economy. He equated countries such as Britain with "small barbarians", completely ignoring the growing power of Western countries.
This "Edict of the King of Ying" greatly exposed the narrow-mindedness and closed consciousness of the Qianlong Emperor. In this 976-word letter, the Qianlong Emperor displayed a typical "Celestial Empire self-esteem" mentality, believing that the Qing Dynasty had everything and did not need to trade with countries such as Britain.
He even regarded the King of England as a "monarch of a small country" subordinate to him, and rejected the British trade demands in an extremely arrogant tone. This letter is indeed foolish in the eyes of the British. It not only reflected the shallowness and ignorance of the Qing rulers at that time, but also foreshadowed that China was about to become the object of aggression by foreign powers.
In fact, Emperor Qianlong's conceit and policy of seclusion laid the groundwork for the decline of the Qing Dynasty. It was this external indifference and internal corruption that made the Qing government unable to stand up to the increasingly powerful Western powers. The failure of the British mission laid the groundwork for the Opium War in the future.
To sum up, Emperor Qianlong's narrow-mindedness and neglect of reality inevitably led to the intensification of contradictions between the Qing Dynasty and the Western powers. This historical event not only reflected the inherent shortcomings of China's feudal ruling class at that time, but also foreshadowed the historical process of the Qing Dynasty's imminent demise.
We should draw lessons from this, persist in reform and opening up, and take the initiative to integrate into the process of globalization, so as to achieve sustained prosperity and development of the Chinese nation.
(Disclaimer: The content of this article, videos, pictures, and articles are all from the Internet, for reference only!