Vipers recently discovered an interesting and intriguing phenomenon in the history of the Qing Dynasty: several emperors in the heyday of the Qing Dynasty were extremely fond of Western-style culture, Kangxi's physics, mathematics, astronomy, and music were well learned, and he was once jokingly called the Emperor of Science, and tang Ruowang was called Marfa (equivalent to Grandpa); Yongzheng was the first person in China to wear a suit and liked to drink foreign wine; the Daoguang Emperor liked foreign guns very much when he was a prince, although it was mainly used to fight birds, but when the Tianli Sect rebel army raided the Forbidden City, He killed two intruding Assassins with a musket, stabilizing the overall situation...
What the emperor likes and admires will logically immediately form a trend and become something sought after by the whole people in the world, at least more largely introduced into China, greatly promoting exchanges with the West. Strangely, since the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty has implemented a policy of closing the country to the outside world. The achievements of advanced industrial civilization in the West were eventually introduced to China in the form of war and humiliation, but they have been delayed for a precious hundred years.
In particular, the Yongzheng Emperor, who was relatively open-minded and was also considered to have worked diligently to make daqing rich and enter the "prosperous world", was once the most puzzling. Because he is not only extremely interested in Han Chinese culture, but also loves Western culture to the bone.
The Yongzheng Emperor was curious and interested in polais, such as watches, glasses, vases, foreign fires, ties, knives, oil paintings, dioramas, and so on. He specially formulated crystals, tea crystals, ink crystals, glass and other glasses up to 35 pieces! And he also openly wore a suit and tie to meet the Portuguese ambassador, which is no joke. Since the Manchus entered the customs, in order to prevent their own ethnic groups from being rapidly assimilated by the Han nationality, it has been explicitly forbidden for Manchus to wear Han costumes. As a monarch, you can't just take off your dragon robe and wear clothes that are considered barbarian and exotic, especially on formal occasions!
In the 5th year of Yongzheng, the Portuguese ambassador Medela arrived in Beijing from Macau and presented a large number of gifts to the Yongzheng Emperor, asking the emperor to protect the Portuguese in Macau and all over China. When another missionary, Zhang Ando and Madle, accompanied by the Minister of Ceremonies, entered the Garden of MingYuan, the Minister of Ceremonies suddenly fell to the ground in fright. Missionaries later recorded that "the Yongzheng Emperor at that time, dressed in leather shoes, wearing a neck tie, wearing a wig, a beard with a figure eight on his mouth, a powdered face, and a pair of myopic glasses on his nose." This scene was also painted by the famous painter, another missionary, Lang Shining.
Some people say that this is just the emperor's childish heart, and he likes to play COSPLAY, because he has also played Li Bai, Su Dongpo and a large number of Han people. But the serpent believes that he was nearly fifty years old when he ascended the throne, and judging by the means by which he governs, he is by no means the kind of person who plays with innocence. In fact, Yongzheng expressed a very fond attitude towards Western culture. It shows that the Yongzheng Emperor is not xenophobic in his heart.
However, his choice was the same as that of Kangxi, and while he liked it so much, he decreed that missionaries were forbidden, let alone missionaries to spread advanced knowledge to ministers other than the emperor, let alone the people. Kangxi once decreed: "From now on, if the Westerners do not obey Matteo Ricci's rules, they are not allowed to live in China, and they must go back." "In the future, there is no need for Westerners to preach in China, and it is forbidden to do so." I don't know what it's like to teach him to adult Tang Mafa by hand! And Yongzheng also learned from his father", "Westerners He Pei benefit from China", and still forbade preaching.
Later, the British gave up missionary work and wanted to trade directly with China. It brought the most advanced scientific and technological achievements in the world at that time, including the monarch model, the steam engine, and so on, but Qianlong still chose to ban preaching and adopted a one-stop trade policy. But what is less known is that the advanced Kit Kat brought by it is not completely hidden in the warehouse, in fact, the air gun is deeply loved by the royal family, and it is often used for hunting.
On the one hand, it is so fond of it, on the other hand, it constantly orders to ban the spread, what is the contradictory attitude? Some people say that it is just the limitations of the times, and how can the emperor have such a high vision to see that these things will change the world? However, the viper can say no with certainty, because there is historical evidence that the emperors deliberately hid these intellectual and cultural achievements!
Father Zhang Cheng, the first president of the Society of Jesus in France, one of the five mathematicians sent by Louis XIV to China, followed the Kangxi Emperor on eight trips abroad, and he left a large number of letters, diaries and other documents, and he clearly wrote in one of his diaries: "(Kangxi) He warned us not to translate anything about our science in the yamen we went, but to do it only in our own homes." At least this statement has truly shown that it was Kangxi himself who deliberately prevented the dissemination of the most advanced scientific knowledge in the West.
The British envoy to the Magurney Mission, Staunton (whose son Staunton Jr. was the leader of the Opium Wars), saw this in fact, saying: "It is said that several Chinese monarchs learned a wealth of foreign mathematics from foreign missionaries. But it is the policy of the Chinese government not to spread this knowledge among the masses. They were afraid that after the popularization of arithmetic knowledge, the natives could calculate solar and lunar eclipses, and could produce calendars, and the prestige of the emperor among the people would be reduced. ”
(All the pictures in the text are of the Yongzheng Emperor by the missionaries)