During the reign of Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty achieved unprecedented prosperity. At this time, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing in the Western countries, and the merchant ships of the British Empire were eager to sail to China. In order to dredge up trade channels, in 1792, the British sent a Macartney mission to the East in an attempt to establish trade relations with China.
In 1793, the Macartney mission arrived in Zhoushan, becoming the first British mission to visit China.
George Macartney (1737–1806), born into a large landowner family in Anthol, Northern Ireland, graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1759 and later studied at Temple University in London under the tutelage of Henry Fox, Earl of the Netherlands.
He was also a famous British politician in modern times, who led a delegation to china in 1793 in the name of wishing the Qianlong Emperor a happy birthday, and tried to open the Chinese market through negotiations, but to no avail. This is a major event in the history of Sino-Western exchanges.
On September 26, 1792, the British government officially appointed Macartney as the main envoy and George Staunton as the deputy envoy, and sent an envoy to China in the name of the eightieth birthday of the Qianlong Emperor, which was the first time that the governments of Western European countries sent official envoys to China. An attaché of more than 80 people, including astronomical mathematicians, artists, doctors, and 95 guards, was escorted by warships at the expense of the East India Company. The "tribute" carried, worth about 13,124 pounds, contained astronomical, geographical instruments, books, blanket felts, military supplies, vehicles, ships, a total of 600 boxes, all of which were carefully purchased to represent British civilization.
Portrait of Macartney
In August 1793, Macartney and his party arrived in Beijing. On August 5 (June 23, 58th year of the Qianlong Dynasty), the British delegation arrived at the mouth of the Baihe River in Tianjin on a sixty-gun gunboat Lion and two accompanying vessels provided by the British East India Company, and then changed small boats into Dagu. Ordered to wait here, Tianjin Daoqiao Renjie and Tongzhou Vice Admiral Wang Wenxiong boarded the ship to greet him and prepared vegetables, vegetables, wine and meat to greet them. The delegation entered Tianjin and was welcomed by Liang Kentang, the governor of Zhili.
William Alexander, a painter from Kent, was also a member of the mission, and he came to China as an assistant to the painters of the mission, and after returning to China, he published two painting books, "Chinese Costumes" and "Illustrations of Chinese Costumes and Customs". With his brush he recorded the mission's itinerary.
William Alexander
In 1793, as recorded by William Alexander, the Qianlong Emperor spent his 58th year on the throne of supreme authority in the Forbidden City, and the empire he ruled was economically powerful and the population reached an unprecedented level, but behind the prosperity, there was a crisis of decline.
Officers appointed by the Emperor to be responsible for the entire affairs of the British mission. He presented himself in this way during the Tibetan War
On August 9, the delegation left Dagu for Beijing, stopping in Tongzhou on the way and engaged in a ceremonial dispute with Chinese officials. On September 2, he left Beijing to meet the Qianlong Emperor at the Chengde Mountain Resort, and visited the Great Wall on the way. On 13 September, the mission arrived in Rehe, where it presented its credentials to the Representative of the Chinese Government, Hezhen, and again quarreled with him over etiquette. In the end, the two sides reached an agreement that Britain, as an independent country, would have to kneel on one knee and not have to kowtow.
The city gate of Beijing painted by the painter William Alexander, a member of the Macartney Mission, should be Fucheng Gate according to the shape of the urn city in the picture, the direction of the city gate and the spire exposed inside the city. Traveling from Beijing to the Yuanmingyuan is usually via Xizhimen, and the mission should not have passed through Fuchengmen. Alexander's Beijing City Gate has been engraved countless times by later generations and has become the standard image of the Beijing City Gate in the eyes of Westerners.
William Alexander's painting of the Zhengda Guangming Hall in the Yuanmingyuan is located inside the gate of the Yuanmingyuan Grand Palace, and the gifts given by the British royal family to the Qianlong Emperor are placed in the Zhengda Guangming Hall. Compared with the "Forty Views of the Yuanmingyuan" drawn by the Qianlong court painters, the shape and environment of the Zhengda Guangming Hall are consistent.
Rehe Little Potala Palace
Great Wall
On September 14 (the tenth day of the first month of August), the Qianlong Emperor formally received the mission, and Ma garni, on behalf of the British government, made six requests to him, asking for the signing of a formal treaty:
China was asked to allow British merchant ships to land and operate business in Zhushan, Ningbo, Tianjin and other places. (Press: Zhushan is now Zhoushan Mountain)
China is asked to allow British merchants to set up a foreign firm in Beijing to buy and sell goods, following the example of the former Russian merchants who traded in China.
Please row an undefended island near Zhushan for the use of British merchants, so that British merchant ships can be stopped immediately, all goods can be stored and inhabited by merchants.
Please obtain the same right near Guangzhou, and do not prohibit the free movement of British merchants.
Where British commercial goods are transported from Macao to Guangzhou, special preferential treatment is granted to tax exemption. If this is not possible, please reduce the tax at a rate of 1,782.
Please allow British merchant ships to be taxed at the rate set by China, and not to levy additional taxes.
The Qianlong Emperor
The Envoy Saw Qianlong The figure of Ma Jiaerni was taller than Qianlong, and in order not to anger the emperor, the painter deliberately reduced the size of the envoy.
At the same time, the British delegation presented a number of national gifts to the Qing government, including: a model of the "Monarch" battleship equipped with 110 guns of the largest caliber, several bronze "watermelon cannons", carbines, rifles, continuous pistols, astronomical, geographical, meteorological, surveying, mileage calculation, demonstrators, celestial operation demonstrators, large globes, chiming bells, telescopes, two yellow cars, a full set of golden harnesses, various Western silk fabrics, wool fabrics, cotton fabrics, large carpets, tapestries, wall hangings, etc. It is enough to see the importance that the British government attaches to this mission. For the British on the large gifts, Qing court craftsmen and officials believe that the celestial sphere, the earth and the like are no different from those displayed in the Qing Palace, while the decoration is not as good as China, and the glass hanging lamp is no different from the one in the Yuanmingyuan, the so-called clocks and watches that need to be assembled by special personnel, the method is "not as (as previously claimed) Kit Kat", and the same as the practice of the watchmakers in Beijing. After Qianlong saw the gift, he felt that the envoy was just exaggerating, because "the strange things he called were only ordinary ears", and Ma Jiaerni himself also said: I am terrified, thinking that if the giftS I carry are compared with the original things in this palace, they will be like the widows who see the fierce husband, trembling and turning themselves in.
The Qianlong Emperor asked Ma Jiaerni to bow down, but he was only willing to perform the British ritual of one knee and one knee, and insisted on refusing to perform the ritual of three kneels and nine prostrations, and the Qianlong Emperor was greatly displeased. And when he saw the National Book, he knew that Ying had come not specifically for Heshou, but had no other reason to do so, and decided to let him leave as soon as possible.
The missions were well received at the "Longevity Celebration". In particular, the Qing court considered itself to be the "kingdom of heaven and heaven", and in line with the principle of "thin and thick", it rewarded the British king and his envoys and retinues with more than 3,000 pieces in terms of rewards, namely silk, porcelain, jade and various handicrafts, which were also some exquisite and valuable items, which also opened the eyes of the British envoys.
After the longevity celebration ceremony, the British delegation watched the play at the Qingyin Pavilion of the summer resort. The rich and wonderful performance lasted until noon, and the tribute play "Four Seas Rising peace" written for Ma Garni's visit was specially staged on the same day. Subsequently, the Qianlong Emperor also ordered the military chancellor He Yan to accompany Ma Garni and his party on a tour of the summer resort to enjoy the lake and mountains of the royal garden. When Macartney and others visited the furnishings in the palace, the rare treasures he saw made him feel that his gifts were suddenly "eclipsed". The wealth of the Celestial Dynasty almost stung the self-esteem of the British.
actor
Of course, the exchange of gifts and gifts from both sides to show friendship was only a façade, and the core purpose of the British mission was only one: to establish relations with the Qing Empire and conduct trade and commerce.
But Macartney never had the opportunity to claim trade privileges with the Qianlong Emperor, and did not mention it to Hezhen until September 23, and he played Qianlong on the following lines: first, british merchants were allowed to trade in Zhoushan, Ningbo, and Tianjin; second, to allow the British to set up stacks in Beijing to sell their goods as before; third, to allow the British to use a small island near Zhoushan as a warehouse and allow them to live; and fourth, to allow the British to have the same rights near Guangzhou Fifth, abolish the entrepot tax between Macau and Guangzhou, otherwise it should be reduced to at least the 1782 standard; sixth, it is forbidden to extort taxes from British merchants in excess of the amount specified in the Emperor's decree documents, and a copy of the documents issued to them is given so that they can be clearly observed (some Qing court officials are indeed overbearing against the British). In this way, Macartney finally expressed the purpose of his visit to China in "concrete words." However, for these demands, the Qianlong Emperor refuted them article by article in his edict to the King (all rejected). He also began to urge the British mission to leave quickly to return home, and ordered officials along the way to take strict precautions to prevent the British from causing trouble.
In the Rehe Palace, the Qianlong Emperor solemnly sat on a palanquin carried by 16 people
Although the purpose of trade with the Qing Empire was not achieved, Macartney's trip was still "very fruitful". When the delegation came, it traveled from Tianjin to Beijing and then to Chengde, and when qianlong returned to China, Qianlong allowed the British mission to exit via the South China Sea and take the Grand Canal across the Chinese mainland. What they saw and heard along the way, they found out the national conditions, people's feelings and military hypocrisy of China, and from many details, they found that the Qing Empire was nothing more than a golden jade and its external defeat. Macartney likened the Qing Empire to "a tattered warship." He predicted at the time that "sooner or later the Qing Empire will collapse" and that "Britain will benefit more from this change than any other country."
Soldiers in regular clothes
Tiger Master: The dress is marked with markings and the hat has ears. Soldiers wore rough half-moon curved knives and wicker shields to ward off sword attacks.
Soldiers armed with arquebusiers
Macartney believed that the Chinese military's discipline was lax and its superiority was only reflected in numbers, which could not make up for the lack of military tactics and courage. Soldiers' costumes were bulky, and some of the costumes in the South even had embroidered linings that made it difficult to breathe. The soldier hangs an oval box on his right and holds a large horizontal knife in his left hand. Arquebusiers were shoddily made, and there were forks at the muzzle. Shockingly, the government is still using this bulky weapon despite the fact that skilled Chinese craftsmen have made Mauser guns that rival those of the West.
Deputy Envoy George Staunton defined the Qing Dynasty in his edited book entitled "The Chronicle of the Envoys Seeing Qianlong" as "the typical example of eastern absolutist tyranny that ruled terror with sticks." China is not a rich country at all, but a barren land, not developed by agriculture, but social stagnation in agriculture."
In the end, the mission set sail from Guangzhou on the seventh day of December in the 58th year of Qianlong. On his way back, the lost Macartney remembered what King George III once said: Diplomacy is silent, and the cannon will speak!
Finally, after Ma Garni returned to China, based on what he had seen and heard throughout China and at all levels of society, he gave the following conclusion in his report to the government: Under the qing government, China was extremely backward in science, the people were generally poor, the army was not like the army, and corruption was everywhere. He pointed out that "the Qing government's policy is related to conceit, it wants to override all countries, but it is extremely short-sighted, and only knows how to prevent the people's intellectual progress", while predicting that "the Tatar Dynasty will continue to suppress the people and will be chaotic." When he recalled the palace of the Qing Emperor, whose level of luxury was jaw-dropping, he suddenly became enlightened: the "wealth" of the Qing Dynasty was only the "wealth" of the emperor alone.