In 1840, the British Empire opened the door of the Qing Empire with foreign guns and cannons, and since then, China has gradually entered a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the tragic history of modern times has also begun.
Regarding the fate of China's modern tragedy, many people blame the closed country of the Qing rulers.
In fact, in 1793 AD, China had the opportunity to contact the Western world. At that time, the British sent Magorny to visit China, and the Qing Dynasty was the Qianlong Emperor at that time.
The "Kangqian Shengshi" claimed to be the last prosperous era in ancient China, and as a result, the Qianlong Emperor, who was revered as the "Ten Perfect Old Man", was very stubborn, disdained the advanced equipment brought by the British emissaries, and regarded the British as a traditional "small country under the domain", thinking that they were coming to pay tribute to seek the rewards of the Heavenly Dynasty, and refused to communicate with the West...
This is our traditional cognition, and in recent years, with the advent of some Qing Palace materials, it has subverted people's common-sense cognition.
Since entering the Central Plains, the Qing Dynasty has always had exchanges with the West. The Shunzhi Emperor and the Western missionary Tang John were very close friends, the Kangxi Emperor and the French Emperor Louis XIV were pen pals, (people) walked around the Forbidden City, you can see the portrait of Yongzheng in a dress, even if it is Qianlong, his court also has many foreigners...
Why did Westerners often appear in the court of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty?
Since the 16th century, the world has entered the era of great navigation, and in terms of conditions, it has the possibility of exchanges between the East and the West.
For Westerners, Chinese porcelain, tea, and silk have a fatal appeal.
As early as before the Age of Discovery, the West had many unrealistic fantasies about China, and the distant ancient Greeks called China the State of Cyrus, and in some documents of the time, the Chinese was likened to "more than 6 meters, red head, green eyes, loud voice, average life expectancy of 200 years".
A little closer, a man named Marco Polo came to the Yuan Dynasty and, based on what he saw, heard and imagined, wrote a book called "Marco Polo's Travels", describing China as a "paradise" full of gold. Westerners opened up new shipping lanes, and the advent of the Age of Great Navigation was, to some extent, to trade with China.
With the entry into the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, China was still the richest country in the world until the great changes of the millennium.
At that time, Westerners came to China for two main purposes, one was to do business, and the other was to preach. For the Chinese rulers, some Western astronomical calendars, mathematics, paintings, firearms, clocks... It also has a fatal allure.
In traditional culture, there is also a wrong perception that the Qing Dynasty only had large knives and spears, and did not use firearms.
However, whether it was the confrontation between the early Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, or the conquest of Jungar during the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong years, firearms appeared. Even in the Jiaqing period, the "Qing History Draft" recorded that there were records of the training and use of firearms. In some military parade paintings of the Qing Dynasty, the figure of firearms can also be seen...
So the question is, since the rulers of the Qing Dynasty communicated with the West, how did they fall backward and be beaten in modern times, all this still has to start from the Kangxi era.
Returning to the title of the article, although it is somewhat exaggerated, the Kangxi period did have exchanges with France. The French Emperor Louis XIV liked Chinese culture and built the "Trianon Porcelain Palace" at versailles, and used his favorite Chinese collections, blue and white porcelain and silk, in the decoration of this palace, which at that time had a status in Europe equivalent to the Yuanmingyuan of the Qing Dynasty.
Louis XIV once wrote a letter to Kangxi, which basically sent French mathematicians and scientists to China to serve Kangxi, calling himself "Kangxi's closest friend". The letter is still in the collection of the Archives Department of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Due to some historical factors, the letter kangxi did not receive, but was intercepted by Tsarist Russia. At that time, the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia had territorial disputes in Nebuchu, and Tsarist Russia naturally did not want the Qing Dynasty to have a tendency to unite with France.
Louis XIV had a good impression of Kangxi (the Qing Dynasty), and Kangxi had a good impression of France.
The Qing court signed the Treaty of Nebuchu with Tsarist Russia with two missionaries from France, and Kangxi was seriously ill once, and he also ate the Western medicine carried by the French missionary Bai Jin, which made Kangxi deeply interested in Western medicine, science and culture.
According to some records, Kangxi himself was proficient in Western musical instruments, and also learned geometry, astronomy, geography, and mechanical manufacturing, and there were also globes in the Qing court, which shows that the Qing Dynasty was not closed.
The friendly exchanges between the Qing court and France continued until the Qianlong period. Later, Qianlong "broke off diplomatic relations" with France, and I have to say that louis XVI, the king of France at that time. That's right, the king who was sent to the guillotine.
The news of the French Revolution reached China, much to the dismay of the Qianlong Emperor at the time. After all, the Qing Dynasty was a Han regime ruled by ethnic minorities with a large population, and if the trend of the Great Revolution was widely accepted by the Han people, the Qianlong Emperor could not help but feel a chill in the back of his neck.
Magorny's visit to China took place after the French Revolution, a period when Qianlong was wary of Westerners, and as mentioned earlier, he was afraid that European ideas would spread to China and threaten his rule.
For the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, western science and technology were certainly attractive, but rather than not knowing a certain period of time in the future, the door of the country was opened by the Western cannons, and the Han people under his rule may be the biggest problem.
This article is not to wash the white of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, even if Magorni came to the Qing Dynasty before the French Revolution, he may be given preferential treatment by Qianlong, but the Qing Emperor still represents the backwardness and decay of feudal despotism, representing selfishness and narrow-mindedness, and they care not about the progress of the country and the nation, but about maintaining their own rule, such a regime is doomed to be eliminated.