Jesuit Zeng Dezhao arrived in Nanjing, China in 16 13, and returned to Europe in 1636, completing Greater China during his journey. He stayed in China for 22 years and had a thorough understanding of China in the late Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty introduced in the Spanish Mendoza's History of Great China was mainly ten years ago, which basically belonged to the transitional stage in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. According to the materials, some Portuguese soldiers personally went to China during this period, as well as Portuguese and Spanish missionaries, such as Garriott's A Record of China, written by Cruz, who lived in Guangzhou, China for several months, and Martin de Rada, who sent China to discuss the elimination of pirates. According to these records, Mendoza spoke highly of China's prosperity, civilization, cultural etiquette, politics and economy.
While Zeng Dezhao spanned the three eras of Wanli, Apocalypse and Chongzhen in China, which basically belonged to the eve of the demise of the Ming Dynasty. So what did he record about China? Are the people living in dire straits and extreme pain under the tyrannical rule of the Ming government, as some people imagine? Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Ming dynasty written by Zeng Dezhao is still quite rich and prosperous, and it is amazing in all aspects. If we compare China in the late Ming Dynasty with China under the rule of Manchu recorded by Magani, the British envoy to the Qing Dynasty in 1793, we can find that China in the late Ming Dynasty is far more prosperous and civilized than China in the so-called prosperous period of Kanggan, and it is superior in all aspects.
Of course, Zeng Dezhao spent most of his time in China in the south. According to records, he "stayed in Zhejiang for several years after his return to the mainland, mostly in Hangzhou". The south is far richer and more prosperous than the north, which inevitably makes his records not comprehensive enough, but this cannot affect our comparative judgment, because when Magalny visited Manchuria, he also went from the south to the north. Magalny's record of southern China is so disgusting and ugly.
Below I extract some records of Zeng Dezhao.
"I once stayed in a port flowing from Nanjing to Hangzhou for 8 days ... When an hourglass passed, there were only 300 ships sailing upward. It is a miracle that so many ships are full of goods for the convenience of passengers. All boats are covered and kept clean. Some ships are decorated with pictures, which seem to be for recreation, not for freight. "
"There are many people who live long and happy in all provinces, and you can see many energetic and strong old people."
"Their house is well designed, convenient for accommodation, clean and comfortable." "They grow many vegetables for people to eat all year round." "They have plenty of meat everywhere, even in small villages and towns. Their most common food all year round is pork, and beef is boneless for sale. Their venison is rare and they don't like it very much. "
"China people especially like flowers. They have very beautiful flowers, but they are different from ours. We do, and so do they. There is a lavender one, which has little taste. They try their best to grow flowers in the garden all the year round. They look strange in the garden. "
"There are too many people in China. I lived there for 22 years. When I left, it was as amazing as when I first came. That's true, and it's not an exaggeration. Not only towns and public places (some places can't get through without pushing), but even the avenues are crowded, much like festivals or mass gatherings in Europe. If you look at the general household registration book, only the taxpayers are registered, but there are no records of women and children, eunuchs, civil and military officials (the number is almost endless). There are 588 * * *. This can also be confirmed by Zeng Dezhao's records here. The population of more than 50 million people does not include women and children, nor does it include the civilian class. It should not include a large number of refugees and businessmen, so a conservative estimate should be close to 300 million. )
"The wealth of this country is admirable. As can be seen from the above, in addition to producing all kinds of grains and everything needed for life, they also sell the best and most expensive goods in the East to foreigners. "
"Most of China's best goods are shipped from here, because it is the most open and free trading place in China. Not to mention all kinds of goods shipped by indigenous people and foreigners from six neighboring countries, only Portuguese goods are shipped to India, Japan and Manila. Every year, there are about 5,300 boxes of all kinds of silk, each box contains 100 pieces of light materials such as silk, velvet satin, satin, half-flowered satin, colored single-layer line segments, 250 pieces of gold and 2,200 pieces of gold ingots weighing 12 ounces.
"(Fujian Province), a coastal province, is another excellent port for China to export a lot of goods. Hard-working locals transport goods to Manila, Japan and other regions. "
"At the customs ... it's much more convenient. There is no room for stacking, weighing and checking the goods, and there is no need to take the goods out of the ship. Just look at it and collect a proper tax according to the account book of the merchant. If a passenger is not a businessman, even if he is with a slave with five or six boxes and many other things, he usually leaves them on the ship when he goes from one place to another, not to mention paying taxes. This is a good example of the European Customs and Taxation Bureau. The poor travelers in Europe have been plundered fiercely and savagely, and everything they carry with them is not worth the tax charged to him. "
"(Zhejiang) is the best source of commodity trends in China, surpassing many other provinces in terms of wealth. Its specialty is silk, whether raw silk or finished products, cocoons or raw materials, are shipped to various places. In short, the silk exported from China is produced in this province. "
"The last of the nine southern provinces is Nanjing, ... which is one of the best provinces in China and the essence of the whole country. ..... Its western region is the richest, rich in cotton yarn ... There are 200,000 looms in Xiannei City and its affiliated areas alone. ..... Because the loom is small, there are often many sets in a room, and almost all people engaged in this industry are women. "
"Nanjing ... I think it is the largest and best city in China, with excellent architecture, wide streets, elegant people and rich and excellent goods. It has amazing amusement places and a large population ... Crowds can be seen everywhere, and the streets are difficult to pass. In addition, countless palaces, temples, towers and bridges make the city look very grand. "
"China people are naturally good at doing business, not only from one province to another, but also in the same city. Almost everything in the shop is sold on the street. ..... wealthy businessmen have good credit and punctuality (the Portuguese experience for many years proves this). "
"China people are gentle and polite and like to talk. So at this point, we who only live in Macau and Guangzhou don't believe it, because they are in a state of constant war there, which is caused by the conflict between Portuguese slaves and China people every day. ..... But in other provinces and the mainland of China, as we said, they treated us respectfully and courteously, and treated us as guests at all parties, for no other reason than because we were foreigners, so they called us guests from afar. When necessary, they never refuse to lend us what we need, even if the value exceeds the mortgage we gave them, they don't want interest. "
"China people readily praise any virtue of neighboring countries, and they don't have enough courage to support themselves, while people in other countries don't like anything but their own. When Chinese people saw the products from Europe, they gave a sigh of admiration, although these products were not exquisite. ..... This humility is really admirable, especially in a nation that can surpass others. For those who are blind and deliberately belittle what they see, this is a shame. "
"Their favorite European handicraft is our clock, but now they have produced a very good desk clock, which can produce a similar Jason Chung at a price comparable to ours. Some of the things they produce will be very expensive if they are produced here. "
To tell the truth, in Zeng Dezhao's records, what caught my attention most was not the description of material wealth or other aspects, but this passage:
"China people readily praise any virtue of neighboring countries, and they don't have enough courage to support themselves, while people in other countries don't like anything but their own. When Chinese people saw the products from Europe, they gave a sigh of admiration, although these products were not exquisite. ..... This humility is really admirable, especially in a nation that can surpass others. For those who are blind and deliberately belittle what they see, this is a shame. "
This kind of evaluation is probably totally inconsistent with the image of China people in the Ming Dynasty that we have instilled for a long time. We have been imbued with the image of China in the Ming Dynasty since childhood. First of all, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty are the same, so they are always put together. Secondly, China people at that time were ignorant and rigid, blind and arrogant, looking up to the sky like frogs, taking China as their country, and dismissing western and foreign things or treating them as strange tricks.
Of course, this kind of indoctrination is completely wrong. The most fundamental mistake is to confuse the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. In fact, the Ming Dynasty is the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty is the Qing Dynasty. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there was a fundamental break in civilization, and the temperament and mentality of China people also changed fundamentally.
China people in Ming Dynasty had a broad vision and an open mind, and they were able to introduce and absorb foreign advanced things enthusiastically and actively. Zeng Dezhao's records also proved this! But nearly 200 years later, under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong, a "wise sage", wrote such a foolish and contemptuous word: "China has abundant products and everything, and has not borrowed foreign goods to make up for its needs." The tea, porcelain and silk tendons produced in China are all necessary for western countries and our country, so we are grateful ... "。
In fact, I have pointed out in my past articles that people in the Ming Dynasty were generally open-minded, open-minded, confident and broad-minded, which was proved by a large number of facts. Here, I might as well quote again:
Wang Tingxiang, the minister of war during Zheng Dejia's reign in the Ming Dynasty, has said in his book.
"Day, a also; The kingdom of the world, tens of thousands, and the change of astronomical phenomena are all said by the king of China, which is biased. I think that millions of countries have to respond, and the good and evil of the monarch's administration may not be unified overnight. "
Wang Tingxiang thinks that China is only an equal one among thousands of countries. If all the astronomical changes are reported by the King of China, it is "partial", that is to say, God is too eccentric.
Such a concept can show that the intellectuals in Ming Dynasty had a fairly broad understanding of the world at that time, no longer limited their eyes to China, but realized that China was only an ordinary one in many countries in the world.
Let's take a look at Giulio Aleni's account of the deeds of Ye Gao Xiang, the first official of the Ming cabinet. When Matteo Ricci died, the Ming government gave him a place to be buried. "From time to time, an official said to Prime Minister Ye Wenzhong (Ye):' The guests from afar are not buried, why are they better than their sons?' Wen Zhonggong said,' When a son meets an ancient guest, is his moral knowledge inferior to that of a son? If nothing else, it is its translation of the book Geometry, that is, it is appropriate to give a burial place. "The cabinet prime minister of the Ming Dynasty paid so much attention to the elements of geometry, which shows that his mind is extraordinary.
Take the famous anti-Qing scholar in the late Ming Dynasty and Zhu Shunshui who fled to Japan in the Qing Dynasty as examples. "The world will say,' The ancients are better than today, and China is better than foreign countries'." This is a narrow vision that makes the language of these three villages. "(with Chen Zunshu) How open-minded, confident and open-minded.
Shen Li put it well in China's ancient philosophy and natural science. In the Ming dynasty, "no one called for' learning from foreigners' because there was no need to appeal." The general attitude of Ming people towards various technologies is: as long as it is good, I will use it, no matter where it comes from. "
It is precisely because of this mentality that although the western colonists invaded and harassed China many times and were defeated by the China army at that time, the Ming government was still able to actively learn from its defeated and repelled enemies.
In the sixteenth year of Zheng De, the Ming government ordered the expulsion of the Portuguese who occupied Tuen Mun. At that time, the general of the Ming army was Wang Hong. The Portuguese were defeated and fled, and the dead were in ruins. Many people were captured by the Ming army, and even most Portuguese ships from Siam to China were captured. The rest of the Portuguese were wiped out and had to flee overnight. After defeating the Portuguese in Tuen Mun, Wang Hong seized many guns used by the Portuguese. He immediately gave them to the Ming government. It is believed that this kind of weapon has great development potential and great power, and needs a lot of imitation, improvement and equipment. The Ming government immediately listened to Wang Hong's suggestion and promoted Wang Hong to the right capital suggestion and was responsible for this matter. After that, the firearms of the Ming Dynasty were basically very keen to keep up with the whole world. As soon as the latest firearms were discovered, they immediately spared no effort to imitate and improve them on a large scale, and their ability to independently develop and create firearms became stronger and stronger. In the end, regardless of the development of firearms or the scale of firearms equipment,
Even visiting westerners, officials of the Ming dynasty would not let go of the firearms they carried with them, but took them to study imitation.
In the History of Great China published in 1585, the Spaniard Mendoza described the brother Martin de Rada, Bishop of St. Augustine's Church in the Philippine Islands, and his companion Seroney Mo Martin and his fellow Spanish soldiers came to the Ming Dynasty to contact and destroy LAM Raymond, a pirate in China. There are such records.
"The next day, the governor sent someone to visit our people and asked them for a sword, a matchlock gun and a powder keg: because he wanted to do it. Our people sent these, and later learned that they were plagiarized, although not exactly the same. "
Some people may ask, what do these things you mentioned above have to do with the title of your article? Don't worry, it must be related. As we all know, China's traditional concept has a concept of distinguishing between China people and foreigners, and we have been taught that "distinguishing between China people and foreigners" is a narrow nationalist concept, which reflects China's closed and rigid traditional concept, so it should be severely criticized. But is this really the case? Why are historical facts completely different from this statement? In fact, if we look at the countries established by the Han nationality in the Han, Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, we can see that they all have a great spirit of tolerance, and they learn the excellent things from foreign civilizations with an open mind and actively absorb them. People in these times, whether they are the mainstream of intellectuals or not, generally have an open-minded attitude. This fact cannot but conflict with the concept of the difference between China people and foreigners criticized by some people.
What is the real connotation of the distinction between China people and foreigners? In fact, Qu of the Ming Dynasty has made it very clear! Bend to say:
"This person is loyal and wise, although he is as far away as Zhu Xia.
If the husband is vague, gurgling and shameless, although close to the shoulder, Rong Di is also. "
Obviously, the essence of the difference between China people and foreigners expressed by Qu here is not the difference between countries, nationalities and regions, but the difference between civilization and barbarism! In China's traditional concept, "the distinction between Chinese and foreigners" never excludes the outstanding and advanced things in other civilizations. On the contrary, it rejects and resists barbaric and backward things. China accepts and absorbs all kinds of civilizations with an open attitude, even other civilizations from distant places.
If you think what Qu said is not detailed enough and thorough enough. Then let's look at a passage by Wang Fuzhi, one of the four great thinkers in the late Ming Dynasty (these four giants are Fang Yizhi, Huang Zongxi, Wang Fuzhi and Gu respectively). In this passage of Wang Fuzhi, he put forward a quite bold and amazing hypothesis in his time, which was also the most advanced, original and forward-looking thought in the world at that time.
Let's take a look at his exact words first
"In the past, if China people gathered birds in the elk, they would live in the sun and the moon, and they had the party of three generations: Tang, Yu and China. Since the manpower is unreasonable and the other side is prosperous, this decline cannot be levied. If this is prosperous, then the other side can be described as teaching people, so learning is also embarrassing. "
What does this passage mean? That is to say, before Dahao, China people were just barbarians who gathered elk and birds, not necessarily under the sun and the moon. There must be a civilized society before China, but due to the shortage of manpower, when the civilization there was in a strong period, China was in a barbaric state and could not know. When China's civilization became stronger, it declined and could not show its glory, so it was still unknown here in China.
In essence, this passage puts forward a bold point of view, that is, "the theory of how far civilization is created independently by different ethnic groups who don't know each other." There are two views. The first is the fluctuation of civilization in space, that is, while Chinese civilization is in a barbaric state, other local civilizations are already quite strong, and vice versa. The second is the ups and downs of civilization in time. China has gone from barbarism to civilization (further, it is entirely possible to go from civilization to barbarism, as discussed by Wang Fuzhi below), and civilizations in other places will also experience such ups and downs.
How bold and innovative this passage is, we only need to compare the western thoughts of the same period. At that time, the history of world civilization understood by the west was completely recorded in the Bible, that is, the current world civilization was handed down from the life saved by Noah's Ark after the flood. When the West learned from missionaries that the history of China exceeded the biblical records, it also caused an uproar. At this time, Wang Fuzhi has boldly proposed that China's civilization is not the oldest, and it is entirely possible to have an earlier civilization and a more advanced civilization than China. This is quite creative, bold and ahead of the whole world.
Of course, decades later, Vico (1670- 1744) in western Italy also put forward a similar hypothesis, but his level was far lower than Wang Fuzhi's, and the process of argumentation was mysterious, while Wang Fuzhi was completely based on rational reasoning.
Wang Fuzhi said, "If there is this thing in the small room, it will be pushed away, and this chaos will be civilized. What's so strange? " "Yi" said: "If Gankun is destroyed, there is no easy way to see", which does not mean that heaven and earth are divided. If Gan Kun's great works are not suitable for this land, its morality will be destroyed. "
That is to say, Wang Fuzhi first inspected nearby places and small places (this is mainly based on his inspection of some advanced and backward areas in China, and the mutual transformation of civilization and barbarism in these areas, so I won't extract them here if I'm lazy), and then he promoted them in remote places. After such rational analysis, logical reasoning draws the conclusion that when China is in chaos and barbarism, other distant places are in a civilized state. What's so strange about this?
Next, Wang Fuzhi further put forward such a view, which deserves special attention and is also the main purpose of this paper. He said, "China's writings are destroyed at first sight, and people in future generations will sneer at nothing, but people should not despise them before they return to Xuanyuan."
In other words, China's civilization will shine for a while and then go out. It will definitely disappear in the future and degenerate into a state of no civilization. People will degenerate back to Xuanyuan, and there is no one who is not a barbarian ("barbarian"). Obviously, the word "Yi" here is a barbaric convention opposite to civilization.
Wang Fuzhi is here. Why do you say that? It was when China was ruled by the brutal Manchu dynasty that he made such a bold prediction, which should be said to be completely confirmed. During the Ming Dynasty, China was regarded as the most civilized country in the world by western missionaries, and the people of China were also the most civilized. The Qing Dynasty ruled for more than 200 years. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, almost all westerners regarded China as a barbaric country, and the people were barbaric and semi-civilized. The development of history completely confirmed Wang Fuzhi's grief prediction.
In order to understand Wang Fuzhi's point of view more clearly, we might as well look at his point of view on the evolution of civilization (in fact, it is close to the threshold of biological evolution). Wang Fuzhi said. "
So, as far as I know, China is the world, and Xuanyuan was a barbarian before! Great! It's still an animal! Animals can't prepare their qualities, and Yi Di can't prepare their texts ... The so-called hungry Cleisthenes, abandoned by the full, is also an upright animal. "
That is to say, China was an animal before Xuanyuan, that is, before Yi Di and Tai Hao (here Wang Fuzhi has put forward the concept of animals and animals evolving into adults, and of course, Wang Tingxiang, an ideological giant in the Zheng De period of the Ming Dynasty, put forward the concepts of natural selection and the law of the jungle, which can be said to be the pioneer of evolutionary thought).
Obviously, what Wang Fuzhi is talking about here is not a national concept, a national concept, nor a regional concept, but a concept to judge the degree of civilization. Yidi stands for barbarism.
Since the word "Yi" in the dispute between China and Yi represents barbarism, the corresponding word "Hua" is certainly not a national concept or a regional concept, but represents civilization.
The essence of the distinction between China people and foreigners is the distinction between civilization and barbarism. In China's traditional concept, the key to distinguish between China people and foreigners lies in defending civilization, resisting barbaric aggression and preventing the tragedy of social retrogression and civilization destruction caused by all barbaric aggression against civilization. Even in modern times, the idea of distinguishing China people from foreigners is extremely advanced and beyond doubt.
It is from the macro perspective of civilization evolution that Wang Fuzhi firmly put forward an assertion "Zen, sustainability, innovation!" to prevent barbarians from destroying civilization and causing serious social retrogression and stagnation. But not among barbarians. "This sentence, one hundred years later, is like a bolt from the blue, full of vitality. Translated into vernacular Chinese, that is to say, the political power of a civilized country can be ceded, inherited or changed by revolutionary rebellion, but it can never be ruled by barbarism. That will lead to the catastrophic consequences of the stagnation, retrogression and even destruction of civilization, which is what Wang Fuzhi said: "China's literature will be destroyed at first sight, and then it will not be valued by others, and people will return to Xuanyuan before. "
The author of Wang Fuzhi's Biography thinks that in fact, "in Wang Fuzhi's view, the pure' foreign' culture still has its advantages. If Chinese culture degenerates into' foreign' and' wild', it will produce a new and more ominous inferior species." The tragic historical development of China after the demise of the Ming Dynasty also confirmed Wang Fuzhi's viewpoint, which can not be ignored.
However, Wang Fuzhi did not fall into absolute pessimism and despair. On the one hand, "he is convinced that there must be civilization under the sun and the moon", "What's strange about this chaos and that civilization!"
In other words, Wang Fuzhi is convinced that even if China's civilization is destroyed, it will be extinguished. In his words, "Lingmi is nothing, but people will not degenerate until they return to Xuanyuan." But in this world under the sun and the moon, there must be other civilizations. "What's so strange about this chaos and that civilization!" As long as the fire of civilization can spread around the world under the sun and the moon, there is nothing to complain about.
On the other hand, Wang Fuzhi is also convinced that although China's civilization is now under the brutal suppression of comprehensive invitation and tends to be destroyed, it will certainly rise one day in the future. His passionate prediction is that "the central wisdom will be exhausted, Xuanyuan will rule the world, and Qiang Ren will fight for life. Although it will last forever, the disaster of weakness and loss will disappear. "
That is to say, as long as people can be planted and people's lives can be won, even after one hundred generations, China's civilization will eventually eliminate the scourge of weakness and rise again!
Having said that, we can fully understand that the essence of China's concept of "the distinction between Chinese and foreigners" before Manchu rule was the distinction between civilization and barbarism! Only under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, this concept was castrated and distorted into an ignorant, narrow-minded, blind and arrogant xenophobic concept, and the deformed slogan of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" was concocted, which deserves our deep thought.