Facts have proved that the ancient Eastern Empire was a place where God would scratch his head. Ma Lixun soon discovered that he wanted to challenge not only the cultural differences between the East and the West, but also the arrogance and prejudice of a dynasty.
In the past twenty-five years, the first Protestant missionary sent to China by the West left not only the first Chinese Bible and the first Chinese-English dictionary, but also a large number of letters and diaries. These words are more profound today.
Today, on the 230th anniversary of Ma Lixun's birth, we can follow these words and see the other side of China's powerful appearance.
Dangerous occupation
105, Ma Lixun was born in a simple farmhouse in Northumberland, northern England. Because his father was a Presbyterian elder in his hometown, Ma Lixun was influenced since he was a child. /kloc-at the age of 0/7, he became interested in missionary work and began to receive education in language, medicine, astronomy, mathematics and theology. 1804 In May, he applied to the London Missionary Association to become a missionary.
Large-scale Protestant missionary movement rose with the dawn of European industrial civilization, and China has a vast territory, a large population and a unique civilization, all of which have fatal attraction to western churches. 1805, the London Missionaries Association decided to appoint Ma Lixun to open a new parish in China, and Ma Lixun accepted the appointment gladly and carefully prepared his trip to China.
At that time, when someone visited the British Museum in London, he often saw the young man sitting inside and reading a book very hard. The square characters in the book are strange and illegible. So the man couldn't help but go over and ask, which country's writing is this? Why read it? The young man replied that this is Chinese, which is a very difficult text to understand, but there is an "indescribable driving force" that urges him to learn.
After eight months' travel, Ma Lixun arrived at his destination on the evening of September 8th. He was very excited by the noise of cargo ships loading and unloading on the shore and the cries of boat people when civilian ships shuttled back and forth on the river.
However, the ideal was quickly poured cold water by reality. The American consul and the British businessman who greeted him reminded him that "Europeans don't know how difficult it is to live in China, so please ask Mr. China to teach Chinese."
/kloc-At the beginning of the 0/9th century, the Qing Dynasty still carried out the policy of closing the country to the outside world, which began during the Yongzheng period, and western missionary activities were strictly prohibited. The rulers of the empire believed that once the subjects believed in foreign religions, it would be difficult to implement the decrees of the Qing court and maintain the legitimacy of the regime. As Emperor Qianlong said in the preface to the Catalogue of Sikuquanshu, western religions are "chaotic and common, so how can moss be found in China?"
1805 65438+ In February, shortly before Ma Lixun came to China, Emperor Jiaqing just reiterated that all missionary activities must be banned in Guangdong, and foreigners are not allowed to stay in Macao except businessmen. Those who secretly meet mainlanders should be punished. This is "the urgent task of rectification."
Therefore, after Ma Lixun came to China, he had to carefully hide his true intentions. At first, he tried to look more like a China man in a dress, hoping to blend in with the crowd. He practiced eating China rice with chopsticks and wearing China clothes. He writes Chinese characters according to the posture of China people, which hurts his shoulders. Even, he hung a braid on his head. According to the custom of China, he left his nails very long-in the eyes of westerners, this is an unhealthy habit.
But he soon realized that this was actually telling everyone that he was not in the same circle as other foreigners, so he put on a white coat like other foreigners.
Another trouble followed. As Ma Lixun was warned at first, learning Chinese is dangerous. The Qing court banned China people from teaching foreigners to learn Chinese, or they would be put to death.
Ma Lixun finally hired a Chinese teacher, who often carried poison with him and was ready to commit suicide once discovered by the local government. Ma Lixun "had to learn Chinese at night, and to protect his Chinese teacher, he blocked all the lights in the room".
Even China's books were secretly bought by Ma Lixun. Once, his valet colluded with others and cheated 30 yuan when buying books. Ma Lixun knew the truth and had to accept it.
What puzzled him even more was that he found that his idea of teaching China English was also wrong. He wrote in his letter that no one in China wants to learn English. Only a few China businessmen have learned some English terms from westerners, and they can trade with westerners, which is enough. This seems to stem from a deep-rooted sense of superiority. "China people call us ghosts when they see us. They think we are strange, especially when I sit down and talk to them in Chinese. I am curious. Young China people will deliberately be frivolous and show disrespect to me. "
Stagnant empire
1809, Ma Lixun was hired as an interpreter for the East India Company, and finally obtained the legal status of living in China. In his letter to the church, he said with mixed feelings that this appointment enabled him to stay in China at first, and at the same time promoted him to learn Chinese and, of course, earned him a salary. But the disadvantage of this appointment is that it will take up a lot of his time and engage in things unrelated to missionary work. However, as a stopgap measure, Ma Lixun secretly translated the Bible and preached to the people around him during his public service.
Being a translator means dealing with more officials. The sense of superiority of China officials is obviously stronger than that of ordinary people. After frequent meetings with China officials, Ma Lixun thought that "China officials are extremely arrogant, bossy and noisy, and sometimes three or four people speak at the same time, with a loud voice, as if cursing the streets".
Due to the trade dispute between China and the East India Company, in July 18 16, Britain sent a delegation with Sir Armitage as its special envoy to China to mediate with the Beijing court. Ma Lixun was appointed as a member of the delegation. This made him lucky enough to get a chance to see the sky. On August 12, the British mission fleet arrived in Tianjin and attended a grand welcome banquet the next day. Ma Lixun noticed that British envoys and missionaries could only sit on very low mats, while the emperor's entourage sat on the red carpet.
The two sides then began an eight-day audience etiquette negotiation, and the British envoy was asked to use China's three kneeling and nine knocking gifts. After a long argument, China indicated that it would not adhere to these etiquette. However, the delegation was urged to go to Beijing immediately. The British walked all night and arrived at the Yuanmingyuan where the emperor was located at dawn the next day. Without taking a shower or changing clothes, he was led outside the main hall.
The Englishman suggested that the task was too tired after a night's travel and asked to postpone the meeting until the next day. Then, a China envoy went into the temple and told the emperor that the British envoy was ill. The emperor allowed him to rest and sent a doctor to see a doctor. The physician found that the British envoy was not ill and went back to tell the truth. This angered Emperor Jiaqing, who immediately called a cabinet meeting, but no one dared to stand up and tell the truth.
Jiaqing immediately ordered the mission to leave immediately, and the Sino-British negotiations aborted. Later, the emperor finally found out the truth of the matter and removed the official position of the person in charge. However, China did not give any explanation to the British people about this incident. It only sent three gifts to the British people on the night when the mission left China, called "gifts", and accepted three gifts from the mission as gifts, called "tributes".
Compared with its arrogance, the executive ability of this authoritarian regime is doubtful. 1at the end of 809, Ma Lixun mentioned in a letter to the church that pirate ships from China in the coastal areas burned and looted in the coastal areas of Guangdong province all summer, and thousands of residents were killed by pirates. Sometimes, the loud noise of pirates firing soil guns can be heard in the governor's office in Guangzhou. China's navy's fighting capacity is very poor, so it can't compete with it. Fu in Guangzhou once asked the British to help wipe out pirates. The British said that they could help as long as Governor China made a formal request, but China never did.
Another related record is that 1822, 10 10 On the night of 2 October, a China bakery in the north of Guangzhou Foreign Firm suddenly caught fire, and the fire spread to all foreign firms. Before dawn, Ma Lixun hurriedly wrote a letter of help to the Governor's Office in Chinese, asking for sending someone to demolish the dangerous house and maintain the situation. At 5 o'clock in the morning, he wrote two more letters for help to China officials, and at the same time wrote a letter directly to the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, but China officials were indifferent. The fire eventually caused thousands of houses and businesses to burn down. Later, the governor said that he had not received a letter from Ma Lixun.
The empire seems to be in a state of total stagnation. When compiling the first Chinese-English Dictionary, Ma Lixun wrote in the preface: "The purpose of any China government or scholar-bureaucrat is not to expand people's knowledge. The purpose of the government is ... to select outstanding talents for official positions to govern the country. The progress of knowledge and the development of science are not considered by the government. "
In fact, this empire is not as confident as it seems. According to Ma Lixun's records, in 18 14, there was a rebellion in northern China. Some people alarmingly claimed that Catholics instigated it, which led the court to order a secret investigation into the movements of Catholics and Portuguese in Macao, and also issued a decree prohibiting people from reading folk novels, because the contents of novels often tell stories of "government oppression and people's resistance."
rights and duties
Perhaps because of social stagnation, in Ma Lixun's eyes, China people know almost nothing about modern medical and health knowledge. As he saw in Guangzhou, the roadside and market stalls were covered with dried vegetables. There is a local famous doctor who basically uses only one medicine to see a doctor, that is, rhubarb. The doctor's surname is Wang, so people call him "King of Rhubarb".
Another kind of ignorance comes from the legal system. 1822, sailors of a British warship fought with coastal residents of China, and China people were killed. The Governor's Office demanded that the British side hand over the murderer and sentence him to death according to the laws of China. But the British denied that their own people were guilty in this incident. Some China businessmen suggested that Britain make peace, and they even suggested to the British commander that two people on their boat were missing, and these two people were murderers, so there would be no extradition. In the eyes of the British, even if it is effective, it is ridiculous and cannot be used.
Subsequently, Ma Lixun participated in the negotiations with China. He first admitted that in European countries, foreigners committed murder and should be tried by the laws of the country of residence, but in China he didn't think so.
"For two countries, or two people, both sides have their own rights and obligations, and for rulers and ruled, they also have their own rights and obligations. But China people don't recognize that the state has both rights and obligations. Their demands on foreigners must absolutely obey the laws of China, and they do not give foreigners any practical protection in law ... In fact, the laws of China are arbitrarily interpreted and judged by the county magistrate sitting in the court. "
Ma Lixun's distrust of China's legal system has a long history. At the end of 1820, he wrote that an official on board the East India Company recently shot and killed a China man. It is said that the murderer has absconded. China officials came to investigate and found that there were suicides on board, so they thought the murderer was a suicide and closed the case hastily. "This strange legal model is absolutely effective." The negotiations ended in the victory of the British side, and the murderer was not handed over, and the trade between the two countries affected by this incident resumed.
This event, which created "consular jurisdiction", is often regarded by later generations as conclusive evidence of missionaries' "invasion of China". Before going to China, he once said: "Many people in China are well-educated and well-informed; They won't be under us, they will only surpass us. " 1824, when he returned to China to give a public speech, this evaluation became "China people have no intention to help people who are about to drown in the water. They abused domestic slaves and wives. In the courts of China, men and women who don't confess will be tortured. ".
Coincidentally, 1793, Ma Lixun's friend Stanton, who accompanied magal to visit China, also said in the "Ambassador to Britain for the Qianlong Documentary": "China is not an enlightened monarchy, but a typical autocratic tyranny in the East, relying on sticks to carry out terrorist rule. China is not a rich country but a poor one. It is not that society depends on agriculture, but that society is stagnant in agriculture. "
In the report 1824 to the church, Ma Lixun said in an intriguing tone that China people account for a quarter of the world's population. "We Protestant churches have the responsibility to take care of them."
1826 In May, after resting in England for three years, Ma Lixun returned to China and worked here until his death in 1834. He was buried in Macao.
Seven years later, the Opium War broke out, and the attempt of civilization was finally replaced by military aggression. This year, China was still the largest economy in the world, with 800,000 troops and only 7,000 British troops.
These pale data seem to be just an old dream of a dynasty.