The world that Chinese people imagine is that China is at the center of the world and is a civilized country. The surrounding countries surrounding China are all mired in barbarism and ignorance. Qianlong, who created a prosperous age, had an incomparable sense of superiority over his empire.
In 1792, the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign, the British sent envoy Macartney to visit the Qing Dynasty on the grounds of celebrating the emperor's eightieth birthday. Qianlong was very happy. From the British perspective, this visit was of epoch-making significance. It hoped to open the door to Sino-British trade. However, from the perspective of Qianlong, this was just a tribute and a strong proof of the influence of the Qing Dynasty. From then on, the Qing Dynasty would have one more tributary country.
After nearly a year of long journey, the British mission finally arrived in China. To show its sincerity, Britain prepared a large number of gifts, some of which it believed represented the latest scientific and technological achievements, including: weapons such as muzzleloaders, telescopes, globes and other astronomical instruments, clocks, and a model of Britain's most advanced 110-gun gunboat. The British mission was quite shocked to see the emperor.
The first thing is to kneel and kowtow to the emperor, which they do not understand and cannot accept. In the eyes of the British, their visit to China was an equal and friendly visit. In the eyes of the Chinese people, there is no word "equality" at all, both internally and externally.
The purpose of Macartney's mission was "to open the entire East to British trade and to establish British-Chinese relations on the basis of a treaty." At that time, the British minds were filled with the Enlightenment belief popular in European society, that is, diplomacy serves economic interests, and expanding international trade is beneficial to the whole world. However, during the Qianlong era, this was a view that the Chinese simply could not understand.
In the eyes of the Chinese, the dignity of the Celestial Empire is supreme. The British don't quite understand why the Chinese care so much about the three-kneel-and-nine-kowtow ritual, and the Chinese really can't understand why the British refuse to do this action, which is not difficult to learn. The thinking of the two nations is really very different.
The news that the British refused to salute shocked the entire Chinese government and opposition parties. The face of the Chinese court immediately turned from sunny to gloomy. In the end, both sides took a step back. The British agreed to kneel on one knee and bowed their heads along with the crowd, and the Chinese no longer forced them to touch their heads to the ground. Therefore, the meeting was reluctantly held.
The second thing is the emperor's attitude towards British gifts. Hearing that there were gifts, Qianlong was certainly looking forward to it, especially Western things. He had seen a lot of domestic rare treasures and wanted to see some rare things, so the gifts were presented to Qianlong in his expectant eyes. .
The first thing the emperor saw was the smaller gift shipped to Chengde. It contained 200 pieces of cloth, two large telescopes, two air guns, two shotguns, and two boxes of high-end British handmade luxury goods. Carpets etc. There are also a large number of portraits of British nobles and celebrities. The emperor was slightly disappointed. It seemed of no use to him, especially the material, which he didn't need. Telescopes have been introduced to China a long time ago. His grandfather Kangxi once had one. Although the two telescopes seemed to be of higher quality, the difference was not very big. He also had guns.
Although he was a little disappointed with these small gifts, the emperor was still full of expectations for the larger ones left in Beijing. However, he was disappointed again. The reason is that he simply cannot understand the "celestial orbiter" brought by the British. The British have high hopes for this instrument, because it can three-dimensionally and clearly display the entire solar system. This is undoubtedly an incredible progress for the Chinese who are still stuck in the "round sky and square earth" stage. But unfortunately, no Chinese could understand it. Everyone, including Qianlong, regarded this "celestial body movement instrument" as a "solar calculator".
The only thing that aroused Qianlong's interest was the Parker lens. The British man demonstrated diligently in front of him, and he was also curious about the instrument that could melt copper coins. But after studying it for a while, he lost interest: what else could this bulky guy do besides light a fire? Who would want to use it to light a fire?
Among the gifts, what the British wanted the Chinese to pay most attention to was a miniature model of the "Sovereign", a battleship equipped with 110 cannons and the most outstanding in the British fleet. Warship. As the British wished, the emperor was attracted to it for a moment. But the question he asked encountered translation difficulties.
The emperor was very disappointed and concluded from this that the British were a nation that loved to brag, and the great and excellent tributes they initially claimed were just "exaggerated claims", many of which were not even comparable. "Exquisite and tall" made by the Chinese.
The British mission also has a trump card, which is a very comfortable carriage. However, since the coachman needs to sit on it, the emperor needs to sit in the carriage. In this way, the coachman’s position must be higher than that of the emperor. He was tall and had his back to the emperor, so out of line with the "rules" that Qianlong never saw him.
Qianlong felt cheated, so he issued an edict rejecting all British requests for trade. Qianlong's edict declared to the world the impossibility of opening the door to China through peaceful means. Qianlong didn't know that he missed the last opportunity left to China in the world.