I. Envoy exchanges made Kangxi and Louis XIV "good friends" of God.
Louis XIV was a mercantilist who sent people to Europe and Africa to map Europe and Africa in order to open up trade routes. In order to survey and map China and the Orient - "to improve the nautical charts and maps of the French", Louis XIV decided to select "excellent missionaries who are proficient in mathematics and good at public opinion work, and who can master the most basic knowledge of Art and Science in China" to Come to China, Hong Ruohan, Zhang Cheng, Bai Jin, Liu Ying and others were awarded the letter of appointment of "The King's Mathematicians", and as "the king's observer and mathematician", he came east to "The Comparison of Kangxi and Louis XIV's Administration, Sending a Scientific Mission from France to China for Scientific Examination", "Knowledge of Literature and History" Issue 3, 2010). Thus began the first exchange between the East and the West in the Qing Dynasty.
Louis XIV
(1688) Hong Ruohan and his party arrived in Beijing in the 27th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the Kangxi Emperor summoned them and left Zhang Cheng and Bai Jin in the palace service. The scientific expedition was not a mission sent by the King of France to China, but in fact it played a role in communicating Louis XIV with the Kangxi Emperor, which can be regarded as an indirect interaction between Louis XIV and the Kangxi Emperor. In the palace, Bai Jin and Zhang Cheng introduced the knowledge of Western astronomy, mathematics, medicine and other natural sciences and human body sciences to the Kangxi Emperor, especially telling the story of Louis XIV: "In the conversation, they talked about the great achievements of Louis XIV more completely than anything else, and it can also be said that the emperor (referring to the Kangxi Emperor) was more willing to listen to the exploits of Louis XIV than anything else. (Bai Jin: Biography of the Kangxi Emperor, translated by Ma Xuxiang, and the propaganda of the Jesuits in the Qing History Materials made the Kangxi Emperor understand Louis XIV and may have some good feelings.)
French missionary
The Kangxi Emperor, who was keen to understand the knowledge of Western natural sciences, sent Bai Jin to France in the thirty-second year of Kangxi (1693) to recruit scientists to China, and asked him to carry a precious gift to Louis XIV. This move is what Bai Jin said: "[The Kangxi Emperor] ordered me to come to France again, and asked me to send as many missionaries as possible to His Majesty (Louis XIV) directly to him, especially those Jesuits who were as good as the missionaries who were around the emperor, because the emperor was very important to such missionaries." (Biography of the Kangxi Emperor, Qing History Materials, Vol. 1, p. 248) Bai Jinyu
In 1697, he returned to France and wrote the "Biography of the Kangxi Emperor" on the way, which was promoted to Louis XIV. Louis XIV supported Bai Jin and approved him and his companions, the Jesuits Bardom, Marthor, and Lei Xiaosi, to come on the merchant ship Amphitrit, and he carried a gift to the Kangxi Emperor, and Bai Jin and his party returned to Guangzhou, China in the thirty-seventh year of Kangxi (1698). Bai Jin's "envoy" was a direct interaction between the Kangxi Emperor and Louis XIV.
The exchanges between the two monarchs have played a positive role in the cultural exchanges between China and France. The scholar missionaries sent by Louis XIV and their former colleagues who came to China jointly promoted the Kangxi Emperor's enthusiasm for learning Western scientific knowledge, and used the missionaries Lei Xiaosi, Bai Jin, Du Demei and others, together with Chinese scholars, to conduct surveys in various provinces and frontier areas, draw a national map based on provinces, accumulate more than ten years of merit, and make the "Imperial Public Opinion Overview Map" ("Kangxi Emperor Public Opinion Overview Map") in the fifty-seventh year of Kangxi (1718).
Overview of the Kangxi Emperor
In the fifty-second year (1713), the Kangxi Emperor ordered the establishment of the Arithmetic Hall, located in the Changchun Garden of the Imperial Palace, under the supervision of The Crown Prince Yunzhi, who wrote the "Origin of the Vinaya Calendar" (including the "Calendar Examination Cheng", "Mathematical Essence", and "Lulu Justice"), making the Mengyang Zhai similar to the Academy of Sciences, while the French Academy of Sciences was established in 1666 (the fifth year of Kangxi). The Kangxi Dynasty had a wide range of translations, and missionaries translated Confucian classics into Manchu, which was a pinyin script that Was easy for Europeans to learn, which was beneficial to the later translation of Confucian classics to the West and the West. "The cultural exchange between China and the West in the Kangxi era was a two-way street, both material and spiritual, and it can be said that it is a new starting point in the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West", the Kangxi Emperor made many contributions.
Second, the succession, pro-government and succession are two amazing coincidences.
Succession and succession are the key to the emperor's becoming the ruler, and the similarities between the Kangxi Emperor and Louis XIV Louis XIII were born in 1601 and succeeded to the throne in 1610 at the age of 9 and reigned for 13 years. Louis XIII and Louis XIV father and son both inherited the throne as children. The Kangxi Emperor was born in the eleventh year of Shunzhi (1654), 16 years younger than Louis XIV, and succeeded to the throne in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661) at the age of 8.
Portrait of Kangxi
His father, the Shunzhi Emperor, was born in the third year of Chongde (1638), the same year as Louis XIV, and ascended the throne at the age of 6 in the eighth year of Chongde (1643). The Shunzhi Emperor, the Kangxi Emperor, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV all became monarchs within the age of 10. The two generations of monarchs of the two countries are all childhood practitioners, and history is such a coincidence. What caused this situation was the common system between China and France at this time, the monarchy, which was the succession of fathers and sons in the family world, which produced the same historical phenomenon of childhood monarch succession.
When the monarch ascended the throne in his childhood, he used the traditional Chinese language to call it "Chong Nian succession", which led to the political problem of "the lord is less suspicious of the country", and it was necessary to attach importance to the government and assist the government, and then the problem of the monarch's pro-government appeared. Louis XIV succeeded to the throne, and was succeeded by his mother, regent, and the real ruler was the Prime Minister, Cardinal Mazarin. In 1661, he succeeded to the throne by the Kangxi Emperor in the East; In the West, due to the death of Mazarin, Louis XIV was pro-government, he was 23 years old, pro-government is a natural thing, nothing special happens.
The Kangxi Emperor succeeded to the throne, assisted by four people, including Sonny, Suksaha, and Aobai, among whom Aobai was arrogant and tyrannical, and his power was tilted toward the opposition. The Shunzhi Emperor was 14 years old and pro-government, and in the sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1667), the Kangxi Emperor was also 14 years old, following the precedent of his father's emperor, he held a pro-government ceremony, which was to "bow down to the great government" and start the Chang Dynasty system of listening to the government, but Aobai still had dictatorial power, and even forced the Kangxi Emperor to exterminate another auxiliary minister, Suksaha. The Kangxi Emperor could not bear it, so in the name of "Buku" (wrestling), he trained young eunuchs and arrested and punished them when Ao bai entered the palace, without incident. This incident of "capturing Aobai" was a major event after the Kangxi Emperor's pro-government, and since then the Kangxi Emperor has truly governed the world autonomously. Succession was a very sad affair for both monarchs, and although both were eventually resolved, they paid a heavy price. Louis XIV made the eldest son crown prince, in 1711, in April the crown prince died of smallpox, in October the second heir to the throne, the eldest son of the crown prince died of illness, a few days later the third heir to the throne, Louis XIV's four-year-old eldest great-grandson (the crown prince) died, within a year lost one after another parents, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all of them were heirs to the throne, it is conceivable that Louis XIV was 73 years old, but there must always be a successor, but in 1712, the second great-grandson who was only two years old was established as the heir.
In September 1715 (the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi Dynasty), Louis XIV died of illness at the Palace of Versailles, and was succeeded by his 5-year-old great-grandson as Louis XV (cf. Chen. Wen Hai: A History of France, Chapter IV, Section III, People's Publishing House, 2004, p. 189). Historians commented that Louis XV was an incompetent lover of war, who had corrupted the foundation of the Bourbon dynasty, and that Louis XIV was the successor of Louis XIV. In the second year of the birth of his eldest son, Yun Rong (Kangxi 14th year, 1675), the Kangxi Emperor made him crown prince and educated him rigorously. The crown prince, who was brilliant and studious in the jesuits' pen, was a violent and unkind person in the Qing Dynasty literature. In the royal tradition of the Qing Dynasty, the crown prince and the crown prince were involved in government affairs, Yun Rong had been the crown prince for a long time, Anditu had ascended the throne as soon as possible, and was not filial to his father, the Kangxi Emperor, and even plotted a coup d'état, the Kangxi Emperor deposed him in the forty-seventh year (1708) out of consideration for the protection of the throne and personal safety, but unexpectedly triggered a more serious political situation, the princes formed a party to seek the throne, in order to quell this dispute, the Kangxi Emperor had to reinstate Yun Rong as the crown prince in the following year (1709). However, the rift between the emperor and the crown prince can no longer be repaired, and the struggle between the princes for the throne cannot be eliminated, so that the courtiers do not know how to get along between the emperor and the crown prince and the crown prince, which shows the seriousness of the situation, the Kangxi Emperor has seen this, in the fifty years of Kangxi (1712) again deposed Yunrong, never established the crown prince, in his words, the world's great power should be unified by one person, can not be divided.
Kangxi Southern Tour
The two incidents of deposing the crown prince greatly damaged the health of the Kangxi Emperor. and the governance of political affairs. Just imagine, the emperor is conceited by the heavens and the saints, in the position of the people's admiration, the people's role model, now his own family affairs are not well managed, can not do "Qi family", how to "govern the country and the world", the political prestige is greatly reduced; educate the subjects fathers and sons filial piety, their own family gave birth to violent sons, lose face. This heavy burden on the face and politics seriously damaged the body and mind of the Kangxi Emperor. After the Kangxi Emperor reinstated the crown prince, his subordinates demanded the appointment of a new crown prince, and the princes were still actively seeking the throne, and the Kangxi Emperor died in the sixty-first year of Kangxi (1722) in this situation, and the fourth son of the emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor, succeeded to the throne. Whether his succession was designated by the Kangxi Emperor has always been controversial, but he inherited and developed the cause of the Kangxi Emperor, indicating that the Kangxi Emperor was a successor.
The Kangxi Emperor died in the sixty-first year of Kangxi (1722), at the age of sixty-nine, close to the ancient rare year that the ancients longed for, reigning for 61 years, in fact, 62 years, the longest reigning emperor in Chinese history. Louis XIV died at the age of 78 and reigned for 73 years, 19 years more than Kangxi and 11 more years. Both are of advanced age and have been in power for a long time.
Fourth, war and soil expansion, with equal achievements, are pioneering figures.
Louis XIV regarded the expansion of territory as a state priority, and launched several wars against neighboring countries, although he opened up the territory, but the treasury was empty, and the people complained. Louis XIV attacked Germania to the east, Spain to the south, and Spanish Netherlands to the north, and went to the front, causing Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden to enter the war, as well as Spain, Brandenburg, Denmark, Austria, and other countries to form an anti-French alliance, but Louis XIV still acquired some territory: Alsace and the foothills of the Pyrenees between Germania and France, France and Comte in the Netherlands, and Strasbourg, the free city of the Germanic Empire. This "war of power transfer" waged by Louis XIV achieved success and expanded territory (Chen Hengzhe: A History of the West, Oriental Publishing House, 2007, pp. 267-268: Chen Wenhai: A History of France, pp. 186-187). So Bai Jin complimented him: "In ten years, you have fought against almost all of Europe for the cause of religion with force and wisdom." (Biography of the Kangxi Emperor, Qing History Materials, Vol. 1, p. 251)
Land area during the time of Louis XIV
Kang Zhaodi fought three victorious wars, one without an end. He quelled the rebellion of Wu, Geng, and Shang San Francisco; Three personal conquests, defeating the attack of the Dzungars Kaldan; Destroy the Zheng regime in Taiwan and establish a local government in Taiwan. In his later years, the Dzungar clan plotted against Alabutan to control Tibet and harass Qinghai, and the Kangxi Emperor ordered the fourteenth son of the Emperor, Yun Yu, to march into Tibet and succeed; However, in the two places at the junction of Gansu and Mongolia's northern Frontier, the two sides were in a state of confrontation, and the Kangxi Emperor said that he was old and weak, and that he would personally conquer and solve the war in his prime, perhaps more mainly because of the problem of storage, which affected his concentration on politics. The kangxi emperor's war, mainly to stabilize the territory, also contained the meaning of expanding the frontier.
The land area of the Kangxi Dynasty
Louis XIV and the Kangxi Emperor each fought three or four major wars, the former mainly to expand the territory, the latter mainly to stabilize the territory. The war made Louis XIV the hegemon of Europe, and the kangxi emperor's prestige was so great that in the words of the missionary Zhang Cheng, "the emperor has been even more daunting since his defeat of Kaldan" ("Overview of the Historical Investigation of the Great Tatars", from which we can see the beginning of the similarities and differences between the two monarchs, and from here we may also be able to decipher some similarities and differences between China and the West.