Chinese culture is broad and profound, with a long history, and in the vein of culture, the blood of dynastic changes flows. The Chinese nation has been living endlessly for five thousand years, and in the long river of history, we have always been ahead of the Countries in the West, and our culture has spread to all corners of the world.
However, in the more than one hundred years of our rule in the Qing Dynasty, we have lagged far behind the Western countries. The reason for this can be said from the Qing Dynasty period, the closure of the country is not unrelated to the derailment of the Land of China from the world.
It is worth mentioning that Qianlong once wrote a letter to the British king, and from the content of the letter, we can peek out the reasons for the backwardness of the Qing Dynasty. Today, we will talk about qianlong's letter to the King of England.
The leading road of the Chinese nation
Friends who have studied history must be familiar with the four ancient civilizations, which are ancient Egypt, ancient India, ancient Babylon and ancient China. However, three of the ancient countries have been engulfed in the long river of history, and only China has experienced endless reproduction and experienced the baptism of artillery fire, and still stands in the East.
As we all know, Chinese culture has long been in a leading position, and during the Zhou Dynasty, although we did not have much contact with foreign tribes, we already had a fairly perfect etiquette system at that time, and the Western countries at this time may still be in the melee.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, although the Central Plains were divided into various separatist forces by the princely states, the combat strength at that time was still the leading in the world. If there were foreign tribes coming to attack at that time, our Qin army would definitely come to the city.
The establishment of the Qin and Han Dynasties pushed the national strength to a peak. The Silk Road spanned Eurasia, and the treasures of the East were also introduced to Europe. The Tang and Song dynasties were even more a period of great cultural prosperity, and our ancestors left valuable and rich historical wealth during this period. There is even a magnificent situation in which all nations come to the dynasty.
During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol Iron Horse conquered most of Europe, and it was also the period when China's territory was the most extensive. Zheng He's voyage to the West during the Ming Dynasty and the opening of the Maritime Silk Road also brought our cultural output to a new height.
From this, it is not difficult to find that Chinese culture has always been like a big brother in historical development, leading the surrounding small countries and sharing politics, culture and technology without hesitation. Neighboring countries and many other countries bow down to us and pay tribute every year in exchange for asylum.
Nearly a hundred years of backwardness
From the above introduction, it is not difficult to find that we have always been in a leading position in history, so how was the backwardness of the late Qing Dynasty for a hundred years caused? This has to start from the founding of the Qing Dynasty.
At that time, the Central Plains were still a small peasant economy, and the people lived a self-sufficient life. Overall, the economy is relatively stable, and everyone can support themselves, but there will be no spare money.
There were very few people engaged in scientific and technological reform, and the Qing Dynasty also maintained a policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, so economic development could not be achieved. In contrast, at that time, the West, they have undergone earth-shaking changes, the Industrial Revolution allowed the West to quickly enter the steam age, and productivity has been greatly improved.
Since then, the development of the West has been a ride on the dust, and we can only look back on it. The introduction of the four great inventions also brought the West to the extreme, they used fire to create shells and guns, and we used flames to refine Dan.
They used their compasses to go overseas and discover new continents, and we used compasses to look at feng shui. During their period of rapid development, we chose to close the country, which also made the Central Plains lose its rapid development in this world change.
Indeed, the "prosperous era of Kangqian" was also brilliant for a while, and the economy and the military have made great leaps forward, but this is less feudalism and less agricultural economy. Of course, the backwardness of the Central Plains is related to the system, but it is also related to the short-sightedness of the rulers, especially the Qianlong Emperor's "arrogance of the night lang".
Qianlong's letter to the English king
It is said that during the Qing Dynasty, it coincided with the 80th birthday of Qianlong. Qianlong Qiren is more extravagant and likes to be extravagant, so his 80th birthday is naturally extremely luxurious. At that time, the British also heard about this incident and decided to send envoys to visit.
In fact, Britain also has its own ambitions, the industrial revolution is also accompanied by colonialism, Britain also wants to see, China is a piece of "fat meat", or a "hard bone", by the way to export their own goods.
In order to show their sincerity, the British brought the most advanced "industrial products" of the time, such as: steam engines, looms, guns, etc., which could be described as "foreign objects" to the Qing Dynasty at that time.
However, Qianlong's attitude is very arrogant, and he believes that this is still a Western Kit Kat, just like crafts such as magnifying glasses, kaleidoscopes, and glass beads. As a result, the Qianlong Emperor paid great attention to the British envoys.
If the fruits of these industrial revolutions could have attracted the attention of the rulers, then we could have hitched a ride on the industrial revolution and would not have lagged behind to such an extent. Of course, these assumptions do not exist.
Back to the point! In order to show the dignity of the Heavenly Dynasty, although Qianlong did not like these items, he gave the envoys many products of oriental characteristics, such as silk, porcelain, and treasures. You know, during the Qing Dynasty, our craftsmanship was very advanced, and we were skilled craftsmen, and these items increased the ambition of the British to invade the East in disguise.
In addition, Qianlong also wrote a long 976-word letter in response to the British king while giving away the goods. After the contents of this letter were revealed, Qianlong's ignorance was also revealed, and the letter said:
"Reading the table, the words are sincere, and the king is full of obedience, and he is deeply praised... The country has its own customs and system, and it is impossible to imitate China, that is, it is useless to learn. This is a cut-off of something, and the article basically means:
I am writing this letter to you very sincerely, for I think it is very good to see that your king is very obedient, but we have a lot of knowledge and everything, and you don't need to go thousands of miles to deliver things.
In addition, we can't use the things you send, and what we need, we can make ourselves, we have a deep cultural tradition, you also have your customs, don't learn from us, learning from us is useless...
It seems that in Qianlong's view, Britain, like the small countries of Japan and South Korea, has come to learn its own excellent culture. But what he did not know was that at this time, Britain was already a very rich capitalist power, and it was even more dominant in Europe.
This time the envoys came to Qing, which was also a pair of eyes of the British nobility, and they spied out what kind of country China really was and whether it could be used as a stop for colonization. After seeing the content of this letter, I think many people will have mixed feelings...
When the envoys returned to England, they did not know how they would feel when they saw this letter outside Britain, whether they felt Qianlong's sincerity, or whether they were surprised by the strength of China's strength, or ridiculed his stupidity. The answer is also imminent, in 1840, British shells knocked on the door of our country...
Looking back on the past, as early as thousands of years ago, Chinese culture has been able to lead the world, and the key lies in continuously absorbing foreign advanced ideas and crafts. In the nearly one hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese culture has been in a backward position, and its root cause is the ignorance and arrogance of the rulers.
Fortunately, after the founding of New China, our people once again caught up with the footsteps of the times, just like the rushing of a great river, unstoppable, in just a few decades, completed the road of Western countries for hundreds of years. What do you think about that?