China has always been considered to be one of the strongest empires in the world, where a lot of military achievements took place due to a very fast development of new kinds of weapons and protection systems. China was impossible to defeat. Having the largest population in the world, it took care of all the people to get education. For the Western world, it wasn’t easy to understand the complex Chinese culture. While there was already presidency in Europe and women fought for the rights, the Chinese still had emperors and aimed on conquering more lands. Their women were brought up to serve their husbands, which was disdained by the Western world. The culture of war was deeply rooted in Chinese conservative traditions. Seeing a huge potential in Chinese science and technology, the Westerners were willing to “help” the country develop like if it wasn’t self-sufficient enough to develop by itself. There were many misunderstandings that were going on between China and the Western world. Of course, the view of the Westerners lacked objectivity and was dictated by the propaganda of the bright Western world and dark and unintelligent Asia. On the other hand, China behaved the same way: as it was still an empire, it looked down on the Western world and wasn’t willing to open contact with it. Many Chinese emperors had a purpose to expand their country by essentially conquering the West. In this paper, I’m going to look into the view of China on the West (and the West on China) and see how it influenced the world in the eighteenth century. I’m also going to prove that many assumptions made by Chinese (and by the Westerners) didn’t have any valid arguments to be based on, and were nothing but a result of the propaganda of that time.
In her essay called “China and Western Technology in the Late Eighteenth Century”, Joanna Waley-Cohen points out that the inventions of China, such as compass and gunpowder, shaped the history of the whole world. Somehow, even after that, the Europeans decided that China was not self-sufficient enough to go further with its technologies and develop its enormous potential. Many times, the West tried to interfere and push the country forward. But the disdain was not coming from the Westerners only. Being an empire, China expressed arrogance and disregard towards the West, which was the result of propaganda of the emperors of that time and stood on the way of communication between Asia and Europe. China was holding its citizens under a strict control, and opening connections with the West would mean that the borders had to open too, which, according to Waley-Cohen, could make the Chinese lose control.
Although the Chinese were genuinely interested in the Western innovations, they would never openly express that interest. Instead, they showed their hostility towards everything new, especially if it came from the outside world. Back then, China looked down at almost all the Western countries, especially the United States that was a symbol of corruption and the worship of nothing but money (which was, again, the result of imperial, and later on communist propaganda.) China was a pretty isolated country. Throughout the centuries, its borders were closed, and it didn’t communicate with anyone but Middle East, India, and several other Asian countries. The Chinese had never seen the world, and didn’t have anything left but believing what they were told by the propaganda. This was very unfortunate, because Asia and Europe could exchange a lot of useful ideas and develop much faster if they communicated.
Waley-Cohen also claims that Jesuit missions influenced the perception of China by the Westerners. It awoke the interest of the entire world in Chinese technologies and sciences that Europeans were not familiar with before. It also brought Christianity to China, which was hard for the people to take at first, but nowadays it has a firm place in the country. There is a huge population of Christians in China. Moreover, Jesuits managed to interest China in their cartography and maps. The Chinese were amazed at how precise the Europeans could draw maps, and they started using them for their own purpose.
As we can see, the Chinese didn’t always look down on the West. Some emperors admired that part of the world and were willing to bring its achievements into China. The Kangxi emperor, for example, had a deep interest in Western sciences and arts. He was found of the European music and became a patron of many Western mathematicians. And, of course, one of his biggest interests was artillery. Many other emperors after the Kangxi expressed their interest in Europe, and slowly the ice started to melt. But not everything was perfect; I’m going to talk about Kangxi later in the paper.
Another historical document, which reveals the relationship between China and the West, is Emperor Qianlong’s “Edict on Trade with Great Britain”, which was written in the very end of eighteenth century. These were two letters sent to the King George of England from the emperor Qianlong of China, which were the responses to the offers made by King George. In these letters, Emperor Qianlong very politely refuses to establish trade with England and thus says that China doesn’t need the goods from England because it has a lot of its own. Now, England was the strongest empire of the Western world that had colonies all over and that everybody was willing to trade with. But not China. China still viewed England as a primary rival and was willing to demonstrate that it didn’t need anything from the country. From the correspondence it is clear that it was England who needed to trade most. The West was mesmerized by the Chinese porcelain, silk and tea, and didn’t really have anything to give back to it, because China was so huge and so productive that it could get anything from within the country. For Europe, the trade with China was highly profitable, and it didn’t want to lose the connections. But from the letters, we understand that there was no chance whatsoever. The Chinese emperor just cuts it all off.
This correspondence happened shortly before the Opium wars, which also says a lot about the real value of Chinese goods. It is known that the British justified the Opium wars by the fact that the trade requests were always denied by China. But was that really a reason to trigger off two wars? Some scholars, especially earlier in history, found the letters of Emperor Qianlong very arrogant, ignorant and lacking any logic. They questioned the reason of Qianlong’s refusal to trade with another powerful empire, which could help China open its doors and develop faster. Today, scholars take a different route when studying the issue of trade between two empires. There might have been another reason why the Chinese didn’t want to trade with the West. They might have known the attitude of the British and didn’t want to engage in relations with the country that lacked needed respect towards China. They might have also foretold the will of England to trigger off wars and thus, sent the ambassadors out of the country.
It becomes clear that it’s very hard to say whose fault was the fact that China and the West lacked communication back in the eighteenth century. Maybe if the Chinese did change their attitude and started trading with England, the Opium Wars and the invasion of China would never happen. But maybe, to do so, the West should have changed its attitude first? One more document with a huge historical significance called Emperor Kangxi’s “Self-Portrait” might help us understand the issue better.
In this document, the emperor of China starts with giving praises to the European sciences. Just like his predecessors and successors, he was found of the achievements of the Western world. Often, he would bring mathematicians, sponsor them and work with them himself, which also shows dedication of the Chinese emperors and their will to move the country forward. The European artists and scientists would work in the house of the royal family and teach Kangxi’s children in the Western manner. The emperor understood that for the country to have a bright future, it was important that his successors (his children) knew how the whole world functioned, which values it had and how to properly communicate with it. He used many Western scientific methods of calculation, taking measures of lands, and figuring out the weather.
But with all that, Kangxi managed not to cross the border. The belief of Chinese superiority didn’t disappear. Kangxi emphasizes that he didn’t call the Westerners “great”, and everything outstanding that was introduces by Europe wasn’t new. China was a much older culture, and half of the modern inventions were born here before Europe figured it out. When I was reading the description, I did feel some arrogance coming from Kangxi. He compares China and the West, not taking into account the fact that the cultures are so different that they can hardly be compared. He claims that the religion of the West violates all the ethics introduced by China and criticizes the saints of the Catholics. On one hand, it can be understood: China is such an old and conservative culture that it’s extremely hard for it to realize that there are other cultures in the world that worship other goods and have different values. The Westerners make Kangxi so anxious because he is not willing to understand them (although he is constantly around them, and he lets them teach his children.) Kangxi does realize that the Western world is not less powerful and intelligent than China, but he is not willing to give up his pride, which is thousands of years old.
In this paper, I have talked about the attitude of China and the West towards each other. I have tried to find an explanation to the question why the empires had such difficult relations, while they both respected technological and scientific achievements of each other. It’s hard to answer this question. On one hand, it might have been the result of cultural differences: China is a huge and old country with strong traditions, which was developing for thousands of years before becoming such, and the West is rapidly moving forward. On the other hand, the political propaganda might have influenced the perceptions of both. Nowadays, it is essential for the West to build relations with China for the better condition of both parts of the world. (1775 words)
Bibliography
Waley-Cohen, Joanna. 1993. “China and Western Technology in the Late Eighteenth Century”. The American Historical Review 98 (5). [Oxford University Press, American Historical Association]: 1525–44. doi:10.2307/2167065.
Kangxi. "Emperor Kangxi’s “Self-Portrait""
QIANLONG. "TWO EDICTS FROM THE QIANLONG EMPEROR, ON THE OCCASION OF LORD MACARTNEY’S MISSION TO CHINA." September 1793
