Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries (Routledge Studies in Modern History)

__Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries__ studies the fascinating encounters between the two historic empires from Queen Elizabeth I’s first letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli in 1583, to Lord Palmerston’s letter to the Minister of China in 1840. Starting with Queen Elizabeth I’s letter to the Chinese Emperor and ending with the letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of China just before the Opium War, this book explores the long journey in between from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy. It interweaves the most known diplomatic efforts at the official level with the much unknown intellectual interactions at the people-to-people level, from missionaries to scholars, from merchants to travelers and from artists to scientists. This book adopts a novel "mirror" approach by pairing and comparing people, texts, commodities, artworks, architecture, ideologies, operating systems and world views of the two empires. Using letters, gifts and traded goods as fulcrums, and by adopting these unique lenses, it puts China into the world history narratives to contextualise Anglo-Chinese relations, thus providing a fresh analysis of the surviving evidence. Xin Liu casts a new light on understanding the Sino-centric and Anglo-centric world views in driving the complex relations between the two empires, and the reversals of power shifts that are still unfolding today. The book is not intended for specialists in history, but a general audience wishing to learn more about China’s historical engagement with the world. Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War Cover -1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Illustrations 11 Acknowledgements 13 Introduction: 1583-1840, from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy 16 0.1 The old tale and a new narrative 17 0.2 Structure of the book 21 Notes 25 References 26 1. Where the tale of the two empires began 27 1.1 Once upon a time, a British monarch wrote a letter to a Chinese emperor 28 1.2 The incomprehensible letters 31 1.3 European sceptre vs. Chinese dragon 41 Notes 47 References 49 2. The Tributary System and the first Anglo-Chinese encounters 51 2.1 The Tributary System and its implications on China's foreign relations 51 2.2 Ming China: Seen, presented and influenced by Westerners 55 2.3 The Sino-speak vocabulary of outsiders and foreigners 63 2.4 Exchange ideas, goods or fire? 68 Notes 74 References 76 3. The earliest Chinese travellers to the Far West 79 3.1 Shen Fuzong and Thomas Hyde: The first exchanges of a learned nature 80 3.2 Loum Kiqua and William Hickey: The first taste of Chinese music and Chinese food 89 3.3 Tan Che-Qua and William Chambers: The first Chinese artistic legacy that can still be seen in the UK today 95 3.4 Huang Yadong and William Jones: The first English letter exchanged between the two peoples 104 3.5 The first Chinese travellers who wrote about Europe and Britain 108 Notes 111 References 114 4. Chinoiserie vs. Euroiserie: Mutual reflections of material culture and perception gaps 117 4.1 The seemingly Yin-Yang flow between the two empires in material culture 118 4.2 China's Yuanming Yuan and Britain's Kew Garden and Brighton Palace 125 4.3 The British perception of Qing China and the perception gap to the real Qing 131 4.4 The Chinese perception of the British Empire and the perception gap to the real British 143 Notes 149 References 152 5. When the lion meets the dragon: Lost in translation or beyond translation? 156 5.1 Tributary System Vs. Westphalian System: Mission impossible for the Macartney Embassy to China 158 5.2 Gift or tribute: Two words, two worlds 161 5.3 To kowtow or not to kowtow, that is the question 170 5.4 Letters, letters 184 5.5 Change of the mutual perceptions between the two empires 190 Notes 199 References 201 6. The Amherst Embassy to China, an insurmountable generation gap between the two empires 206 6.1 The negative assets from the Macartney Embassy 208 6.2 To kowtow or not to kowtow, was this still the question? 216 6.3 The Minion culture in the Qing court 224 6.4 Redrawing Self and Other: New knowledge produced by the Amherst Embassy 233 Notes 241 References 241 7. From the Tea War to the Opium War 246 7.1 The story of tea and opium 247 7.2 The rhetoric war and trade war 252 7.3 The opium debates 259 7.4 Falling into the Thucydides Trap? 267 7.5 Postscript 273 Notes 280 References 280 Conclusion: The two great reversals - Historical implications on the modern-day interactions between a post-Brexit UK and a globalising China 285 Notes 297 References 298 Appendix 1. Queen Elizabeth I's 1583 letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli, discussed in Chapter 1 300 Original Sixteenth Century Text 300 Translation into modern English 301 Notes 301 Translation into Chinese 303 Appendix 2. Queen Elizabeth I's 1596 letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli, discussed in Chapter 1 304 Original Sixteenth Century Text 304 Translation into modern English 305 Notes 306 Translation into Chinese 308 Appendix 3. Queen Elizabeth I's 1602 letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli, discussed in Chapter 1 309 The original Mediaeval English text 309 Source: Lancashire Archives 309 Translation into modern English provided by the Lancashire Achieves is included in Chapter 1 310 Translation into Chinese 310 Appendix 4. King George III's letter to the Qianlong Emperor, 1792, discussed in Chapter 5 312 English original 312 Appendix 5. The Qianlong Emperor's Letter to King George III, 1793, discussed in Chapter 5 316 English translation version 1 316 English translation version 2 318 Appendix 6. The Qianlong Emperor's last letter to King George III, 1796, discussed in Chapter 5 321 English translation 321 Appendix 7. The Jiaqing Emperor's Imperial Mandate to the King of England, 1816, discussed in Chapter 6 323 English translation 323 Appendix 8. The Jiaqing Emperor's Imperial Decree issued following the departure of the Amhurst Embassy, 1816, discussed in Chapter 6 326 English translation 326 Appendix 9. Lin Zexu's letter to Queen Victoria, 1839, discussed in Chapter 7 328 English Translation version 1 328 Appendix 10. Letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of the Emperor of China, 1840, discussed in Chapter 7 334 English Original 334 Index 341 "Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries studies the fascinating encounters between the two historic empires from Queen Elizabeth I's first letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli in 1583, to Lord Palmerston's letter to the Minister of China in 1840. Starting with Queen Elizabeth I's letter to the Chinese Emperor and ending with the letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of China just before the Opium War, this book explores the long journey in between from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy. It interweaves the most known diplomatic efforts at the official level with the much unknown intellectual interactions at the people-to-people level, from missionaries to scholars, from merchants to travelers and from artists to scientists. This book adopts a novel "mirror" approach by pairing and comparing people, texts, commodities, artworks, architecture, ideologies, operating systems and world views of the two empires. Using letters, gifts and traded goods as fulcrums, and by adopting these unique lenses, it puts China into the world history narratives to contextualise Anglo-Chinese relations, thus providing a fresh analysis of the surviving evidence. Xin Liu casts a new light on understanding the Sino-centric and Anglo-centric world views in driving the complex relations between the two empires, and the reversals of power shifts that are still unfolding today. The book is not intended for specialists in history, but a general audience wishing to learn more about China's historical engagement with the world."--Provided by publisher