HISTORICAL ANACHRONISM: THE QING COURT'S PERCEPTION OF AND REACTION TO

THE MACARTNEY EMBASSY

　

 

(This article was published in Ritual and Diplomacy:

The Macartney Mission to China 1792-1794, edited by Robert A. Bickers, Wellsweep)

 

 

ZHANG SHUNHONG

INSTITUTE OF WORLD HISTORY, CHINESE

ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, BEIJING

　

 

　

 

LORD MACARTNEY'S EMBASSY TO CHINA was an important event in the history of relations between Britain and China. It was a mission from the most powerful country in the world to the most powerful one in the East. In a sense it was also a challenge from a newly rising industrial power to a relatively stagnant feudal state. The embassy's experience in China and its transactions with the Qing court have been well researched.[1] This paper thus only focuses on a rethinking of the Qing court's perception of and reaction to the embassy. It will try to reveal to what extent the court failed to understand the embassy and the international background against which the mission was initiated, and how the court's perceptions influenced its decisions. The Qing court's perception of the Macartney embassy underwent several stages. At the beginning, both the Qianlong emperor and the mandarins considered the embassy to be a tribute mission, coming to present congratulations for the emperor's birthday, with no other motive. As early as 22 October 1792, Guo Shixun, Governor of Guangdong province and acting Viceroy or Governor General of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, and Shengzhu, Superintendent of the Canton Customs, jointly sent a memorial to Qianlong reporting that the King of England was now sending an envoy to China to present congratulations for the emperor's birthday; in their view this showed that the British people were reverential and friendly.[2] The emperor was apparently pleased to hear this news. On 3 December 1792 he issued an edict to the Viceroys and Governors of the coastal provinces ordering them to make careful preparations for the reception of the British envoy and to help conduct him and his tribute articles to Beijing as soon as he landed on the coast; there was to be no delay or disorder.[3] Qianlong then issued detailed instructions to the Grand Councillors and some Viceroys and Governors regarding the way in which Macartney should be treated. For instance, his edict of 22 February 1793 directed that, when the British tribute envoy reached the coast, well disciplined officers and soldiers ought to be sent there and banners and weapons should be polished up in order to show seriousness and solemnity. This was not because such foreigners might have suspicious intentions, but because of the customary regulations concerning the treatment of foreign missions. Discipline and order, solemnity and vigour, were to be displayed to give the foreigners feelings both of awe and veneration.[4] On 24 July 1793 the emperor issued another edict to Liang Kentang, Viceroy of Zhili province, and Zheng Rui, Salt Administrator of Changlu in Zhili province, who had been instructed to welcome Macartney at the coast near Tianjin. This edict ordered that the British tribute envoy should be treated moderately and the mandarins should be neither servile, nor overbearing towards him. But in the eyes of the emperor Macartney, as the first envoy from Britain, should be treated differently from those sent by such countries as Burma and Vietnam, which paid tribute frequently.[5]

In the Qing court's reactions to the Macartney embassy, the emperor himself played a crucial role. In his view it was 'a good thing' that Britain sent an envoy to present tributes and congratulations for his birthday. He thus entertained a lenient attitude towards the conduct of the British at the early stage of the mission. This can be clearly- seen from the following events. In late May 1793 'the Commissioners of the East India Company decided to send a small vessel, the Endeavour, under Captain Proctor to sail up the eastern coast of China to contact the embassy.[6] After Proctor reached Zhejiang province, Chang Lin, its Governor, sent a memorial to the emperor, saying that Ma Yu, Garrison Commander of Dinghai, should be severely punished for letting Proctor sail away without awaiting a reply from the Governor himself and that he had asked the Governors of some coastal provinces to watch Proctor's navigation.[7] But the emperor instructed that as Proctor came to look for the tribute envoy without any other intention, Chang Lin should tell him personally that it was up to him whether he stayed or went. The Governor was instead criticised for his excessive reaction. Other coastal Governors also received the imperial instruction that Proctor should be permitted to stop or go according to his own decision.[8] As to the ceremonial, the emperor issued an edict on 3 August which said that if Macartney and his suite refused to kowtow when they met Viceroy Liang or other mandarins, they should not be urged to do so, rather they were to be allowed to behave according to the ritual custom in their own country.[9] On the same day, Zheng Rui sent a memorial to the emperor reporting that the British Chief and Assistant Envoys considered themselves to be of high rank and insisted on meeting others on an equal footing. For this reason, Zheng Rui himself did not go personally to visit them, and instead he ordered two other conducting mandarins of lower rank, Qiao Renjie and Wang Wenxiong, to go to see Macartney and Staunton on their boat in order to get information on the King's letter and the tribute articles.[10] After receiving this report, the emperor criticized Zheng Rui on 5 August for regarding himself as important and superior, and said that even if the envoys did perform the kowtow to Zheng Rui, he would not be honoured by it himself, and if they did not do so no damage was done. As they had sailed for nearly one year, particular consideration should be shown them. Pedantic haggling over ceremonial issues was not the proper way of treating people from afar.[11]

Such a favourable attitude towards the embassy, however, did not last long. When Qianlong saw the list of tribute articles he was angered by the‘arrogant' explanations of the instruments, and his opinion of the embassy changed. On 6 August, only one day after he criticised Zheng Rui for his strict attitude towards Macartney on the ceremonial issue, Qianlong announced that the list of tribute articles bore many exaggerations. The British did not know what greatness was and thus considered themselves possessed of unique and secret skills and boasted of the excellence and rareness of their own manufactures. In the list it was also written that a 'Commissioner' was being sent to China. This further infuriated Qianlong who wrote that as Britain was sending a mission to pay tribute, there was no reason to call the envoy 'Commissioner'. He then ordered that both Macartney and Staunton were to be called Tribute Envoys'.[12]

The period from 6 August until Macartney's arrival at Rehe (Jehol) was a crucial stage in the court's perception of the embassy. During this time Qianlong attempted to assess both the nature of Macartney's real conduct and the value and merits of the tribute articles. Macartney had been reported to be reverential and obedient. Now Qianlong was suspicious of this and ordered Zheng Rui to make careful observations of Macartney's deportment to see whether he betrayed any sign of haughtiness. Zheng Rui's memorial of 17 August reported to the emperor that Macartney was indeed modest, reverential and obedient.[13] Though temporarily satisfied with Macartney's conduct, Qianlong still had many queries about the tribute articles. It was said in the memorials from Zheng Rui and Liang Kentang that some instruments were very big and delicate, especially the planetarium which needed one month to be set up and could not be moved and dismantled afterwards. This to a certain extent shook the emperor's confidence in the superiority of China's technology and science. He was slightly satisfied when he received the memorial sent on 18 August by Jin Jian, President of the Board of Works, and Yi Ling-a, Vice-President of the Board, who had been appointed to take charge of the tribute articles in the capital. In the memorial Macartney was reported to be impressed by the magnificence of the buildings of the imperial palaces and to have said that all the eight articles left in the capital could be displayed in one building, the Zhengdaguangming palace [the Great Hall] in the Yuanming yuan.

Meanwhile, Qianlong was trying to assess the nature of the planetarium and other instruments. On the one hand, he ordered some Chinese craftsmen, eunuchs and Jesuit missionaries at the court to watch the British craftsmen putting together the tribute articles. At the same time he instructed Zheng Rui, Jin Jian and Yi Ling-a to send quick and detailed memorials on this issue. But he did not get much information from them for a number of days. On 29, 30 and 31 August he lost his temper and furiously blamed these three officials for still keeping silent on questions as to the exact size of the scientific instruments, how the British craftsmen were setting them up, whether the Chinese craftsmen, eunuchs and missionaries already understood how to operate and dismantle the planetarium and other instruments after they had watched their installation by the British, and whether one month was really needed to put together the planetarium. Qianlong also ordered Jin Jian and some other mandarins to compare the celestial and terrestrial globes brought by Macartney with the ones exhibited in the imperial palaces. [14]On 30 August Jin Jian and Yi Ling-a sent a memorial to the emperor in which they wrote that all eight articles including the planetarium had been set up within six days, that the craftsmen, eunuchs and missionaries had already understood how to operate, dismantle and set up these instruments, and that the celestial and terrestrial globes and the lustres were similar to those in the imperial palaces. The other articles were also reported to be by no means unique: one of them was said to be not so well made as similar items already in the imperial palace. In this memorial the scientific instruments of the embassy were simply underestimated.[15] This memorial was in a sense significant in the emperor's assessment of the science and technology embodied in the embassy's presents. It had the effect of restoring and strengthening the court's confidence in China's superiority and contributed to its failure to recognise the real importance of the embassy's scientific instruments. With a strong confidence in China's superiority in science and technology, the emperor assumed that once Macartney saw that China had similar and better instruments and had also skilled craftsmen who were versed in astronomy, geography and clock repairing and who understood how to operate, dismantle and set up the tribute instruments, he would not be so 'arrogant'. The emperor did not make further inquiries about the planetarium and other instruments. Evidently he had already come to the conclusion that Macartney exaggerated the importance of the tribute articles. After the mission arrived at Rehe Qianlong showed little curiosity in the scientific instruments which were in his view not very useful; China, he felt, did not need such 'curios'.

At this crucial stage the emperor made a serious mistake. Although he was once very eager to get information on the tribute articles he never told the mandarins to inquire how such instruments were produced. Rather, he frequently suggested in his edicts that Macartney exaggerated their value and merits. Influenced by this attitude the conducting mandarins restrained themselves from inquiring into the manufacture of these scientific instruments. For instance, in their memorial of 9 August to the emperor, Liang Kentang and Zheng Rui said that the envoy's account of his tribute articles was exaggerated 'so when we met him, we did not ask how the articles were produced'.[16] The emperor did order skilled Chinese personnel to watch the British craftsmen setting up the instruments, but the purpose was only to learn how to operate, dismantle, and repair such instruments so that they would not become more useless after the British went home. What was more vital, namely the technology of producing such scientific instruments, was ignored by the court. Macartney was right in observing that the emperor and his courtiers were not interested in science and showed little curiosity for the instruments brought by the embassy. This lack of interest in science and curiosity for the embassy's presents led to the failure of the Qing court to realize Britain's advanced technological and scientific achievements and China's backwardness in this respect.

On the other hand, Qianlong was now more concerned with ceremonial. On 14 August an imperial order was issued to Liang Kentang and Zheng Rui, instructing them to persuade Macartney to perform the koutou when he had an audience with the emperor at Rehe. Zheng Rui's report convinced Qianlong that Macartney would do so, for he was learning how to perform it. This, of course, was not the truth. After his arrival at  Rehe Macartney still declined to perform the ceremony. The emperor was again infuriated and said on 9 September that he was very displeased by the envoy's 'unfamiliarity' with the ceremonial. He attributed Macartney's conduct to his lavish treatment at the hands of the mandarins on the way to Rehe, totally unaware that Macartney's refusal to perform the koutou was actually the challenge of an ambassador from a powerful colonial state, with ideas of Western diplomacy, to the established diplomatic or tributary system of China. [17] It had nothing to do with the mandarin's treatment of the envoy. Qianlong, however, reacted to the embassy very much as he perceived it. He ordered the local mandarins to treat the mission with less generosity. In his view it was not worthwhile treating such 'ignorant' people with much courtesy or favour. This was the first time the emperor considered Macartney 'ignorant'.

It should be pointed out that on 11 September Qianlong issued a different edict which said that the Chief and Assistant Envoys were quite reverential and obedient when they met the Grand Councillors that day. As they now showed loyalty and obeyed the Celestial regulations they should still be treated with favour and courtesy. The 14th of September was the day when the emperor granted his first audience to the embassy. Qianlong appeared to be satisfied with Macartney's performance as suggested by the poem he wrote that day. The first two sentences of this poem stated that 'Formerly Portugal paid tribute: now Britain is paying homage'.[18]

The emperor's complacency, however, disappeared after he read the translation of George Ill's letter which Macartney presented to him at this audience and which requested that a British envoy should be allowed to reside permanently in Beijing. Such a request was unacceptable to the court which was deeply disturbed by this unprecedented suggestion. On 15 September Macartney asked for permission for Captain Mackintosh to leave Rehe early for Zhushan, where the Hindostan was anchored. Three days later Macartney handed another note to He Shen, the Grand Secretary, in which he again asked that Mackintosh might be allowed to go without delay to Zhushan in order to resume the care of his ship there, and that the staff on the ship might be permitted to purchase a cargo of tea. He also recommended sending a European missionary conduct to Beijing the two mathematicians, Robert Hanna and Louis-Francois Lamiot, who had intended to enter into the Emperor's service and who were now on board the Hindostan. Furthermore, Macartney repeated his desire to have free communication of correspondence with Canton.[19] Although these points were not totally rejected, the court appeared to have felt pestered by Macartney’s seemingly endless requests. On 23 September the emperor issued an edict to Chang Lin, now the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, and the Governors of Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, saying that as the British envoy came from afar, and was fairly reverential and obedient, he was treated with great consideration and courtesy. However, after his arrival at Rehe he made many impertinent requests and was frequently haughty. Such a foreigner was indeed 'ignorant'. The request that a British envoy should be allowed to reside in Beijing was rejected. The king of that country might seek pretexts to make trouble. As the country was very remote and they had to travel for a very long time to get here, they probably did not dare to launch a war against China. But since they were ignorant and presumptuous, they might cause disturbances on the coast, especially at Macao. It was thus necessary to make preparations in advance.[20] This should be done unobtrusively so as not to arouse suspicions among the foreigners and the local people. Similar imperial instructions were issued on I October 1793 to Chang Lin, Guo Shixun, and the Governors of the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi.[21]

After his return to Beijing Macartney presented on 3 October six requests to He Shen concerning British trade with China, as he had been instructed to before he left Britain.[22] These requests further irritated and worried the court which refused to consider almost all of them. Two days later the emperor again instructed the Viceroys and Governors of the coastal provinces to make preparations for the disturbances the British might cause. Now the court was anxious to send Macartney away.

In response to Macartneys conduct and requests the Qing court did decide to take certain actions. The emperor ordered that all the posts, garrisons and beacons near the routes along which the embassy would travel should be put into good order in advance, and troops were to be well disciplined so as to make an imposing impression on the British. When the envoy and his suite passed through prosperous parts of the country, they should be allowed to make observations so that they would realize that China was prosperous and rich, and her people were enjoying peace and happiness. This, it was felt, would curb the haughtiness of these foreigners. The authorities at Canton were instructed by the court to prevent collaboration between the British and the Portuguese in any actions against China. They were also urged to take measures to prevent the 'stubborn and intractable' British merchants from monopolising the trade at Canton. Local officials were warned not to extract additional or illicit duties from British commercial ships to avoid giving any pretext to the British for making trouble. According to the imperial instructions coastal defence was to be strengthened, the navy was to be on the alert to prevent the British occupying islands secretly, and British merchant ships visiting any ports other than Canton were to be expelled immediately. Finally, local authorities in the coastal provinces were instructed to inhibit any collusion between 'treacherous' local inhabitants and the foreigners.

Macartney left Beijing on 7 October. On his way to Canton, he had more talks with Song Yun, a Grand Councillor, who conducted him to Hangzhou and Chang Lin, who escorted him from Hangzhou to Canton. In their memorials to the emperor, Macartney was often reported to be obedient and grateful to the emperor. This lessened Qianlong's anger with the British envoy and he was later even inclined to receive future envoys from Britain. By the time Macartney left China the court had become much less anxious to strengthen the country's coastal defences and ready their troops. Thus the court's actual responses to the embassy were very limited.

What the Qing court did attempt to do was no more than a reinforcement of the established closed door policy which was becoming increasingly unsuitable to the changing international environment. But in the view of the court such measures would be sufficient to cope with possible external threats. In the face of the challenges embodied by the Macartney embassy what the court needed to do was to take an open-door policy towards the outside world, and to learn from the West as it did in the late nineteenth century. It also needed to reform feudal institutions and start to move towards a modern society. The Qing court under Qianlong failed to do this and its reactions to the Macartney embassy can be said to have been anachronistic. This was not in the sense that it refused Macartney's requests, but that it did not respond in a way that would enable China to deal with the new problems imposed by a changing world. The court's anachronistic reactions were closely correlated with its incorrect perceptions of the mission and its international background. Macartney was considered as a tribute envoy from a small state in the West, not as an ambassador from a powerful colonial country. Only after Macartney arrived at Rehe, did the court realise that the 'Tribute Envoy came to China not only to present congratulations for the emperor's birthday, but also with other aims. The court was never fully aware that the objects of the mission were mainly commercial and diplomatic. To a certain extent it did anticipate the seriousness of a possible confrontation with Britain after refusing Macartney's requests; however, in its view Britain was only a relatively strong state in the West and while the British, being ignorant and unaware of China's greatness, might take rash action they would only cause minor disturbances in the coastal areas. The most worrying thing for Qianlong was rather the possibility of collusion between local inhabitants and trouble-making foreigners.

The Qing court indeed failed to perceive the real challenges embodied by the Macartney embassy. The presents brought by the mission were the products of Britain's advanced science and technology and were no doubt challenging to China's sense of superiority.[23] Unaware of their importance, the court did not realize the extent of China's backwardness. Macartney's refusal to perform the koutou was also a defiance of China's established diplomatic or tributary system. But the court attributed it to his ignorance and haughtiness. The requests put forward by Macartney regarding British trade with China again challenged China's foreign and trading policies. Britain was then undergoing a rapid process of industrialisation and was becoming the world's factory, thus needing more markets for its manufactures. Though the Qing court had a vague idea of Western colonization, it was unconscious of the fact that Britain was the country with the largest overseas empire, one which was rapidly expanding in Asia. In a word, the court was ignorant of international affairs. The Macartney embassy rightly observed that the Qing court knew little about the outside world, and still held the illusion that China was the centre. Ironically, of course, the court also held Macartney to be 'ignorant'.

At the time of the embassy China was comparatively well known to Britain. In the eighteenth century British society witnessed a Chinese vogue which reached its peak in the middle of the century and writers in Britain frequently referred to things Chinese. Many publications related to China were printed. What were known as 'arguments from the Chinese' were even used by the opposition in British politics against the government[24] However, Britain was little known to China although the two countries had had commercial relations for a long time. In the whole of the eighteenth century not a single work dealing particularly with Britain was published in China. The British were often confused with other Europeans. It would be wrong, however, to say that Chinese writers had no ideas about Britain. An authentic work enriched Qingchao wenxian tongkao [A textual compilation of the literature of the Qing dynasty], compiled under an edict of the emperor Qianlong and completed around 1786, did have a short entry for Britain (or, rather, England). There were two crucial points there. Firstly, that Britain had a colony (though one only was implied) and secondly that some British products, such as clocks, were 'incomparably ingenious'.[25] The first point would lead one to think of Britain as a colonial power and the second indicated that Britain possessed advanced technologies in certain respects. This was important for the Qing court to reach a sound assessment of British science and technology, but neither the emperor nor his courtiers seemed to have paid much attention to such a record. What Macartney said about the delicate nature of the scientific instruments he brought, as discussed earlier, was simply considered by the court as exaggeration. The Qing court's ignorance of Britain was indeed in sharp contrast to British knowledge of China. At the time of the embassy the court was still wondering where exactly Britain was whereas at the same time there were Britons who were attempting to put China into a proper place in the scale of world civilizations. John Barrow, for example, Comptroller of the Macartney embassy, attempted to do this in his Travels in China [1804].

In the contact of these two countries at this time China was indeed the one observed while Britain was the observer. Members of the Macartney embassy published a number of works about China whilst the Qing court produced none on Britain. The ambassador himself made many observations which were even closer to the realities of Chinese life than the Qing court's own notions of China. For instance, Macartney took the view that China was becoming 'semi-barbaric' compared with Europe, which was making great progress in science and technology. It is true that in the eighteenth century China was lagging behind Europe, especially in the field of science and technology, but the Qing court still assumed that China was the most advanced country in the world. The court also held the illusion of China's military superiority over other countries. As China's military force was stronger than that of her neighbours it was consequently assumed that she was also stronger than the Western nations. Macartney, however, noted that the Chinese military force was very weak. They were:

 

   totally ignorant of our discipline, cumbersomely clothes, armed only with matchlocks, bows and arrows, and heavy swords, awkward in the management of them, of an unwarlike character and disposition...[and so] they would make but a feeble resistance to a well-conducted attack.[26]

 

Macartney's opinion was again closer to the truth as evidenced by later events. The embassy was indeed a challenge to China. In this sense it also provided an opportunity for the Qing court to realize the extent of China's backwardness and to understand the real and changing international situation. But the court failed to do so, and it felt no necessity to reform China's established institutions, and to change the closed-door policy to suit the development trend of the whole world. Threats were greatly underestimated. It can be argued here that without a correct perception of the outside world, it would be unlikely to respond in the right way to external challenges.

Why the Qing court failed to properly perceive the Macartney embassy and its international background is a complicated question. Here are only some brief ideas. China had long been more advanced than its neighbours and the Qing rulers had thus been imbued with the mentality of sino-centrism. They were neither interested in understanding the outside world, nor willing to communicate with it. Since the early eighteenth century the court had been, on the whole, practising a growing closed-door policy. Foreign trade on the coast was confined to Canton from the middle of the century. There was little intellectual communication with the West. The separation from the rapidly developing part of the world and the long-term ignorance of external affairs helped to hinder the court from correctly perceiving the Macartney embassy and its international background. China during qianlong's reign experienced economic prosperity and social stability, and the court won a number of wars, most recendy defeating the Gurkhas. This certainly strengthened the sense of superiority in China's military force and civilization among the Qing rulers. All of these factors contributed to the failure of the court to understand the Macartney embassy and the global situation. Such failure largely explained why the court failed to react in the right way to the challenges embodied in the Macartney embassy. Qianlong's refusal to reform the established systems and take an open-door policy made China more backward compared to Britain and Europe as a whole. Time was lost in catching up and keeping pace with the West, especially in terms of science, technology and military force. In consequence China had to endure the disasters of the nineteenth century.

　

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