THE COMMENCEMENT OF EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE
Keen Lung was the first Manchu prince to receive formal embassies from the
sovereigns of Europe. Among these the Portuguese were the first in point
of time, although they never attained the advantage derivable from that
priority; and indeed the important period of their connection with China
may be said to have terminated before the Manchus had established their
authority. Still, as the tenants of Macao, the oldest European settlement
in China for more than three centuries and a half, their connection with
the Chinese government must always possess some features of interest and
originality. The Portuguese paid their rent to and carried on all their
business with the mandarins at Canton, who lost no opportunity of
squeezing large sums out of the foreigners, as they were absolutely in
their power. The Portuguese could only pay with good or bad grace the
bribes and extra duty demanded as the price of their being allowed to
trade at all. The power of China seemed so overwhelming that they never
attempted to make any stand against its arbitrary decrees, and the only
mode they could think of for getting an alleviation of the hardships
inflicted by the Canton authorities was to send costly embassies to the
Chinese capital. These, however, failed to produce any tangible result.
Their gifts were accepted, and their representatives were accorded a more
or less gratifying reception; but there was no mitigation of the severity
shown by the local mandarins, and, for all practical purposes, the money
expended on these missions was as good as thrown away. The Portuguese
succeeded in obtaining an improvement in their lot only by combining their
naval forces with those of the Chinese in punishing and checking the raids
of the pirates, who infested the estuary of the Canton River known as the
Bogue. But they never succeeded in emancipating themselves from that
position of inferiority in which the Chinese have always striven to keep
all foreigners; and if the battle of European enterprise against Chinese
exclusiveness had been carried on and fought by the Portuguese it would
have resulted in the discomfiture of Western progress and enlightenment.
The Dutch sent an embassy to Pekin in 1795, but it was treated with such
contumely that it does not reflect much credit on those who sent it. The
Spaniards never held any relations with the central government, all their
business being conducted with the Viceroy of Fuhkien; and the successive
massacres of Manila completely excluded them from any good understanding
with the Pekin government. With Russia, China's relations have always been
different from those with the other powers, and this is explained partly
by the fact of neighborship, and partly by Russia seeking only her own
ends, and not advantages for the benefit of every other foreign nation.
With France, the relations of China, owing to a great extent to the
efforts and influence of the missionaries, had always been marked with
considerable sympathy and even cordiality. The French monarchs had from
time to time turned their attention to promoting trade with China and the
Far East. Henry the Fourth sanctioned a scheme with this object, but it
came to nothing; and Colbert only succeeded in obtaining the right for his
countrymen to land their goods at Whampoa, the river port of Canton. But
French commerce never flourished in China, and a bold but somewhat
Quixotic attempt to establish a trade between that country and the French
settlements on the Mississippi failed to achieve anything practical. But
what the French were unable to attain in the domain of commerce they
succeeded in accomplishing in the region of literature. They were the
first to devote themselves to the study of the Chinese literature and
language, and what we know of the history of China down to the last
century is exclusively due to their laborious research and painstaking
translations of Chinese histories and annals. They made China known to the
polite as well as the political world of Europe. Keen Lung himself
appreciated and was flattered by these efforts. His poetry, notably his
odes on "Tea," and the "Eulogy of Moukden" as the cradle of his race, was
translated by Pere Amiot, and attracted the attention of Voltaire, who
addressed to the emperor an epistolary poem on the requirements and
difficulties of Chinese versification. The French thus rendered a material
service in making China better known to Europe and Europe better known in
China, which, although it may be hard to gauge precisely, entitles them
still to rank among those who have opened up China to Europeans. The
history of China, down to the eighteenth century at least, could not have
been written but for the labors of the French, of Mailla, Du Halde, Amiot,
and many others.
There remains only to summarize the relations with the English, who, early
in the seventeenth century, and before the Manchus had established their
supremacy, possessed factories at Amoy and on the island of Chusan. But
their trade, hampered by official exactions, and also by the jealousy of
the Portuguese and Dutch, proved a slow growth; and at Canton, which they
soon discovered to be the best and most convenient outlet for the state,
they were more hampered than anywhere else, chiefly through the hostile
representations of the Portuguese, who bribed the mandarins to exclude all
other foreigners. The English merchants, like the Portuguese, believed
that the only way to obtain a remedy for their grievances was by
approaching the imperial court and obtaining an audience with the emperor;
but they were wise in not attempting to send delegates of their own. They
saw that if an impression was to be created at Pekin the embassador must
come fully accredited by the British government, and not merely as the
representative of a body of merchants who were suppliants for commercial
privileges. The war with the Goorkhas had made the Chinese authorities
acquainted with the fact that the English, who were only humble suitors
for trade on the coast, were a great power in India. The knowledge of this
fact undoubtedly created a certain amount of curiosity in the mind of Keen
Lung, and when he heard that the King of England contemplated sending an
embassy to his court he gave every encouragement to the suggestion, and
promised it a welcome and honorable reception. Permission was given it to
proceed to Pekin, and thus was a commencement made in the long story of
diplomatic relations between England and China, which have at length
acquired a cordial character. As great importance was attached to this
embassy, every care was bestowed on fitting it out in a worthy manner.
Colonel Cathcart was selected as the envoy, but died on the eve of his
departure, and a successor was found in the person of Lord Macartney, a
nobleman of considerable attainments, who had been Governor of Madras two
years before. Sir George Staunton, one of the few English sinologues, was
appointed secretary, and several interpreters were sought for and
obtained, not without difficulty. The presents were many and valuable,
chosen with the double object of gratifying the emperor and impressing him
with the wealth and magnificence of the English sovereign. In September,
1792--the same month that witnessed the overthrow of the Goorkhas at
Nayakot--the embassy sailed from Portsmouth, but it did not reach the
Peiho, on which Pekin is inaccurately said to stand, until the following
August.
An honorable and exceedingly gratifying reception awaited it. The
embassador and his suite, on landing from the man-of-war, were conducted
with all ceremony and courtesy up the Peiho to Tientsin, where they
received what was called the unusual honor of a military salute. Visits
were exchanged with the Viceroy of Pechihli and some of the other high
officials, and news came down from Pekin that "the emperor had shown some
marks of great satisfaction at the news of the arrival of the English
embassador." Keen Lung happened to be residing at his summer palace at
Jehol beyond the Wall, but he sent peremptory instructions that there was
to be no delay in sending the English up to Pekin. Up to this point all
had gone well, but the anti-foreign party began to raise obstructions,
and, headed by Sund Fo, the conqueror of the Goorkhas, to advise the
emperor not to receive the embassador, and to reject all his propositions.
Whether to strengthen his case, or because he believed it to be the fact,
Sund Fo declared that the English had helped "the Goorkha robbers," and
that he had found among them "men with hats," _i.e._, Europeans, as well
as "men with turbans." As Sund Fo was the hero of the day, and also the
viceroy of the Canton province, his views carried great weight, and
they were also of unfavorable omen for the future of foreign relations.
But for this occasion the inquisitiveness of the aged emperor prevailed
over the views of the majority in his council and also over popular
prejudice. When the embassy had been detained some time at Pekin, and
after it looked as if a period of vexatious delay was to herald the
discomfiture of the mission, such positive orders were sent by Keen Lung
for the embassy to proceed to Jehol that no one dared to disobey him. Lord
Macartney proceeded to Jehol with his suite and a Chinese guard of honor,
and he accomplished the journey, about one hundred miles, in an English
carriage. The details of the journey and reception are given in Sir George
Staunton's excellent narrative; but here it may be said that the emperor
twice received the British embassador in personal audience in a tent
specially erected for the ceremony in the gardens of the palace. The
embassy then returned to Pekin, and, as the Gulf of Pechihli was frozen,
it was escorted by the land route to Canton. On this journey Lord
Macartney and his party suffered considerable inconvenience and annoyance
from the spite and animosity of the Chinese inferior officials; but
nothing serious occurred to mar what was on the whole a successful
mission. Keen Lung is said to have wished to go further, but his official
utterance was limited to the reciprocation of "the friendly sentiments of
His Britannic Majesty." His advanced age and his abdication already
contemplated left him neither the inclination nor the power to go very
closely into the question of the policy of cultivating closer relations
with the foreign people who asserted their supremacy on the sea and who
had already subjugated one great Asiatic empire. But it may at least be
said that he did nothing to make the ultimate solution of the question
more difficult, and his flattering reception of Lord Macartney's embassy
was an important and encouraging a precedent for English diplomacy with
China.
The events of internal interest in the history of the country during the
last twenty years of this reign call for some, brief notice, although they
relate to comparatively few matters that can be disentangled from the
court chronicles and official gazettes of the period. The great floods of
the Hoangho and the destruction caused thereby had been a national
calamity from the earliest period. Keen Lung, filled with the desire to
crown his reign by overcoming it, intrusted the task of dealing with this
difficulty to Count Akoui, whose laurels over the Miaotze had raised him
to the highest position in public popularity and his sovereign's
confidence. Keen Lung issued his personal instructions on the subject in
unequivocal language. He said in his edict, "My intention is that this
work should be unceasingly carried on, in order to secure for the people a
solid advantage both for the present and in the time to come. Share my
views, and in order to accomplish them, forget nothing in the carrying out
of your project, which I regard as my own, since I entirely approve of it,
and the idea which originated it was mine. For the rest, it is at my own
charge, and not at the cost of the province, that I wish all this to be
done. Let expenses not be stinted. I take upon myself the consequences,
whatever they may be." Akoui threw himself into his great task with
energy, and it is said that he succeeded in no small degree in controlling
the waters and restricting their ravages. We are ignorant of the details
of his work, but it may certainly be said that the Hoangho has done less
damage since Akoui carried out his scheme than it had effected before. The
question is still unsolved, and probably there is no undertaking in which
China would benefit more from the engineering science of Europe than this,
if the Chinese government were to seriously devote its attention to a
matter that affects many millions of people and some of the most important
provinces of the empire.
A great famine about the same period is chiefly remarkable for the
persecution it entailed on the Christian missionaries and those among the
Chinese themselves professing the foreign religion. The cause of this
scarcity was mainly due to the extraordinary growth of the population,
which had certainly doubled in fifty years, and which, according to the
official censuses, had risen from sixty millions in 1735 to three hundred
millions in 1792. Of course the larger part of this increase was due to
the expansion of the empire and the consolidation of the Manchu authority.
So great was the national suffering that the gratuitous distribution of
grain and other supplies at the cost of the state provided but a very
partial remedy for the evil, which was aggravated by the peculation of the
mandarins, and the evidence of the few European witnesses shows that the
horrors of this famine have seldom been surpassed. The famine was laid to
the charge of the Christians, and a commission of mandarins drew up a
formal indictment of Christianity, which has stood its ground ever since
as the text of the argument of the anti-foreign school. It read as
follows: "We have examined into the European religion (or the doctrine) of
the Lord of Heaven, and although it ought not to be compared with other
different sects, which are absolutely wicked, yet, and that is what we lay
to its blame, it has had the audacity to introduce itself, to promulgate
itself, and to establish itself in secret. No permission has ever been
given to the people of this country to embrace it. Nay, the laws have
absolutely long forbidden its adoption. And now all these criminals have
had the boldness to come, all of a sudden, into our kingdom, to establish
their bishops and priests in order to seduce the people! This is why it is
necessary to extinguish this religion by degrees and to prevent its
multiplying its votaries." The fury of the Chinese, fortunately, soon
exhausted itself; and although many Europeans were injured none lost their
lives, but several thousand native converts were branded on the face and
sent to colonize the Ili valley.
While Lord Macartney was at Pekin it was known that the emperor
contemplated abdicating when he had completed the sixtieth year of his
reign--the cycle of Chinese chronology--because he did not desire his
reign to be of greater length than that of his illustrious grandfather,
Kanghi. This date was reached in 1796, when on New Year's day (6th of
February) of the Chinese calendar, he publicly abdicated, and assigned the
imperial functions to his son, Kiaking. He survived this event three
years, and during that period he exercised, like Charles the Fifth of
Germany, a controlling influence over his son's administration; and he
endeavored to inculcate in him the right principles of sound government.
But in China, where those principles have been expressed in the noblest
language, their practical application is difficult, because the official
classes are underpaid and because the law of self-preservation, as well as
custom, compels them to pay themselves at the equal expense of the
subjects and the government. Even Keen Lung had been unable to grapple
with this difficulty of the Chinese civil service, which is as formidable
at the present time as ever. One of the ablest and most honest of Keen
Lung's ministers, when questioned on the subject, said that there was no
remedy. "It is impossible, the emperor himself cannot do it, the evil is
too widespread. He will, no doubt, send to the scene of these disorders
mandarins, clothed with all his authority, but they will only commit still
greater exactions, and the inferior mandarins, in order to be left
undisturbed, will offer them presents. The emperor will be told that all
is well, while everything is really wrong, and while the poor people are
being oppressed." And so the vicious circle has gone on to the present
day, with serious injury to the state and the people. When Keen Lung had
the chance of bringing matters under his own personal control he did not
hesitate to exercise his right and power, and all capital punishments were
carried out at the capital only after he had examined into each case. It
is declared that he always tempered justice with mercy, and that none but
the worst offenders suffered death. Transportation to Ili, which he wished
to develop, was his favorite form of punishment.
To the end of his life Keen Lung retained the active habits which had
characterized his youth. Much of his official work was carried on at an
early hour of the morning, and it surprised many Europeans to find the
aged ruler so keen and eager for business at these early conferences. His
vigor was attributed by competent observers to the active life and
physical exercises common among the Tartars. It will be proper to give a
description of the personal appearance of this great prince. A missionary
thus described him: "He is tall and well built. He has a very gracious
countenance, but capable at the same time of inspiring respect. If in
regard to his subjects he employs a great severity, I believe it is less
from the promptings of his character than from the necessity which would
otherwise not render him capable of keeping within the bounds or
dependence and duty two empires so vast as China and Tartary. Therefore
the greatest tremble in his presence. On all the occasions when he has
done me the honor to address me it has been with a gracious air that
inspired me with the courage to appeal to him in behalf of our
religion.... He is a truly great prince, doing and seeing everything for
himself." Keen Lung survived his abdication about three years, dying on
the 8th of February, 1799--which also happened to be the Chinese New
Year's day.
With the death of Keen Lung the vigor of China reached a term, and just as
the progress had been consistent and rapid during the space of 150 years,
so now will its downward course be not less marked or swift, until, in the
very hour of apparent dissolution, the empire will find safety in the
valor and probity of an English officer, Charles George Gordon, and in the
ability and resolution of the empress-regents and their two great soldier-
statesmen, Li Hung Chang and Tso Tsung Tang.