Down The Rabbit Hole

What I found interesting that we learned this week was Emperor Qianlong’s letter to King George the third. I learned from the website that I used that his letter to the King of Britain in 1793 was a “diplomatic maneuver rather than a reflection of arrogance.” Many historians believe his ignorance was his failure to accept the industrial revolution products. It was seen as a missed opportunity for China to modernize and open up to the world. Also, we talked about how he thought that China was in the center of the world, which is another reason why he was thought of as an arrogant leader by historians. Professor Harrison deciphered his letter; actually, Qianlong sought a reason and used this letter to deny trading demands that benefited the British side, believing that this would prompt them to depart as soon as possible. At the same time, Qianlong was concerned that this message might irritate England and prompt them to declare war. As a result, he rapidly deployed coastal defense. The reason why the views of Qianlong’s arrogance started by 20th-century Chinese scholars was because it was beneficial to China’s politics at the time. They then published a book in 1928 that contained 47 documents out of 600 that related to the Qing government and their Ministry of Defense. They were subjective and only chose documents against the Qing Dynasty and Manchu people. The article also discussed the European perspective and how they thought China was arrogant and unwilling to trade equally with them.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2015-01/30/content_34686142.htm#:~:text=The%20Canton%20trading%20system%20guaranteed,not%20want%20this%20to%20change.