The Qianlong Emperor’s Letter to George III and the Early-Twentieth-Century Origins of Ideas about Traditional China’s Foreign Relations

Abstract

Swaying the wide world, I have but one aim in view, namely, to maintain a perfect governance and to fulfil the duties of the state: strange and costly objects do not interest me. If I have commanded that the tribute offerings sent by you, O King, are to be accepted, this was solely in consideration for the spirit which prompted you to dispatch them from afar. Our dynasty's majestic

Knowledge and Global Inequality Since 1800

“…In the early modern history of both China and India we find instances of such dismissal of the novel. There is a much-repeated story of the Chinese emperor in 1793 writing that China had everything and did not need such things from others (Harrison, 2017).…”

Ruminations on the meaning and nature of ritual in the historical context of China–A theoretical attempt to understand the tribute system as a ritual in East Asia

“…Henrietta Harrsion's paper convinced that the central issue of Marcatney embassy was not the issue of protocol between an equal thus “advanced” nation-state system and the hierarchical hence “backward” tribute system. Rather than that, the central issue is the issue of Qianlong emperor's strong concern of the possible British military acts because the emperor had rejected British demands of keeping a permanent ambassador in Beijing to bypass the provincial government in Guangdong, receiving tax reductions, and asking for giving an island off the coast near the port of Ningbo as well as a base near Guangzhou (Harrison 2017). More importantly, as Christian Windler and Henrietta Harrison pointed out, although the Westphalia Treaty was signed in 1648 as the symbol of the diplomatic equality of sovereign states, in fact, as late as the eighteenth century were still within the older hierarchical system of relations between princely courts in Europe 24 .…”