Many years ago there was a movie called Burning of the Yuanmingyuan, in which it was said that the British burned the Yuanmingyuan for no reason. In fact, the British and French allies' excuse for burning the Yuanmingyuan can be openly exposed, and the so-called reasons they used to cover up the crime should be firmly refuted. However, in China's historical writings, he was very secretive about this, and only mentioned it in a few words at most, as if he was afraid of revealing any secrets.
It is called the Second Opium War; it was, to borrow the words of Samuel Mead Dotter; in American terms at Huntington, essentially a clash of civilizations. The main focus of the intense negotiations between the Manchu government and Britain and France at that time was the first item of the Minister in Beijing, which the Qing side listed as the first important thing in the negotiations. As for, what is valued today; such as opening foreign trade ports, allowing foreigners to travel in the interior, agreeing on tariffs, protecting missionaries, paying reparations, and consular jurisdiction. To the emperor who risked his life to seize power, they were all trivial matters that could be disposed of at will. Both sides quickly agreed on these trivial matters. Later, the emperor also offered more favors to Western merchants, such as free tariffs, in exchange for Britain and France's request to abolish their ministers in Beijing.
In explaining these historical facts, we need to learn from China's traditional status quo; the Unified World Talk concept, according to which China is the center of the world, the Emperor is the ****lord of the world, all countries are subordinate to China, and everyone has to kowtow to the Emperor as a sign of submission. However, this idea had to be recognized by the ekonomists. So the traditional theme of Chinese diplomacy is to get the barbarians to kowtow, thus establishing Fei Zhengqing's set called. The diplomatic model with a complete system of tribute can also be more graphically called kowtowing diplomacy; the trouble now is that the Yiddis won't kowtow, and they are going to be in Beijing for a long time. The presence of the envoys in Beijing would inevitably lead to an audience with the emperor, and the ritual of not bowing to the emperor would in fact contribute to the notion of the bankruptcy of the united world, and to the fact that this notion of a united world had long been widely accepted as a combination of ruling ideas similar to those of Confucianism as the main source of legitimacy for the authoritarian system in ancient China. This change, if left unchecked, would gradually deplete the source of legitimacy. If some people--dogs and sheep barbarians notwithstanding--can publicly refuse to kowtow to the emperor himself, can others follow suit? If this is extrapolated, the Emperor America's position as the world's ****-holder will crumble. How long can he sit in the Golden Hall? In addition, the residence of the Minister Beijinger is considered to be the same as the ancient state supervision according to the understanding of the Manchu government at the time, foreign envoys in Beijing can collect taxes at will, can interfere with government orders, can relocate the Beijing Office, can build tall buildings in the capital, and can deploy all kinds of weapons. In short, they could do whatever they wanted like the emperor. The father of the It is natural that China cannot be the prisoner of a foreign country.
So the refusal to allow envoys to stay in the capital became the emperor's first line of defense to maintain kowtow diplomacy. When the first line of defense was broken by the powerful firepower of the British and French allied forces, the emperor again in handing pro letter regulations to set up a second line of defense, even if the Western envoys in Beijing, but can not hand pro letter the emperor will not I did not meet them, so naturally, will not win. Does not involve kowtowing or not. Not long ago the former U.S. envoy to Beijing, the Qing side insisted that someone else accept the letter of state on behalf of the emperor, which was an important diplomatic victory convinced had the Manchu government that they could hold the second line of defense. However, at the last moment of the negotiations in Tongzhou near Beijing, the British side insisted on handing over the state letter to the emperor in person in a note that broke through the emperor's second line of defense and went straight to the emperor's third and final line of defense, putting the ko
The Qing government at the time was suffering both internally and externally. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom defeated the Jiangnan camp, captured Suzhou Changzhou and threatened Shanghai. The British and French allied forces were massed in Tongzhou and could attack Beijing at any time. However, the Manchu government was determined not to budge half a step on the kowtow. Their bottom line was that the Western envoys would either kowtow to the Emperor or not hand over the State Papers. Their tone was unusually strong and there was no room for compromise. If no agreement could be reached, the Manchu government would make a last stand despite its weaknesses and deploy its army to prepare for war.
The British offer to present the state papers at that time was merely acting in accordance with Western international law practices and did not take into account the special national conditions of the Manchu government. When the Manchu government offered to kowtow to the emperor, they refused on the grounds that all nations are equal. They didn't I didn't understand that kowtowing maintained the rule of public proof of the legitimacy of the Manchu government, just as the Emperor didn't I didn't understand that voting was public proof of the legitimacy of Western governments. Instead, they suspected that the Emperor's refusal to accept the instrument of state contained a huge conspiracy and insisted that it be handed over to them in person.
In fact, in the 200-year history of the Manchu Qing, there is precedent for allowing Western envoys not to kowtow to the emperor, and there are records of emperors shaking their hands, but that was before the legitimacy of the Manchu Qing his rule was widely questioned. With the gradual loss of this legitimacy, any small thing, such as kowtowing, that seemed to justify the emperor and Manchu rule became a major interest in fighting for it. The emperor feared that giving in on such matters would be like a hole in a dam that would eventually cause the river to burst and destroy the Qing dynasty. So when he got the report that the British refused to kowtow, he felt that all three lines of defense had been breached, and he couldn't I couldn't stand it. There was no way back, he immediately decided to go to war.
, the immediate cause of the collapse of the Tongzhou negotiations; handing pro-Chinese letters First of all, it was not until after the war that the Manchu government realized that this was only a common practice in the West, which was not the case. I have no intention of embarrassing the Emperor in particular. And although the Anglo-French coalition insisted on handing over the letters in person during the negotiations, they did not intend to go to war over the matter. There was no conspiracy behind either side. So the real reason for the war was the pursuit of kowtow diplomacy; the conflict between the Manchu government and Britain and France, which followed the norms of international law, both of which were rooted in the intellectual background of different civilizational compositions behind the incompatible concepts of a united world and the equality of peoples in the conduct of nations. It is this civilizational difference that makes both sides completely unable to understand each other's behavior, so they can only follow the so-called interest in analyzing the motives and purposes of mutual speculation, and finally come to the wrong conclusion.
According to the present understanding, all kinds of disputes between China and Britain are very normal in state-to-state relations and should be solved through bilateral consultation and negotiation, labeled as blood congealed into, comrades and brothers, and yibayi as if state-to-state relations are ridiculous. However, the Manchu dynasty, although defeated in the first Sino-British War, still refused to recognize the equal status of the United Kingdom and the United States and refused to negotiate with them. In their eyes, China was the only country in the world, and all other countries were subordinate to China and were not qualified to be equal to China. In Guangzhou, Ye refused to answer all the British requests for negotiation and contract modification, even without the presence of the British negotiators. However, the British representatives submitted letters all over the coast of China and even went north to Baihe to ask for negotiations with the Chinese side, but they were all pushed back to Guangzhou. The British side naturally felt teased. Chiang Ting-fu wrote: In short, the outsiders simply could not I get in. They knew that war was the only way to revise the treaty. Later when the British consul in Guangzhou and the governor of Hong Kong were unfortunately toug filled
In all fairness, the absurdity of the Manchu government's kowtow diplomacy has also been criticized by Chinese historians, but these criticisms are based on the Western norms of conduct of international law. Why did China accept the Western code of conduct of international law? From China's Unification of the World Conceptually, the principle of equality of all states in Western international law is ludicrous. Therefore, there are two sets of values to judge the country's diplomatic behavior. Using the code of conduct of Western international law to measure the foreign policy of the Manchu government and to criticize those concepts and behaviors that do not conform to it is always a kind of hindsight, in addition to superficiality. Just as Aq criticized the townspeople for wrongly calling a bench a bench in the same way, he was only relying on non-Chuang's standards, which are insufficient as evidence. The reason: international law is not just correct because it is international law or because it is the law in vogue today. It also requires us to prove and criticize it, and both proof and criticism require a more basic premise and standard. On such a basic premise and standard, we can not only judge the current state of the Manchu government; kowtow diplomacy; and whether or not our perceptions and behaviors are wrong, but also prove whether or not the standards of international law are correct. If necessary, even such a premise and standard needs to be proved by a more basic premise and standard. Through such incremental steps, we arrive at an end point, which is the basis for our proof of the correctness of all the conceptions and behaviors of states. Thus, more specifically, to unify the world and kowtow diplomacy; the act of criticizing needs to eventually get down to the level of the states and individuals involved in the relationship of rights, it needs to explain the theory of state formation and actually analyze the entire theoretical basis of the legitimacy of domination, which is far beyond the superficial moral critique. Its just mentioned here without going into detail.
Tongzhou negotiations broke down, according to prior arrangements, the Qing side on the spot detained the British and French negotiating delegation headed by Barciare ***39 people, escorted back to Beijing guilt go to jail it. Ba Xia Li and other people set the crime, a perfect illustration of the Manchu dynasty insisted on the unification of the world idea of absurdity. They also thought that all the countries of the world were vassals of the Manchus. Thus, the attack on China by the British and French forces was not regarded as aggression, invasion, or war, but as rebellion; and the war of the Manchu government, the United States, against Britain and France was justly declared to be "the suppression of barbarians; a plea for rebellion.
The Qing government has always regarded Ba Xia Li as the commander-in-chief of the Anglo-French allied forces, according to the traditional strategy of capturing the thief first, they negotiated in Tongzhou has another purpose, is to lure Ba Xia Li, hope that Ba Xia Li was captured, the Anglo-French allied forces, they are in chaos, and then seized the opportunity to suppress a large-scale, and achieve victory. At noon on the same day, the Anglo-French allied forces of 4,000 men fought with the elite Qing army of nearly 10,000 men of the Ministry of Singhlinqin in Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou, and the Qing army suffered a crushing defeat. A few days later, the two sides in Tongzhou Bali Bridge again fighting, the British and French allied forces of about 6,000 people defeated the Qing army elite about 30,000 people. The emperor was horrified at the news, and shamelessly announced that today, I I am responsible for the sixth division, arrived in Tongzhou, I I want to attack by contacting the paradise. Then fled the Cang Emperor of the Yuanmingyuan, never dared to return to the capital.
Those arrested British and French negotiators were taken to Beijing for interrogation. As one British diplomat imprisoned at the time later recalled, the heavy prison doors were opened and I was ushered in, the doors rumbling behind me. At this point I found myself in the middle of a group of about 70 or 80 rough-looking prisoners. As you usually see in Chinese prisons, most of these prisoners were extremely aggressive due to disease and unsanitary conditions. Naturally, they all stared at me, the newcomer, with anxious eyes. The jailer placed me on a padded board for the prisoners to sleep on, and tied me securely to a beam above my head with another thick chain. This chain was long and heavy. First, it was wrapped around my neck and secured to my feet. The hands are tightly bound by two crossed chains and handcuffs. Most of the inmates here were lower-class people who had committed felonies, including murderers and night thieves. The living conditions in the prison were extremely harsh, the inmates were emaciated and sickly, and often died. These Western diplomats were also subjected to brutal psychological torture in prison. The Manchu government informed Basharie and the others that China was determined to fight to the end. They were to be executed immediately and given two hours to write a suicide note. When Ba Xia Li and the others finished writing their suicide notes, they said that the execution date had been moved to the next day, but the execution did not take place the next day. The date of execution was delayed again and again, and the psychological pressure on the condemned was increasing. The Qing government exerted tremendous psychological pressure on them in order to force them to give in and then reopen negotiations with them in prison.
While Basharai and the others were not ultimately executed, when the Manchu government was forced to release them a month later, 21 of the 39 men imprisoned had been abused to death and 18 had survived. Britain and France were completely enraged, so to speak. In retaliation, British envoy Erskine was ready to burn down the Forbidden City. Later, in order to take care of the face of the Manchu dynasty, but instead chose the Yuanmingyuan.
On October 18, 1860, the British First Division of about 3,500 men were ordered to set fire to the Yuanmingyuan.
A few days before the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, the Anglo-French allied forces demanded that the Qing side hand over a representative for the defense of Beijing's Andingmen Gate; the Anglo-French allied forces entered the city in four batches, with their headquarters located in the Guozijian. When the Anglo-French allied forces marched into Beijing, Qing soldiers lined the streets and knelt to meet the enemy as Beijing's inhabitants watched the city. The scene was later denounced as numbing; usually in a good-natured way. For the then Xianfeng Emperor, the burning of the Yuanmingyuan was a personal disgrace. He had been born and raised in Sri Lanka and had always considered it as sacred as the Forbidden City. When he heard the terrible news about the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, he vomited blood on the spot, relapsed from his old illness, and died in Jehol in less than a year. However, for the Chinese people at that time, the emperor's feeling seemed a bit far away from them. They struggled for their livelihood every day and hoped for a peaceful day. They lived in humiliation every day, and they would not I no longer feel humiliated, let alone understand and sympathize with the humiliation suffered by the Emperor. They broke into the unguarded royal forbidden gardens in droves and looted everything they could find.
The emperor's humiliation was later said to be the people's humiliation, and the Yuanmingyuan became a symbol of the humiliation of the people and the nation. It was a big joke. What does what happened to the emperor have to do with the Chinese people? What has Western ministers kowtowing or not kowtowing to the Emperor got to do with the Chinese people? The emperor went out of his way to fight for what he considered humiliation, but at the cost of his country's interests and the lives of his people. In addition to subjecting himself to even greater humiliation, China ended up losing 1.5 million square kilometers of territory in the war, which was fought for China's conquest of the barbarians; and the price paid to Russia for such a grievous loss can never be repaired. It was one of the most expensive and boring wars in modern Chinese history.
As Prof. Chiang Ting-fu wrote in the 1930s: what were we fighting against Britain and France at that time? The U.S. ambassador in Beijing, the Continental March and the Yangtze River trade were at the center of the dispute between the two sides. It was t
The fourth year of Xianfeng, the Western trading nations sent representatives to Tianjin to peacefully negotiate a revision of the treaty. China was slightly more accommodating and the other side was satisfied. The Qing court rejected everything in favor of Ye and others, advocating the doctrine of diplomatic assertiveness. When Ye he confessed to two minor incidents against Britain and France. How different was diplomacy during the Xianfeng period and the years of the Republic?
After a general understanding of the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, our indignation was not just directed at Britain and France. The Emperor's U.S. detention and mistreatment of British and French diplomats violated not only Western international law, but also China since ancient times. The two countries to go to war without beheading do code of conduct, and even this code is hardly followed by many people in China. Lord Elgin was in China and he hated those who trampled on this ancient civilization he ordered the Yuanmingyuan to be burned as a historical tragedy. However, compared to the 1.5 million square kilometers of land that China lost in that war, the Emperor Yuanmingyuan was nothing.