Chapter 9 Nine Westerners in China

When Marco Polo arrived in China, China's first successful foreign invaders, the Mongols, confidently defeated the Song Dynasty and drove them south.But Chinese society is still highly civilized, and many things Marco Polo described in his travel notes amazed Western readers.It mentions a burning of black rock (coal), and some readers refuse to believe such a thing.The travelogue also mentions the use of paper money, which was invented in the eleventh century, less than half a century after commercial printing had begun.Marco Polo also frequently mentioned the Chinese Christians he met, not only in the Turkic region of China, but also in the southeast of China.

The existence of the Yuan Dynasty for less than a hundred years marked a clear break between the splendid culture of the great Mongol dynasty, the prosperous but uncreative culture of the Ming Dynasty, and the culture of the subsequent Manchu dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was famous for poetry and short stories, while the Song Dynasty was famous for philosophy, the Yuan Dynasty for comedy, and the Ming Dynasty for novels.But since the Yuan Dynasty—the beginning of "modern" Chinese history—China's interactions with the rest of the world have become more frequent.After Marco Polo, the connection between China and the West has never been interrupted.

Marco Polo's description of China stimulated the imagination of Europeans, and people began to seek a shortcut to the East.Columbus discovered America while searching for a route to the East.Portuguese sailors reached the coast of China in the 15th and 16th centuries.The Portuguese introduced tobacco to China, and then Catholicism was introduced to China. Catholic missionaries had an important and far-reaching influence on the Ming Dynasty.Among them was Mattu Reiss (1552-1610). He not only wore Chinese clothes, but also learned Confucian classics and Chinese etiquette.These Catholics found pleasure in the imperial court, many of whom were made court astronomers.Reiss also translated European books on physics, astronomy and geography, and introduced the European Renaissance to China, just as Marco Polo introduced China to the West.

Later Dutch businessmen and British businessmen came to China.From the 16th century China began to facilitate merchants in some ports, but this time is completely different.Beginning in the 19th century, Western powers knocked on the door of China with ships, and the ocean, which once helped to isolate China from the rest of the world and protected China from invasion, suddenly became a channel for the powers to reach China's shores.After China's defeat in the Opium War of 1840-1842, which began after a Qing-appointed imperial envoy burned piles of British opium in the port of Humen.China was forced to open five treaty ports to foreign countries.This was the period of Western European powers' colonial expansion in China.China fought a series of losing wars with Britain, France and Japan. In 1860, the British and French allied forces marched into Beijing, plundered the Summer Palace and set fire to the priceless rare book library.China has suffered from civil strife and is gradually losing its sovereignty.France takes Indochina by force.Tibet became the object of constant bargaining between China and the British Empire.Japan occupied Taiwan in 1895.

These events quickly become climate change. In 1898 a series of major events took place.Because of the death of a missionary, China was forced to compensate Qingdao to Germany and designated Shandong as Germany's sphere of influence.Russia has systematically plundered the Turkic region: now it "leases" Lushun and Dalian in the northeast.Britain "leased" Kowloon (the inland town opposite Hong Kong) and Weihaiwei, where the Great Wall connects to the China Sea in Bohai Bay.The strange circumstances of these events made the Chinese extremely angry.This privilege means that foreigners in China cannot abide by Chinese laws and cannot be arrested by Chinese police.Chinese hatred of these invaders was branded "anti-foreign".A young Chinese revolutionary named Sun Yat-sen, seeing that relying on the weak and incompetent Qing government would be in vain, formed a revolutionary group after absorbing Western democratic ideas, which was also the predecessor of the Nationalist Party, which was founded in Honolulu in 1894.

Meanwhile, a great drama was still unfolding at the declining Qing court between the young Emperor Guangxu and his aunt, the stubborn and ignorant Empress Dowager Cixi who had held back China's progress for fifty years. In 1898, Emperor Guangxu promulgated a series of radical reform measures in the name of reform, known as the "Hundred Days Reform" in history.The reform met the secret opposition of Empress Cixi, and the reformists conspired to drive this ignorant woman out of power.A general trusted by Emperor Guangxu betrayed him, and Emperor Guangxu was subsequently placed under house arrest.

However, public opposition to foreign invaders continued to rise and fall, and these forces continued to gather. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out.These members are a rabble who believe in super gods, who believe that the gods are possessed so that bullets cannot penetrate them, and the Empress Dowager Cixi also believes in them.Catastrophic failure ensued.When the Western coalition forces marched into Beijing, Cixi and her nephew fled Beijing in a hurry. The revolutionaries in China knew that China could not survive the invasion of foreign powers unless China reformed quickly, and now the revolutionaries are divided in two, forming royalists and republicans.The royalists advocated reform within the autocratic system; the republicans advocated the overthrow of the Manchu regime and the establishment of a republic.Neither the Royalists nor the Republicans ultimately made the decision to reform, but the lazy Manchu court itself.Even after the rise of the Boxers and the defeat of the Chinese, the Chinese were looking forward and waiting for another eight years, but to no avail.The young emperor was put under house arrest on an "isolated island". After the death of Cixi and the young Emperor Guangxu in 1908, the Chinese were completely disappointed with the weak Qing court. A four-year-old boy named "Xuantong" or Puyi ruled China in name.The patience of the Chinese is completely exhausted. In 1911, the Revolution of 1911 broke out and ended the Qing government. 1912 formally marked the beginning of the Republic of China.