Perspective On Chinese Etiquette In Late Qing Dynasty (1)

In the sultry afternoon of the Qing Dynasty and the western "etiquette controversy", the 80 year old Emperor Qianlong reposed in Mountain Resort.

At this time, the officials sent gifts to the king, mostly Western ingenious machines. After watching, he was very happy.

Earlier, Qian Long received letters from the British mission of the coastal businessmen. He said that the emperor did not congratulate him on his 80 birthday. He sent the envoys to pay tribute today. Because of his "sincere and sincere feelings", he had promised the ambassador maigerny to come to Beijing to see him, and ordered the officials along the coast to receive them properly.

Now, before the envoy arrived, the gift had arrived earlier, which made Qianlong quite satisfied.

Because of the emperor's will, he was courteously received by officials at all levels and praised the Chinese's "courtesy". He told Chinese officials: "I will not be ignorant of the customs of your country, and I will not disagree with you in the future."

However, it is precisely the "etiquette" carefully observed by both sides, which almost made the British mission to see the action of "the great emperor of China". The contradiction took place on the eve of the meeting of the leaders of the three countries. When the two sides discussed the courtesy, Chinese officials asked Ma Gore to make a nine visit to Qianlong.

When the dispute broke out, he was even threatened by not seeing the emperor.

At the end of the original date of the meeting, the two sides finally agreed: the British mission officials kneel down to worship the emperor on one knee.

After the incident, most of the Chinese people who knew the matter thought that the British were "arrogant", while Westerners were impressed by the importance of etiquette to China.

Compared with these envoys, the western missionaries had a deeper understanding of the importance of "etiquette" in dealing with Chinese people. There was also a much more painful lesson: during the Kangxi era, the pope in Rome forbade the Chinese people to respect their ancestors, thus triggering a protracted "controversy over Chinese etiquette".

As a result, Emperor Kangxi was furious and ordered to expel the Catholic missionaries of Rome who had been accused of Chinese traditional etiquette.

This hostility reached its peak in the next Yong Zheng era.

In modern times, China's door has been broken by strong ships and guns, and more Westerners have come to China.

In those days, their diplomats and missionaries who were good at communicating were suffering because of Chinese etiquette.

For ordinary Westerners, these rituals are more elusive.

In order to meet the needs of dealing with Chinese people, Guang learned (in 1884, the Presbyterian missionary Wei Lianchen founded the same book club in Shanghai. 1891, the English missionary Lee Timothy, renamed the Guang learned society and published all kinds of books and pictures that introduced Western Books) Hua Lixi (W.Gilbert Walshe) wrote the book "mysterious Chinese etiquette", as a guide for westerners to learn Chinese etiquette.

At that time, it could be a necessary reading for westerners who first came to China.

After more than 100 years, Hua Lixi's description has become the best reference for us to appreciate the etiquette and customs such as dressing, manners, interpersonal communication, marriage and funeral.

Qing Dynasty etiquette for westerners to learn