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In 1817, while imprisoned in St. Helena, Napoleon once said, "China is a sleeping lion, and when he wakes up, the whole world trembles." It's sleeping, let it sleep. ”
There are multiple versions of this phrase, presumably with the same meaning. Of course, some people think that Napoleon did not say this, but in fact, his personal physician Omira's "Voice from St. Helena" recorded some of Napoleon's remarks about China, such as "If I were an Englishman, I would think that those who instigated war with China are the most dangerous enemies of the country at present", etc., so there is no need to dwell on whether Napoleon mentioned "the Chinese sleeping lion theory", he must have expressed the relevant meaning.
The question is: why did Napoleon call China the "sleeping lion" at that time, and why would he "make the world tremble" "once he woke up"? Behind this seemingly simple question, a lot of information is actually revealed, because since it is a "sleeping lion", it means that it was a "lion who did not sleep" before, and the lion is the king of beasts, indicating that China's strength can be the king of the world before, but this contradicts the Western historical narrative.
Napoleon's praise of China as a "lion" is actually contradictory to the historical narrative of the West.
In terms of population, more than 100 Spanish people conquered the Inca Empire 200 years before Napoleon. In the colonial conquests that followed, the European powers often outnumbered and conquered huge countries with very few men, and another example was the British conquest of India. Therefore, Napoleon's praise of China as a lion is certainly not because of the large number of Chinese.
From the perspective of science and technology, according to the Western historical narrative, the missionaries came to China in the late Ming Dynasty to "spread the advanced science and technology of the West", when China was already far behind the West, and even more backward in the 19th century. Similar expressions are not uncommon in the books of Chinese scholars. Since China's technology is lackluster, it is reasonable that Napoleon was not worried about China's technological capabilities or potential.
From the perspective of cultural system, European celebrities around the 19th century thought that Chinese culture and systems were backward and first-class, and extremists such as Hegel were even more disdainful. Since the Chinese cultural system is not as good as that of the West, it stands to reason that Napoleon would not worry about Chinese culture and system.
From the perspective of the industrial revolution, at the beginning of the 19th century, the industrial revolution in Europe was in full swing, its strength rose rapidly, and it was an era of self-confidence that was invincible all over the world. Compare that to China, which Magalny (above) calls a fragile "mud-legged empire" that is not worth mentioning. Therefore, judging from the contrast of reality, Napoleon has no reason to compare China to a "lion".
Since it has long been not good in history, and even more so in reality, China is inferior to the West in everything, so why did Napoleon still say that "China is a sleeping lion, and once he wakes up, the whole world will tremble for it", isn't it contradictory! In fact, Napoleon is not wrong, in today's China, on the contrary, it confirms Napoleon's vision, the reason why we think it is contradictory, is only because today's history is "the history of Western narratives", some of which is hidden, the most obvious is scientific and technological achievements.
According to the Western historical narrative, the ancient Greek civilization was incomparably brilliant, and a group of masters wrote a bunch of advanced scientific theories without the accumulation of scientific practice, and then the Renaissance was not science, but ancient Greece and ancient Roman art, until modern ancient Greek science suddenly burst into flames, guiding the West to achieve the rise of science and technology, in short, Western scientific and technological achievements are basically endogenous and original.
The general logic is: first there is the accumulation of practice, then there is inductive summary, and then there is the emergence of theory. Therefore, this historical narrative of the West is contrary to normal logic, and of course the West claims that ancient Greece is a "special civilization" and cannot be treated with common sense.
Regardless of whether ancient Greece is a "special civilization" or not, many of the technologies in the modern rise of Europe originated in China, but this point is hidden by the mainstream historical narrative of the West, and only a few scholars have mentioned some, such as:
In his book China: The Land of Inventions and Discoveries, the American scholar Robert Temple points out: "For a long time, these and many other Chinese originals have been forgotten or kept in the dark. More than half of the inventions and discoveries that laid the foundation of the modern world probably came from ancient China. ”
Stavrianos, author of The General History of the World, believes that the source of the rise of Western Europe from poverty, backwardness and obscurity lies in the fact that "Western Europeans took Chinese inventions and did everything they could to develop them and use them for overseas expansion." This expansion, in turn, led to greater technological advances. ”
In addition, there are also Western books such as "The Role of Asia in the Rise of Europe" and "Science and the Modern World", which also mention China** with Western technology.
In fact, we can look at some specific technologies, in addition to the four major inventions, such as mechanical clocks, globes, escapements, watertight cabins, muskets, artillery mines, mines, drilling technology, natural gas pipelines, glasses, toothbrushes, Chinese ploughs (the key technology of the modern agricultural revolution in Europe), etc., are all original Chinese inventions. Therefore, it is true that more than half of the inventions and discoveries that laid the foundation of the modern world came from China.
Therefore, Napoleon did not praise China inexplicably, but after Western missionaries came to China in the Ming and Qing dynasties, they learned Chinese technology on a large scale, and Napoleon knew that China had a highly developed culture and advanced technology, but the Qing Dynasty caused China to fall into stagnation, so he put forward the "Chinese sleeping lion theory".
There are four more points worth thinking about the topic of this article:
First of all, because of the Qing Dynasty, China's modern backwardness, cannot negate China's previous scientific and technological achievements. Based on the fact that China is backward in modern times, to completely deny the previous scientific and technological achievements can only be said to be either stupid or bad.
Secondly, from Napoleon's "sleeping lion theory", reminiscent of the "China fever" in the 18th century, and then associated with a large number of Western missionaries coming to China, in fact, everything is very clear, that is, at that time, the missionaries "stole" China's technology and culture to change the West, and Napoleon knew China's potential.
Third, the large-scale transmission of scientific and technological and cultural information from Western missionaries to China is an exchange between Chinese and Western civilizations, which is understandable, but the West hides it, and almost does not mention it in the mainstream historical narrative, but steals it as its own.
Fourth, at that time, the mainstream was "middle school westward progress", China exported science and technology culture to the West, but the Western historical narrative reversed black and white, became the West to China to spread advanced science and technology, became "Western learning to the East", and could also make the Chinese believe that such a skill is admirable!