Author: Xie Gui'an Xie Sheng
The author of the notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties, living in the era of the continuous introduction of Western material civilization, felt the changes that took place in Chinese society from hidden to visible, from small to large. In their spare time, they are not bound by official history calligraphy, record trivial matters of life in their notes, chase overseas strange stories, and pay more attention to the dazzling Western strange artifacts introduced into China.
1. Exotic curiosities
The notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties involve a rich variety of Western artifacts, reflecting the process of the spread of Western material civilization in China since the Ming and Qing dynasties and gradually attracting attention. It can be broadly summarized into the following seven categories:
The first category is military equipment, including ** and telescopes. The earliest mentioned Western** was the Franc machine from Portugal. Shen Defu of the Ming Dynasty "Wanli Ye was compiled" recorded: "After the Hongzhi, there was a Buddha cannon, its country is the ancient three Buddhas, for all the Boyi City, Guangdong because of the passage of the sea ship, did not enter its goods, the beginning and the cannon to collect it, then the transfer of the gods, and more than the old system several times, each side has been used for a long time. Ancient Srivijaya is a small country located in the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia, which was controlled by Portugal during the Ming Zhengde period, so it was mistaken by the author for the Buddha machine ** in the ancient Srivijaya) In addition to new firearms, telescopes as military reconnaissance tools are also contained in the notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties. According to the "First Record of the Eastward Journey", "the two boats came out of the mountain gap, Zhang Pufan sailed to Zhenhai, peeked at it with a long mirror, and saw a black hat and blue robe standing on the side, then Li Yingjun, the fourth grade of North Korea." At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the "Beginning and End of the Western Tour of Luan" also contained: "The foreigners climbed the high platform and peeked into the city with a clairglass mirror, but they saw that the smoke and dust were rising and the fire was shining in the sky. ”
The second category is daily necessities, including self-striking clocks, glass products, fabrics, food, western medicine, perfumes, soaps, cameras, foreign cigarettes, etc. The chiming clock is more exquisite and practical than the traditional Chinese timekeeper, and the frequency is very high in the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as the introduction of the self-striking bell system in the "Guest Words": "With iron as it, the silk rope is intertwined, suspended in the 簴 (jù), the rotation is up and down, the drama does not stop, and the bell should be struck at the right time." It has many of these things. According to the record of "Words of the Garden", Emperor Kangxi ordered Wu Tingzhen to "make a royal boat, and the rhyme is limited to three rivers and one must." Wu Yuan's pen was established, and the cloud said: 'Jin Bo dissolves and shines on the building, and celebrates the return to Luan from Yue State. 'I was conceiving, and when I heard the bell ringing, Song Zhongcheng said: 'I will go to Wujiang.'" The daily necessities imported from the West are mostly called "tributes" in the notes, such as "Chibei Occasional Talks" and "Four Sayings of the Sea Kingdom", which respectively record a large number of daily necessities donated by the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties to Western countries.
The third category is artworks, including Western musical instruments and paintings. Western musical instruments include organs, violins, dulcimers, eight-tone bells, etc., Princess Deling once mentioned in the "Qing Palace Ban Two Years": "(Emperor Guangxu) loved the foreign qin very much, and forced Yu to teach it." There are several pianos in the court, all of which are very beautiful. Western paintings, on the other hand, attracted attention for their delicate approach. Li Dou, the author of "Yangzhou Painting Boat Record", believes that Western paintings can be fake and real, "moving a few in, the virtual room is getting smaller, setting up a bamboo couch, and a shelf of ancient books next to the couch, ethereal and scattered, short-sighted, it is a Western painting."
The fourth category is scientific and technological instruments, including cold and summer watches, barometers and barometers used to measure climate, armillary planets, sundials and telescopes for observing astronomy. Mao Xianglin, a Qing dynasty man, in his "Moyulu Western Merchants Foreign Objects", said that a Western businessman "came to Shanghai with capital, and the building where he lived faced the Pujiang River, with a high beam mirror in the middle, which was long and long, as big as a giant bamboo, peeped into it, and saw the fish in Pudong Tianshe (zēng) in the distance, which was vivid." From time to time, there are village women hoeing, followed by a child, as if if you can answer the conversation, it is really four or five miles away, it is also strange."
The fifth category is electrical appliances, including electric lights, telegraphs, ** and other Western inventions powered by electricity. In the late Qing Dynasty, He Yinqi, a native of Jiangning, described the adjacent road of Baoshan Street as "electric lights and running fires shining like day at night, really like a city that never sleeps".
The sixth category is the means of transportation, including the sailing ships of the Portuguese and Dutch in the early days, the steamships in Europe in the later period, which "used fire and steaming water as boats and wheels to maneuver and move like the wind", steam trains that "gallop at extreme speed without the power of people and horses, and can save freight" (Liang Tingfang's "Four Sayings of the Sea Kingdom"), as well as foreign carriages and automobiles.
The seventh category is production tools, including steam engines, excavators, printing presses, etc. For the steam engine, Mao Xianglin recorded: "Westerners use the method of steam to draw water, print books, push grinding, weaving, transporting vehicles, and traveling boats, so as to replace labor." Its steaming kettle shape is round like a ball, there are holes, transverse two tubes, cross-shaped, both ends of the tube and the back, each has a hole, the kettle water boils, then the gas comes out of the tube, urges the wheel, and makes it rotate. ”
Second, between trade-offs
Due to the influence of the era, region and social environment, the author presents temporal and spatial differences in the content of his notes.
First, from the perspective of time, the later the Ming and Qing notes were written, the more detailed the records of Western artifacts became, and this was bounded by the Westernization Movement. Comparatively speaking, the notes of the Ming Dynasty have fewer records of Western utensils, and they are often the same kind of Western utensils. In the early and middle Qing Dynasty, there are more and more records of Western utensils, such as "Xiaoting Miscellaneous Records" on self-striking clocks, "Yangzhou Painting Boat Records" on telescopes and glass products, "Yuchao Miscellaneous Knowledge" on Western time watches, "Bamboo Leaf Pavilion Miscellaneous Records" on foreign watches, clairvoyant mirrors, Western cloths, glasses, and foreign guns, and "Tales of the Garden" on self-striking bells and glasses. After the Westernization Movement, the Qing people's records of Western artifacts became more concentrated. For example, in Jima Mao Xianglin's "Moyulu" volume 16 "Thirty-one Rules of Zhitaixi Machine", many Western inventions such as steam, wheel textiles, steamships, self-striking bells, swimming clocks into the water, cold and summer watches, wind and rain gauges, loudspeaker receivers, paintings, inkstones, water mirrors, railway steamers, electricity, electric lights, telegraphs, refractoscopes, mountain chisels, listening to lung wood, gas lamps, balloons, etc.
Correspondingly, the notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties reflect the process of people's understanding of Western strange artifacts from the Ming to the Qing dynasties from vague to gradually clear. Taking glasses as an example, the Ming people's understanding of glasses is still vague, and their principle is completely incomprehensible. During the Wanli period, Chen Maoren said in "Shu Wu Different Names and Shu" that the glasses "if those who are strong and clear use them, they will hurt the eyes", and felt that it was "incomprehensible". The notes of the early and middle Qing Dynasty on Western glasses are relatively close to scientific truth. Cao Tingdong said in the third volume of "Lao Lao Hengyan" that "glasses are necessary for the elderly", and also pointed out: "The medium and micro convex are 'reading glasses'." The glass is eye-damaging, and crystals must be used. Light is far and near, reading books and writing, each has its own suitability. Differently from the convex. The crystals are also different, take citrine and ink crystals when it is sunny; Under the rain and lamp, take crystals and silver crystals. If you are in the prime of life, it will be used to nourish your eyes, and your eyes will not be reduced until you are old. The concave ones are myopia. This shows that at this time, it has been recognized that glasses can be divided into reading glasses and myopia glasses, but still think that wearing glasses has the effect of eye-catching. By the late Qing Dynasty, Xu Ke's introduction to "glasses" in "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" was clearer and more accurate, reflecting the late Qing Dynasty's deeper and deeper understanding of Western weapons, and even the optical principle could explain them.
Second, from the perspective of space, the authors in the southeast coastal region recorded more Western artifacts in their notes, while the inland authors recorded relatively little. This is mainly due to the contact routes and environmental impacts of Western artifacts. Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and other southeastern regions are ahead of the westerly wind, and have more opportunities to contact Western strange weapons. For example, Guangdong's "Yue Jian Bian", Nanjing's "Guest Words", Shanghai's "Moyulu", etc., all depict the rich ink and color of Western weapons. Wang Linheng, the author of the Cantonese Sword Chronicle, who recorded the use of Western instruments such as "natural music" and "natural leakage" by the Portuguese in Macao, went to Guangdong in the 29th year of Wanli (1601) to "record prisoners", so there are many records of Western material civilization. Ye Quan, the author of "Xianbo Edition", who describes the "bird's beak gun", "glass" and "Western wine" used by the Portuguese in Macao, also had the experience of traveling to Lingbiao (Guangdong). In the late Qing Dynasty, Shanghai authors wrote richer and more delicate descriptions of Western artifacts. Ge Yuanxu, a native of Hangzhou who had lived in Shanghai for a long time, wrote: "The foreign goods store opened by the Westerners is Heng Dali, which specializes in selling all kinds of clocks and watches for the hour, cold and summer, wind and rain, flutes, drums, silk strings, eight-tone pianos, bird sound boxes, microscopes, life-saving belly belts and all kinds of goods. As for the opening of the Chinese, Yuesheng and Quanheng are the leaders, and all kinds of goods are available. In addition, there are no less than 100 shops in the north and south cities. He also recorded in the "Miscellaneous Notes on Travels in Shanghai" a dazzling variety of Western utensils, such as large self-striking bells, foreign water dragons, bicycles, cameras, telegraphs, sewing machines, glassware, gas lamps, oil lamps, running fans, ships, ground fires, electric wires, steamer carriages, and foreign film and drama. Huang Shiquan, a native of Nanhui, Shanghai, who is known as the "genius of the foreign field", also recorded a large number of pumping machines, lithographs, electric lights, and Western food in "Songnan Dream Video".
Third, from the perspective of social and environmental factors, the notes written in the era of social turmoil have more descriptions of Western **. First of all, most of the Western weapons involved in the notes of the late Ming Dynasty are mainly firearms. Zhu Guozhen said when introducing firearms in "Yongbu Sketches": "The most advantageous ones are the Franc machine and the bird's beak. Liu Ruoyu recalled the Houjin invasion of the Northeast in the "Chronicles of the Middle East" and said: "Seeing that the cardinal Wang Yongguang had a sparse inscription, he wanted to withdraw the Hongyi cannon in Ningyuan City to the mountains and seas to guard the pass, and the first emperor said: If this cannon is withdrawn, the people's hearts will be shaken." Secondly, when the Ming and Qing dynasties changed dynasties, the old and young often mentioned the West when they recounted the past of the previous dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty. Xu Shipu told in "The Chronicle of the River Change" that the Qing soldiers were hindered by sophisticated firearms when they attacked the city, "Wang's firearms were very sophisticated, and the Qing soldiers attacked the city, and they were also trapped." In addition, the notes written during the same period are mostly about war, such as "Seven Things Crossing the River", "Jiangyin City Discipline", "Southeast Chronicle", "Southern Mingye History", "Yiyou Yangzhou City Discipline" and so on. Finally, in the late Qing Empire, which was in domestic and foreign difficulties, a large number of notes mainly described military negotiations and wars appeared, such as "Trivial Stories of Xiantong Generals", "Hunan Military Chronicles", "Wuchang Chronicle", "The First Record of the Eastward Journey", "The Aftermath of the Fist Change", "Opium Affair", "Ma Guanyi and Sino-Japanese Conversations", "Gengzi State Changes", "Records of the Western Tour of Luan", etc.
In contrast to this, the notes written in the prosperous era of Chengping are mostly focused on Western "long things". In the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, Luo Mingjian and Matteo Ricci came to China to preach, and people saw exquisite and practical Western artifacts such as chiming bells and telescopes, which were contained in many notes. During the Kangqian period, the Qing people's interest in Western artifacts continued unabated. In the early period of the Qianlong Dynasty, the three customs of Ningbo, Quanzhou and Songjiang were abolished, and only the Guangzhou Customs was left to allow Westerners**, but this move did not affect the continued introduction of Western weapons into China, and the enthusiasm of the people of the time for self-striking bells and other things reached a new height in the Qianlong Dynasty. According to the record of "Xiaoting Miscellaneous Records", at that time, "the self-ming clock made by Taixi's family, making strange evils, came from eastern Guangdong, and scholars and doctors competed to buy it, and they bought one at home, thinking it was a toy." Until the Opium War, Qing notes were more prominent than other items in the description of Western "long things" in life. This is reflected in the notes written in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, "Yuchao Miscellaneous Knowledge", "Bamboo Leaf Pavilion Miscellaneous Notes", and "Walking Garden Conghua".
3. "Ancient exists".
Although the notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties are different from official histories, they are more consistent in terms of cultural concepts, and often look at Western material civilization from the perspective of "Sinocentrism". This is mainly manifested in three aspects:
First, the gifts of Western envoys are mostly regarded as tribute, and Western countries are written as tributes in the **tributary** system. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Xianting recorded in the "Guangyang Miscellaneous Records": "In the year of Bingyin, the Dutch Gaju Wang Yaohan Lian's Gamble Clan, sent the envoy Bin Xian Bazhi, Tongshi Lin Qifeng, etc., and paid tribute to 40 kinds of things. ”
Second, it takes China's concept of heavy agriculture as orthodoxy and Western mercantilism as heresy, and regards Western handicraft or industrial products as strange and unscrupulous. Liang Zhangju believes that Westerners are "good at doing strange skills and smelting gold and silver, so they do not cultivate and weave and are self-sufficient" (Liang Zhangju, "Wandering Talks"). Previously, Qu Dajun regarded the "organs, water music, etc." introduced from the West as "obscene and treacherous".
Third, it is believed that the so-called "long things" of the West are things that have "existed in ancient times" in China, reflecting the tendency of "Western learning from the source". Notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties often regarded Western artifacts as ancient, showing a dismissive attitude. Qian Yong believes in his "Tales of the Garden" that the Tang Dynasty invented a timer similar to a self-striking clock: "Zhang Ling's "Chaoye Zai" said that after the martial arts, he wished to enter a craftsman in Haizhou, and could build a 12-chen car, and the door was opened at noon when he returned to the south of the Yuan, and there was a person riding out of the horse, holding a card, and the word "noon" was written on it. Later, Xu Shidong believed in "Notes on Yanyu Tower" that many strange things introduced from the West, "such as guide cars, measuring the surface, sunshade rulers, and barometers, are nothing more than Chinese relics. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Zhou Yi's "Essays on Dining Cherry Blossoms" still held this mentality, pointing out that the core technology of cranes and phonographs can be found in China, but it is a pity that "it failed to strive for perfection and became an ear". The ancient concept is actually to soothe the imbalance of people at the time.
Fourth, extremely ingenious
Of course, with the continuous import of advanced material civilization from the West to China, the ideological concepts of the Chinese people have also begun to change. After experiencing the temporary discomfort of foreign cultural invasion, the advanced and superior nature of Western ware began to be affirmed. The chiming bell strengthened the Chinese people's concept of time, the new firearms were invincible in war, the Western musical instruments enriched the cultural and entertainment life of the court, the new calendar was more accurate, and the later appearance of the telegraph, electric light, and train had an epoch-making impact. Qing people's notes generally reflect this, and there are more and more beautiful words such as "exquisite" and "kit kat" in the book. The "Notes on Yongxian Zhai", written in the Tongzhi period, pointed out, "The ingenuity of the world is the best in Taixi." Tessie's ingenuity is as good as it is today."
**10,000 Fans Incentive Plan When Chen Hengqing wrote the "Notes on the Book of Advice", he had stepped out of the concept of "ancient existence" and praised Western movable type printing, pointing out that "brushing ink and pressing paper are all made by machines, agile and flexible, and unexpected." The purchase of movable type is 2,000 yuan, and it can be used for decades." Although He Gangde of the late Qing Dynasty resisted Western material civilization, he also had to admit: "In the past 30 years, Haibang machinery has become more and more developed, and the imported goods of clothing, food and housing have been perfected one by one, and Japanese goods are cheaper than domestic goods, so I can't help but be moved by customs." (He Gangde's "Guest Occasional Conversation") The Empress Dowager Cixi, who is known for her conservatism, could not hide her affection when faced with exquisite Western utensils. According to the "Records of the Second Year of the Qing Palace", Cixi was not interested in the expensive pearls paid by the governor of Liangguang, but was "extremely pleased" by the cosmetics such as masks, perfumes, and soaps that Deling's mother and sisters brought into Paris.
With the increasing appearance of Western artifacts in people's lives, Chinese people began to rationally admit that advanced Western artifacts are indeed superior to traditional Chinese artifacts. Guo Zhouyi, the author of "Meilu Conghua", lamented that Western firearms are far superior to the traditional eighteen kinds of martial arts, "The world calls the beauty of the material brave, and the eighteen kinds of martial arts are all refined." Si language also, the legendary romancer often uses it, covering it a hundred years or decades ago. So far, the vicissitudes of life have changed, firearms are prevalent, and they are often left behind with one bullet, and they are incapable of serving, and the fast sword and halberd have lost their benefits."
In the face of the widening gap with Western countries, some people of insight began to reflect on and criticize China's decline. The late Qing Dynasty notebook "Bamboo Sawdust of the Qing Dynasty" criticized the anti-Westernist Liu Xihong, arguing that "China's railways could not be opened early, but it was actually blocked by Liu Xihong's folding, and the disaster of 40,000 people being enslaved." In the face of the decline of China's leading power, "Water Window Spring" summed up that China is inferior to Westerners in three ways, that is, "the guns are excellent, the measurement is accurate, and the footwork is strict and sharp".
It should be pointed out that while the Chinese people accept the material civilization of the West, there is also a tendency to blindly respect Western artifacts. Jichang recorded in "A Little History of Diplomacy" that Cui Guo, who has a background in foreign studies, "must pick up and hide every time he sees wine bottles, Dutch water bottles, etc." "The Beginning and End of the Western Tour" depicts the sick social atmosphere at that time: "Today is a big difference: Westerners have broken hats and boots, dirty clothes and poor hakama, and they will show it; The low eaves whiteboard, good to sign foreign texts, mixed with grass and letters, spelling and cutting, used to attach itself to the ocean; Raise your head and look at yourself. Oh the people of the north, how do you know that there is shame in the world! ”
Fifth, "Shiyi long skills".
Wanli Ye was compiled", in the twelfth year of Jiajing (1533), Guangdong inspected He Ru to recruit the Buddha Lang machine country, obtained its centipede ship gun manufacturing method, and imitated firearms in Caojiang Yamen, "China's Buddha Lang machine, flourishing since then." At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Zhou Lianggong recorded in the "Min Xiaoji" that the "one-inch self-striking bell" made by Sun Ruli, a native of Longxi County, Fujian, was one of the five stunts in Fujian. However, at that time, the imitation technology was not mature, and there were very few people who could imitate Western artifacts. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, with the spread of the trend of "Shiyi Changji", the Westernization Movement was vigorously launched, and imitation was no longer a hobby of talented people, but became an industrial behavior at the national level. The notes of this period are more about the large-scale imitation actions under the leadership of Westernist figures.
"Notes on Yongxian Zhai" records Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan's imitation of Western guns and ships: "Li Jue ......In the fourth year of Tongzhi, he first opened a machine bureau in Shanghai to manufacture foreign guns, foreign cannons, copper caps, and foreign medicines. Bidu Liangjiang, also set up a manufacturing bureau in Jinling. Zeng Wenzheng supervised the two rivers again, but he still followed. He created a steamship in Fujian, and Wen Zhenggong also ordered it to be built in Shanghai. "What foreigners can do, I can do." "Zhang Wenxiang's Official Affairs" records that Zhang Zhidong "tried to build a shallow water warship, prepared to set up overseas Chinese consuls, founded various schools of water and land divisions, opened the Hanyang Iron Works, founded the Machine Yarn Weaving Bureau, and established the Beijing-Hanzhou and Sichuan-Han railways", praising him for daring to be the first. "The Beginning and End of the Western Tour" mentions that learning foreign affairs should not rely too much on foreigners, "If you rely on foreigners for everything, no matter how much you spend, it will not be extensive; In addition, if you hire a good coin, you may not be a high-class engineer", and you should train domestic talents who can make your own strong ships and cannons.
Although the whole country has opened up the trend of imitating Western weapons, the road to imitation is extremely difficult. Most of the imitations are far from Western artifacts in terms of details. After inspecting the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Longhua Town Branch, Zhu Pengshou pointed out in his notebook "Essays on the Anle Kang Bungalow" that "the craftsmen used were not trained, but they imitated the Western style and did it with intention, so that once the equipment was dismantled piece by piece, the thickness and width were uneven, and they could not be exchanged with each other." Although some domestic products can imitate the same appearance, they do not have the core technology of Western ware. "Yongxian Zhai Notes" narrates that Zuo Zongtang "used to be in Hangzhou, he had looked for a craftsman to imitate a small steamer, the shape of the model was rough, tried the West Lake, and sailed at a low speed, in order to show that the foreign general Dike Monument and the tax department were in the same day. 'Because it is shown in the atlas of French ships, and please supervise the construction on his behalf, and pass on to Middle-earth in the West." Later, it was burdened by other affairs and was not implemented. The author Chen Qiyuan sighed: "But the matter belongs to the founder, and China has no way to go to other countries to buy people." And the machine is good, and it is difficult to distinguish suddenly, and it is still necessary to ask foreigners to buy and find it, and give it its value, but if it is good, it is not impossible to obtain. Although the road to emulate the Western Law was difficult, it at least gave hope to people of insight, who believed: "In less than ten years since Japan reformed the law, everything was under the control of its own country." With the wisdom of the Chinese, why is it far inferior to the East? It's just a matter of time. The words are full of confidence and optimism.
Conclusion
The notes of the Ming and Qing dynasties make up for the shortcomings and deficiencies of the eastward expansion of Western material civilization recorded in the traditional Chinese official history, show us a vivid picture of the eastward spread of Western artifacts, and let us get a glimpse of the real response of scholars and some Chinese people to the foreign material civilization of the West in the social environment of the eastward spread of Western civilization. On the whole, the process of Chinese people's understanding has gone through a process from the stubborn and arrogant theory of "ancient existence" to the understanding of ingenuity and acceptance, and then to the process of "mastering the long skills" in order to improve themselves. However, in the process of accepting new things, some Chinese people blindly worship Western material civilization, and these early ideas of "worshipping the foreign and flattering the foreign" laid the groundwork for the emergence of the concept of "total Westernization" later.