[SSU-YÜ, Teng, & FAIRBANK, John K. (1982).China's response to the West. A documentary Survey,1839-1923. Cambridge. Harvard University Press].
Ch'i-ying
presents a supplementary memorial: with further reference to the management
of the barbarian affairs of the various countries, his receptions of or interviews
with the barbarian envoys and his controlling them as the circumstances allowed—your
slave has already from time to time presented memorials and reports. . . He
is mindful that the English barbarians were finally brought to the point of
reconciliation in August 1842, and the American and French barbarians have
also followed in their footsteps in the summer and autumn of the present year.
Throughout this period of three years the barbarian situation has undergone
deceptive changes in many respects and has not produced a unified development.
The methods by which to conciliate the barbarians and get them under control
similarly could not but shift about and change their form. Certainly we have
to curb them by sincerity, but it has been even more necessary to control
them by skillful methods. There are times when it is possible to have them
follow our directions but not let them understand the reasons. Sometimes we
expose everything so that they will not be suspicious, whereupon we can dissipate
their rebellious restlessness. Sometimes we have given them receptions and
entertainment, after which they have had a feeling of appreciation. And at
still other times we have shown trust in them in a broad-minded way and deemed
it unnecessary to go deeply into minute discussions with them, whereupon we
have been able to get their help in the business at hand.
This
is because the barbarians are born and grow up outside the frontiers of China,
so that there are many things in the institutional system of the Celestial
Dynasty with which they are not fully acquainted. Moreover, they are constantly
making arbitrary interpretations of things, and it is difficult to enlighten
them by means of reason. Thus for example when Imperial Utterances [i.e.,
edicts and decrees] are handed down, they are all received and acted on by
the Grand Councillor, but the barbarians respect them as being written by
the Imperial hand; if they were definitely informed that these are not from
[p. 19] the Imperial brush, then there would be no means of maintaining their
confidence. This, then, is something that ought not to be made known to them.
When
the barbarians meet together and eat, it is called "a banquet." Generally
they assemble a large number of people at a great banquet and eat and drink
together for the fun of it. When your slave has been at the Bogue, Macao,
and such places, and has entertained the various barbarians with a feast,
their chieftains, leaders, and headmen have come, to the varied number of
ten or more, or up to twenty or thirty persons. When on one occasion your
slave has gone to the barbarians' storied residences or to the barbarian ships,
the leaders and others have sat around in a circle in attendance upon him,
competing to bring him food and drink —he could not but share their cup and
spoon so as to hold their hearts.
Moreover,
the barbarians commonly lay great stress on their women. Whenever they have
a distinguished guest, the wife is certain to come out to meet him. For example,
the American chief Parker and the French chief Lagrené both brought
their foreign wives along with them, and on occasions when your slave has
gone to the barbarians' storied residences to discuss business, these foreign
wives have rushed out and saluted him. Your slave was confounded and ill at
ease, while they on the other hand were deeply honored and delighted. Thus
in actual fact the customs of the various Western countries cannot be regulated
according to the ceremonies of the Middle Kingdom. If we should abruptly rebuke
them, it would be no way of shattering their stupidity and might give rise
to their suspicion and dislike.
Furthermore,
the various barbarians have come to live at peace and in harmony with us.
We must give them some sort of entertainment and cordial reception; but we
are on guard against an intimate relationship in intercourse with them. For
this reason at those times when the treaties with the various countries were
to be discussed and settled in succession, your slave has always ordered the
provincial treasurer Huang En-t'ung [d. 1881] to tell the various barbarian
envoys clearly that Chinese high officials when managing public affairs with
other countries on no account can overstep the bounds and have personal relations;
if there should be gifts which they desire to present as a courtesy, we can
only firmly decline to accept them. If they were accepted in an underhanded
manner the ordinances of the Celestial Dynasty are extremely strict; not only
would such an official injure the fundamental institutions of government,
he would also have difficulty in escaping punishment according to the statutes
of the realm. The barbarian envoys in question have heretofore had the sense
to obey this instruction. But at times when they have been received in interviews,
they have occasionally had small gifts to present, such as foreign wine or
perfume, or the like. The value of these things has been very slight, and
the barbarians' intention has been quite sincere. It has been inconvenient,
right before their faces, to throw such gifts back at them. But he (Ch'i-ying)
has conferred on them such things as snuff boxes and ornamental purses which
are carried on the person simply in order to uphold the principle that though
little is received, much should be given.
As to
these various countries, although they have rulers, they may be either male
or female, and they may rule variously for a long or a short time all of which
is far beyond the bounds of any system of laws. For example the English barbarians
are ruled by a female, the Americans and the French are ruled by males, the
English and French rulers both rule for life, while the ruler of the American
barbarians is [p. 20] established by the campaigning of his countrymen, and
is changed once in four years—after he leaves the position, he is of equal
rank with the common people.
The official
designations by which they call themselves also differ. (In China) most of
them assume Chinese characters [i.e., titles of office] to make a false display
and boast about themselves, as self-important as the Yeh-lang [the barbarian
tribe who asked the Han envoy which state was larger, Yeh-lang or Han]. Those
actions of course pay respect to their rulers, and have nothing to do with
us. If we restrained them by the ceremonial forms used for dependent tribes,
they would certainly not consent to retire and remain in the status of Annam
and Liu-ch'iu, since they do not accept our calendar nor receive an Imperial
patent of investiture.
With
this type of people from outside the bounds of civilization, who are blind
and unawakened in styles of address and forms of ceremony, if we adhered to
the proper forms in official documents and let them be weighed according to
the status of superior and inferior, even though our tongues were dry and
our throats parched (from urging them to follow our way), still they could
not avoid closing their ears and acting as if deaf.
Not only
would there be no way to bring them to their senses, but also it would immediately
cause friction. Truly it would be of no advantage in the essential business
of subduing and conciliating them. To fight with them over empty names and
get no substantial result would not be so good as to pass over these small
matters and achieve our larger scheme.
The several
measures stated above are all methods based on close in-vestigation of the
barbarian situation, an estimation of the exigencies of the times, and a thorough
judgment as to the importance or unimportance, urgency or lack of urgency
involved, and have had to be adopted as expedi-ents and modifications to fit
the circumstances. Either because the affairs were fundamentally of little
importance or because the needs of the time were too urgently pressing, your
slave has not ventured to memorialize espe-cially and intrude them one by
one upon the Sacred Intelligence. Now, since the barbarian affairs have been
roughly brought to a conclusion, as is proper he states them, one and all,
in a supplementary memorial.
[Vermilion endorsement:] They
could only be managed in this way. We thoroughly understand it.