Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  93

  A Great Manchu Ruler in China

  September 15, 1932

  I am shaken up completely and I know not what to do. News has come, terrible news, that Bapu has determined to starve himself to death. My little world, in which he has occupied such a big place, shakes and totters, and there seems to be darkness and emptiness everywhere. His picture comes before my eyes again and again—it was the last time I saw him, just over a year ago, standing on the deck of the ship that was taking him away from India to the West. Shall I not see him again? And whom shall I go to when I am in doubt and require wise counsel, or am afflicted and in sorrow and need loving comfort? What shall we all do when our beloved chief who inspired us and led us has gone? Oh, India is a horrid country to allow her great men to die so; and the people of India are slaves and have the minds of slaves to bicker and quarrel about trivial nothings and forget freedom itself.

  I have been in no mood to write and I have thought even of ending this series of letters. But that would be a foolish thing. What can I do in this cell of mine but read and write and think? And what can comfort me more when I am weary and distraught than thought of you and writing to you? Sorrow and tears are poor companions in this world. “More tears have been shed than the waters that are in the great ocean,” said the Buddha, and many more tears will be shed before this unhappy world is put right. Our task still lies ahead of us, the great work still beckons, and there can be no rest for us and for those who follow us till that work is completed. So I have decided to carry on with my usual routine, and I shall write to you as before.

  My last few letters have been about India, and the latter part of the tale I have told has not been an edifying one. India was lying prostrate, a prey to every brigand and adventurer. China, her great sister in the East, was in a much better way, and to China we must go now.

  You will remember my telling you (Letter 80) of the prosperous days of the Ming period, and how corruption and disruption came, and China’s northern neighbours, the Manchus, came down and conquered. From 1650 onwards the Manchus were firmly established all over China. Under this semi-foreign dynasty China grew strong, and even aggressive. The Manchus brought a new energy, and, while they interfered as little as possible with China internally, they spent their superfluous energy in extending their empire to the north and west and south.

  A new dynasty usually produces some capable rulers to begin with and then tails off into incompetents. So also the Manchus produced some unusually able and competent rulers and statesmen. The second Emperor was Kang Hi. He was only eight years old when he came to the throne. For sixty-one years he was the monarch of an empire which was larger and more populous than any other in the world. But his place in history is not secured because of this or because of his military prowess. He is remembered because of his statesmanship and his remarkable literary activities. He was the Emperor from 1661 to 1722—that is, for fifty-four years he was the contemporary of Louis XIV, the “Grand Monarque” of France. Both of them reigned for tremendously long periods, Louis winning in this race for setting up a record by reigning for seventy-two years. It is interesting to compare the two, but the comparison is all to the disadvantage of Louis. He ruined his country and exhausted and burdened her with vast debts. He was intolerant in religion. Kang Hi was an earnest Confucian, but he was tolerant of other faiths. Under him, indeed under the first four Manchu emperors, the Ming culture was left undisturbed. It retained its high standard and in some respects improved upon it. Industry, art, literature and education flourished as in the days of the Mings. Wonderful porcelain continued to be produced. Colour-printing was invented, and copper-engraving learnt from the Jesuits.

  The secret of the statesmanship and success of the Manchu rulers lay in their identifying themselves completely with Chinese culture. Absorbing Chinese thought and culture, they did not lose the energy and activity of the less civilized Manchus. And so Kang Hi was an unusual and curious mixture—a diligent student of philosophy and literature, absorbed in cultural activities, and an efficient military head, rather fond of conquest. He was no mere dilettante or superficial lover of literature and the arts. Among his literary activities the three following works, prepared at his suggestion, and often under his personal supervision, will give you some idea of the depth of his interest and learning.

  The Chinese language, you will remember, consists of characters, not words. Kang Hi had a lexicon or dictionary of the language prepared. This was a mighty work containing over 40,000 characters, with numerous phrases illustrating them. It is said to be unrivalled even today.

  Another of the productions which we owe to Kang Hi’s enthusiasm was a huge illustrated encyclopaedia, a wonderful work running into several hundred volumes. This was a complete library in itself; everything was dealt with, every subject considered. The book was printed from movable copper plates after Kang Hi’s death.

  The third important work I shall mention here was a concordance of the whole of Chinese literature—that is, a kind of dictionary in which words and passages are collected and compared. This also was an extraordinary piece of work, as it involved a close study of the whole of literature. Full quotations from poets, historians and essayists were given.

  There were many literary activities of Kang Hi, but these three are enough to impress anyone. I can think of no similar modern work to compare with any of these except the great Oxford English Dictionary, which took over fifty years’ labour of a large number of scholars, and was only completed a few years ago.

  Kang Hi was quite favourable to Christianity and Christian missionaries. He encouraged foreign trade and threw open all the ports of China to it. But soon he discovered that the Europeans misbehaved and had to be kept in check. He suspected the missionaries, not without good reason, of intriguing with the imperialists of their home governments to facilitate conquest. This made him give up his tolerant attitude to Christianity. His suspicions were confirmed later by a report received from a Chinese military officer at Canton. In this report it was pointed out how close the connection was in the Philippines and in Japan between European governments and their merchants and missionaries. The officer therefore recommended that in order to safeguard the Empire from invasion and foreign intrigue, foreign trade should be restricted and the spread of Christianity stopped.

  This report was presented in 1717. It throws a flood of light on foreign intrigues in eastern countries and on the motives which led some of these countries to restrict foreign trade and the spread of Christianity. Some such development also took place, you may remember, in Japan, which led to the shutting up of the country. It is often stated that the Chinese and others are backward and ignorant and hate foreigners and put difficulties in the way of trade. As a matter of fact our review of history has shown to us clearly enough that there was abundant intercourse between India and China and other countries from the earliest times. There was no question of hating foreigners or foreign trade. For a long time, indeed, India controlled many foreign markets. It was only when foreign trade missions became the recognized methods of imperialist expansion of the western European Powers, that they became suspect in the East.

  The report of the Canton officer was considered by the Chinese Grand Council of State and approved. Thereupon the Emperor Kang Hi took action accordingly, and issued decrees strictly limiting foreign trade and missionary activity.

  I am now going to leave China proper for a while and take you to the north of Asia—Siberia—and tell you what was happening there. The vast expanse of Siberia connects China in the far east with Russia in the west. I have told you that the Manchu Empire in China was an aggressive one. It included Manchuria, of course; it spread to Mongolia and beyond. Russia also, having driven out the Mongols of the Golden Horde, had become a strong centralized State, and was spreading out to the east, across the Siberian plains. The two empires now meet in Siberia.

  The rapid weakening and decay of the Mongols in Asia is one of the strange facts of hist
ory. These people, who thundered across Asia and Europe, and conquered the greater part of the known world under Chengiz and his descendants, sink into oblivion. Under Timur they rose again for a while, but his empire died with him. After him, some of his descendants, called the Timurids, reigned in Central Asia, and we know that a well-known school of painting flourished in their Courts. Babar, who came to India, was a Timurid. In spite of these Timurid rulers, however, the Mongol race, right across Asia, from Russia to its homeland in Mongolia, decayed and lost all importance. Why it did so, no one seems to know. Some suggest that changes in climate had something to do with it; others are of a different opinion. Anyway, the old conquerors and invaders are now themselves invaded from right and left.

  After the break-up of the Mongol Empire the overland routes across Asia were closed up for nearly 200 years. In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, the Russians sent an embassy overland to China. They tried to establish diplomatic relations with the Ming emperors, without success. Soon after, a Russian bandit of the name of Yermak crossed the Ural Mountains at the head of a band of Cossacks and conquered the little State of Sibir. It was from the name of this State that the name of Siberia is derived.

  This was in 1581, and from that date the Russians went farther and farther to the east, till they reached the Pacific Ocean in about fifty years. Soon they came in conflict with the Chinese in the Amur Valley, and there was fighting between the two, resulting in the defeat of the Russians. In 1689 there was a treaty between the two countries—the Treaty of Nerchinsk. Boundaries were fixed and trade arrangements made. This was the first Chinese treaty with a European country. The treaty checked Russian advance, but a considerable caravan trade developed. At that time the Russian Tsar was Peter the Great, and he was anxious to develop close relations with China. He sent two embassies to Kang Hi and then kept a permanent envoy at the Chinese Court.

  From the earliest days China was in the habit of receiving foreign embassies. I think I mentioned in one of my letters that the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antonius, sent an embassy in the second century after Christ. It is interesting to find that in 1656 Dutch and Russian embassies went to the Chinese Court and they found envoys from the Great Moghal there. These must have been sent by Shah Jahan.

  94

  A Chinese Emperor Writes to an English King

  September 16, 1932

  The Manchu emperors seem to have been extraordinarily long-lived. The grandson of Kang Hi was the fourth Emperor, Chien Lung. He also reigned for the tremendous period of sixty years, from 1736 to 1796. He was like his grandfather in other respects also; his two main interests were literary activities and extension of empire. He had a great search made for all literary works worthy of preservation. These were collected and were catalogued in great detail. Catalogue is hardly the word for it, as all the facts known about each work were put down and critical remarks were added. This mighty descriptive catalogue of the Imperial Library was under four heads: classics, that is, Confucianism; history, philosophy and general literature. It is said that there is no parallel to such a work anywhere.

  About this time also Chinese novels, short stories and plays developed, and attained a high standard. It is interesting to note that in England also the novel was then developing. Chinese porcelain and other fine works of art were in demand in Europe, and there was a continuous trade in them. More interesting was the beginning of the tea trade. This began in the days of the first Manchu emperor. Tea reached England probably in the reign of Charles II. Samuel Pepys, a famous diarist in English, has an entry in his diary in 1660 about drinking for the first time “Tee (a China drink)”. The tea trade developed tremendously, and 200 years later, in 1860, the export of tea from one Chinese port alone, Foochow, in one season, was one hundred million pounds. Later tea was cultivated in other places also, and, as you know, it is now extensively grown in India and Ceylon.

  Chien Lung extended his empire by conquering Turkestan in Central Asia and occupying Tibet. Some years later, in 1790, the Gurkhas of Nepal invaded Tibet. Chien Lung thereupon not only drove out the Gurkhas from Tibet, but pursued them over the Himalayas into Nepal, and compelled Nepal to become a vassal State of the Chinese Empire. This conquest of Nepal was a remarkable achievement. For a Chinese army to cross Tibet and then the Himalayas and beat a warlike people like the Gurkhas in their very homeland, is amazing. As it happened, the British in India had trouble with Nepal only twenty-two years later, in 1814. They sent an army to Nepal, but this met with great difficulties, although it had no Himalayas to cross.

  At the end of Chien Lung’s reign in 1796 the Empire directly governed by him included Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Turkestan. Vassal states admitting his suzerainty were: Korea, Annam, Siam and Burma. But conquest and the quest of military glory are expensive games to play. They result in heavy expenditure, and the burden of taxation grows. This burden always falls most on the poorest. Economic conditions were also changing, and this added to the discontent. Secret societies were formed all over the country. China, like Italy, has had quite a reputation for secret societies. Some of these had interesting names: White Lily Society, Society of Divine Justice, White Feather Society, Heaven and Earth Society.

  Meanwhile, in spite of all restrictions, foreign trade was growing. There was great dissatisfaction among the foreign merchants at these restrictions. The East India Company, which had spread out to Canton, had the biggest share of the trade, and felt the restrictions most. These were the days, as we shall see in subsequent letters, when the so-called Industrial Revolution was beginning, and England was taking a lead in this. The steam engine had been made, and new methods and the use of machinery were making work easier and increasing production, especially of cotton goods. These extra goods that were made had to be sold, and new markets were therefore sought. England was very fortunate in controlling India just at this period, as she could take steps, as she in fact did, to force the sale of her goods there. But she wanted the China trade also.

  So in 1792 the British Government sent an embassy, under Lord Macartney, to Peking. George III was then King of England. Chien Lung received them in audience and there was an exchange of presents. But the Emperor refused to make any change in the old restrictions on foreign trade. The answer which Chien Lung sent to George III is a very interesting document, and I shall give you a long extract from it. It runs thus:

  You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless, impelled by your humble desire to partake of the benefits of our civilization, you have despatched a mission respectfully bearing your memorial . . . To show your devotion, you have also sent offerings of your country’s The Empire of Chien Lung produce. I have read your memorial: the earnest terms in which it is cast reveal a respectful humility on your part which is highly praiseworthy . . . Swaying the wide world, I have but one aim in view, namely, to maintain a perfect governance and to fulfil the duties of the State; strange and costly objects do not interest me. I . . . have no use for your country’s manufactures. It behoves you, O King, to respect my sentiments and to display even greater devotion and loyalty in future, so that by perpetual submission to our Throne, you may secure peace and prosperity for your country hereafter . . .

  Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!

  The Empire of Chien Lung

  George III and his ministers must have had a bit of a shock when they read this answer! But the serene confidence in a superior civilization and the majesty of power which the answer shows had no enduring basis in fact. The Manchu Government looked strong, and was strong, under Chien Lung. But its foundations were being sapped by the changing economic order. The secret societies I have mentioned were indications of discontent. But the real trouble was that the country was not being made to fit in with the new economic conditions. The West, meanwhile, was the leader in this new order, and it forged ahead rapidly and became stronger and stronger. In less than seventy years after the Emperor Chien Lung had sent his very superior re
ply to George III of England, China was humiliated by England and France and her pride was dragged in the dust.

  I must keep that story, however, for my next letter on China. With the death of Chien Lung in 1796 we reach practically the end of the eighteenth century. But before this century had ended much that was extraordinary had happened in America and in Europe. It was indeed due to the wars and troubles in Europe that the Western pressure on China was lessened for a quarter of a century. So in our next letter we go to Europe and take up the tale from the beginning of the eighteenth century, and make it fit in with developments in India and China.

  But before I end this letter I shall tell you of Russia’s progress in the East. After the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 between Russia and China, Russian influence in the East went on increasing for a century and a half. In 1728 a Danish captain in Russia’s service, named Vitus Bering, explored the strait between Asia and America. This strait, perhaps you know, is still called the Strait of Bering, after his name. Bering crossed over to Alaska and declared it Russian territory. Alaska was a great place for furs, and as there was a large demand for furs in China, a special fur trade developed between Russia and China. There was, indeed, so much demand for furs, etc., in China towards the end of the eighteenth century that Russia imported them from Hudson Bay in Canada, via England, and then sent them to the great fur market in Kiakhta near Lake Baikal in Siberia. What a tremendous journey the furs took!