Macartney's Primary Source Summary

Next is the evidence provided by the works from their methodology. For The Travels of Marco Polo, the evidence for Polo’s conclusions are his own experiences while in China. Therefore, Polo’s work provided Europe a more unfiltered and objective view of China in all its extravagance to Polo and later the Europeans. This unfiltered view point meant that Polo was inaccurate in some of his information. When describing Kublai Khan’s palace, Polo remarked how large the walls are and how extravagant and magnificent it was. The palace itself was in fact just an enclosed royal park used as an encampment. Polo’s observations and vocabulary used to describe the palace showed that European’s viewed China and what they did in awe, even when the Chinese were acting similar to the Europeans in many aspects.

As demonstrated by Document 3, the British were protected with indemnity in the region. This practice became the foundation of diplomatic immunity in modern times. Indemnity in the Spheres of Influence allowed the Europeans to abide by their laws within a sphere of influence, not by Chinese law. This allowed the Europeans to take advantage of political and cultural differences within their sphere. Given the fact that this document is written from a Chinese perspective, it is likely that the Chinese are attempting to frame themselves as victims of European influence.

The Tang was a very aristocratic society that is known for being the “Golden Age” in Chinese history, with some of the greatest developments in the society occurring, (CD Benn, 2002). The dynasty made the unheard-of move of allowing women to sit for the Imperial examination and serve as government officials, with women enjoying the unprecedented power in politics (CD Benn, 2002). Charles Benn’s book, “China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang dynasty”, is a secondary source in the form of a book, published in 2002. He is a professor studying Chinese history, in particular, the Tang dynasty, and in his publication, details the lives of Chinese people in this dynasty. Women had much more freedom than seen in any dynasty before it and it gave women a voice and saw women with almost as equal rights in society, with women finally being able to enjoy the privilege of education and marriage

In William Kinmond’s “What a newsman found who got into red China” and Mark Salzman’s Iron and Silk, the reader experiences a mental ride of China. Both Salzman and Kinmond use subtlety and skill to write about what they found in Red China. The texts’ have somewhat different subject matters because each writer visited China with different motives and at different time periods. As the title suggests, Kinmond who goes to China in 1957 is there to report for the Canadian newspaper ‘The Globe and Mail’. On the other hand, Salzman goes to China in 1982 to teach English. Nonetheless, both writers’ construction of Red China and its

Documen F is a collection of excerpts from the Treaty of Nanking, which is the document that ended the first Opium War. This document contains various benefits for the British such as the ceding of Hong Kong and the payment of six million dollars for the deaths of British soldiers during the war. This document expresses the actions of the British to extend further control over China by acquiring from them a major port and a significant sum of money. The Treaty of Nanking is one of many “unequal treaties” that the British employed to provide favorable conditions for themselves. Document G is written by Feng Kuei-Fen and articulates his discontent of British power over China.

Emperor of China; Self Portrait of K’ang-hsi should not be read as a textbook or as a completely true historical

In 1793, in the midst of the French revolution in Europe, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing state, who reigned over the Chinese empire from 1735-95, responded to a request made by an envoy sent by King George III of Britain. The envoy sent, known as the Macartney embassy and fronted by Lord Macartney, was for the purpose of discussing the condition of relations between Great Britain and the Qing empire and possible alterations to their state of trade. By the time the letter was written and the embassy arrived in the Chinese capital city Peking ( known as Beijing), Qianlong ruled the largest and wealthiest political state anywhere in the world, ruling over one third of the worlds population. These notions of prosperity and grandeur as an Empire, led Qianlong to reject all proposals sent by the King of Britain and his embassy.

The Qing dynasty (1916-1912) is the last imperial dynasty of China, it was consider as the most powerful country during the “golden age” ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long, and it has over 400 million population and has the 1st ranked GDP in the world at the moment. The Qing has the supreme power at the time and has the significant influence in East Asian. However, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty made a humiliate history of China. The Qing dynasty doesn't fall suddenly, and the collapse of Qing is not just simply because domestic revolution and alien invasion. The failure of the Qing government is worthy to study, we need to take a deep step and explore the root cause of the collapse of Qing.

During the golden of the Tang Dynasty in Chinese history, the ascension of Empress Wu to the position of Emperor during the second half of the 6th century in China marked a period of revolution and dichotomy. Not only did it grant the Empress the prerogative to rule in her own right, but also brought with it a period of animosity and chauvinism that defined and remained present within Wu’s rule. Throughout history traditionalist historians recorded Wu’s reign as a consolidation of economic and political clout, a direct threat to Confucian teaching. Yet although there are several problems attributed to Empress Wu’s regency such as the negative portrayal that has since remained for hundreds of years. Beginning in the twentieth century, shifting

2. Albert M. Craig, William A. Graham, Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, Frank M. Turner. “China‘s First Empire”. The Heritage of World Civilizations. 1: 1152 (2007, 2005, 2002) Pearson Education, Inc. New

In the text, “Letter to Queen Victoria”, written by Lin Zexu in 1839, he implores the Queen of Great Britain, Queen Victoria, to stop her subjects from selling opium to the Chinese public. Zexu does so by exemplifying the past relationship of China and Britain, by moral persuasion, and by warnings and threats. However, Lin Zexu’s assumption of calling British subjects as Barbarian and compliant to Chinese rule ineffectively persuades.

Timothy Brook’s book, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is a detailed account of the three centuries of the Ming Dynasty in China. The book allows an opportunity to view this prominent time period of Chinese history. Confusions of Pleasure not only chronicles the economic development during the Ming dynasty, but also the resulting cultural and social changes that transform the gentry and merchant class. Brook’s insights highlight the divide between the Ming dynasty’s idealized beliefs, and the realities of its economic expansion and its effects. Brook describes this gap through the use of several first hand accounts of individuals with various social statuses.

McNeil is also critical of Landes’ preoccupation in the happenings of Europe alone, while remaining dismissive of all economic and technological accomplishments of China after 1 000 A.D. While Landes dismisses the economic demise of China as a “weird pattern of isolated initiatives and Sisyphean discontinuities,” McNeil instead portrays the rapid innovations of the Sung era, and how they were damaged and disrupted by Mongol conquests and contained within the Ming dynasty, thereby showing that Europe did not surpass Europe in achievement due to their own pre-eminence.

However simultaneously during this time of anarchy and imperialism there were many different cultural and religious sects forming in China. This provides the modern day reader with one of the main obstacles from fully comprehending the text seeing as it cannot be approached from a mere linguistic point of view, as to do this a comparison between various translations would be necessary.

The Han dynasty was a golden era for China. It saw the greatest land confiscation of the nation’s history and economic success. In this paper I will be focusing on the structure of the national government, the monopolizing of iron and salt, the Yumen Pass and the Yellow Turban rebellion. Join me as we take a trip back in time to visit a time in Chinas history that is highly revered.