As I mentioned in the introductory chapter, the Chinese sense of cultural and moral superiority led to a profound lack of curiosity about the outside world. So much so that in 1793, when Lord Macartney arrived in China bearing a letter and exquisite gifts from King George III, he was dismissed brusquely. Edward Tilton turned down the British request for accessing more ports for trade and for establishing a diplomatic mission in Beijing. He replied to King George, we have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country's manufactures. Therefore, O king, as regards your request to send someone to remain at the capital, while it is not in harmony with the regulations of the Celestial Empire, we also feel very much that it is of no advantage to your country. As we shall see in Chapter 3, this sense of arrogance and willful ignorance of the outside world would cost China dearly in the 19th century. But for the moment, we will look at when the Americans first arrived in China. The first encounters between the Americans and the Chinese were through commerce and religious activities. As early as 1784, the American ship, the Empress of China, reached Canton and purchased tea, silk, and porcelain from China. In return, the Chinese bought ginseng and Spanish sliver dollars from the Americans. Even though the volume was small, compared to the Chinese trade with the British, nevertheless, in the year of 1840, the Americans bought close to 20 million pounds of tea from China. China was no stranger to global trade. As early as 500 BCE, it had been part of the so-called Maritime Silk Road on a route that included India, the eastern Mediterranean, the Pacific, Europe, and east and west Africa. Nevertheless, during the Ching Dynasty, all foreigners were confined to living in the factories outside the city wall of Canton and forbidden to learn Chinese. Furthermore, in order to avoid dealing with the barbarians, the Chinese government designated Chinese merchant houses, or Cohongs, to be solely responsible for all transactions with foreigners. The first American missionaries to arrive in Canton were Elijah Coleman Bridgeman and David Abeel in 1830 from the American board of commissioners for foreign missions. Like christian missionaries from other countries before them, the Americans published literature about the west in an effort to attract converts. Bridgeman translated a short collection of English biblical verses, called Scripture Lessons for The Young, for the Chinese. He also authored a brief account of the United States of America, and co edited the East West Examiner, and Monthly Recorder, a Chinese language periodical that introduced western science and western history to the Chinese. By the mid 19th century there were over 100 publications by the missionaries in China, and these provided the main source of information for Chinese intellectuals about the West. Xu Jiyu, financial commissioner of Fujian, published a short account of the Maritime Circuit, Yinghuan Zhiliue, in 1848, based on these sources. Zhiliue regarded the United States as a historically unique state, one without a monarchy, and one where the public institution was said to belong to the people. He hailed George Washington as the most important person in the history of the east and west, for his unselfish refusal to pass down the presidency to his descendents. Chin Mandarin Wei Yuan, in his 1843 treaties of [INAUDIBLE] kingdoms, Haiguo Tuzhi appraised the American political system and the principal of majority rule to be fair and well constructed. In particular, he approved of the popular electoral system and imposition of term limits. Missionary proselytizing can have totally unintended consequences as well, and one of the most violent and devastating civil war, that nearly toppled the dynasty. The Taiping Rebellion, was inspired by the words of an American missionary. Hong Xiuquan, a mid 19th Century young scholar, who failed repeatedly, at the civil service exams, read the pamphlets prepared by the American Baptist missionary Issachar Roberts. In a feverish state of despondence, Hong dreamt that he was actually the younger brother incarnate of Jesus. In 1850, from his base in southwest China, Hong created the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, and aimed to topple the Qing state. In his idealized world, everyone was to enjoy equality and a share in the common treasury, all except for the leader, that is. Ho was a charismatic preacher and attracted millions of followers. The poor and the disenfranchised responded enthusiastically to this Millenarian movement. So successfully did the rebels defeat the Manchus that they would topple the state, but for their own infighting and for the bravery of a group of ethnically Chinese generals such as Lee Hiu Jung, who defended the Ching dynasty. An American mercenary, Frederick Townsend Ward, was hired to lead the ever victorious army by the Qing and promoted to the rank of a junior mandarin for his service. When the Taiping Rebellion was finally put down in 1864, it had lasted 13 years and cost 20 million lives. Another source of information for the Chinese came from observations of Chinese diplomats stationed in America in late 19th century. They were particularly impressed with the status of American women and deplored the Chinese patriarchal system. In 1876, Chinese diplomat Li Gui visited a women's pavilion in the American Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He wrote, These women do not have the manner of girls who are kept at home, but the spirit of men. I greatly respect and like them. There are roughly as many women as men in the world. If only men and not women are educated, then out of ten people only five will be useful. China is just the opposite, regarding women as inferior and drowning infant girls cannot be stopped by means of persuasion or prohibitions. I say they are caused by nothing other than the decay of women's education. China in the mid 19th century not only faced internal rebellions, one of which was spurred by American missionary activity. It was also battling external aggression in the form of western military encroachment. As we shall see in the next chapter, the Qing's losses in the opium and other wars were a large contributor to its eventual demise.
