ur own that, even if
your Envoy were able to acquire the rudiments of our
civilization, you could not possibly transplant our manners and
customs to your alien soil. Therefore, however adept the Envoy
might become, nothing would be gained thereby.

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.

He can understand the English desiring the produce of China, but feels
that they have nothing worth having to offer in exchange:

"Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and
lacks no product within its own borders. There was therefore no need to
import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own
produce. But as the tea, silk and porcelain which the Celestial Empire
produces are absolute necessities to European nations and to
yourselves," the limited trade hitherto permitted at Canton is to
continue.

He would have shown less favour to Lord Macartney, but "I do not forget
the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by
intervening wastes of sea, nor do I overlook your excusable ignorance of
the usages of our Celestial Empire." He concludes with the injunction:
"Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!"

What I want to suggest is that no one understands China until this
document has ceased to seem absurd. The Romans claimed to rule the
world, and what lay outside their Empire was to them of no account. The
Empire of Chien Lung was more extensive, with probably a larger
population; it had risen to greatness at the same time as Rome, and had
not fallen, but invariably defeated all its enemies, either by war or by
absorption. Its neighbours were comparatively barbarous, except the
Japanese, who acquired their civilization by slavish imitation of China.
The view of Chien Lung was no more absurd than that of Alexander the
Great, sighing for new worlds to conquer when he had never even heard of
China, where Confucius had been dead already for a hundred and fifty
years. Nor was he mistaken as regards trade: China p