When an Englishman with the rare ability to speak Mandarin Chinese got into a dispute with a corrupt local official in Zhejiang, he took his complaints all the way to the top, kicking off a diplomatic incident involving the emperor himself.
Featured image: The Qianlong Emperor in his formal court dress. (Image source)
A view of the Canton in the 1800s, showing the areas where different countries’ merchants are allowed to enter the city for their highly controlled stay. (Image source)
Sources
- Steven Platt, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age
- The Travels Of Peter Mundy In Europe And Asia 1608-1667
- Van Braam Houckgeest
- From Benjamin Franklin to John Bartram, 11 January 1770
- Death to Chinese language teachers
- Address to the people of Great Britain; explanatory of our commercial relations with the empire of China, and of the course of policy by which it may be rendered an almost unbounded field for British commerce
- The Chinese Cornerstone of Modern Banking
- The White Lotus Rebels