He is a foreigner who has come into contact with the Chinese in the known literature. He saw the Chinese and Japanese at that time in his eyes, and believed that the Chinese were not much different from the Europeans. He felt that the Europeans and the Chinese were just two white

When human beings first discover and understand the world, they usually use themselves as a benchmark, because human beings will observe other people and other things with their own important characteristics. The result of this is that as long as they look similar to themselves, they will be considered as their own kind, while those who are too different from themselves will be considered as "alien" who are different from themselves. The classification and discrimination of races in modern world history began from this state.

Early Europeans' views on the Chinese

Generally speaking, the first thing to think about a human being is whether it is similar to oneself in many aspects such as skin color, appearance and physique. If the appearance is the same, it is easy to have a sense of identity. If the difference is too big, the other person will be regarded as an alien and a monster. So based on this way of observing the world, what did Europeans think of the Chinese back then?

Although European society in the Middle Ages was closed to the outside world, it was also quite conservative and terrifying. But at that time, many people from European countries still came to China in the name of spreading religion, trying to seek the truth of saving the country and the people from China. These people went to far away places in foreign countries. Most Europeans actually only interacted with people around their own countries. Therefore, at that time, Europeans had frequent interactions with people in the Middle East, and North Africa. From their long-term habits, they were not too surprised by the appearance of people from North Africa and the Middle East. So what was their reaction when they saw the Chinese?

Around the end of the 112th century, Marco Polo, a famous Italian businessman in Europe, walked for several years through the land Silk Road and the older generation of businessmen to Quanzhou in China. He is a foreigner who has come into contact with the Chinese in the known literature. He saw the Chinese and Japanese at that time in his eyes, and believed that the Chinese were not much different from the Europeans. He felt that the Europeans and the Chinese were just two white people from different directions. He believed that the Europeans were the representatives of the Western white people, while the Chinese were the representatives of the Eastern white people.

Foreigners who came to China during the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty era generally believed that Chinese people are extremely good-looking and have fair and rosy skin. This situation is not much different from Marco Polo's description in the late 12th century to the missionaries' mouths and books in the late 16th century. They described Chinese people as "beautiful and decent in their clothes", saying that Chinese men have fair skin and good health, while Chinese women are quiet and beautiful. However, one thing is that Chinese people's eyes seem to be small, and men generally like to grow long beards. So what did the Chinese think of foreigners at that time?

Li Shimin’s universal values ​​

China’s view of foreigners is actually similar to how Europeans viewed Chinese people back then. Since the successful opening of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty, a large number of businessmen and people from the Middle East, Europe, and South Asia and various people in the society have come to the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Emperor Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty once declared in public that "Since ancient times, China has been valued and barbarians despised, and I have always loved it." Li Shimin's value concept of treating locals and foreigners equally became the universal values ​​of the Tang Dynasty.

So for a long time, Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, contained religions from all over the world, including Buddhism that originated in South Asia, Nestorianism from the Middle East, and Manichaeism from the Mesopotamia. The music and the cheerful dances among the Hu people are not consistent with the majestic, graceful and luxurious music and dance of the traditional Central Plains. However, no one will say that these foreign dances are wrong. Instead, they accept these things with an extremely open mind.

In the entire social environment of the Tang Dynasty, the entertainment methods and aesthetic values ​​​​of the Hu people were quite popular. From far to near, not only the border areas between China and foreign countries, but also the core areas such as the national capital of Chang'an, everyone had a similar degree of love. Whether it was the frontier generals responsible for guarding one side or the core officials within the capital of the Central Plains dynasty, they all used a large number of foreigners to do things and had a great degree of trust in them. Therefore, to this day we can still see the "extreme self-confidence" of Tang Dynasty society.

Among the ancient cultural relics of the Tang Dynasty, many morphological cultural relics from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa have been unearthed. Among them are Buddha statues from the Indian continent; Mongolian grottoes from South Asia; and the typical high nose bridge and wavy hair among Europeans. Africans have wavy hair, green eyes and yellow hair. Africans have always had dark skin and protruding foreheads. Therefore, almost all the cultural relics depicting foreigners in the Tang Dynasty are lifelike and have no derogatory meaning. On the contrary, they are the most realistic response to the social situation at that time. It reflects the history of how Chinese people viewed foreigners during the Tang Dynasty.

Emphasizing the debate between Huayi Northern Song Dynasty

Southern Hakka There is a legend circulating: "They believe that Fuxi was the one who created the world in ancient times, but it was Nuwa who created human beings. Nuwa became Taishang Laojun , when Taishang Laojun used clay to make people, because the first firing time was too long, it came out black and charred, so he threw it to Africa. There were many black people in all African areas. After gaining experience the second time, he fired it very carefully, but because it was taken out too early, it was too white, so it was thrown to Europe. Therefore, there are many white people in Europe."

Only the Chinese are different. After the experience of the first two times, the third firing not only controlled the heat, but also controlled the time, so the fired person was perfect, neither black nor white, but slightly yellow. Taishang Laojun was very satisfied with this time, so he put it next to him. This is the origin of the yellow people. As for why the place where the yellow race people live in China is called Shenzhou, you can actually find part of the reason from the story of the Hakka people in the south.

Although the story is a bit ridiculous, it reflects the confidence of the southern Hakkas in the Chinese yellow race. The southern Hakkas are from the northern Song Dynasty After the Jingkang Rebellion, the Han people in the Central Plains were truly integrated, so their myths and stories are of a historical nature, because this historical nature is that the "Hua-Yi distinction" appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty after the fall of the Tang Dynasty. This change in social form has lost the Chinese people’s mentality of looking at the world equally.

Han Yu has made it very clear in his book "The Original Way". They believed that the surrounding countries were all barbarians who drank hair and drank blood. But whether this is actually the case, we ourselves know best. The Northern Song Dynasty was a unified country. The family was quite reluctant. What the writers of the Northern Song Dynasty said was that the political power established by these barbarians was unprecedentedly powerful. The monarchs of the surrounding countries Khitan and Xixia were directly ranked as crown princes with the Song emperor. Therefore, when the military battle could not be won, one could only say "the destiny is mine and not his." All we can say is "the orthodoxy is with me and not with him."

Changes in the mentality of foreigners towards China

The mentality of foreigners towards the Chinese is actually not the same, at least since the time when Magerny visited China in the middle of Qing Dynasty . The China they saw had already entered the fairyland and wealth of the Marco Polo era, and was full of sallow and skinny people, but the imperial court still had to show off as a great power. When many food scraps provided by the Qing court to foreign missions were discarded, many Chinese poor people would be seen fighting for them. This behavior only aggravated foreigners' disdain for the Chinese.

The Opium War happened almost forty years after Magartney visited China. China's failure in the Opium War not only compensated China with a large amount of silver, but also opened the trading ports along China's coast. After allowing Westerners to enter China, Westerners became more aware of the gap between the Chinese and the Chinese in the Ming Dynasty. This change is obvious. Coupled with the changes after twenty years, foreigners look down on the Chinese even more.

After the crazy influx of foreign culture into China, Western culture began to gradually occupy the mainstream. Within China's own country, Western culture began to become strong, while China's own culture began to weaken. And this was not actively promoted by the Chinese state, so Western culture has actually won a lot in the modernization process. The pride and loss of the Chinese people are quite obvious. This huge impact has almost wiped out the confidence of the Chinese people.

The Western powers relied on their strong military strength to defeat the Chinese in an upright manner several times. This made them no longer view the Chinese as extremely powerful as they did in the Ming Dynasty, and they no longer viewed the Chinese as white people, but just waited and waited. The Chinese once considered themselves to be the Celestial Kingdom. When the Qing Dynasty was defeated by foreigners, many people realized that they could no longer view foreigners as barbarians and savages. Many people knew in their hearts that we might have lost at that time. What is even more serious is that if we lose continuously until the end, our country may be destroyed.

Conclusion

In modern history, China has never lacked people who learned traditional culture well, nor lacked people who learned foreign culture well, nor did it lack people who learned both foreign culture and Chinese culture well. But in the general environment of the Qing Dynasty, no matter how good you are in traditional culture, you are just doing Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang . Even if you learn Chinese and Western knowledge, you are just like Gu Hongming and watch the general trend go.

So there is no distinction between conservative and advanced. The truly conservative ones are more radical, because they want to strengthen themselves in order to not be violated in the long run. And hypocritical conservatism will blindly refuse to learn for the sake of a little vested interest in front of you. So everything from to the last bit will be lost. Therefore, the more people have the intention to protect the continuity of the country and the nation, they will recognize that the Western economy was developed and the system was superior at that time, learn from this kind of modernization, create the Chinese people's own modernization, and change China's backwardness. Save the descendants of Yan and Huang and the Chinese race.