Although Prince Gong's voice was not loud, everyone in the hall could hear it clearly. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"This must not happen!" The voice of the university scholar Wu Ren sounded high, "The system of the Celestial Empire has always been that the barbarians from all over the world have set up permanent envoys in our capital division, how can there be any reason for the Celestial Empire to send envoys to congratulate the chieftains of the barbarian state?" ”

Seeing Wu Ren stepping out of class, Prince Gong sneered in his heart, as if he knew that he would be the first to jump out, but he didn't speak.

"Yiren and my hatred, Xianfeng ten years, Gengshen's changes, the pain is huge, how can this revenge be forgotten one day?" Wu Ren said loudly, "Now that I want to send an envoy to make a good connection, this matter will be laughed at by the world, and the people's hearts will be lost, and I ask the Empress Dowager to take back her fate!" ”

"What the Lord said is very strange." Wen Xiang's voice rang out, "If you don't get along with the Yi people, do you want to go to war with the Yi people?" ”

Wen Xiang's words choked Wu Ren there.

"If you really want to start a war, is it that the Japanese lord still has to learn to win and protect the charge, break the queen mother and the emperor, and then come to the disaster of burning the garden?" Wen Xiang said sharply, "Lord Wa, you are trying to get people through, but you are fanning the flames here and wanting to provoke, what are your intentions?" ”

"You! ......" Wu Ren was angry for a while, he didn't expect Wen Xiang to find fault with him here, and he couldn't say anything to refute for a while, but he was trembling with anger there.

"Lord Wen is serious, what Lord Wen means is not to send envoys to the law, which will ruin the etiquette of the imperial court." Song Jin, a university scholar, came out of the class.

Hearing Song Jin's words, he avoided the important and relieved the siege of Wuren, and suddenly turned the contradiction to the "dead hole" in the court's diplomacy - the issue of etiquette, Prince Gong's heart was secretly vigilant.

The traditional Chinese dynasty was founded on Confucianism, and the core of its political doctrine was "rule of etiquette". The Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains from Guanwai, and the inheritance of the tradition of "etiquette" became the most important source of legitimacy for its rule.

Foreign challenges to the Qing Dynasty's tradition of etiquette began in the 58th year of Qianlong (1793) when the British Macartney Mission came to China. Under the tributary system, the Qing court regarded itself as the "co-lord of the world", but the Macartneys sought to improve the terms of trade under the diplomacy of equality. The method of the Ministry of Rites, which was in charge of the affairs of the vassals, was to tamper with other people's diplomatic documents without authorization when translating them, in accordance with the needs of the "tributary" system.

The document can be changed according to the meaning you like, and the "Yiren" can't understand it anyway; But when it really came to the point where it was necessary for the "Yi people" to kneel and knock on the Chinese emperor, they could not help but show their feet. But the word game still had to be played, and the Macartney mission met with the Qianlong Emperor with the etiquette of kneeling down on one leg to meet the British king; However, the Qing literature records that the mission is making "etiquette like a ritual". However, the Jiaqing Emperor was not as content with wordplay as his father, and the Amistrid delegation refused to kneel down to him, so he drove them out of China.

In the reign of Daoguang Xianfeng, under the impact of the West, China's national power was declining, but this ridiculous self-esteem was even stronger.

As a product of the Second Opium War, paragraph 3 of the Sino-British Treaty of Tientsin stipulates that Britain is an independent state and equal to China. The uniform protocol of British envoys to pay homage to other heads of state must be uniformly applied. Based on the "most-favored-nation" nature of the treaty, this would have meant that the Western countries had met the Qing emperor with the modern Western equal etiquette, and it had been resolved in the form of a treaty. But the envoys soon discovered that implementation was a big problem. Until the signing of the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, Emperor Xianfeng still remembered: "All kneeling rituals are in accordance with the Chinese system, and no family members are allowed." What he is worried about is: Once the Western envoys are allowed to bow down instead of bowing to the audience with Western salutes, the Son of Heaven will lose face, and "how can he be the co-lord of the world"?

Emperor Xianfeng's worries actually represented the traditional Chinese scholars' idea of "etiquette and governance".

In 1860, the British and French forces invaded Tongzhou from Tianjin. Emperor Xianfeng did not refuse to accept all the eight peace conditions proposed by the coalition forces, but he said that it was "difficult to allow" the article that the national credentials proposed by the British side must be "personally presented to the emperor's imperial review". He instructed Prince Yi, who was in charge of the negotiations at the front, saying: "The existence of the national system is difficult to allow." The minister may agree with him that if he wishes to deliver his credentials in person, he must bow down in accordance with Chinese etiquette before he can do so; If it is not possible, it is only advisable to follow the example of the United States and Russia, send the national letter to the Beijing Division, hand it over to the minister of the Qin Mission, and after accepting it, give the seal letter, which is no different from handing it in person. Now the Fu Bureau will have a successful saying, it is not worth breaking up because of etiquette, and if it is said that it is stubborn, it is not repentant, and it can only be fought with it. ”

As a result, the negotiations failed. The Anglo-French troops quickly approached the city of Beijing and burned the Old Summer Palace. Emperor Xianfeng fled to Rehe in a hurry, leaving the endgame to Prince Gong Yixin. Then came the signing of the new Treaty of Beijing, in which the coalition reaped a lot of material benefits, but it still could not shake Emperor Xianfeng's insistence on the ritual of kneeling, so he had to give up it for the time being.

At this time, Emperor Xianfeng, who was far away from the Rehe River, was heartbroken - "This time, I can't do anything, so that the chief of Yi will meet my brother, it is no longer a thing, if he is reinstated, there are still people in my Qing Dynasty?" He was reluctant to return to Beijing, because the "Yi people" had only temporarily retreated, and they refused to bow three times and bow nine times, and the idea of seeing him personally hand over the credentials had not been dispelled. In the edict, he said sharply: "If you can't eliminate the layer of the personal letter of state, disaster will come." That is, it may be allowed temporarily, as a recourse, after returning to Luan, reverting from Tianjin to Beijing, there is no end to coercion, and I will ask. ”

In December of that year, Prince Gong obtained assurances from the British and French ministers that he would not insist on entering Hajj. But Xianfeng was still suspicious and unwilling to return to Beijing. In August of the following year, Xianfeng died of illness in Rehe, and finally fulfilled his promise of "never seeing people who do not kneel and worship".

Under these circumstances, the British government had no choice but to back down and decide not to insist on the Hajj issue. On 9 January 1861, the British Foreign Secretary instructed the British Minister to China not to request any more briefings to the Emperor of China, but only to demand that the Chinese Government recognize him as a representative of the British Government. The rest of the countries have taken the same approach as the UK.

After the death of Emperor Xianfeng, the young age of Emperor Tongzhi and the inconvenience of the Empress Dowager's wife became the most powerful reason for the Qing court to refuse foreign envoys to enter the Hajj for a long time.

Of course, the French Emperor Napoleon III knew very well about this inexplicable stubborn concept of the Chinese, so when he sent a special envoy to deliver his credentials, in order not to cause more trouble to Lin Yizhe, he specially instructed the envoy not to land, but to complete the presentation ceremony at sea with the Chinese emperor's ministers.

And this time Napoleon III's Zen throne ceremony, he took it for granted that it was always okay to send a letter inviting China to send an envoy to attend. Unexpectedly, it once again caused an uproar in China.

"Back then, Emperor Daxing didn't see any ministers who didn't kneel, didn't Lord Wen forget?" Song Jin said, "The court etiquette system, the new monarch of the state is on the throne, and only then can an envoy be sent to canonize it, and France is not a subordinate state of our Qing Dynasty, and sending an envoy to it, no matter what, is not in line with the rules of the court." ”

Hearing that Song Jin brought out the first emperor, all the ministers were silent for a while, and the hall was silent for a while.

Song Jin said, kneeling on the ground: "I implore the Empress Dowager to take back your order." ”

"The old minister implores the Queen Mother, the emperor to take back his fate!" Seeing that the opportunity could not be missed, Wu Ren immediately knelt on the ground and said loudly.

"If France raises troops out of anger and invades our maritime frontier, how does Lord Song think it should be handled?" Wen Xiang said angrily.

"At this time and at that time, it is not possible to generalize, since the Lord of the Law seeks friendship with our country, why should he raise troops?" The shrewd Song Jin obviously knew that it was powerful, and once again avoided the important and said lightly, "The court only needs to politely decline, and the Dharma Master doesn't want to break up lightly." ”

"Everything is foreseen, and if you don't prepare, you will be wasted, Lord Song should not be too full of words." Wen Xiang sneered and said, "The new monarch of his country is on the throne, and I sincerely invite my country to participate in the ceremony, if my country refuses, he will deliberately despise my country, he is a new victory over Prussia, and now he is the overlord of the European continent, and the sailors are fine, if the army is raised, I only ask Lord Song if he has a strategy to retreat from the enemy?" ”

Song Jin was between the words, but Wu Ren couldn't help but say angrily: "The way to build a country is to be courteous and righteous but not to be powerful!" The fundamental picture is in the hearts of the people and not in the skills! The faithful who want to win, must seek the faithful; If you want to seek self-improvement, you must seek courtesy and righteousness! To overcome the administration of people in the imperial court, the sages and sages have been earnestly emphasized, and the way of self-improvement is nothing more than that! ”

"Yiren is the most scheming, cunning and cunning, and now I want to invite from it, revive its waves and open its flames? Does Anzhi have any other schemes? The emperor is smart, who is virtuous or not, he will be able to know! In the emperor, he is studious and diligent, so that the holy will will be bright, and the holy virtue will be solid. Song Cheng Haoyun, 'The ancients must have ministers who recite admonitions'. Please order the old Confucian, talk about morality, and choose the world's virtuous and virtuous people to accompany the law. When I was in the Kangxi Dynasty, Xiong Ci was sparse, and he also said that he would 'extend his visit to the true Confucianism'. What the two ministers said is the key to cultivating body and mind, and the source of employment and administration. The world is in chaos, the prime minister, and Junde is responsible for the feast. Only Junde achieves and then assists in winning people, and assists in winning people and then the world can be governed! ……”

Hearing that Uren began to talk about his kind of thing again, Prince Gong couldn't bear it anymore, and pointed at Uren and reprimanded: "Faithfulness is armor, etiquette and righteousness are dry, can you resist the strong ships and cannons of foreigners?" If there is a soldier coming to Gyeonggi, you may be faithful and courteous, but you will not be able to face the enemy? ”

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