How many years has China been closed to the outside world?

Starting from the early Ming Dynasty, the performance is as follows:

The foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty was established in the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, and was followed for a long time. During the more than 270 years of the existence of the Ming Dynasty, although there were some changes in specific content in different periods, its guiding ideology and main policies did not change much. In the early Ming Dynasty, there were frequent harassments from Japanese pirates along the long coastline. In the first month of the second year of Hongwu, "Japanese pirates invaded coastal counties in Shandong and plundered men and women and fled"; in April, "Japanese pirates invaded Suzhou, Chongming and other places"; in August, "Japanese invaders invaded Huai'an"; in June of the third year, "Japanese invaders invaded Shandong and moved to Wenzhou." , Taizhou, Mingzhou and other places, and also invaded coastal counties and counties in Fujian." After that, Japanese pirates continued to invade frequently. This situation put Zhu Yuanzhang's diplomacy with Japan, which centered on solving Japanese pirates, into trouble, and the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Japan became somewhat alienated. In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), Zhu Yuanzhang announced that "people near the sea are prohibited from going to the sea privately" and adopted a sea ban policy. After Hu Weiyong was convicted of "treason with the Japanese" in the 14th year of Hongwu (1381), Zhu Yuanzhang was "very angry with Japan and determined to stop it, focusing on sea control." It also officially announced: "It is forbidden for people living near the sea to have private connections with overseas countries." In the twenty-seventh year (1394), a further order was issued to "forbid the use of incense and goods among the people... Anyone who dares to trade in various kinds of food in private will be strictly punished." In the thirtieth year (1397), it was once again stated that "people are not allowed to go to sea to trade with foreign countries." Completely adopting a sea ban policy, this closed policy had a great impact on the system and economy of the early Ming Dynasty. During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang did not move the capital for a long time. One of the important reasons was also considering the coastal defense in the southeast. Due to the intrusion of Japanese pirates on the southeastern coast, several generations of emperors after Zhu Yuanzhang also followed this policy. It was not until the middle and late Ming Dynasty that this closed policy was gradually broken with the resolution of the Japanese pirate problem. Therefore, from another perspective, the Ming Dynasty's foreign policy tended to be conservative and introverted, and it was mostly in a passive position in its contacts with foreign countries. During the Yongle period, on the one hand, the maritime ban was continued, and on the other hand, a relatively open policy was implemented, and Zheng He's voyages to the West took place. Zheng He was ordered to go on a mission and visited more than 30 countries. He promoted the national prestige, improved the political and diplomatic status of the Ming Dynasty, strengthened the friendly exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and the southwestern countries, and promoted cultural and economic exchanges between them. Zhu Di was The domestic prestige has also been improved and the status has been further consolidated. Zheng He's voyage reached as far as the east coast of Africa and the mouth of the Red Sea, which was a feat in the world's maritime history at that time. In the sixth year of Xuande (1431), Zheng He was ordered to go to the West for the last time. Since returning in the ninth year of Xuande (1434), although the Ming Dynasty occasionally sent fleets overseas, their scale, duration, and influence were far less than those of Zheng He, and the reputation of the Ming Dynasty overseas was not as good as before. The number of overseas envoys and merchant travelers who came to pay tribute was very rare compared to the Yongle period.

After the mid-Ming Dynasty:

Maritime bans were sometimes tightened and sometimes loosened. Chinese maritime merchants and Japanese pirates colluded, resulting in the Japanese invasion during the Jiajing period. After Longqing, the sea ban was partially opened, private overseas trade developed rapidly, and the sea ban policy established in the early Ming Dynasty basically collapsed. At the same time, with the opening of new shipping routes, Western colonists came to China's coast one after another, which brought opportunities to China, making it possible for China to integrate into the world trend and "get on the track of development in sync with the Western world." However, it also It contains a crisis.

The impact of the seclusion policy

The sprouts of capitalism appeared in the Ming Dynasty and lasted for nearly three hundred years, but it never achieved normal growth. The reasons are complex, but the Ming court's strict restrictions on overseas trade was one of the important reasons. The Ming court sometimes even did not allow merchants to go to sea at all. This artificially weakened and blocked the external sales of goods, which was not conducive to the development of commodity production. These reasons why the sprouts of capitalism cannot grow normally can be boiled down to the fact that the feudal forces are still very stubborn and the sprouts of capitalism have not yet had the power to break through this shackles. The feudal production relations of the Ming Dynasty could no longer promote the development of social productive forces, but they could hold them back. The decayed social system can hinder the emergence of a new social system. This is the biggest feature of the aging period of China's feudal society.

Early Qing Dynasty:

[1] In the 18th century, due to the increasingly frequent trade between China and foreign countries and the continuous occurrence of people's uprisings against the Qing Dynasty, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty worried that outsiders and Han people would unite against the Qing Dynasty. . In 1717, the Qing government ordered that Chinese merchant ships were not allowed to trade in Southeast Asia under European control. The Qing government restricted the scope of trade and implemented a ban on religion, reducing the exchanges between China and foreign countries. At the end of the 17th century, the Qing government allowed Catholicism to spread in China. As the church's influence in China expanded, it began to directly interfere in China's internal affairs. Especially in 1704, Pope Gremen XI established the "Prohibition Covenant", which prohibited Chinese believers from honoring Confucius and worshiping their ancestors. Kangxi sternly rejected this request. In 1720, the Qing government began to implement the policy of banning religion. In 1727, it was clearly stipulated that foreign merchant ships could go to Humen in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian. In 1757, the policy of seclusion was officially implemented. Emperor Qianlong announced that Western merchant ships were allowed to berth in Humen, Guangdong for trade. In 1759, Li Shiyao, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, reported to the quasi-emperor that he promulgated the "Regulations on Preventing Foreign Barbarians", and based on this document, the "Gongxing" organization was established. A public bank is a monopoly foreign trade organization composed of officially licensed merchants. Foreigners who come to Guangzhou to do business must go through a public bank, and their actions are also regulated by the merchants of the public bank. Foreign merchants are only allowed to come to Guangzhou for trade during the specified time, that is, from May to October every year, and must leave at the end of the period.

During their stay in Guangzhou, they could only live in the "Yiguan" set up by Gongxing. Foreign businessmen in China can only hire translators and compradors, but cannot hire people to deliver letters to the mainland. Chinese are not allowed to borrow capital from foreign businessmen. The regulations also stipulate the need to strengthen river defense and monitor the activities of foreign ships. These regulations were reiterated repeatedly during the Jiaqing and Daoguang years. The fundamental purpose of the Qing government's seclusion policy was to maintain the Qing Dynasty's feudal rule and guard against Western colonialists. But this self-defense measure is very passive. In 1757, an imperial edict was transmitted from the capital to all coastal provinces, ordering the cessation of foreign trade in ports such as Xiamen and Ningbo except for Guangzhou (also known as Guangzhou Thirteen Lines). This was the so-called "one port trade" policy. This order marked the Qing government's complete implementation of the policy of isolation from the country. This imperial edict of Qianlong is often regarded as one of the reasons why modern China fell behind the world. Reason: The psychological concept of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty who expected to maintain totalitarian rule was the fundamental reason for "closing the country apart". Based on the protection of traditional culture. In fact, it is an obscurantist policy towards its own people. Protect local economic development from the influence of external forces. During the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty, China was economically self-sufficient and did not rely on foreign goods. From the perspective of national defense and security, we must prevent the alliance of Chinese and foreign anti-Qing forces and the infiltration of Western colonialist forces. To prevent spies from stealing the country’s information. The Qing government was too blindly arrogant about its economic and political strength. The policy of seclusion has been implemented for more than two hundred years. It played a certain role in self-defense against the aggressive activities of Western colonists. However, at that time, Western countries were undergoing an asset revolution and an industrial revolution, entering a new era of rapid development of productive forces. The Qing government closed the country and isolated itself from the world. It could neither see the changes in the world nor learn advanced scientific knowledge and production technology from the West in a timely manner, causing China to gradually fall behind in the world. Before the Ming Dynasty, China was one of the more economically and technologically (not scientifically) developed countries in the world at that time, and was a great power in the East. However, by the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840, China's per capita grain output was only about 200 kilograms, while that of the United States was close to 1,000 kilograms. China's annual iron output was about 20,000 tons, less than 1/10 of France and 1/40 of Britain. China's shipbuilding and navigation industries have always been relatively developed, but they have declined rapidly since then. The Chinese fleet that used to frequent the waters of Southeast Asia disappeared and was replaced by fleets from other countries. China's various inventions and technologies still had advantages and disadvantages compared with the West in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but by 1840 they had completely lagged behind the West.

In the early stage

The purpose of seclusion was mainly to isolate the people of the mainland from the traffic of the Zheng family's anti-Qing forces in Taiwan and prevent people from gathering at sea; in the future, it focused on preventing the "intercourse between people and barbarians" and targeting foreign countries. Merchants strictly restricted foreign trade in the form of regulations and legislation. In the early years of Shunzhi, the Qing government followed the rules of the Ming Dynasty and prohibited foreign merchant ships from entering Guangzhou and only allowed them to trade in Macau. Subsequently, due to the presence of Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing forces in the southeastern sea, the Qing government became more and more strict about the ban on going to the sea. In June of the twelfth year of Shunzhi (1655), Tuntai, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, requested that a strict ban be enacted in the coastal provinces. "No sails are allowed to enter the sea". Violators will be subject to heavy penalties. Therefore, the Qing government issued an order prohibiting officials and civilians from going out to trade without authorization. If anyone "traveled prohibited goods overseas to foreign countries and infiltrated pirates (referring to Zheng Chenggong)", "either built large ships and sold them to foreign countries for profit, or leased large ships." Anyone who shares goods with foreigners who go abroad will be handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment." However, there are still people who secretly follow the clues, seek huge profits, and continue to trade with the Zheng family. Emperor Shunzhi believed that this was caused by lax legislation. In the thirteenth year, he issued a "Sea Ban Order", which strictly prohibited commercial and civilian ships from going out to sea privately. Anyone who violated the law, regardless of whether they were officials or civilians, would enforce the law and the goods would be brought into the official's possession. All the offender's property would be reported to the police. people. Civil and military officials who fail to investigate or pursue arrests will be severely punished; if Baojia fails to make the first prosecution, he will be punished with death. All places along the coast where boats can be parked are strictly guarded, and no sails are allowed to enter. If anyone lands on the beach, the defense officer will deal with it according to military law and supervise and discuss the crime. In the 18th year of Shunzhi, the Qing government further issued the "Sea Relocation Order" to ensure the implementation of the "Sea Ban Order". Residents of islands and coastal areas are forced to move 30 to 50 miles inland, and boundaries are set that cannot be crossed. It is also stipulated in the law: Anyone who exports cattle and horses, military supplies, iron goods, copper coins, satin, silk, and silk cotton out of the country for trade or into the sea will be punished with a hundred sticks; anyone who exports people or weapons from the country or into the sea will be hanged; thus leaking the truth Those who kill. Officials who patronize and tolerate are guilty of the same crime. The "Sea Ban Order" and the "Sea Relocation Order" displaced coastal residents and left them with no way to make a living, and seriously affected the economic development of coastal areas, causing desolation within thirty to fifty miles along the coast. During the San Francisco War, Zheng's forces returned to Xiamen and landed on the coast of Fujian. In the leap month of the seventeenth year of Kangxi's reign (1678), Emperor Kangxi issued an order: "As in the 18th year of Shunzhi's establishment of the border, the people outside the border should be moved to the interior, and strict sea bans should be imposed to cut off their traffic." In the 22nd year of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government Unify Taiwan. The following year, the sea ban was imposed. Emperor Kangxi said: "Because of the pirates, the sea ban was not opened. Now that the sea atmosphere has been cleared, why should we wait!" He ordered the coastal provinces to stop all the previous sea ban sanctions. The Manchu and Han people were allowed to go overseas for trade, but they were not allowed to send saltpeter weapons and other weapons overseas. Four ports, Guangzhou, Zhangzhou, Ningbo, and Yuntaishan, were designated for foreign trade. Since the sea ban was imposed, more than a thousand people have built ships and gone to sea for trade every year, but only five or six out of ten have returned. Many people have stayed in Nanyang. The Qing government was therefore worried that "thousands of people would gather at sea, so we must take precautions"; and believed that the Southeast Asian countries had always been "a haven for pirates". In the 56th year of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government reinstated the Nanyang Maritime Ban, strictly prohibited trade with Nanyang, and strictly ordered coastal forts to intercept Heading to the ships, each battalion of the Navy patrolled.

After the Nanyang Maritime Ban, the once prosperous foreign trade slumped again. The coastal economy is becoming increasingly depressed, causing serious consequences for local residents. As a result, large ships built with four to five thousand gold are left to rot in the deserted harbors and deserted shores. And the poor people who had no livelihood were forced to flee to the sea, or take desperate risks, "or commit chaos." For this reason, many people petitioned to lift the ban. In the fifth year of Yongzheng's reign (1727), ten years after the Nanyang Sea Ban, the Qing government reopened the Nanyang Sea Ban. Those who went abroad for trade were ordered to return to the country within three years, otherwise they would not be allowed to return home. During the Qianlong reign, the Qing government once again severely restricted foreign trade. At that time, the British tried to expand Haikou north of Guangzhou in order to sell their textiles to the north and to be close to tea and silk production areas. British General Hong Renhui and British armed merchant ships sailed to Dinghai and Ningbo, Zhejiang many times. The arrival of British armed merchant ships attracted the attention of the Qing court.

Late Qing Dynasty:

In order to clean up the coastal defense of Zhejiang Province, in the 22nd year of Qianlong, the Qing court issued an order: "(Yi ships) will only be allowed to dock in Guangzhou for trade in the future, and will no longer be allowed to go there." If Ningbo comes again, the original ship will be sent back to Guangzhou and will not be allowed to enter Haikou, Zhejiang. "This was a major turning point in the Qing government's foreign trade policy, which was to implement a closed-door policy against foreign capitalist forces and was only allowed to enter Guangzhou. trading. In foreign trade, the Qing government also implemented a trading house system, namely the Guangzhou Thirteen Banks, to achieve monopoly. The Qing government only allowed a few well-off wealthy businessmen to set up "public banks" to engage in import and export trade with foreign businessmen and negotiate with foreign businessmen on behalf of the Qing government. In the 24th year of Qianlong's reign, Li Shiyao, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, petitioned to formulate "Regulations on Preventing Barbarian Traders", which stipulated "Five Things to Prevent Barbarian Traders". That is to say: foreign businessmen are prohibited from spending the winter in Guangzhou, and those who must live in winter are only allowed to live in Macao; when foreign businessmen come to Guangdong, "it is appropriate to order the resident merchants to control and inspect"; Chinese businessmen are prohibited from borrowing foreign capital and foreign businessmen hire Han people; foreign businessmen are strictly prohibited from employing Han people. People were sent to deliver the news; campers were dispatched to suppress and inspect foreign merchant ships. The "Five Things to Prevent Foreigners" will strictly manage foreign trade and have clear regulations, making the closed-door policy a system. In the 14th year of Jiaqing (1809), the Qing government promulgated the "Regulations on Transactions between People and Foreigners"; in the 11th year of Daoguang (1831), the "Regulations on Preventing Foreigners" and the "Eight-Article Regulations" were formulated. These regulations, in addition to reaffirming the "five things to prevent foreigners", also stipulated that foreign warships were allowed to dock overseas, foreign merchants were prohibited from carrying women and riding carriages in provincial capitals, etc. Among them, the items related to the strict control of opium trafficking and ships are correct prohibitions against the opium trade of foreign invaders.

The impact of the seclusion policy

The Qing Dynasty implemented a seclusion policy to the outside world, which was a product of the feudal economy. The self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy isolates people from each other, which naturally leads to political isolation. Emperor Qianlong said in his "Edict to the King of England": "The products of the Celestial Empire are abundant and everything is available. Originally, they did not borrow goods from foreign countries to make up for the lack of goods." The closed feudal natural economy naturally had no need for exchanges and trade. The Qing Dynasty On the contrary, the ruler is proud of this, and Yelang is arrogant. The British were also aware of this. They said: "It can be self-sufficient in necessities - although not luxuries - so the Chinese government absolutely does not pay attention to foreign trade and believes that it can restrict foreign trade at will." In addition, the Manchu rulers The Han people were very vigilant. They were afraid that foreigners would support the Han people's resistance to the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Qianlong once said: "People's customs are easy to be noisy, and foreign merchants are mixed together, which will inevitably cause trouble." Therefore, the Qing government repeatedly stated that "the distinction between Chinese and foreigners is very strict" and "foreigners are never allowed to cross the border." The Qing government formulated various "Regulations on Preventing Foreigners" with the purpose of isolating any interaction between Chinese and foreigners. At the same time, the Qing government also imposed various strict restrictions on Chinese people who went overseas for trade. Regardless of the size of the ship, the date of travel, the trade goods and their quantity and type, there were strict regulations. The Qing government implemented a policy of seclusion and built a wall to isolate China from the outside world, which hindered the progress of Chinese society. Due to the imposition of restrictions on overseas trade, economic development has been seriously affected. At the same time, it also isolated the Chinese people from the world trend and did not understand the general trend of the world. The Qing rulers even closed their eyes and listened. The result was as Wei Yuan said: "A country that has been in charge of affairs for two hundred years has no idea of ??its location. "In 1840, the British invaders finally opened the door to China with artillery.

1. The First Opium War

The causes of the Opium War: 1. Affected by China’s traditional economic system and the Qing government’s closed-door policy, Britain’s trade with China has always been in a serious deficit. , which is not conducive to the accumulation of funds for the British Industrial Revolution. 2. British businessmen made huge profits from the opium trade, which harmed China's financial and social stability. The Qing government had to send Lin Zexu to ban opium. 3. Sino-British negotiations on trade issues have been unsuccessful for a long time. Some British businessmen have continued to put pressure on the government and advocated a policy of armed aggression against China. 4. During Lin Zexu’s smoking ban, the Qing emperor ordered all British merchant ships to be expelled from the country and severed Sino-British trade relations. This approach intensified the contradiction between China and Britain and provided an excuse for the British colonists to invade China. In June 1840, Britain launched a war against China. The Qing government had no power to resist. When the British army approached Tianjin, it tried to delay the war through the "tribulation" policy and held negotiations with the British in Guangzhou. During the negotiations, the British demanded high opium compensation, the opening of three ports, and the cession of islands. Although China expressed compromise, it could not fully accept it. At the end of January 1841, the British army first captured Sha Kok Fort and then occupied Hong Kong Island. On January 27, the helpless Qing government declared war on Britain.

However, before the Qing army could complete its mobilization, the British army quickly occupied Guangzhou, and then moved north along the coast. Within a year, they successively captured the Qing army's garrison and reached the gates of Nanjing. On August 29, 1842, Qi Ying, a representative of the Qing government, signed the Treaty of Nanjing with British representatives on a British warship. This was the first unequal treaty in modern Chinese history. The Opium War had a profound impact on the course of Chinese history. The failure of the war was attributed to the backward system, corrupt Qing rule, closed-door foreign policy and wrong war strategies. As a result of the war, China gradually transformed into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and China was forced to open its door to the West.

2. The Second Opium War

The causes of the Second Opium War: 1. After the First Opium War, since China was still basically closed, foreign goods were still difficult to sell. Enter China. 2. The Qing government still adhered to the policy of seclusion. 3. In the name of treaty revision, the great powers demanded the opening of China's coastal ports and inland cities, allowing foreigners to enter and exit freely for trade, and allowing foreign envoys to be permanently stationed in Beijing. The Qing government could not accept this. As a result, Britain and France created excuses for launching wars, one was the incident of the merchant ship Yarrow, and the other was the execution of French missionaries. During the Second Opium War, the Qing government adopted the strategy of war and peace. After its defeat in 1858, it signed the Treaty of Tianjin with Britain, France and other countries, accepted a series of requests for foreign ministers to be stationed in Beijing, and agreed to formally exchange treaty ratifications in Beijing one year later. In 1859, the British and French representatives who came to China to exchange letters of ratification tried to lead their ships into Dagukou, but were repelled by the Qing army. This victory made the Qing government blindly optimistic. In July 1860, a large number of ships from the British and French forces gathered outside the entrance of Dagu, but the Qing government actually thought they were coming to seek peace. The British and French forces took the opportunity to land in Beitang and captured Dagu and Tianjin. The British and French forces then invaded Beijing. The Qing government signed the Treaty of Beijing with representatives of Britain and France respectively. During this war, the Qing government's attitude was sometimes strong and sometimes soft. The reason is that on the one hand, although the rule of the Qing Dynasty had significantly weakened by this time, the rulers were never willing to withdraw from the stage of history. The invasion of foreign enemies not only threatened China's territorial integrity and economic interests, but also directly harmed the dignity of the Qing rulers. Therefore, Emperor Xianfeng always wanted to keep foreigners away from Kyoto, as far away as possible. On the other hand, the failure of the First Opium War made the Qing rulers fear foreign powers and try to avoid offending foreigners. This duality led to policy opportunism and eventual failure. The signing of the "Beijing Treaty" ultimately determined the bankruptcy of the Qing government's seclusion policy.