Question

Read the following excerpt from Emperor Qian Long's Letter to King George 3 in England in 1793: If you assert that your reverence for Our Celestial dynasty fills you with desire to acquire our civilization, our ceremonies and code of laws differ so completely from your own that, even if your Envoy were able to acquire the rudiments of our civilization, you could not possibly transplant our manners and custom to your alien soil. Therefore, however adept Envoy might become, nothing would be gained thereby.

Based on this excerpt, what can most logically be concluded about Emperor Qian Long's point of view

Answer 1

Based on this excerpt, what can most logically be concluded about Emperor Qian Long's point of view.

• It can be concluded that the Emperor Qian Long was highly proud of his culture and thought that no foreigner could learn it accordingly. It is quite known that the Emperor Qian Long took his cultural role very seriously, and wanted to preserve the Manchu heritage over all things. The Manchu heritage was very important because it was believed that it would preserve the basis of the moral character of his culture and his dynasty. His point of view also shows that he was not interested in sharing his cultural heritage with the British because it would maybe change the cultural heritage of the Chinese.

Answer 2

Based upon this excerpt it seems as if Emperor Qian Long feels his culture is quite different and maybe even superior to the English culture so much so that an English envoy sent to learn about Emperor Qian Long's culture would be there in vain. This is so because he states that his culture is so different that even if the envoy is "able to acquire the rudiments," there are intricacies such as manners and customs that give the rudiments meaning, and customs and manners could never be transplanted. As such, it would be pointless to even to begin to try acquire or even learn about Emperor Qian Long's culture.