Collision of Two Civilizations

Alain Peyrefitte

ISBN 10: 0002726777 / ISBN 13: 9780002726771

Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 1993

About this Item

This is the story of a failed attempt by the British, in 1793, to open the Chinese Empire to Western trade. Led by Lord Macartney, whose distinguished diplomatic posts included India and the Caribbean, the enormous British expedition of nearly 700 men included doctors, scholars, painters, musicians, soldiers and young aristocrats, and lasted more than two years, and its success would have redefined the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. The author has made use of a variety of sources, including, on the British side, the diary of the 12-year-old Thomas Stanton, son of Macartney's deputy, who was the only person in the whole English fleet who spoke Chinese, and, on the Chinese side, the newly discovered secret reports of the Emperor's officials, all annotated by the Emperor himself.

Seller Inventory # CIN0002726777G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Collision of Two Civilizations
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002726777
• ISBN 13: 9780002726771
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Contents: Journey to China [Departure; Lords of Human Kind; When China Was the Rage in Europe; Protected by the British Fleet; Whiff of China]; Another Planet [Macao; Skirting Canton; Strange Beings; Rounding Up Pilots; Renown of the English Name; Tribute; Tis New to Thee; Gifts; Journey Upriver; Lesson in the Kowtow; Residing in a Temple; City of Wood; Gathering Clouds; Passing Through Peking; Garden of Perfect Brightness; Meeting Missionaries; Palace of Discovery; Distraught Scholar; Science of Government; Gilded Prison; Europeans Turned Chinese; Sovereign Under the Influence; Emperor's Vermilion Brush; Jehol Is Not the Place for Business]; In the Shadow of the Emperor [Toward the Great Wall; In Tartar Lands; Crisis of Ritual; Victory; To Each His Own Truth; Aftershock; Morning of the Big Day; At Emperor's Feet; Paradise of 10000 Trees; Emperor of Tartars; Party Continues; Court Secrets; Atmosphere Darkens; Back in Peking; Shipwreck; Scroll of Paper Enthroned; Suzerain's Letter to His Vassal; Message in a Bottle; We Quitted Like Vagrants]; Real Mission Begins [Responding to a Delay; Learned Grand Councillor; Celestial Correspondence; Works & Days; Sabotage Barbarian Vessels; Emperor Upon His Guard Against the Slightest Appearance of Innovation; Unrivaled Postal System; Couple of English Frigates Could Reduce Their Coasts to Famine; Qianlong's Wrath; Rooster Sacrificed; Paradise Suzhou; Brides for Sale; Glimmers in the Gloom; Mollifying Them While Conceding Them Nothing]; New Developments, Fresh Hopes [Patriarch's Testament; Deep South; Keeping Hope Alive; Passage Over Land; Stroke of Luck for Our Country; Corporal Punishment; Pleasures & Frustrations of Tourism; Match of Progress; Descent Toward Canton; Where the Barbarian Devils Were Hated; Canton; Encounters; Extern Brothers & Felonious Merchants; Rearguard Actions; Tomorrow China; More Prosperous Chinese; Request for a Military Alliance; Oceans at War]; After Macartney or a Spiral of Misfortune

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French