中英关系史

In an operatic performance of Shakespeare’s A Midnight’s Dream, the stage directions ran as follows:
While the state is darkened, a single Entry is danced. Then a symphony is play’d; after the scene is suddenly illuminated, and discovers a transparent prospect of a Chinese garden, the Architecture, the Trees, the Plants, the Fruit, the Birds, the Beasts, quite different from what we have in this part of the World. It is terminated by an Arch, through which is seen other arches with close arbors, and a row of trees to the end of the view. Over it is a hanging garden, which rises by several ascents to the Top of the house; it is bounded on either side with pleasant Bowers, variousTrees, and numbers of strange Birds flying in the air, on the Top of the Platform is a Fountain, throwing up water, which falls into a large basin. In this setting, Chinese lovers sing duets to the stately harmonies of Purcell, six monkeys emerge from the wood to execute a dance, and the state directions rise to a lyrical climax: Six pedestals of China rise from under the Stage, they support six large vases of Porcelain, in which are six China orange Trees…the pedestals move towards the front of the Stage, and the grand dance begins of twenty four persons. Hymen then appears to the scene to reconcile Oberon and Titania and then unite the Chinese lovers, a final quintet is sung and the opera brought to its close.
1600年，英国设立东印度公司，垄断远东 贸易，1635年，葡人租用的英国船“伦敦 号”抵达澳门。此后，英国人多次试图到 广州通商，但因清政府实行海禁，同时也 因为葡商的抵制，虽数次强行闯关，始终 未能如愿。直到1685年，清政府开放海禁， 英国对华贸易才出现了较快发展。
乾隆五十七年（1792），英商到广州，向粤督郭世勋转达英王遣使来 华的请求：“因前年大皇帝万寿未申祝禧，今遣使臣马嘎尔尼等将由 天津入贡。”（参见王之春：《清朝柔远记》，第140页，“入贡” 两字不知是英商自拟之中文稿，还是中国官员的译作？）次年8月， 马嘎尔到达中国，9月在热河参加乾隆83岁庆典，并觐见乾隆皇帝， 获隆重接待。马氏先后提出派使常驻北京、派船到浙江、宁波、珠山 及天津、广东地方交易；在天朝京城设立商行，收贮货物发卖、请拨 广东省城附近一处地方供英商居住等。被乾隆拒绝：“天朝尺土俱归 版籍，疆址森然，即岛屿沙洲，亦必画界分疆，各有专属”，英人若 贸然来华贸易，各处文武“必不肯令其停留，定当立时驱逐出洋”。 1816年阿美士德使团访华。 东印度公司暗中鼓励鸦片贸易。
鸦片战争以前英Байду номын сангаас之交往尝试
1576年，伦敦商人以海盗马丁· 傅洛比雪耳为首组成探险队，试图寻 找通往中国的西北通道，但并未成功。 1583年，英国商人约翰· 纽伯莱等人试图经印度来华贸易，英女王伊 丽莎白交给他两封信，一封致印度莫卧尔皇帝，另一封致中国皇帝即 “最大及不可战胜之君王陛下”。信中，英王希望中国皇帝“宽大接 待”英国臣民，并给予贸易方面的特权：“吾人以为，我等为天生需 要者，吾人必须互相帮助，吾人希望陛下能同意此点，而我臣民亦不 能不作此类之尝试。如陛下能促成此事，且给予安全通行之权，并给 与吾人在与贵国臣民贸易中所极需之其他特权，则陛下实行至尊贵仁 慈国君之事，而吾人将永不能忘陛下之功业”。（参见张轶东：《中 英两国最早的接触》，载《历史研究》1958年第5期）。途经忽鲁谟 斯（在阿曼湾和波斯湾之间，今属伊朗），被葡萄牙人捕获，送往印 度西海岸之果阿，获释后留居印度，英女王致中国的信没有送达中国。
merchant fleets, our large and powerful navies?
“As I have said of their ships, so may be said of their armies and troops, all the forces of their empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country, and starve themselves. If they were to besiege a strong town in Flanders, or to fight a disciplined army, one line of German cuirassiers, or of French cavalry, would throw all the horse of China; a million of their foot could not stand before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to be surrounded, thought they were to be not one to twenty in number; nay, I do not boast if I say that 30,000 German or English foot, and 10,000 French horse, would fairly beat all the forces of China…They have firearms, but they are awkward, clumsy, and uncertain in going off, they have powder, but it of no strength, they have neither discipline in the field, exercise to their arms, skill to attack, or temper to retreat.”
早期英国人想像中的中国
Milton: Paradise Lost Adams gazes out from the highest hill of paradise and sees: The seat Of Mightiest Empire, from the destined walls Of Cambalu, Seat of Cathaian… To Paquin, of Sinean Kings.
1596年，伊丽莎白女王派本亚明· 伍德为使臣， 随商人里查· 阿伦等来前往中国，并较书中国皇 帝（“至尊主权国君、伟大中华王国之最强力主 宰者、亚洲各部以及附近诸岛屿最主要之皇帝陛 下”）：“公平通商”，“遵循贵国之法令”， “凡我国人来贵国某处、某港、某地、某镇或某 城贸易时，务请赐以自由出入之权，俾得与贵国 人交易，在陛下仁慈治下，使其得享受自由特典 及权利，与其他国人在贵国所享受者，一无差 等”，“贵国人民之入境贸易者，到处予以自由， 加以保护”。伍德等人乘坐的三只船在经过好望 角时，一只遇难，另外两只被葡人拦截，信同样 没有送达中国。
中英关系史（一）
理解近代中英关系史的前提
1、英国第一个完成工业革命，是当时实力最强的国家，
当时其国际地位与影响只有今天的美国可以与之相比。 2、中英关系是19世纪中国对外关系中最重要的关系。 3、从中强英弱、到英强中弱、再到两次世界大战以后英国 的衰弱与新中国的复兴，中英关系随着国际局势的变化与 中英两国综合国力的变化，经历了一个错综复杂的演变过 程。
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (Part II,1719)
As Crusoe and his little party leave the south coast of China, where they have been accidentally forced to land, his first impression of China appears to be favourable: “First, we went ten days’ journey t0 see the city of Nanking, a city well worth seeing indeed; they say it has a million of people in it, which, however, I do not believe. It is regularly built, the streets all exactly straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which gives the figure of it great advantage”.(Boston, 1903, P.256) But this impression is promptly banished by a fully developed diatribe: “But when I come to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours, their fabrics, their manner of living, their government, their religion, their wealth, their glory, as some call it, I must confess I do not so much as think it is worth naming, or worth my while to write of, or any that shall come after me to read… …[W]hat are their buildings to the palaces and royal buildings of Europe? What’s their trade to the universal commerce of England, Holland, France, and Spain? What are their cities to ours for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and an infinite variety? What are their ports, supplied with a few junks and barks, to our navigation, our