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The Collision of Two Civilizations: the British expedition to China in 1792-4 by Alain Peyrefitte
Fascinating book about the Britich Expedition to China in 1792-1794.
Unknown Binding
First published June 17, 1998
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About the author
Alain Peyrefitte
91 books12 followersHe was a confidant of Charles De Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland.
He was Minister of Information from 1962 to 1966, establishing the rules of presidential debates between the two electoral rounds.
He served as Minister of Justice from 1977 to 1981, and was involved in the affair surrounding the mysterious death of Robert Boulin in 1979.
He became a member of the Académie française in 1977.
He wrote The Immobile Empire, and Quand la Chine s'éveillera... le monde tremblera.
Outside France he is probably best known for his book Le Mal Français (translated as The Trouble with France), which addresses the question of whether there is something unique to the French character that has caused some of the country's peculiar recurring problems. The book places his own observations and experiences as a journalist and government minister inside a panoramic view of French and European history from the medieval to the modern era.
Upon his death in 1999 he was honored by burial in Les Invalides which also houses the tomb of Napoleon and other revered national leaders.
He was Minister of Information from 1962 to 1966, establishing the rules of presidential debates between the two electoral rounds.
He served as Minister of Justice from 1977 to 1981, and was involved in the affair surrounding the mysterious death of Robert Boulin in 1979.
He became a member of the Académie française in 1977.
He wrote The Immobile Empire, and Quand la Chine s'éveillera... le monde tremblera.
Outside France he is probably best known for his book Le Mal Français (translated as The Trouble with France), which addresses the question of whether there is something unique to the French character that has caused some of the country's peculiar recurring problems. The book places his own observations and experiences as a journalist and government minister inside a panoramic view of French and European history from the medieval to the modern era.
Upon his death in 1999 he was honored by burial in Les Invalides which also houses the tomb of Napoleon and other revered national leaders.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 17, 2017
I love this book and re-read it often.
By far the most insightful and thoroughly researched book on this subject. As a former diplomat, Peyrefitte has a substantial grasp of Chinese culture and is able to demonstrate both sides of the cultural collision with apparent ease.
Very readable and becoming more so every day as China rises towards becoming the leading world power.
By far the most insightful and thoroughly researched book on this subject. As a former diplomat, Peyrefitte has a substantial grasp of Chinese culture and is able to demonstrate both sides of the cultural collision with apparent ease.
Very readable and becoming more so every day as China rises towards becoming the leading world power.
July 22, 2022
'The Collision of Two Civilisations'- leading me to further thoughts on Improvisation Rites (1969)
I’ve had a damaged copy of George Staunton’s atlas of copperplate maps of the expedition to China 1792 - 94 in the attic for many years, and, recently, in need of money, was looking to sell individual prints when I came across Alain Peyrefitte’s book in a charity shop window in Balham and realised their significance. The Lord George McCartney expedition or ‘embassy’ was an attempt to open the vast population of China up to trade and, in effect, to the burgeoning global capitalist system that was being led by British sea power. The Emperor Qianlong and his mandarins resisted and were wary of the violent reputation of the British. Capitalism didn’t accept people saying ‘no thank you’ and the rebuff lead to the Opium wars and the gradual demise of the two thousand year old Chinese empire. The rebuff of the mission was taken personally by members of McCartney’s entourage and the published reports of their experiences quickly led to the collapse of the utopian view of China, as a perfect system, that had held sway in Europe since Marc Polo. In effect respect for Chinese culture and its people was quickly overturned as the prelude to the violent exploitation of this part of the world.
This colonialist tinted negative view was reviewed in the Sixties when the counter culture took an avid interest in the progressive aspects of Eastern cultures.
The book is based on many quotations from the journals, letters and edicts of either side which give a very authentic feeling to the account of journey as the British progress through the massive land mass of China. By recounting almost daily progress of the long and arduous journey we get an accumulating view of China, as well as insights into McCartney himself, Emperor Qianlong and their respective entourage. The emperor expected ‘tribute’ to celebrate his omnipotence but the ‘gifts’ brought by British were in effect demonstrations of British scientific and technological superiority. Some, like the hot air balloon, seemed to pose a direct threat to the emperor’s monopoly on power. It was not allowed to rise into the sky above Peking!
The British were also collecting data and one form this took was a mapping of the Chinese coast and main rivers and canals with commercial and military objectives in mind. China did also have an ancient and advanced road network, useful for the Emperor’s impressive horse-driven postal system, but less useful for moving heavy goods. Drawings were also made of fortifications and other buildings as well as drawings of the Chinese way of life, all of which were published on their return to London.
Alain Peyrefitte, the author of this book, was a Gaulist but his Euro-right view does not intrude noticeably until the very end of the 500 plus pages. The book provokes thought. For me most valuable was how the rationalism of the Enlightenment (read through books by Jonathan I. Israel) crushed the worst of mystical practices and made space for scientific progress, but this book shows how much it was intertwined with capitalist exploitation and war. McCartney was a humanist but saw trade and war as an inevitable part of global progress.
The other thing I got from this book is the Chinese system’s use of rites to maintain coherence and discipline on this vast scale. I’ve been involved in the use of rites for very different aims in the last 50 years - The improvisation Rites as used by the Scratch Orchestra 1969 - 72.
Goodreads readers are referred to the longer version on my blogger which goes into this.
Cornelius Cardew who invented the Scratch Orchestra defined an improvisation rite as:
“An improvisation rite is not a musical composition; it does not attempt to influence the music that will be played; at most it may establish a community of feeling, or a communal starting point, through ritual.... Free improvisation may be indulged in from time to time.”
Cardew had been studying Confucius the Chinese philosopher and politician who lived 551–479 BCE (see John Tilbury pages c p.473) in the Sixties and was making his innovative orchestral scale masterwork with the title of one of the key Confucian texts ‘The Great Learning’. (see previous blog)
What The Great Learning teaches is – to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.
So it is interesting to look at the references to rites in this book and to speculate about how the Improvisation Rites collectively made in 1969, seem to be like an ideological up-ending of the authoritarian role they had in China.
"A man... has no way of taking his stand unless he understands the rites," the master said. AP p.119
The key issue was "The substitution of crude barbarian customs (su) for the rites (li) of civilised man." p.206 For example the European genuflection, or head bow, for the Chinese kow-tow before the Emperor which involved complete prostration with forehead touching the floor repeated nine times.
"The court, however, could not wait. In a system that codified everything, improvisation was tantamount to attack. The emperor, his ministers, and the mandarins of the Tribunal of Rites had to be sure of everything in advance." p.206
"Rites prevent disorder, as dykes prevent floods." p.208
"The violated rite might strike the spark (of rebellion), if not tomorrow, then in fifteen years time." p. 212.“
Innovation could be met with punishment.“Ritual was the enemy of improvement.” p.334. And rites "As the British observed, were, not exactly the engines of progress” p.345.
“Ritual required that the scribe begin a new paragraph every time the word emperor appeared. (in this case, seven times)" p.408
"The Tribunal of Rites must be satisfied," he was told. "Its prescriptions are imperative."
p.502
Peyrefitte claims that the Emperor Qinglong’s "Obsessional attachment to the rites may have made him the person ultimately most responsible for the fall of his dynasty and the decay of his country." p.522.
Looking back it is easy to see the arrogance of both sides which thought their way of doing things was the only way that was universally valid, and in fact could not see their continued survival if this were to change!
Rather than being markers of strict correct behaviour the Rites collected by Cardew in 1969 as ‘Nature Study Notes’ were spurs for improvisation. Rather than being bollards of cultural conservatism they were Doors to a new Democratic Perception of culture.
If Cardew’s The Great Learning, was looking backwards. The improvisation rites of the Scratch Orchestra were the sound of The Masses Thinking.
I’ve had a damaged copy of George Staunton’s atlas of copperplate maps of the expedition to China 1792 - 94 in the attic for many years, and, recently, in need of money, was looking to sell individual prints when I came across Alain Peyrefitte’s book in a charity shop window in Balham and realised their significance. The Lord George McCartney expedition or ‘embassy’ was an attempt to open the vast population of China up to trade and, in effect, to the burgeoning global capitalist system that was being led by British sea power. The Emperor Qianlong and his mandarins resisted and were wary of the violent reputation of the British. Capitalism didn’t accept people saying ‘no thank you’ and the rebuff lead to the Opium wars and the gradual demise of the two thousand year old Chinese empire. The rebuff of the mission was taken personally by members of McCartney’s entourage and the published reports of their experiences quickly led to the collapse of the utopian view of China, as a perfect system, that had held sway in Europe since Marc Polo. In effect respect for Chinese culture and its people was quickly overturned as the prelude to the violent exploitation of this part of the world.
This colonialist tinted negative view was reviewed in the Sixties when the counter culture took an avid interest in the progressive aspects of Eastern cultures.
The book is based on many quotations from the journals, letters and edicts of either side which give a very authentic feeling to the account of journey as the British progress through the massive land mass of China. By recounting almost daily progress of the long and arduous journey we get an accumulating view of China, as well as insights into McCartney himself, Emperor Qianlong and their respective entourage. The emperor expected ‘tribute’ to celebrate his omnipotence but the ‘gifts’ brought by British were in effect demonstrations of British scientific and technological superiority. Some, like the hot air balloon, seemed to pose a direct threat to the emperor’s monopoly on power. It was not allowed to rise into the sky above Peking!
The British were also collecting data and one form this took was a mapping of the Chinese coast and main rivers and canals with commercial and military objectives in mind. China did also have an ancient and advanced road network, useful for the Emperor’s impressive horse-driven postal system, but less useful for moving heavy goods. Drawings were also made of fortifications and other buildings as well as drawings of the Chinese way of life, all of which were published on their return to London.
Alain Peyrefitte, the author of this book, was a Gaulist but his Euro-right view does not intrude noticeably until the very end of the 500 plus pages. The book provokes thought. For me most valuable was how the rationalism of the Enlightenment (read through books by Jonathan I. Israel) crushed the worst of mystical practices and made space for scientific progress, but this book shows how much it was intertwined with capitalist exploitation and war. McCartney was a humanist but saw trade and war as an inevitable part of global progress.
The other thing I got from this book is the Chinese system’s use of rites to maintain coherence and discipline on this vast scale. I’ve been involved in the use of rites for very different aims in the last 50 years - The improvisation Rites as used by the Scratch Orchestra 1969 - 72.
Goodreads readers are referred to the longer version on my blogger which goes into this.
Cornelius Cardew who invented the Scratch Orchestra defined an improvisation rite as:
“An improvisation rite is not a musical composition; it does not attempt to influence the music that will be played; at most it may establish a community of feeling, or a communal starting point, through ritual.... Free improvisation may be indulged in from time to time.”
Cardew had been studying Confucius the Chinese philosopher and politician who lived 551–479 BCE (see John Tilbury pages c p.473) in the Sixties and was making his innovative orchestral scale masterwork with the title of one of the key Confucian texts ‘The Great Learning’. (see previous blog)
What The Great Learning teaches is – to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.
So it is interesting to look at the references to rites in this book and to speculate about how the Improvisation Rites collectively made in 1969, seem to be like an ideological up-ending of the authoritarian role they had in China.
"A man... has no way of taking his stand unless he understands the rites," the master said. AP p.119
The key issue was "The substitution of crude barbarian customs (su) for the rites (li) of civilised man." p.206 For example the European genuflection, or head bow, for the Chinese kow-tow before the Emperor which involved complete prostration with forehead touching the floor repeated nine times.
"The court, however, could not wait. In a system that codified everything, improvisation was tantamount to attack. The emperor, his ministers, and the mandarins of the Tribunal of Rites had to be sure of everything in advance." p.206
"Rites prevent disorder, as dykes prevent floods." p.208
"The violated rite might strike the spark (of rebellion), if not tomorrow, then in fifteen years time." p. 212.“
Innovation could be met with punishment.“Ritual was the enemy of improvement.” p.334. And rites "As the British observed, were, not exactly the engines of progress” p.345.
“Ritual required that the scribe begin a new paragraph every time the word emperor appeared. (in this case, seven times)" p.408
"The Tribunal of Rites must be satisfied," he was told. "Its prescriptions are imperative."
p.502
Peyrefitte claims that the Emperor Qinglong’s "Obsessional attachment to the rites may have made him the person ultimately most responsible for the fall of his dynasty and the decay of his country." p.522.
Looking back it is easy to see the arrogance of both sides which thought their way of doing things was the only way that was universally valid, and in fact could not see their continued survival if this were to change!
Rather than being markers of strict correct behaviour the Rites collected by Cardew in 1969 as ‘Nature Study Notes’ were spurs for improvisation. Rather than being bollards of cultural conservatism they were Doors to a new Democratic Perception of culture.
If Cardew’s The Great Learning, was looking backwards. The improvisation rites of the Scratch Orchestra were the sound of The Masses Thinking.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews