Status Updates From China Marches West: The Qin...

看完第二章了。
他把俄羅斯擴張殖民和中華帝國擴張殖民還比較了一下。

right the use of term unification (tongyi) and never conquest (Zhengqu) is still used today, and all over, there is this constant claim of china splitting and unifying over and over. That is very nationalistic and kind of interesting how this seems to be the lasting legacy of the Qianlong emperor.

oh right, the downplaying of the uniqueness of the Qing and claiming they are an extension of prior "Chinese" regimes. But their expansion was a sharp break with what the Ming did. Ironically, the Qing under Qianlong started this and that legacy is with us today. And by that Wei Yuan made 2 grave "errors:"
saying Taiwan is not a part of china from ancient times
favoring repression of popular rebellion

I still wonder why western views of "China" changed in the late 18th century from admiration to contempt. What triggered this turn to the image of the sick man of Asia?

True, western scholars tend to exaggerate foreign influence on thinkers like Wei Yuan and more.

What the Qianlong emperor wrote about the Zunghar sound like typical racist justification of extermination. And naturally he portrayed himself as the good guy. Sadly his example and how he got away with is all too common in history. As is the conflicting interpretation.