1 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:11,400 In 1644, Ming Dynasty China, 2 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,600 the greatest civilisation in the world, 3 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:16,920 went through a devastating foreign conquest. 4 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,440 The Chinese people were left haunted by dreams 5 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:28,000 of lost peace and visions of war. 6 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:34,920 The invaders were Manchus from the north, 7 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,480 people the Chinese saw as barbarians. 8 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:43,320 The Ming Emperor committed suicide and the Manchu armies swept south. 9 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:49,120 When the city of Yangzhou resisted, it was plundered 10 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:51,320 and burned in a ten-day reign of terror. 11 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,280 300,000 people died. 12 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:08,640 Afterwards, the writer Zhang Dai visited the West Lake in Hangzhou, 13 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:10,880 once China's paradise on earth. 14 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:15,240 As he sailed along the shore, 15 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:19,280 he was shocked by the aftermath of the fighting. 16 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:22,960 "I thought I was in a nightmare", he said. 17 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:24,960 The loss seemed irretrievable... 18 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:30,200 ..but China had been through such cataclysms before 19 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:32,480 and would go through them again. 20 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,440 And being a great and ancient civilisation, 21 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,360 the people had the inner resources to rebuild. 22 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:44,400 And that's what happened next. 23 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:49,360 The Manchus were foreigners, non-Chinese, but it was they 24 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,800 who would institute the next rebuilding, 25 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,000 and becoming Chinese in the process. 26 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,440 And they were the last imperial dynasty of China - 27 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,040 the Qing. 28 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:39,720 So, China's last empire was forged in war. 29 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,080 The Manchu conquest took 30 years. 30 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,640 It climaxed in the 1670s, in a savage struggle in the south, 31 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:54,760 when three great provinces rose against the Manchus 32 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,440 and their teenage emperor, Kangxi. 33 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:05,560 The war lasted eight years and, by the end, the Qing government had 34 00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:09,800 half a million troops fighting in these wild mountains 35 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:11,000 of the southwest. 36 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:19,520 At that moment, China could have fallen apart, but it didn't. 37 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:24,880 The war was the making of Kangxi and, when it ended in 1681, 38 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:30,040 he was 27 and he would become the longest ruling, and some would say, 39 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,240 the greatest of all the Chinese emperors. 40 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,640 For all its glories, the Ming had ended as a decadent, broken empire. 41 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:55,000 Now, the foreign Manchus set out to make sure that the mistakes 42 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,880 they had made were not repeated. 43 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:01,120 That the new rulers of China should be men 44 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,040 with a sober sense of public duty 45 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:06,720 and Kangxi, the upright one, 46 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:08,440 was such a man. 47 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,120 Kangxi was the first of three great Qing emperors - 48 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:28,360 father, son and grandson, who ruled for 133 years. 49 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,600 They built China's largest empire 50 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:35,480 and created the essential shape of China today. 51 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,960 You get an idea of the immense size of the Qing empire 52 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,480 when you fly out from Beijing to Xinjiang in the far west. 53 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:47,280 It takes seven hours. 54 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:54,160 By road, it's 2,700 miles from the capital to Kashgar. 55 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:06,360 Under the Qing, China entered a new phase of its history, 56 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:10,880 for they define China not as an exclusively Han civilisation, 57 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:13,360 but as a great, multiethnic empire. 58 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,480 So, for the first time since the Tang dynasty, 59 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:21,960 China ruled over the Central Asian peoples of Xinjiang. 60 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:32,520 Among them were the Uyghurs. 61 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:35,040 Hello! 62 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:39,040 - This is my wife... - Very nice to meet you. - ..and this is my mother-in-law. 63 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,160 Very nice to meet you. Thank you. 64 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:43,000 So, this is my family. 65 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:48,640 Oh, thank you so much. 66 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:52,440 Thank you. 67 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:55,040 Before the Qing dynasty, this area was controlled 68 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:57,400 by the Yongle Mongols. 69 00:05:57,400 --> 00:05:59,880 You know, the descendants of Genghis Khan. 70 00:05:59,880 --> 00:06:01,960 The leader of the Yongle Mongols, 71 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:06,160 he invaded the western territory of the Qing dynasty. 72 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:11,640 So, the emperor of the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi, he led a big army 73 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:16,520 by himself and waged two big wars with the Yongle Mongols, 74 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:20,120 and, finally, defeated them and kicked them out of this region 75 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:21,600 and took this region. 76 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,640 Under the Qing Kangxi emperor, 77 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,760 - it almost doubles the size of China, doesn't it? - Yes, yes, yes. 78 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:32,360 - It was a huge area. - Yes, yes. 79 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:34,680 So, what happens here in Turfan, then? 80 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:39,240 The government built new towns just next to the original town, 81 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:46,120 so, in many cities in Xinjiang, even now, we have old town and new town. 82 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:50,480 The old town was also called Uyghur town or Hui town. 83 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:52,360 Hui, like Muslim... Yes. 84 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,960 And new town was named "Man town" or "Han town", 85 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:59,600 like "Hancheng" or "Mancheng", like Chinese name. 86 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,480 Many different races meet in this point in China, don't they? 87 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:05,040 - Yes, yes. - Many different histories, I suppose. - Yes. 88 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:15,680 So, the Silk Road became, again, an axis of world history, 89 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:19,960 linking the great Asian land empires of Iran and Russia, 90 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:22,320 Mogul India and Qing China. 91 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:30,680 And today, with China's new Silk Road, 92 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:35,200 Central Asia is once more becoming a crossroads of commerce and peoples. 93 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,400 If you see the different hats, you can buy the pattern 94 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:46,920 or colour, the flowers on the hat, you can tell where they are from - 95 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,560 Turfan or Hotan or Kashgar or Ili. 96 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,440 So, each different place, they have a different pattern for the hat. 97 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:57,200 All the Silk Road places - Hotan, Turfan - have different hats. Yeah. 98 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,080 The Qing initially adopted a light touch 99 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:05,400 towards the ethnic minorities, 100 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:08,200 leaving their local leaders in place. 101 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:10,720 They also allowed religious autonomy 102 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:15,280 and Muslim culture soon gained a new vitality in Chinese civilisation. 103 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:27,480 In the old Muslim communities of China, founded back in the Tang, 104 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,560 Chinese Muslim scholars wrote books showing how loyalty to Islam 105 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:34,480 and to the Mandate of Heaven went hand in hand. 106 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,800 Walking through the mosque, you see all these inscriptions, 107 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:45,720 not only in Chinese, but in Arabic and in Farsi, Persian! 108 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:52,480 They welcomed outsiders for their food and their luxuries, 109 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:55,960 their money, their ideas and their expertise. 110 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,400 You may think of China in its history as being 111 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,280 an inward-looking civilisation, 112 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:02,760 but most of the time it wasn't like that at all. 113 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:11,880 This was a rich age for Chinese Muslim philosophy, 114 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:15,840 with debates about the role of women and one fascinating 115 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,800 and surprising by-product of the age is women's mosques 116 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:21,960 with women imams. 117 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:27,080 THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE 118 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,800 There are ten small women's mosques here in Kaifeng, 119 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:51,000 part of the changing scene of Chinese Islam from the late 1600s. 120 00:09:53,680 --> 00:09:56,720 I have travelled many places in the world 121 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,280 and filmed with Muslim communities in many different countries, 122 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:04,360 but I have never seen women's mosques like this. 123 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:07,560 Is this a special Chinese tradition 124 00:10:07,560 --> 00:10:09,440 or special Kaifeng tradition? 125 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:14,640 THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE 126 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:19,960 Special Chinese tradition. 127 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:21,280 Yeah. 128 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:27,040 So, here, even today, you can see the results 129 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:29,400 of the religious policies of the Manchus. 130 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:30,760 Shukran! 131 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:32,040 Shukran! 132 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:52,360 Tibet too, long an independent kingdom, 133 00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:55,840 was freed from the rule of the Yongle Mongols. 134 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:58,400 Kangxi restored the Dalai Lama 135 00:10:58,400 --> 00:11:02,400 and brought Tibet into the Qing Empire as a Chinese protectorate. 136 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:08,200 The Qing rulers built a huge replica of the Potala in Lhasa back home. 137 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:14,840 Fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism, 138 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,720 they had private chapels in their own palaces. 139 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:21,000 THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE 140 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,960 For Tibet, it was a time when Chinese rule 141 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:26,040 promoted Tibetan culture. 142 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:42,680 So, China's new, expanded frontiers were secured. 143 00:11:46,560 --> 00:11:49,840 And at home, the Manchus were keen to be seen to rule 144 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:51,360 in the Chinese tradition. 145 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:58,560 Before they even come in, they learn a Chinese way of governing. 146 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:02,560 Once they come in, they put up a face to represent 147 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:05,320 that they are authentic Chinese rulers. 148 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:10,480 The Confucius rulers. You know, classical Confucian education, 149 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:11,920 civil service examinations - 150 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:14,280 these are all the things they pay a lot of attention to. 151 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:24,680 To reinforce their right to rule, the Manchus returned to the roots, 152 00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:28,760 giving new life to the old rituals of the Chinese state. 153 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:36,800 In one ceremony, the Manchu emperor joined hands 154 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:38,600 with a poor Chinese peasant. 155 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:45,680 We're on a platform here and the platform looked out onto a field... 156 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:49,880 ..and the field was where the sports ground is, there. 157 00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:56,200 Every year on the auspicious day, in the second month of spring, 158 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,120 the Emperor ploughed eight furrows of this field 159 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:02,120 with a great, yellow plough. 160 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:11,760 The Minister of Finance had the goad, prodding the oxen, 161 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,520 and the Chief Prefect sowed the seed. 162 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,360 It was to show solidarity with the workers, 163 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,320 to show that agriculture was the very basis of the Chinese state, 164 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:29,960 and to revere the very first ancestor who invented agriculture. 165 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,720 To get his message across, Kangxi issued 16 maxims - 166 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:38,240 guidelines for the people - 167 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,760 which were posted in every town and village. 168 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,120 They were read out twice a month - 169 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:51,880 a custom which lasted until the 20th century. 170 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:07,680 On his great tours of the South, Kangxi talked to the people 171 00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:09,680 and listened to their grievances. 172 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,720 He was an autocrat, but stories about his common touch, 173 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,360 and that of his grandson, Qianlong, 174 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:19,680 became legend among the Chinese people. 175 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:14,520 "And as for the daily business of ruling", 176 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,800 wrote Kangxi, "That takes a lot of energy. 177 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:21,720 "I once handled 500 documents in a single day. 178 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:26,120 "Sometimes I don't go to bed till after midnight." 179 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:33,040 Labelled in Chinese and Manchu in the Imperial Archive, 180 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:35,240 their dispatch boxes are empty now, 181 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:39,960 but still scented with the camphor that kept insects from the paper. 182 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:42,880 HE SNIFFS 183 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,720 Isn't that great? You can still smell it after all these centuries. 184 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,280 The smell of history. 185 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,560 The other great task Kangxi set himself was cultural. 186 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:01,360 Well, I think Kangxi, as a Manchu emperor, knew very well 187 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:04,400 that he couldn't actually cope with the whole of the China that he had 188 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:09,000 conquered, and which he was going to rule, without the Chinese help. 189 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,920 So he mounted a charm offensive to a lot of the intellectuals 190 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:17,640 who were loyal to the previous dynasty. 191 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,160 He worked hard by getting these people to get involved 192 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:25,120 in the editing of so much of Chinese works. 193 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:26,280 Like this one, 194 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:30,320 which is the Quan Tangshi - The Complete Tang Poems. 195 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,720 And, my goodness me, you can see there is quite a lot. 196 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:35,320 How many poems? Do we know? 197 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:36,920 48,000 plus. 198 00:16:36,920 --> 00:16:39,120 48,000 plus. Yeah. 199 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:42,120 So, it's quite a project. 200 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:46,400 A hundred wood block carvers were employed, 201 00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:48,840 all under the supervision of a servant, 202 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,080 Cao Yin, who was Han Chinese, not Manchu. 203 00:16:54,040 --> 00:17:00,240 Cao Yin was, in theory, a bond servant or a slave, of the Manchus. 204 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:04,320 His family had been captured by the Manchus, before they actually 205 00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:07,520 took over the rule of the whole of the Chinese Empire. 206 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:15,360 And as a slave person, 207 00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:20,080 he remained very close to the Emperor in his household. 208 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:21,600 And, not only that. 209 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,880 Actually, Cao Yin's mother was made one of the nurses 210 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:27,880 for the Kangxi Emperor. 211 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,400 And they also say, though it's not proven, 212 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,200 that Cao Yin may have been one of the people who 213 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:38,160 was a sort of reader-companion to the Emperor when he was a small boy. 214 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:48,120 This sort of very close bond between them went on 215 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:51,680 and, apart from making him the titular head of this project, 216 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:54,480 because he was Chinese, 217 00:17:54,480 --> 00:18:00,760 he also made him a kind of spy, to make private reports 218 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:04,600 to the Imperial Palace alone 219 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,240 on what he saw in the course of his duties. 220 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:15,160 So, the bondsman Cao Yin oversaw the huge printing job. 221 00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:19,760 The collating, cutting, binding and sewing. 222 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:25,600 He published The Complete Tang poems in 1708 223 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,400 and on the frontispiece was a kind gesture by the Emperor 224 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,040 to the boy he'd grown up with - 225 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:33,920 his name on the front page. 226 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:37,120 Cao Yin wrote back, 227 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:40,480 "Who am I that I should be on this list of names? 228 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:45,520 "I do not know what happiness can ever compare with this" 229 00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:51,680 The great enterprise was done in the very city 230 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:55,360 destroyed by the Manchus in the horrors of 1645. 231 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:05,000 Yangzhou was rising again with Manchu patronage. 232 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,000 They, I think, have learned the art or the craft 233 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,440 of ruling China in the Confucius way very well 234 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:15,640 So, what you see in Yangzhou is a bit of a snapshot of some 235 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:18,000 of some of the prosperity that's coming out 236 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:21,880 of a relatively peaceful and stable period. 237 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:31,200 If Suzhou was the place to be in the Ming, in the Qing, it was Yangzhou. 238 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:36,800 So what you see is relatively secure property rights on land, 239 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,360 in the relatively free market, and commerce was, 240 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:44,080 I wouldn't say protected, but at least, in many cases, undisturbed. 241 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,520 'Visitors here in the 18th century describe it 242 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:54,360 'as a fusion of southern elegance and northern vigour. 243 00:19:54,360 --> 00:19:57,680 'In its streets, you saw wealth and culture all around you. 244 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:02,800 'Like Georgian London, it was a trend-setter, a capital of culture. 245 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,840 'And as one of China's four ancient cuisines, 246 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:10,560 'its cooking was famous, too, 247 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,280 'as it is today. 248 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,280 'Even the fast food.' 249 00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:17,560 Just the day for this. It's so cold, isn't it? 250 00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:23,760 That's fantastic. Wonderful. 251 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,120 Mmm! Yeah, really good. 252 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:36,640 Wonderful. 253 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:40,360 Situated on the Grand Canal, Yangzhou was a centre of commerce 254 00:20:40,360 --> 00:20:44,320 where millions were made through the lucrative salt monopoly. 255 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,320 At the time of the early Industrial Revolution in Europe, 256 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:53,640 China itself was developing the first shoots of capitalism, 257 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:55,240 but the Chinese way. 258 00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:11,880 And salt always very important in the story of Yangzhou. 259 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,200 So, Yangzhou's 200 salt merchants became 260 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,360 major players in the economy. 261 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,840 One of them came from a village we've already met in this story - 262 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:44,400 Tangyue, home of the Bao family. 263 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,280 Bao Zhidao became one of the richest men in China. 264 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,400 Because they make business in Yangzhou and they're getting richer, 265 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:58,520 so they have ability to build this kind of building. 266 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:00,960 So this is like grand bankers today in London, 267 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,240 building their mansions with their swimming pools and everything else, 268 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,320 but this is much more ritually centred and historically centred. 269 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,120 It's a corporation here. 270 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:14,240 Filial piety is good for big business, 271 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,040 and they don't need to lend, they don't need money - 272 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:18,720 they collect money together 273 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,800 and...exactly, the wording is share. 274 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:25,400 So if we want to know who is the shareholder, 275 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,240 just open the genealogy and see the activity 276 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:30,400 of who is joining in the activity, 277 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,920 the ritual activity, so you know the membership of this corporation. 278 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,880 So, in China, the lineage, the family, 279 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,240 is the corporation and the shareholders, 280 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:45,520 where, at this time in London or in the West, 281 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:49,480 private companies start to be the shareholders. 282 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:54,840 Back here in his home village, 283 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:59,080 Bao Zhidao is still remembered by his family for his Confucian values. 284 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,280 "The Confucian way was against excess. 285 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:18,080 "Be thrifty, but don't hoard. Spend wisely." 286 00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,360 So China thrived again under Manchu rule. 287 00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:04,280 In the 18th century, it had the biggest GDP in the world. 288 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:16,120 And the Yangzhou merchants made the most of it. 289 00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:18,920 In their gardens, they held cultural gatherings. 290 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:24,000 Their guests were poets, painters and book collectors. 291 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:26,200 Looking at it with Western eyes, 292 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:30,440 you might say this looks very much like an enlightenment society. 293 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,000 These guys were the equivalent of billionaires today 294 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,880 and they made their wealth on the backs of the poor... 295 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,280 ..but they were also public-spirited men. 296 00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:47,520 Bao Zhidao had the streets of his part of town repaved, 297 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,720 he established an insurance system for the boatmen 298 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,240 who ran the salt barges, 299 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:57,160 he built charitable schools for children at the gates of the city, 300 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:01,080 and he ploughed money back into his native village. 301 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,320 He may look very different to us, 302 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:07,720 in his great silk blue gowns 303 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,920 and his long moustaches and pigtails, 304 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:13,400 but he's the very model of what 305 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,840 would later be the Victorian philanthropist. 306 00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:22,120 In the 18th century, China was already developing a civil society. 307 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:32,280 And in the rich cities of the south, 308 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:36,240 the merchants were also great patrons of opera and drama. 309 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:42,360 Well, it's a very cold and rainy, snowy day 310 00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:45,480 at the end of a New Year festival. 311 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,200 And we're heading out into the countryside from Yangzhou 312 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:52,160 to see a performance of the traditional Yangzhou drama 313 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,560 by the main acting troupe. 314 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,600 Tradition which has been passed down across all the wars 315 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,720 and revolutions of the last couple of hundred years. 316 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,200 So what show are you doing this afternoon? 317 00:26:14,120 --> 00:26:16,000 And it's a sad story or a...? 318 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,320 In the Qing, travelling companies like this crisscrossed the south, 319 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:46,360 playing in the new market towns, 320 00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:49,480 which were springing all over the countryside, 321 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,960 providing entertainment to the expanding bourgeoisie, 322 00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:54,600 and to ordinary folk, too. 323 00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,960 Their shows adapted famous novels, 324 00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:04,760 but Qing drama also dealt with history - the fall of the Ming, 325 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:06,240 the sack of Yangzhou. 326 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,920 Contemporary themes with many lessons 327 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:15,200 for Chinese audiences still coming to terms with the Manchu conquest. 328 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,680 THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE 329 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,760 Today is my grandma's 90th birthday celebrations, 330 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:48,360 so it is a tradition for us to invite every family member 331 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:53,640 and their friends and neighbours to watch an opera. 332 00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:00,720 During the ancient time, if you were rich, 333 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:02,840 you'd have a opera stage in your home, 334 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,560 and if you have any kind of a celebration you would invite this 335 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:11,200 kind of opera team to your home to share your happiness with everyone. 336 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,320 But such a flourishing culture did not mean freedom. 337 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,480 The Qing state was an autocracy - 338 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:35,680 criticism of the system was dangerous. 339 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,440 As in England, dramatists were censored. 340 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:40,440 Books could be banned and burned. 341 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:43,760 So, as so often in Chinese history, 342 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,360 writers and artists learned to speak in code. 343 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,520 "Some people only see the surface of things", 344 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:56,720 wrote a Qing philosopher. 345 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:01,080 "They focus on appearances and miss the essence. 346 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,080 "But in the human world, and in nature, 347 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:12,560 "there are things that cannot be transmitted through words." 348 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,800 Over a century before the European expressionists, 349 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,640 one group of Yangzhou painters broke with tradition to try 350 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,840 to get beyond the world of appearances. 351 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:28,080 What's so special about the Yangzhou painters, 352 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,480 does your father think? 353 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,040 So far away from the conservative culture of the capital, 354 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,800 Chinese artists and thinkers were beginning to explore 355 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:58,720 different pathways to modernity. 356 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:04,240 Always aware of the watchful eye of the state, 357 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:07,480 they were developing new modes of expression... 358 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:14,120 ..challenging the old meanings of history and ethics, 359 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,840 and looking for new ways to represent the inner life, 360 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:20,960 what one Qing writer called, 361 00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,280 "The domain of the demonic and mysterious." 362 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:33,080 'But the 18th century also saw a huge explosion of popular culture, 363 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,200 'which reached down even to the illiterate.' 364 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:39,000 Hello. Ni hao. Thank you. 365 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,080 There used to be three teachings, it was said - 366 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,840 Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. 367 00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:12,520 But now there's a fourth - Popular Fiction - 368 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:14,800 and everybody loves it. 369 00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,160 This is The Water Margin. 370 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,480 It's really the Chinese equivalent of Robin Hood - 371 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,520 the bunch of good outlaws who live out on Mount Liang - 372 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,680 the Chinese equivalent of Sherwood forest. 373 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,880 There's even a Buddhist monk, a kind of Chinese Friar Tuck. 374 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:36,560 Drinks just as much, but a little more violent! 375 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,560 HE SHOUTS 376 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:46,360 But under the Qing, the Water Margin 377 00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:49,840 and other tales were periodically banned as subversive. 378 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,280 The outlaws' exploits, it was thought, 379 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,040 might encourage seditious anti-Manchu sympathies. 380 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,520 By now, Kangxi himself was getting old. 381 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:23,480 His boyhood friend, the bond-servant, Cao Yin, was dead now. 382 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:26,160 The Emperor had cared about him to the end. 383 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,080 "You're not well", Kangxi wrote. 384 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,280 "Take this, it's Western medicine, but it really works. 385 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:35,600 "But take care of yourself, take care." 386 00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:41,680 Now in his late 60s, 387 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,200 the Emperor was conscious of his own mortality, too. 388 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:49,520 "When I was young", he wrote, "I didn't know what sickness was. 389 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:53,760 "Now I'm getting thinner and weaker. I have dizzy spells." 390 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,720 "Officials can retire, but I can't. 391 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,280 "I'm old, but I can't rest for a minute. 392 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,880 "If I die without trouble breaking out for China, I will die happy." 393 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:19,200 Kangxi died in 1722 after a reign of 61 years, 394 00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,160 longest in Chinese history. 395 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,400 And he left his sons this advice. "The great rulers of the past", 396 00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,760 he said, "Followed two guiding principles in governing China. 397 00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,120 "Number one - have reverence for the laws of heaven. 398 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,600 "And number two - have reverence for the ancestors." 399 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:45,240 "Work hard", he said. 400 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:46,560 "Take care. 401 00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:49,760 "Mix strictness with leniency 402 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,360 "and expedience with principle, 403 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:57,720 "and, that way, you'll find a long-term vision for the nation." 404 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,600 And Kangxi did have a vision for the nation. 405 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:06,560 He was a benevolent dictator. 406 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,440 But the Qing was still and autocratic state 407 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:13,480 and Imperial favour could vanish overnight. 408 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,880 The new emperor was Kangxi's 43-year-old son, Yongzheng. 409 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:21,280 "Don't think I'm a novice", he said. 410 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,000 "I've spent my life in the real world." 411 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,640 Straightforward but formidable, 412 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,280 Yongzheng began a war against corruption and incompetence. 413 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,800 There were purges and show trials, 414 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,600 and among those caught in the net were the family 415 00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,280 of the late bondsman Cao Yin, 416 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,880 their intimacy with Kangxi now forgotten. 417 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,040 Just imagine it, the Emperor's troops crashing into the house, 418 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,680 the servants taken away for questioning, 419 00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:58,200 the inventory made of your possessions, 420 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:01,160 and then the show trial and the inevitable verdict. 421 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:04,560 And all that was watched, 422 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:08,120 wide-eyed, one imagines, by Cao Yin's 13-year-old grandson, 423 00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:12,720 who at that moment remembered Grandad's favourite old saying - 424 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:17,000 "When the tree falls, the monkeys will be scattered." 425 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:35,600 The Cao family moved to these alleys in Beijing 426 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:40,200 and, here, Cao Yin's young grandson, Cao Xueqin, grew up. 427 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:42,440 A watchful, clever child, 428 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:46,920 wary of all power, having seen the family crushed by the state, 429 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,560 and he grew up in the life of the imagination. 430 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:55,560 He wanted to be a writer, 431 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:59,280 but in Emperor Qianlong's day that was fraught with jeopardy. 432 00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:00,720 There were book burnings, 433 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:06,240 over 50 writers were executed for criticising the government. 434 00:36:06,240 --> 00:36:08,920 So these lanes around the lake were his haunts. 435 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,320 He didn't have a good degree, so he never got a good job. 436 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,880 He worked for a while in a wine bar, slept in the stable. 437 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:24,000 He got jobs as a tutor for the children of rich families 438 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,760 in the great mansions the other side of the lake. 439 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:33,480 Final warning, he got sacked for having an affair with the maid. 440 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,400 Never got employed again. 441 00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:38,720 Ended up down and out in north Beijing. 442 00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:56,040 But that bohemian life in these streets gave the young man 443 00:36:56,040 --> 00:37:00,280 his own perspective on the tensions underneath Chinese society. 444 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,040 In the teeming alleys of the capital, 445 00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:09,000 there were many kinds of stories. 446 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:30,680 For a while, he rented a cottage in the hills outside Beijing, 447 00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,360 at a peppercorn rent, through a family friend. 448 00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:41,640 And there, an idea began to take shape. 449 00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:50,680 "The reminders of my poverty were all around me", he said. 450 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:56,480 "The old stove, the hard bed, the thatched roof, the latticed window. 451 00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,880 "But such things are not necessarily obstacles 452 00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:02,080 "to the creative imagination. 453 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:08,520 "In fact, the view from my front door - 454 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:14,520 "the landscape, the trees and the autumn leaves, the wind - 455 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:18,120 "were positive encouragements to write. 456 00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:23,200 "What was to stop me turning the whole thing into a story?" 457 00:38:30,720 --> 00:38:32,680 And what a story. 458 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:35,560 It's nothing less than the great Chinese novel. 459 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,480 A window into the Chinese imagination. 460 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:44,160 Surreal, poignant, romantic. 461 00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:54,240 This book is written about 250 years ago, right? 462 00:38:54,240 --> 00:38:58,640 But as a person from modern times, I still can really relate with it 463 00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:02,760 because the love and freedom - the eternal topic. 464 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,960 I feel like the main character, Jia Baoyu, he's a rebel. 465 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,240 - He's the hero. - He is not hero. 466 00:39:11,240 --> 00:39:13,840 - Kind of hero. - Well, yeah. But he's the rebel, 467 00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:17,360 and I think that's more important than being a hero. 468 00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:23,080 The book tells the tale of a family over four generations, until, 469 00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:25,440 as grandad Cao Yin had feared, 470 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:29,040 the tree falls and the monkeys are scattered. 471 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:34,520 Best part of this novel is actually the humanity, caring 472 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,720 and universal volume inside of this book. 473 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:39,400 The people inside of this book, 474 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:41,760 they are not afraid to express themselves. 475 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:45,760 They are brave enough to stand up for love. 476 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,360 They are having this hope and Cao Xueqin has this hope - 477 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,920 for women, for the servant, 478 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:56,200 for everyone who has a dream, who has the chance to love. 479 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:58,440 He doesn't discriminate them. 480 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:02,280 He doesn't think the royalty is better than the servant. 481 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:06,040 He thinks everybody is the same, everybody has the right to love, 482 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:08,040 and everybody deserves respect. 483 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:16,200 'Cao Xeuqin, the bondsman's grandson, died in 1763, 484 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:20,600 'his heart broken by the death of his only son. 485 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:27,000 'His novel was finally printed in 1791, 486 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,360 'censored, it was rumoured, but brilliantly capturing the glory 487 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:34,760 'that was Qing China and the knife edge on which that glory balanced. 488 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:38,960 'When he wrote, in the mid 1700s, 489 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:43,040 'China was still the greatest civilisation in the world, and, 490 00:40:43,040 --> 00:40:47,840 'in time, no doubt, would've found its own form of modernity.' 491 00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:54,680 Many people think that was the height of the Qing Dynasty. 492 00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:59,880 The population has nearly tripled and the territory doubled. 493 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:02,480 So, I guess, it was, at that time, 494 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:06,600 this was maybe the peace before the storm. 495 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,600 Land ahoy! It's China! 496 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:21,280 It's China! 497 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:25,120 But, now, China came into contact with a rising maritime 498 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:30,960 power from a small island 7,000 miles away, off the shore of Europe. 499 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:32,840 The British. 500 00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:47,400 'In the story of civilisation, the British couldn't compare with 501 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:50,200 'China and its 4,000-year-old tradition... 502 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,920 '..but they would change the course of Chinese history.' 503 00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,800 This is the Pearl River and this is the great city 504 00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:05,320 of Guangzhou, what the Europeans call Canton. 505 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:10,200 And it was here, in the mid 1700s, that the destinies of China 506 00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:14,080 and the British began to intertwine. 507 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,080 The British were becoming a great power in India and opening up 508 00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:24,160 a global trading network for the first time in history. 509 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,360 They wanted to get in on the Chinese market. 510 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,480 They wanted luxuries and silk and textiles, but, above all, 511 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:32,520 they wanted tea. 512 00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:34,480 MARKET CROWD CHATTERS 513 00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:39,000 'They'd started to drink tea back in the 17th century, 514 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:42,360 'paying for it with hard currency - silver - 515 00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:46,400 'but that soon became a problem for their balance of payments.' 516 00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,080 During the course of the 18th century, 517 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:52,920 tea became a British obsession, their national drink. 518 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:56,360 And, by then, 519 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,960 they were importing millions of pounds weight of tea every year. 520 00:42:59,960 --> 00:43:03,560 It was 10% of the national revenue. 521 00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:08,320 No wonder, then, that people said, "If the China tea trade was 522 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:11,640 "endangered, the British nation was in trouble." 523 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:17,520 But the problem was that China was self-sufficient - 524 00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:20,160 it didn't need the outside world. 525 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:23,360 Europeans, and British in particular, were buying a lot 526 00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:29,360 from China and China wasn't buying a lot from Britain and Europe. 527 00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:32,560 There was nothing, really, that they needed. 528 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,240 So, the British set out to create the demand. 529 00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:45,320 And the British and other traders - the Portuguese, the Dutch - were 530 00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:48,960 all thinking, "What is it that the Chinese would buy 531 00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:53,800 "so that we can get that silver out and then we can get more tea?" 532 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:59,280 And...by the...1790s, I think, 533 00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,480 they figured it out, 534 00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,080 that the Chinese 535 00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:05,720 were buying a little bit of opium every time, 536 00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:08,000 and that number was increasing. 537 00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:17,840 The key to the opium trade was British control of India, 538 00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,960 where the opium was grown. 539 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,960 The East India Company bought raw cotton from India 540 00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,160 and then sold it back to them as Finnish textiles. 541 00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,640 They then bought up Indian opium and sold it to China, 542 00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:37,840 buying tea in return. And, so, they created a trading triangle. 543 00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:41,200 The profits were high, but so was the risk. 544 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:49,120 So, in 1793, the British sent an embassy to China to try 545 00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:51,880 to get favoured trading nation status. 546 00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:55,840 Its leader was Sir George Macartney. 547 00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:57,640 Born in Country Antrim, 548 00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:01,320 Macartney had served in the Caribbean and India. 549 00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,880 He coined the phrase, "The empire on which the sun never sets." 550 00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,960 "China is picturesque beyond comparison", he wrote, 551 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:19,920 "the rice paddies, the fields of sugar cane, the tea plantations." 552 00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,240 "The common people of China", he said, 553 00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:28,280 "are patient and industrious, cheerful under the severest labour. 554 00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:32,360 "Hardy and loquacious, they are by no means the sedate, 555 00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:34,760 "tranquil people they've been represented." 556 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,360 "But the poorest", 557 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:47,440 he added, "detest the Mandarins, whose arbitrary powers they fear, 558 00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:51,880 "whose injustice they feel, whose rapacity they must feed." 559 00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:00,440 The emperor wouldn't meet them in Beijing 560 00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:05,040 because the British refused to prostrate themselves or "kowtow". 561 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:09,400 So they set up their gifts from Birmingham 562 00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:14,480 and Manchester manufacturers outside the capital, at the Summer Palace. 563 00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:17,040 By now, the British were frazzled. 564 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:23,200 The nine-month sea journey, the weeks overland to Peking. 565 00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:26,560 And the emperor took them by surprise, he came unannounced. 566 00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:34,040 The British were very impressed by him as a man. 567 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,840 83 years old, but didn't look a day over 60. 568 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:41,560 His manner, dignified and affable. 569 00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:47,240 He asked if anybody in the embassy spoke Chinese and a 12-year-old 570 00:46:47,240 --> 00:46:51,560 page boy called Staunton had learned a bit of Chinese on the journey. 571 00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:57,560 The emperor was so delighted that he gave little Staunton his fine, 572 00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:00,800 yellow, silk purse that hung by his belt, 573 00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:04,320 containing his favourite Areca nuts. 574 00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:07,920 Well, that was quite optimistic for the British, 575 00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:09,920 but what followed wasn't. 576 00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:20,480 The emperor went round looking at the presents, the honourees, the 577 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:24,640 celestial globes, the planetarium, the telescopes, 578 00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:27,720 without a flicker on his countenance. 579 00:47:27,720 --> 00:47:32,120 And he picked up the air pump and then said, 580 00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:36,800 "These things are not good enough to amuse a child." 581 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:48,760 Deflated by his failure, Macartney returned to Macau, dismissing 582 00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:53,000 the Qing state as a crazy old man of war, no longer seaworthy. 583 00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:58,480 As he saw it, the Qing government was holding the Chinese 584 00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:02,120 people back from the benefits of modern civilisation. 585 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,000 "And a nation that does not advance", he said, 586 00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:10,760 "must retrograde and, finally, fall back into barbarism and misery." 587 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:22,640 But the British simply couldn't take no for an answer. 588 00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:26,320 Thank you. 589 00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:31,680 'If any link in their global trading network was broken, 590 00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:34,520 'their economy could face disaster. 591 00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:41,000 "Our aim", said Macartney, "should be to mould the China trade to the 592 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:47,160 "shape that best suits us. Any stopping of that trade would have a 593 00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:51,240 "severe effect on our position in India, to which it is already 594 00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:52,960 "immeasurably valuable. 595 00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:58,400 "It would have an immediate and heavy blow 596 00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:00,600 "on our own woollen industries 597 00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:04,280 "and manufacturers back home, the ancient staple of England, 598 00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,720 "and all our other growing imports 599 00:49:06,720 --> 00:49:10,560 "and manufactures would be instantly convulsed." 600 00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:18,560 So, the honourable East India Company continued to smuggle opium, 601 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,120 despite public outrage back in Britain. 602 00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:23,560 And, soon, the ravages of the drug became 603 00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:27,520 apparent in the streets of China, with millions of addicts. 604 00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:35,000 By the 1820s, opium addiction became visible, socially, 605 00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:39,240 which means opium dens on the street, people dying off, 606 00:49:39,240 --> 00:49:44,160 dosing off on the street...it's becoming a social problem. 607 00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:52,320 Suddenly, there's a huge increase of court documents relating to this. 608 00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:54,960 If you search "1790s", there's none. 609 00:49:54,960 --> 00:49:56,680 Then if you go to 1810s, 610 00:49:56,680 --> 00:49:59,320 maybe a few, if you go to 1820s, it's a lot, 611 00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:01,400 go to 1830s, it's a huge amount. 612 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:07,920 So, I think, by mid-1830s, 613 00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,000 1835, 1836, 614 00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:14,200 it's obvious they have to do something about this. 615 00:50:17,240 --> 00:50:20,960 'Shocked by the social effects of the opium trade and by its drain 616 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:24,000 'on their silver supply, the emperor and his advisors 617 00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:26,040 'debated what to do.' 618 00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,640 The emperor spent time looking for an upright official 619 00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:38,760 because opium is something you could sell and make lots of money, 620 00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:43,600 so you need someone who is upright and very Confucian, very moral. 621 00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:49,280 Such a man was the incorruptible Commissioner Lin. 622 00:50:49,280 --> 00:50:51,880 Of his appointment, an old friend wrote, 623 00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:55,880 "Our great land needs thunder and lightning to revive it now." 624 00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:05,080 Lin gave the orders to destroy 625 00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,080 all the opium held in British warehouses. 626 00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,600 Commissioner Lin began the destruction 627 00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:15,440 of the British opium in early June 1839. 628 00:51:17,720 --> 00:51:21,480 There were 1,200 tonnes of it. 629 00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:25,320 It took 500 workers more than three weeks to get rid of it all, 630 00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:29,560 burning it, mixing it with lime and dumping it in these ponds. 631 00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:37,560 At the same time, the Commissioner wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, a 632 00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:42,920 letter that's touching in its almost naive belief in Confucian morality. 633 00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:48,280 "We learn that your country is 634 00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:52,280 "60 or 70,000 lee away from China", he said. 635 00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,240 "and yet, foreign vessels come here to make great profit 636 00:51:55,240 --> 00:51:57,960 "out of the wealth of our country. 637 00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:00,400 "But by what right in return do they sell us 638 00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:04,360 "this poisonous drug which does so much harm to the Chinese people? 639 00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:09,000 "They may not necessarily intend to hurt us, 640 00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:12,200 "but, by putting profit above all things, 641 00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:15,440 "they are disregarding the harm they do to others. 642 00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:19,600 "So, we ask you, where is your conscience?" 643 00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,720 But the British were in no mood to discuss Confucian ethics. 644 00:52:29,720 --> 00:52:33,560 The fact that China had 50 times their population 645 00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:36,760 and lay the other side of the world was of no matter. 646 00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:41,120 They were a maritime nation, the Chinese were not. 647 00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:46,000 In fact, the Chinese didn't really have a navy at all. 648 00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:49,280 Did they understand that the balance of power in the world was 649 00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:52,080 changing because of maritime power? 650 00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:54,760 I think, for us historians, we're always asking that, 651 00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:57,520 "Don't they realise that they were no match? 652 00:52:57,520 --> 00:52:59,800 "Don't they know what's going on in the world?" 653 00:53:02,280 --> 00:53:07,600 I think the answer, I can be quite definite in that, is no. 654 00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:10,440 They still think we are the middle kingdom 655 00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:15,720 and all under heaven respects China, admires Chinese civilisation. 656 00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:20,520 Bringing ships and men from India, 657 00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:25,200 the British gathered a task force and sailed to China. 658 00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:29,000 In New Year 1841, they entered the Pearl River. 659 00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:38,520 And there, the Chinese found themselves hopelessly out-gunned. 660 00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:45,520 The Chinese had defended the estuarine depth, 661 00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:48,560 they had outer fortifications towards the sea and then, 662 00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:52,760 at the narrows, these big fortresses with heavy guns. 663 00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:57,200 To the soldiers who were waiting here so anxiously, 664 00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:00,360 it must have seemed that they had a chance of defeating the British. 665 00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:06,960 In fact, the Chinese guns were useless, with their fixed 666 00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:10,960 positions and fixed range, against a mobile enemy. 667 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:18,240 The British fleet had three 74-gun warships out in the estuary. 668 00:54:18,240 --> 00:54:21,000 A flotilla of smaller vessels, 669 00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:24,560 they had 15 troop ships carrying native Indian regiments, 670 00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:27,280 who were going to fight alongside the British 671 00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:29,560 when they stormed these fortresses. 672 00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:34,720 And their secret weapon was a nearly 200-foot-long boat made 673 00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:37,520 entirely of iron. 674 00:54:37,520 --> 00:54:42,080 And, on it, swivel and pivot-mounted, heavy weaponry 675 00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:46,560 and a rocket launcher that could send incendiary projectiles. 676 00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:52,200 And the name of the boat was the Nemesis. Retribution. 677 00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:58,520 At the climax of the battle, a British rocket hit the powder store 678 00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:02,640 of the flagship Chinese junk, which blew up in a tremendous explosion. 679 00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:12,240 The British then rampaged up the coast 680 00:55:12,240 --> 00:55:15,720 and stormed the port city of Ningbo 681 00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:23,760 It was shock and awe, 19th century style. 682 00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:25,800 GUNSHOTS 683 00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:28,200 SCREAMING 684 00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:31,920 'Rocked by their defeat, 685 00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:35,880 'the Qing government sued for peace in the very place where, 400 years 686 00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:40,840 'before, Admiral Zheng He had given thanks after his great voyages. 687 00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:47,520 'Here, in this room in Nanjing, they negotiated 688 00:55:47,520 --> 00:55:51,360 'the first of what the Chinese call, "The Unequal Treaties." ' 689 00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:11,320 'So, power had come from the barrel of a gun. 690 00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:14,240 'The British had got what they wanted - trading rights, 691 00:56:14,240 --> 00:56:16,640 'silver and a foothold in China, 692 00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:19,640 'five treaty ports on the Chinese coast.' 693 00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:25,000 The treaty was signed out on the Yangtze River, 694 00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:29,040 in the admiral's cabin of HMS Cornwallis, 695 00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,840 and so began what has come to be seen 696 00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:34,800 as China's century of humiliation. 697 00:56:36,720 --> 00:56:39,880 And, as Dr Tian Jian explained to me, 698 00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:42,920 that time has left its mark on China till today. 699 00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:14,920 History, the Chinese say, is a mirror. 700 00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:19,520 In Chinese history, every dynasty has reached a peak 701 00:57:19,520 --> 00:57:23,920 and then declined and needed outside influence to bring change. 702 00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:28,160 This time, the catalyst was the British. 703 00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:34,120 'Among the treaty ports was a small town that would become 704 00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,840 'the greatest city on earth, Shanghai, 705 00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:41,080 'and an uninhabited island, Hong Kong.' 706 00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:46,040 And all this was the unintended consequence of the first opium war. 707 00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:50,400 All there was here was a few wooded islands and promontories, 708 00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:53,760 a couple of native fishing villages, and a wonderful anchorage, 709 00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:56,640 which is why the British wanted it, 710 00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:58,280 and it would become one of 711 00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:01,000 the greatest trading cities in the world. 712 00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:06,200 So, out of these traumatic events would come new forces 713 00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:10,960 and new ideas that would transform China in the modern age 714 00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:15,160 in ways no-one could have foreseen back in 1841. 715 00:58:21,720 --> 00:58:26,160 Next time, the end of the empire, civil war and revolution, 716 00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:29,360 and the amazing transformation of modern China.