1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 167: Do Not Kneel Before the Emperor
On May 1903, 5, Li Qiwei, led by his guards, officially entered the Forbidden City.

At that time, the area of ​​the capital was far smaller than that of later generations, and was mainly divided into two parts: the inner city and the outer city.

The central area of ​​the inner city is the imperial city, where royal relatives, princes, nobles, etc. live.

In the center of the imperial city, there is a rectangular area, which is the Forbidden City, where the emperor, princes, and concubines live.

The Forbidden City was built by Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Di overthrew Emperor Jianwen, it was difficult to control Nanjing because it was the enemy's sphere of influence.

So he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City served as the residence and office of the emperor and members of the royal family.

The overall layout of the building can be roughly summarized as "ancestral temple on the left, community temple on the right, court in front and bedroom in the back".

The south gate of the Forbidden City is the most famous "Wu Men".

There is a large flat area outside the Meridian Gate, where officials from the six ministries work.

This place no longer belongs to the Forbidden City, but to the Imperial City.

At the same time, with the central axis of the Forbidden City as the dividing line, just outside the Meridian Gate, there are Zuo Zu and You She.

Zuozu refers to the Taimiao on the left, where the tablets of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty are enshrined.

Youshe refers to the Sheji Altar on the right, which symbolizes the foundation of the Qing Dynasty.

The Forbidden City can be divided into the front court and the rear palace, and the dividing line is the Qianqing Gate.

In front of the Qianqing Gate are the three main halls: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. The most important ceremonies such as the emperor's enthronement, wedding, and enthronement were held here.

This is the facade of the Forbidden City, representing the nobility and mystery of the royal family and has extremely important symbolic significance.

For a long time, the emperor held court and handled government affairs at the Qianqing Gate.

Behind the Qianqing Gate are the famous Three Palaces and Six Courtyards, the Qianqing Palace, the Kunning Palace, the Imperial Garden, etc., which were the places where the emperor and his concubines sought pleasure.

If the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the facade of the previous dynasty, then the Palace of Heavenly Purity is the facade of the inner court, and it was the emperor's bedroom during the Ming Dynasty.

But when Emperor Yongzheng came to power, he took a fancy to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to the west of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, so he moved there.

Yongzheng was a workaholic. He also set up the Grand Council in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, which was next to each other and very close to each other, making it convenient for him to handle military and national affairs.

Therefore, later emperors basically lived in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The Qianqing Palace became the place where the emperor summoned court officials and reviewed memorials, and some small-scale banquets were also held here.

However, Guangxu was very miserable. He did not live in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, but was placed under house arrest in Yingtai by Cixi.

Yingtai is no longer within the Forbidden City, but it still belongs to the imperial city.

Guangxu still had to attend court, and after each court session, he would be taken to Yingtai. Yingtai was surrounded by water and had only one road leading to the outside.

There were many eunuchs monitoring Guangxu, and anything had to be approved by Cixi before it could be brought in.

Once, Guangxu was bored and asked a young eunuch to bring him a slingshot. When Cixi found out, she was furious and the young eunuch committed suicide by jumping into the lake.

From then on, no one dared to listen to Guangxu anymore, and the eunuchs pretended not to hear what Guangxu asked.

Therefore, although he was an emperor, what he ate, used and wore was probably not as good as that of an ordinary wealthy family.

Guangxu was under house arrest until his death in 1908. Unfortunately, he died one day earlier than Cixi.

However, today, Guangxu was extremely excited because he was about to meet Li Qiwei.

Originally, Cixi did not allow Guangxu to summon Li Qiwei alone.

But for some unknown reason, the envoys from Britain, France and other countries strongly protested and demanded that Cixi give in.

The British Minister to the Empire, Sir Thomas P. Sartre, bluntly stated that Ridgeway was a knight of the British Empire, and that paying a visit to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was a matter of courtesy and the Qing Dynasty was not allowed to stop him.

Cixi was unhappy, but there was nothing she could do. After all, he was just a minor official and insignificant, so she sent someone to Yingtai to bring back Guangxu.

At this time, in the Yangxin Palace, Guangxu finally saw Li Qiwei, whom he had been thinking about for a long time.

The opponent is like a hidden sword, sharp and intimidating.

Guangxu was overjoyed, as he realized that he was indeed different from those good-for-nothings who just occupied their positions and did nothing.

Only such a person's temperament is worthy of being chosen by me.

Li Qiwei was tall and handsome, and his unique Western-educated temperament impressed Guangxu at first sight.

It was also the first time that Li Qiwei saw Guangxu in person, and he was completely different from what he had imagined.

The other person did not have any domineering aura, and made him tremble when he got close to him.

Guangxu, 33 years old this year, was wearing casual clothes at this time, like an older brother next door, with joy in his eyes.

Li Qiwei was a little suspicious that Guangxu might be in an abnormal mental state due to being suppressed and imprisoned for a long time.

Seeing Li Qiwei standing there in a daze, not even kneeling down to kowtow, the young eunuch shouted, "How dare you! Why don't you kneel before His Majesty?"

Li Qiwei smiled. He had to face this moment eventually.

Since the birth of the position of emperor, it has always been the most noble existence in the world.

Above ten thousand people, shepherding the people on behalf of God.

When a mortal sees the emperor, he must kneel in the dust.

Although in some dynasties, the emperor and his ministers got along like friends, it was different in the Qing Dynasty.

This is the most feudal dynasty in Chinese history, and its rules are extremely strict.

However, the imperial spirit accumulated during the reigns of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong has been shattered in recent decades.

There are too many people in the world who no longer take the Qing emperors seriously.

Li Qiwei is one of them.

"I was knighted by the King of England himself, so I don't have to kneel down and kowtow to the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty."

"What's the crime?"

After saying this, Li Qiwei rarely took out his knighthood certificate to prove his identity.

This immediately left the young eunuch speechless.

Because of the issue of kneeling, Britain actually had a dispute with the Qing Dynasty.

In 1792, the British government sent an embassy headed by Lord Macartney to visit the Qing Dynasty in an attempt to do business in the country.

As a result, the two sides had a heated argument over the etiquette of the audience.

Macartney believed that Britain and the Qing Dynasty were two independent countries, and Britain was not a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, so there was no need to kneel down to the Qing emperor.

But Qianlong was very angry after hearing this, and said that if you foreigners are sincere and respectful, I will treat you with kindness; if you are arrogant, then go back to your Britain.

In the end, Heshen stepped forward and came up with a compromise plan, which was to let Macartney kneel on one knee and meet the Qing emperor with the same courtesy as he would meet the King of England.

In order to expand the market for Britain, Macartney had no choice but to swallow his anger and do as he was told.

After returning home, Macartney immediately started cursing and publicly declared:

The Qing Empire was like a shabby first-class battleship.

The only reason it has not sunk in the past 150 years is because of a group of lucky and capable officers.

The only thing that made the Qing superior to its neighbors was its size and appearance. Once an untalented man took command on deck, there would be no discipline or safety.

He also said: The Qing government's policies were related to its arrogance. It wanted to dominate other countries, but it was extremely short-sighted and only knew how to prevent the people's intellectual progress.

But no matter how dissatisfied Macartney was, Britain was helpless against the Qing Dynasty and could not do anything about it.

In 1816, Britain again sent Amherst to lead a delegation to visit the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty was Jiaqing.

As a result, the two sides failed to reach an agreement again, and Jiaqing, like his father, demanded kneeling.

What’s the matter? You kneel to my father but not to me. Do you look down on me?

This time it was even worse. Amherst refused to comply and in the end he didn't even get to see Jiaqing.

Everyone knows what happened next.

After Britain's national strength soared due to the Industrial Revolution, it immediately traveled thousands of miles to defeat the Qing Dynasty.

They were not satisfied after the beating because there were too few ports open during the Qing Dynasty, so they beat them a few more times, which led to the current situation.

Nowadays, British envoys no longer had to kneel when meeting Guangxu and Cixi, and the other party had no objection.

And in order to show contempt, Britain's highest diplomatic official in the Qing Dynasty was the minister, not the ambassador.

Because Britain felt that although the Qing Dynasty was large in size, it was essentially a small country and was not worthy of being on the same level as itself, so it only sent an envoy.

The Qing Dynasty sent an ambassador to Britain.

Ambassador, Minister, Counselor.
The rank of diplomatic personnel also represents the reputation of the country.

So, when Li Qiwei took out his certificate of British knighthood, the young eunuch was dumbfounded and did not dare to force Li Qiwei to kneel.

If there is any diplomatic incident again, he will have ten heads to chop off.

There is no strict nationality system in this era.

Li Qiwei was a Qing citizen, but he was awarded a British knighthood. No one can explain the exact reason.

This time, the situation became awkward.

In the end, it was Guangxu who took the initiative to speak and resolved the problem.

"Well, Li Aiqing studied abroad and is highly regarded by the King of England. It is reasonable for him not to kneel before the Emperor."

"Don't ask too much of him."

The young eunuch replied with a "huh" and then stepped aside angrily.

He was Cixi's man, and was here to monitor Guangxu. He didn't care whether Guangxu was angry or not.

Guangxu was even considerate enough to ask Li Qiwei to sit down and answer his questions, which the young eunuch considered a blessing from heaven.

In his heart, he slandered Li Qiwei for being so lucky.

Li Qiwei's face was calm and he never smiled. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

After the interlude, Guangxu immediately got to the point and asked: "My dear, you studied in the UK. Do you know why the Western powers are so powerful?"

Li Qiwei thought for a while and said, "I'm sure your Majesty's teachers have already explained these issues very clearly."

"I would like to share my personal opinion."

Guangxu immediately perked up and pretended to listen carefully.

Because the information he usually receives is beautified and processed, it is all the same and has no novelty.

But Li Qiwei has actually been to the West, so naturally he has different feelings.

“German Chancellor Bismarck once said: If a country wants to be strong, it must attach importance to education.”

“And that’s exactly what they did.”

"In Germany, education is compulsory. If a child does not go to school, his parents will even be fined."

"This sounds like a fantasy in the country."

"Speaking of university education, all Western governments have devoted all their efforts to building a high-end university."

“This will attract talent from all over the world.”

"The UK has Cambridge University and Oxford University; Germany has the University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen; France has the University of Paris; the US has Harvard University, and so on."

"The status of Cambridge University, where I am, is so high that I am afraid no one in the country can imagine it."

"Even the British government has no authority over Cambridge University. Whether it is the rules for recruiting students or hiring professors, everything is decided by the university itself."

“The government’s only role is to provide administrative convenience to universities.”

"This is very similar to our Chinese philosophy of governing by doing nothing."

“This is especially true in the field of education.”

“The purpose of education is to liberate people’s imagination and free it from any constraints, so that original research can be done.”

"Your Majesty, don't worry. Now that the students are free, will they still be loyal to the Qing?"

"Because the imagination here refers to the imagination of studying things, not the imagination of studying the Four Books and Five Classics."

"The great scientists in the West are well-educated, and I have never seen anyone specifically oppose his own country."

"On the other hand, the only thing that the Qing Dynasty can boast of is probably the Imperial University of Peking."

"But if I may be frank, compared with Cambridge University, it is like the difference between a child and an adult."

Li Qiwei's analysis completely confused Guangxu.

He had never heard of this before, and no one had told him about it.

How many people in the Qing Dynasty studied at Cambridge University?

Therefore, Guangxu could not imagine that a university could be run in this way and even the government could not control it.

At the same time, a fiery emotion appeared in Guangxu's eyes.

"So this is why you, Mr. Li, returned to China to run an education business?"

"You still care about the Qing Dynasty, don't you?"

Li Qiwei lied without changing his expression, and said, "Your Majesty, I have a pure heart, and heaven and earth can bear witness to it."

"The Qing Dynasty has been weak for a long time and has too many problems. If we want to become stronger, we have a myriad of tasks to do."

“But at the heart of these efforts is education.”

“Only education can make a country strong and only education can achieve sustainable development.”

"Even if the Qing Dynasty can continue to buy guns and cannons from foreign countries, what if one day they stop selling them?"

"So we have to make them ourselves, and making these high-tech products requires a large number of talents."

"These talents are cultivated through the establishment of education."

"This is why I have been suggesting that we build more universities, and that they focus on the training of science and engineering majors."

Thanks to Li Qiwei's memorial, Guangxu now has a general understanding of the meaning of these professional terms.

"My dear minister, you are truly a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty!" Guangxu sighed sincerely, feeling fooled.

(End of this chapter)