Guo Shilie and "open China": the Collision between China and the West in the First Half of the 19th Century
by Li Yunzhe
About This Novel
Prussian Karl Gützlaff is a key figure in the history of modern Sino-foreign relations. He has an arrogant and arrogant personality and acts in an exaggerated and high-profile manner. With his extraordinary language genius, he was the first to break through the Qing government's maritime ban in the early 1830s. Since then, he has played multiple roles as an opium merchant, a British business supervisor, a translator, a staff officer, an intelligence officer, a colonial official and a missionary for the British invaders and the British Hong Kong government. He is the editor of the first Chinese journal in China, "Xiyang Kao Monthly Tongji Biography", and the founder of the Han Hui, the earliest inland missionary society in China. He wrote essays and travel notes in Chinese, English, German, Dutch and other languages, which had a great influence. He is a key clue for future generations to understand the collision process between China and the West in the first half of the 19th century, but his behavior and image are full of contradictions, confusing and difficult to distinguish. The controversy about him still remains. This book starts from the newly discovered special collections of Leiden University, Anglican Church archives, Dutch Missionary Society archives and other documents, and cross-examines documents in English, German, Dutch, Chinese and other languages, trying to re-outline the historical image of Guo Shilie, and then reveal the role of public opinion and practical influence he played in the process of "opening up China".
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