Modern Chinese History: Illustrated Collection

The Chinese nation entered a special period in the 19th century. Before that, although the Chinese had long-standing relations with foreigners, those foreigners were all ethnic groups with lower cultures. Even if they took control of the Central Plains, they would only take advantage of the temporary civil strife among the Chinese to temporarily seize power. By the 19th century, the situation was completely different, because the British, American, and French countries that came to East Asia at this time were by no means comparable to the Huns, Xianbei, Mongols, Japanese pirates, and Qing people. It turns out that human development can be divided into two worlds, one is Asia in the East, and the other is Europe and America in the West. Although the two worlds had a relationship before the nineteenth century, that relationship was intermittent and dispensable. In the Eastern world, China is the leader and the big brother. We regard ourselves as the big brother, and other countries, including Japan, also recognize our superior status. By the 19th century, it was not our little brothers in the Eastern world who came to cause trouble for us, but the Western world that we had never met and whose cultures were fundamentally different.