China and the West

Voltaire. The history of Peter the Great, emperor of Russia. [Transl.] from the French of Voltaire by [Tobias] Smollett. (New York, N.Y. : Leavitt & Allen, 1857).
"The empire of Russia is the largest in the whole globe, extending from west to east upwards of two thousand common leagues of France, and about eight hundred in its greatest breadth from north to south. It borders upon Poland and the Frozen Sea, and joins to Sweden and China… The limits of this country were so little known in the last century, that, in 1689, when it was reported, that the Chinese and the Russians were at war, and that in order to terminate their differences, the emperor Camhi on the one hand, and the czars Ivan or John, and Peter, on the other, had sent their ministers to meet an embassy within three hundred leagues of Pekin, on the frontiers of the two empires, the account was at first treated as a fiction."...
"I shall observe here, that from Petersburg to Pekin, there is hardly one mountain to be met with in the route which the caravans might take through independent Tartary, and that from Petersburg to the north of France, by the road of Dantzic, Hamburg, and Amsterdam, there is not even a hill of any eminence to be seen. This observation leaves room to doubt of the truth of that theory, which makes the mountains to have been formed by the rolling of the waves of the sea, and supposes all that is at present dry land, to have[Pg 5] been for a long time covered with water: but how comes it to pass, that the waves, which, according to the supposition, formed the Alps, the Pyrenees, and Mount Taurus, did not likewise form some eminence or hill from Normandy to China, which is a winding space of above three thousand leagues?"...
"It is very likely that Madies the Scythian, who made an irruption into Asia, near seven hundred years before our vulgar æra, might have carried his arms into these regions, as Gengis-Khan and Tamerlane did afterwards, and as probably others had done long before Madies. Every part of antiquity is not deserving of our inquiries; that of the Chinese, the Indians, the Persians, and the Egyptians, is ascertained from illustrious and interesting monuments; but these monuments suppose others of a far more ancient date, since it required many ages to teach men the art of transmitting their thoughts by permanent signs, and no less time was required to form a regular language; and yet we have no such monuments even in this polite part of Europe"...
"Ascending the river Dwina from north to south, we travel up the country till we come to Moscow, the capital of the empire. This city was long the centre of the Russian dominions, before they were extended on the side of China and Persia"...
"Though the city of Moscow, at that time, had neither the magnificence nor arts of our great cities in Europe, yet its circumference of twenty miles; the part called the Chinese town, where all the rarities of China are exhibited; the spacious quarter of the Kremlin, where stood the palace of the czars; the gilded domes, the lofty and conspicuous turrets; and, lastly, the prodigious number of its inhabitants, amounting to near 500,000. All this together, rendered Moscow one of the most considerable cities in the world"...
"If after surveying all these vast provinces, we direct our view towards the east, we shall find the limits of Europe and Asia again confounded. A new name is wanting for a considerable part of the globe. The ancients divided their known world into Europe, Asia, and Africa: but they had not seen the tenth part of it: hence it happens, that when we pass the Palus Mæotis we are at a loss to know where Europe ends, or Asia begins; all that tract of country lying beyond mount Taurus was distinguished by the general appellation of Scythia, and afterwards by that of Tartary. It might not be improper, perhaps, to give the name of Terræ Arcticæ, or Northern Lands, to the country extending from the Baltic Sea to the confines of China; as that of Terræ Australes, or Southern Lands, are to that equally extensive part of the world, situated under the Antarctic Pole, and which serves to counterpoise the globe"...
"Who could imagine that this country was for a long time the residence of those very Huns, who under Attila carried their depredations as far as the gates of Rome, and that these Huns came from the north of China?"...
"Thus China and India are more populous than any other empires, because, after a multitude of revolutions, which changed the face of sublunary affairs, these two nations made the earliest establishments in civil society: the antiquity of their government, which has subsisted upwards of four thousand years, supposes, as we have already observed, many essays and efforts in preceding ages…
Foreigners, of whatever country or profession, are likewise exempt: as also the inhabitants of the conquered countries, namely, Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, and a part of Finland, the Ukraine, and the Don Cossacks, the Calmucks, and other Tartars, Samojedes, the Laplanders, the Ostiaks, and all the idolatrous people of Siberia, a country of greater extent than China"...
"The established religion of this country has, ever since the eleventh century, been that of the Greek church, so called in opposition to the Latin; though there were always a greater number of Mahometan and Pagan provinces, than of those inhabited by Christians. Siberia, as far as China, was in a state of idolatry; and, in some of the provinces, they were utter strangers to all kind of religion"...
"If nothing more had been wanting but to be superior to the Tartars, and the other nations of the north, as far as China, the Russians undoubtedly had that advantage, but they were to be brought upon an equality with civilized nations, and to be in a condition, one day, of even surpassing several of them"...
"One of the soldiers, who could write, drew up a form of accusation, and sentenced the two unfortunate princes to be cut in pieces; a punishment inflicted in China and Tartary on parricides, and called the punishment of ten thousand slices. After having thus used Nariskin and Vongad, they exposed their heads, feet, and hands, on the iron points of a balustrade"...
"Russia was now quiet at home, but she was still pent up on the side of Sweden, though enlarged towards Poland, her new ally, in continual alarms on the side of Crim Tartary, and at variance with China in regard to the frontiers"...
"The czar was now to determine (in 1689) against which of the following powers he would declare war, whether against the Turks, the Swedes, or the Chinese. But here it will be proper to premise on what terms he then stood with China, and which was the first treaty of peace concluded by that nation"...

Congress and Treaty with the Chinese.
We must set out by forming a proper idea of the limits of the Chinese and Russian empires at this period. When we leave Siberia, properly so called, and also far behind us to the south, a hundred hordes of Tartars, with white and black Calmucks, and Mahometan and Pagan Monguls, we come to the 130th degree of longitude, and the 52d of latitude upon the river Amur. To the northward is a great chain of mountains, that stretches as far as the Frozen[Pg 81] Sea, beyond the polar circle. This river, which runs upwards of five hundred leagues, through Siberia and Chinese Tartary, falls, after many windings, into the sea of Kamtshatka. It is affirmed for a truth, that at its mouth, which opens with this sea, there is sometimes caught a monstrous fish, much larger than the hippopotamus of the Nile, and that the tooth thereof is the finest ivory. It is furthermore said, that this ivory was formerly an object of trade; that they used to convey it through Siberia, which is the reason why several pieces of it are still found under the ground in that country. This is the most probable account of the fossil ivory, of which we have elsewhere spoken; for it appears highly chimerical to pretend, that there were formerly elephants in Siberia.
This Amur is likewise called the Black River by the Mantechoux Tartars, and the Dragon's River by the Chinese.
It was in these countries, so long unknown, that the Russians and Chinese contested the limits of their empires. The Russians had some forts on the river Amur, about three hundred leagues from the great wall. Many hostilities had arisen between these two nations on account of these forts: at length both began to understand their interests better; the emperor Camhi preferred peace and commerce to an unprofitable[Pg 82] war, and sent several ambassadors to Niptchou, one of those settlements. The ambassadors had ten thousand men in their retinue, including their escort: this was Asiatic pomp; but what is very remarkable, is, that there was not an example in the annals of the empire, of an embassy being sent to another potentate; and what is still more singular, that the Chinese had never concluded a treaty of peace since the foundation of their monarchy. Though twice conquered by the Tartars, who attacked and subjected them, they never made war upon any people, excepting a few hordes that were quickly subdued, or as quickly left to themselves, without any treaty. So that this nation, so renowned for morality, knew nothing of what we call the 'Law of nations;' that is to say, of those vague rules of war and peace, of the privileges of foreign ministers, of the formalities of treaties, nor of the obligations resulting from thence, nor of the disputes concerning precedency and point of honour.
But in what language were the Chinese to negotiate with the Russians, in the midst of deserts? This difficulty was removed by two jesuits, the one a Portuguese, named Pereira, the other a Frenchman, whose name was Gerbillon; they set out from Pekin with the Chinese ambassadors, and were themselves the real negotiators. They conferred in Latin with a German belonging to the Russian embassy, who understood this language. The chief of that embassy was Golowin, governor of Siberia, who displayed a greater magnificence than the Chinese themselves, and thereby gave a high idea of the Russian empire, to a people who thought themselves the only powerful nation under the sun.
The two jesuits settled the limits of both em[Pg 83]pires at the river Kerbechi, near the spot where the treaty was concluded. All the country, to the southward of this line of partition, was adjudged to the Chinese, and the north to the Russians, who only lost a small fort which was found to have been built beyond the limits: a peace was agreed to, and after some few altercations, both parties swore to observe it, in the name of the same God; and in these terms, 'If any of us shall entertain the least thought of kindling anew the flames of war, we beseech the supreme Lord of all things, and who knows all hearts, to punish the traitor with sudden death.'
From this form of treaty, used alike by Chinese and Christians, we may infer two important truths: the first, that the Chinese government is neither atheistical nor idolatrous, as has been so frequently and falsely charged upon it, by contradictory imputations. Secondly, that all nations, who cultivate the gift of reason and understanding, do, in effect, acknowledge the same God, notwithstanding the particular deviations of that reason, through the want of being properly instructed.
The treaty was drawn up in Latin, and two copies were made of it. The Russian ambassadors set their names the first to the copy that remained in their possession, and the Chinese also signed theirs the first, agreeable to the custom observed by European nations, when two equal powers conclude a treaty with each other. On this occasion was observed another custom belonging to the Asiatic nations, and which was indeed, that of the earliest ages. The treaty was engraven on two large marble pillars, erected on the spot, to determine the boundaries of the two empires. Three years after this, the czar sent Isbrand Ides, a Dane, his ambassador to China; and the commerce he then established between the two nations, continued with advantage to each, till the rupture between them in the year 1722; but since this short interruption, it has been revived with redoubled vigour.

"The three ambassadors were, general Le Fort, the boyard Alexis Gollowin, commissary-general of war, and governor of Siberia, the same who signed the perpetual treaty of peace with the plenipotentiaries of China, on the frontiers of that empire; and Wonitzin, diak, or secretary of state, who had been long employed in foreign courts"...
"One perhaps draws a ticket for a Chinese mandarin; another for a Tartarian mirza; a third a Persian satrap; and a fourth for a Roman senator; a princess may, by her ticket, be a gardener's wife, or a milk-maid; a prince a peasant, or a common soldier"...
"He likewise founded a naval academy at Petersburg; dispatched Lange to China and Siberia, with a commission of trade; set mathematicians to work, in drawing charts of the whole empire; built a summer's palace at Petershoff; and at the same time built forts on the banks of the Irtish, stopped the incursions and ravages of the Bukari on the one side, and, on the other, suppressed the Tartars of Kouban"...

Of the Trade with China.
The undertaking of establishing a trade with China seemed to promise the greatest advantages. Two vast empires, bordering on each other, and each reciprocally possessing what the other stood in need of, seemed to be both under the happy necessity of opening a useful correspondence, especially after the treaty of peace, so solemnly ratified between these two empires in the year 1689, according to our way of reckoning.
The first foundation of this trade had been laid in the year 1653. There was at that time two companies of Siberian and Bukarian families settled in Siberia. Their caravans travelled through the Calmuck plains; after they had crossed the deserts of Chinese Tartary, and made a considerable profit by their trade; but the troubles which happened in the country of the Calmucks, and the disputes between the Russians and the Chinese, in regard to the frontiers, put a stop to this commerce.
After the peace of 1689, it was natural for the two great nations to fix on some neutral place, whither all the goods should be carried. The Siberians, like all other nations, stood more in need of the Chinese, than these latter did of them; accordingly permission was asked of the emperor of China, to send caravans to Pekin, which was readily granted. This happened in the beginning of the present century.
It is worthy of observation, that the emperor Camhi had granted permission for a Russian church in the suburbs of Pekin; which church was to be served by Siberian priests, the whole at the emperor's own expense, who was so indulgent to cause this church to be built for the accommodation of several families of eastern Siberia; some of whom had been prisoners before the peace of 1680, and the others were adventurers from their own country, who would not return back again after the peace of Niptchou. The agreeable climate of Pekin, the obliging manners of the Chinese, and the ease with which they found a handsome living, determined them to spend the rest of their days in China. The small Greek church could not become dangerous to the peace of the empire, as those of the Jesuits have been to that of other nations; and moreover, the emperor Camhi was a favourer of liberty of conscience. Toleration has, in all times, been the established custom in Asia, as it was in former times all over the world, till the reign of the Roman emperor Theodosius I. The Russian families, thus established in China, having intermarried with the natives, have since quitted the Christian religion, but their church still subsists.
It was stipulated, that this church should be for the use of those who come with the Siberian caravans, to bring furs and other commodities wanted at Pekin. The voyage out and home, and the stay in the country, generally took up three years. Prince Gagarin, governor of Siberia, was twenty years at the head of this trade. The caravans were sometimes very numerous; and it was difficult to keep the common people, who made the greatest number, within proper bounds.
They passed through the territories of a Laman[Pg 343] priest, who is a kind of Tartarian sovereign, resides on the sea-coast of Orkon, and has the title of Koutoukas: he is the vicar of the grand Lama, but has rendered himself independent, by making some change in the religion of the country, where the Indian tenet of metempsychosis is the prevailing opinion. We cannot find a more apt comparison for this priest than in the bishops of Lubeck and Osnaburg, who have shaken off the dominion of the church of Rome. The caravans, in their march, sometimes committed depredations on the territories of this Tartarian prelate, as they did also on those of the Chinese. This irregular conduct proved an impediment to the trade of those parts; for the Chinese threatened to shut the entrance into their empire against the Russians, unless a stop was put to these disorders. The trade with China was at that time very advantageous to the Russians, who brought from thence gold, silver, and precious stones, in return for their merchandize. The largest ruby in the world was brought out of China to prince Gagarin, who sent it to prince Menzikoff; and it is now one of the ornaments of the imperial crown.
The exactions put in practice by prince Gagarin were of great prejudice to that trade, which had brought him so much riches; and, at length, they ended in his own destruction; for he was accused before the court of justice, established by the czar, and sentenced to lose his head, a year after the condemnation of the czarowitz, and the execution of all those who had been his accomplices.
About the same time, the emperor Camhi, perceiving his health to decay, and knowing, by experience, that the European mathematicians were much more learned in their art than those of[Pg 344] his own nation, thought that the European physicians must also have more knowledge than those of Pekin, and therefore sent a message to the czar, by some ambassadors who were returning from China to Petersburg, requesting him to send him one of his physicians. There happened at that time to be an English surgeon at Petersburg, who offered to undertake the journey in that character; and accordingly set out in company with a new ambassador, and one Laurence Lange, who has left a description of that journey. This embassy was received, and all the expense of it defrayed with great pomp, by Camhi. The surgeon, at his arrival, found the emperor in perfect health, and gained the reputation of a most skilful physician. The caravans who followed this embassy made prodigious profits; but fresh excesses having been committed by this very caravan, the Chinese were so offended thereat, that they sent back Lange, who was at that time resident from the czar at the Chinese court, and with him all the Russian merchants established there.
The emperor Camhi dying, his son Yontchin, who had as great a share of wisdom, and more firmness than his father, and who drove the Jesuits out of his empire, as the czar had done from Russia in 1718, concluded a treaty with Peter, by which the Russian caravans were no more to trade on the frontiers of the two empires. There are only certain factors, dispatched in the name of the emperor or empress of Russia, and these have liberty to enter Pekin, where they are lodged in a vast house, which the emperor of China formerly assigned for the reception of the envoys from Corea: but it is a considerable time since either caravans or factors have been sent from Russia thither so that the trade is now in a declining way, but may possibly soon be revived.

"Peter began his reign by an advantageous treaty with the Chinese... Let us figure to ourselves the thirty years' war in Germany, the times of the league, those of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the reigns of Charles VI. and of king John in France, the civil wars in England, the long and horrible ravages of the whole Russian empire by the Tartars, or their invasion of China; and then we shall have some slight conception of the miseries under which the Persian empire has so long groaned"...
"There are still some ruins of an old wall like that of China, which must have been built in the earliest times of antiquity, and stretched from the borders of the Caspian Sea to the Pontus Euxinus; and this was probably a rampart raised by the ancient kings of Persia against those swarms of barbarians which dwelt between those two seas"...