In the capitalist industrial revolution, western culture began to advocate equality with liberalization as its cultural background. The cultural conflict with the Qing dynasty, which advocated "valuing reputation but neglecting actual effect, being corrupt and autocratic, and standing still", was the main reason for the outbreak of the Opium War.

Knowledge expansion:

1. I. International situation: A. Rapid development of western industry. 1After the bourgeois revolution broke out in the 1940s, the18th century saw the establishment of the bourgeois regime in the "industrial revolution" between Britain and France, and the rapid development of industrial production. B, trade contradiction. As luxury goods such as tea, silk and porcelain produced in China are very popular in the European market, industrial products such as wool and woolen cloth exported from Britain cannot enter the China market, which makes Sino-British trade "super-advanced". C. the contradiction between China and Britain has escalated. Britain smuggled drugs and opium into China, and inflation occurred, which dried up the finance of the Qing court and left the national treasury empty. Lin Zexu destroyed opium in Humen, pushing the Sino-British conflict to the brink of war.

Second, the status quo of China: A, social contradictions are prominent. The Qing Dynasty entered a dangerous "declining world" after experiencing "prosperity of health and happiness". The contradiction between the peasant class and the landlord class was the main contradiction in society at that time. B, lax military. On the eve of the Opium War, weapons were backward, and the level of equipment was actually lower than that in the early Qing Dynasty. Moreover, military affairs are lax, lack of training, military discipline is corrupt, and national defense forces are very weak. C. Ideological and cultural dullness: The rulers of the Qing Dynasty also implemented a harsh policy of cultural autocracy, and pursued a literary inquisition to clamp down and imprison the thoughts of scholars. D. Closed-door foreign relations: Before the Opium War, the foreign relations policy adopted by the Qing Dynasty was "closed-door" policy. The Qing government was addicted to the so-called prosperity and unwilling to accept the changes in the world.

2. In A.D. 1793, the Qing Dynasty began to show signs of decline, and the charming Qianlong emperor was over 80 years old. This year, British special envoy Magalny led a huge delegation to visit China. He came here to express his friendly wishes, and besides, the British are the most equal. At this time, Britain has established a constitutional monarchy based on the alliance between the bourgeoisie and the land aristocracy, and the first industrial revolution has started for more than 30 years, and the economy has developed to a high level. But emperor Qianlong knew nothing about it and was blind and arrogant. On his 83rd birthday, for the sake of China's prestige, he insisted that Macartney kneel down to him. However, the British who advocate equality and freedom are serious and all countries are equal. Of course, such a request cannot be accepted by the British envoy, so because of this face problem, this group of British people can only return in vain. However, during this visit, Magalny saw the true face of a big country in the Qing Dynasty: poverty, corruption, conservatism and autocracy. He asserted that this so-called prosperous China would regress to barbarism and poverty. This collision between Chinese and Western cultures shows the inferiority of China culture: closed, arrogant and conservative. Qianlong's attitude in this cultural collision between China and the West laid the groundwork for the fiasco of the Opium War in the future. The failure of culture is the real source of the failure of war. Twenty-four years later, the mission sent by Britain again was directly sent back to China by the Qing government because it could not accept the request of Emperor Jiaqing. This time, Jiaqing completely cut off the relationship with Britain. If Jiaqing can adopt another attitude, accept Britain's friendly gesture on an equal footing and start the innovation and development of China, perhaps the history of China will be rewritten. But this is still determined by culture, and Jiaqing could not have such an out-of-line behavior under the influence of culture at that time. This reminds me of Hegel's comment on the history of China: individuals have no personality in spirit, and the history of China cannot be called history in essence. He is just a repetition of the monarch, and there can be no progress. Although there are some deviations in this passage, the conservatism and lack of innovation of China culture it analyzes are the reasons why the Qing Dynasty failed in the cultural confrontation between China and the West. During the Opium War, it was exactly 50 years since Magalny visited China. At this time, Britain's judgment came true: an expedition fleet consisting of only 16 warships and 3 1 other ships blew open the heavy door of China and tore the face that Qianlong tried to show off. This is the price of standing still. I am self-respecting, supercilious and conformist, and I have not completely changed since the invasion of western powers. This cultural inferiority has caused shame for almost a hundred years.

Speaking of the Opium War, I can't help thinking of Japan. Although China people's hostile attitude towards Japan is increasing, Japan's performance before and after the Opium War is worth learning from. The same eastern countries also suffered the invasion of western powers, but their subsequent development was completely different. In the article, the author analyzes that the Chinese Empire, which Japan has always regarded as a giant, was easily defeated by a small group of British expeditions and touched Japan greatly. Since then, Japan has made a thorough analysis of China culture, and realized that China culture is "flashy, lacking in ambition, paying attention to false reputation and neglecting actual effect", which is the beginning for Japan to completely change its learning object and move from Asia to Europe. Since then, great changes have taken place in the fate of Japan. It defeated its teacher at 1894 and began to open the door to China in a way similar to the way that the United States invaded Japan with warships. After experiencing the painful lessons of foreign invasion, it reformed in an all-round way and finally became a powerful empire. Unfortunately, it was too conceited to go to extremes and was despised by all countries. However, the devastated Qing Empire went into a deeper decline, which made many people in China lament. Such a failure is still a cultural failure. China culture has always been controlled by the ruling class, and negative and corrupt things have become the main body. Although China's culture is extensive and profound, it has been destroyed beyond recognition by cruel social reality and feudal system in the course of thousands of years' historical development. This is the most fundamental reason why it has not made great efforts to govern after repeated defeats and wars.