English translation: cut off one's country from the outside world
published in Zhouyi Fu: "The first king and even Japan closed their doors, but business travel was not good, and it was not good afterwards."
For example, Yan Fu's "Three Difficulties in Translating Things, Faithfulness and Elegance" set a precedent for the spread of western learning to the East. (Ke Ling "<; A series of talks on modern literature >: Preface)
The policy of "closing the door to the outside world" refers to the policy of the Qing Dynasty that strictly restricted and prohibited foreign exchanges and trade. There are many reasons for this policy
1. The short-sightedness and ignorance of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty are the direct reasons for the "closed door"
2. The feudal self-sufficient natural economy is relatively stable and has a strong resistance to foreign goods, which is the economic root of the closed door policy.
3. The need of the Qing dynasty. In order to prevent the contact between Chinese and foreign anti-Qing forces and the infiltration of western colonialism, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty adopted a closed-door policy.
although the closed-door policy has a certain self-defense function against the invasion of western colonists in a certain period of time, it is a passive and backward policy after all. Because the closed-door policy can not weaken the strength of western capitalist countries, it has hindered their own development, made China lose the initiative in foreign trade, and the rulers were ignorant and arrogant, which cut off the exchange of science and technology between China and foreign countries, hindered the development of productive forces and social progress, widened the gap between China and the West, and caused a passive beating situation in modern China.
In his letter to the King of England, Qianlong said, "China is rich in products and everything is available. It was not originally imported from foreign countries to make up for what is needed." Just because the tea, porcelain and silk scarves produced by China are necessary for western countries, it is "compassionate" to open a foreign firm in Macao, so that foreigners can benefit from China's daily use. This blind and arrogant concept and the fear of coastal people gathering anti-gold forces at sea made the Qing rulers close their doors.
the Qing government's closed-door policy was implemented for 2 years. China's foreign trade is shrinking day by day. In the Qing Dynasty, only one foreign trade was opened in Guangzhou, and it was stipulated that the "thirteen banks" chartered by the government should operate foreign trade in a unified way. Exports only account for about 3% of the total commodities.