In the article "China Revolution and European Revolution" written by Marx in 1853, he has the following opinions:

As soon as the prestige of the Qing Dynasty met British guns, it was wiped out, and the eternal superstition of the Chinese empire was dealt a fatal blow. The savage and closed-door state isolated from the civilized world was broken and contacts began to be established. [I]

Marx also believed that the Qing dynasty closed its doors to the outside world, not only because of geography and culture (nationality), but also because of the political reasons why Manchu nobles ruled the country:

Hating foreigners and driving them out of the country used to be a political system in China only because of geographical and ethnic reasons, after the Manchurian Tatars conquered the whole country. Undoubtedly, from the end of17th century, European countries competed with each other for trade with China, and the fierce disputes between them strongly promoted the Manchu to implement this exclusive policy. However, the main reason for pushing this new dynasty to implement this policy was that it was afraid of foreigners' support for China and the dissatisfaction of many China people in the first half century after it was conquered by the Tatars. Therefore, foreign talents are forbidden to have any contact with China people. [2]

In the above text, Marx determined the foreign trade policy in the early Qing Dynasty from two aspects. First, the foreign trade policy in the early Qing dynasty was closed to the outside world, and second, it was exclusive. It is this rejection of foreigners that determines the closeness of foreign trade policy in the early Qing Dynasty.

Since 1950s, Marx's viewpoint has basically been accepted by most people in China's academic circles, and it has become the mainstream opinion to express the history of China and the content of foreign relations of the Qing Dynasty, that is, the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty before the Opium War caused the backwardness and beatings of modern China.

Second, China scholars supplemented or denied Marx's view of the Qing Dynasty's closed door.

Although the academic circles in China have accepted Marx's viewpoint, there have been many discussions on the issue of foreign trade policy closure in the early Qing Dynasty since 1980s. From 65438 to 0979, Dai Yi, with his keen academic inspiration, took the lead in writing and published the article "Historical Lessons of Closing the Door to the World" in People's Daily. He believes that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty once adopted a closed-door policy in their early contacts with western countries. "The closed-door policy of the Qing government, on the one hand, restricted China people from going to sea for trade or living abroad, and prohibited the export of various commodities; On the other hand, all kinds of harsh and unnecessary restrictions and precautions have been made for foreigners coming to China. " [iii] Here, Dai Yi's understanding of the closed-door nature of the foreign trade policy of the Qing Dynasty changed from Marx's simple exclusion of foreign businessmen to the restriction of overseas trade of local businessmen in China.

Regarding Marx's viewpoint and Dai Yi's paper, Hu Siyong published an article expressing different opinions: "It is a misunderstanding that people regard the strict restrictions imposed by the Qing government on foreign businessmen as the main content of the closed-door policy. If this is the case, it can be said that the Qing Dynasty basically did not implement the closed-door policy, because some of those regulations were reasonable and even too harsh, but they were only a few words and were basically not implemented; To say the least, even if a small part is achieved, it is only one aspect of closing the country to the outside world, not the main aspect. We should change the ideas strongly advocated by the western bourgeoisie. The main content of the closed-door policy is not the' prevention' provisions for foreign businessmen, but some commercial and cultural policies it has implemented in China. " Specifically, it includes: strictly restricting the export of domestic commodities; Strictly restrict China businessmen from manufacturing seagoing ships; The long-term "ban on the sea", the ban on Chinese businessmen's trade in Nanyang and other places for a period of time after the lifting of the ban, and various policies to make things difficult and persecute Chinese businessmen and overseas Chinese; The vast majority of feudal rulers adopted a closed-door attitude towards the science and culture of western capitalism without analysis; Products made in the west, without analysis, are regarded as "strange and clever" and rejected; Prohibit China history books from flowing abroad; Hong merchants monopolize foreign trade. The industrial and commercial policies and cultural policies mentioned above are the main contents of the closing policy. [iv] It can be seen that Hu Siyong does not agree with Marx's exclusion of foreign businessmen as the basis of the Qing Dynasty's closed-door policy, but believes that the main basis should be to examine the domestic industrial and commercial and cultural policies of the Qing Dynasty.

However, according to the relevant papers published by China scholars since 1980s, those who agree with the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty tend to take Dai Yi's view that the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty includes domestic businessmen and foreign businessmen. Therefore, many people take the Qing dynasty's "sea ban" policy and the twenty-two years of Qianlong (1757) as the main evidence, and put forward concrete evidence that the Qing dynasty closed its doors to the outside world. [v]

On the other hand, China scholars have different views on Marx's reasons for the Qing Dynasty's closed door. Marx believed that "the main reason for pushing this new dynasty to implement this policy was the fear of foreigners' support for China and the dissatisfaction of many China people in the first half century after it was conquered by the Tatars. For this reason, foreign talents are prohibited from having any contact with China people. " Although Mr. Dai Yi agreed with Marx that the closed-door policy of Qing Dynasty was the political product of Manchu aristocrats ruling China with ethnic minorities, he also pointed out that "fundamentally speaking, the closed-door policy was the product of backward feudal economy." And "the Qing government stubbornly adhered to the closed-door policy because of its sharp class contradiction with the broad masses of the people." [vi] Hu Siyong believes that the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty is the continuation of the policy of attaching importance to agriculture and restraining business in China feudal dynasty, the arrogance of the feudal rulers in China, and the isolation from the outside world in favor of autocratic rule. [vii] Zhang Guangcan understood the reasons why the Qing Dynasty closed its doors from three aspects: politics, economy and ideology, including the anti-Qing struggle of the Han people for more than half a century, the self-sufficient feudal natural economy and the traditional concept of "China going to the country". [viii] I also published a paper "The closed door policy is a mixture of political, economic, social, military and cultural factors in the late feudal society of China". "The high degree of monopoly of the feudal political system in Ming and Qing Dynasties determines that it will inevitably block the non-governmental exchanges between China and foreign countries as much as possible. China has a vast territory, which makes control technology the key to establish effective rule in China feudal dynasty. Unlike many countries in Europe, its existence is full of contact and competition with the outside world. At the same time, the self-sufficiency of China's economy and its vast domestic market enabled China not to rely on overseas markets, which provided an objective material basis for the feudal rulers to close their doors to the outside world. The traditional concept of "Hua Yi" also limits their vision of the overseas world and hinders the formation of the concept of sea power; The long-term threat of the northern border defense restricted the coastal defense construction of the Ming and Qing governments; This weakness of coastal defense forces them to instinctively protect themselves through the closed-door policy. " [ix] That is to say, closing the country to the outside world is not a political product of the Qing Dynasty, because the Manchu nobles ruled China by ethnic minorities, because the restrictions on foreign trade in China and the prohibition on domestic businessmen's foreign trade in the Ming Dynasty were even greater than those in the Qing Dynasty. [x]

As for the influence and function of the closed-door policy in the foreign trade activities of the Qing Dynasty, many China scholars believe that it hindered the economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, stifled China's vitality and enterprising spirit, and thus caused the backwardness of modern China to be beaten. For example, Zhang Guangcan believes that "the historical impact of the closed-door policy is serious and has brought bad consequences to the Chinese nation. First of all, the closed-door policy in the early Qing Dynasty directly hindered and destroyed the budding growth of capitalism, thus making China lag behind the social system for a whole era "; "Secondly, the closed-door policy has also stifled the development of science and technology, making China far behind the West in science and technology"; "Finally, the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty led to China's constant beating and humiliation, which was the most concentrated evil result". [xi] However, Gao Xiang believes that "the statement that the closed-door policy led to the backwardness of modern China is inaccurate", "18th century Europe broke out in the industrial revolution, and China lagged behind the West in all important fields such as social system, science and technology, and social production, which was only the result of long-term historical evolution"; And "the social change represented by the industrial revolution failed to take place in China, but only summed up the backward history of China for hundreds of years. It is obviously unfair to blame this backwardness entirely on the Qing Dynasty and its closed-door policy. " [12]

However, many scholars in China academic circles do not agree with Marx's view that the Qing Dynasty practiced the policy of closing the country to the outside world. Guo Yunjing questioned the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty in the early 1980s. In the article "Changes of Foreign Trade Policy in Qing Dynasty-Also on whether the Qing Dynasty closed its doors to the outside world", she pointed out that the rulers of Qing Dynasty were too busy with the domestic unification war to take care of foreign trade. After 1655, in order to deal with Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing forces, the Qing Dynasty successively issued orders to "ban the sea" and "move the sea", which was only a stopgap measure and was not an established national policy for foreign relations. She also believes that "first, the rulers of any sovereign country will always formulate restrictive policies and measures in foreign relations (whether politically or economically) in order to safeguard the interests of the country and the nation and their own status"; "Second, the various rules and regulations formulated by the Qing government are undoubtedly harsh, and some terms are too harsh. However, its content and purpose do not exceed the boundaries of' restriction' and' prevention', and it is not to fundamentally cut off foreign trade exchanges "; Third, the so-called "closed door" did not appear in the history books and documents of the Qing Dynasty. However, it was the western powers that first used this term. They were eager to expand the market in China, angry at the restrictions imposed by the Qing government, and imposed them on the Qing government. ":"Fourth, even if the Qing Dynasty closed some ports, it would not affect foreign trade "[xiii]. Later, Huang Qichen, Xia Xiurui, Wang Yongzeng and others also put forward similar views through their own research. [14]

Mr Yan is the China scholar who most clearly pointed out the mistake of closing the country to the outside world in Qing Dynasty. In the early 1980s, when he was teaching graduate students majoring in modern economic history in China, he made a special comment on Marx's view of closing the country to the outside world in the Qing Dynasty, which was taken as the basis by mainstream scholars in academic circles. In his view, "During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the China government restricted foreign pirates and adventurers from trading in a few ports, which was a national defense measure to protect people's lives and property and social order. This is the case all over the world, so China should be vigilant. Foreigners are protected and given preferential treatment as long as they trade within the scope permitted by China laws and regulations. " In fact, according to a survey conducted by the East Trade Investigation Group of the British House of Commons in 1830, "the vast majority of witnesses who have lived in Guangzhou unanimously claim that doing business in Guangzhou is more convenient and easier than almost all other places in the world." Therefore, he "denied that the feudal government of China had implemented the policy of" closing the country to the outside world "in history. What's more, due to geographical and ethnic reasons, China once implemented a policy of "barbarism", "isolation from the civilized world" and "closed door". Marx's formulation of this issue is wrong. " In his view, Marx made mistakes in understanding the foreign policy of the Qing Dynasty because he was deeply influenced by the reports and discussions of western colonialists at that time. At that time, in the face of many incompatible activities of westerners in China, the Qing Dynasty "only allowed British businessmen to trade with a few Hong Kong merchants chartered by the government at a port in Guangzhou, and restricted the movement of foreigners and banned the import of opium." So, under the guidance of opium traffickers, industrial capitalists selling industrial products to China, commercial capitalists engaged in Sino-British and Indian trade, commercial capitalists engaged in Eurasian shipping, and bank capitalists active in British domestic and foreign markets clamored for exclusion and trade with China. As a result, "closed door" became the vocabulary of these western colonialists to denigrate and attack the overseas trade policy of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, the Qing Dynasty implemented strict management and supervision policies on China's foreign trade.

One of the reasons is that the geographical environment of China is closed. In fact, successive rulers of our country have tried their best to expand their territory and defeated and destroyed many separatist forces that threatened our security. At that time, China's east and south already included a long coast and many islands, the west included the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and many ethnic minority areas, and the north included an extremely vast desert area. As can be seen from the map, China was basically surrounded by wasteland, a sparsely populated and barren land. The rulers are unwilling to develop in a broader direction and close their doors.

The second reason: the rulers at that time were narrow-minded and ambitious, content with the existing territorial area. At that time, China's territory was really vast, surrounded by remote, weak and poor countries, and there were almost no external threats. Hereditary rulers only want to keep their vested interests and enjoy their success, and are unwilling to take any more risks and expand their territory. Those rulers would rather coquettish in the courtyard, intrigue in the court, show little kindness to flatterers, and implement the policy of ignorance to ordinary people, than organize people with lofty ideals to unify other countries first, and open up a broader space when they are strong, leaving great hidden dangers to future generations.

The third reason: the wrong information brought back by Zheng He's voyage to the West. Zheng He made seven voyages to the West in Ming Dynasty. He went far away and visited many countries. He found that everything fell behind China. When he brought home what he had seen and heard overseas, many people in China formed extremely wrong ideas, looked down on foreigners and were blind and arrogant. This erroneous view has influenced the people of China for hundreds of years, and also influenced the foreign policy of the rulers. They think that closing the door to the outside world can safeguard their country's status. It was not until one day that the foreign invaders killed us that we came to our senses.

The fourth reason: the ruler's idea of governing the country is decadent. When China is in an all-round leading position in all aspects, the rulers think that they will become stronger forever, but they don't realize that the whole world is developing, but the speed of development is different, and poor, weak and small countries in remote areas also have opportunities to grow and develop. Moreover, in order to maintain their position, the rulers adopted a closed-door policy, deliberately blocked the exchange of information at home and abroad, stifled the active thinking of domestic intellectuals, and only rote learning gave them a way out, so that those who learned by their brains became short-sighted loyal subjects. In addition, the rulers did not realize that the level of science and technology is a strong foundation of the country. They only know how to let skilled craftsmen build pavilions and carve jade and gold all day, but they don't know how to improve the productivity of the whole society in an all-round way.

The fifth reason: rulers are afraid of soldiers rebelling. In the long history of our country, due to various reasons, military rebellions often occur. Unless you are a powerful ruler, the ruler himself will be afraid of his powerful army. Therefore, many rulers always try their best to control and limit the development of their military strength. Rulers often feel more uneasy about the troops guarding the border areas, where the troops cannot advance overseas without strong backing. The closed-door policy of the rulers can restrain the activities of the armed forces to the greatest extent and prevent them from actively developing abroad. The intrigue between the rulers and the army in modern times has taken our country at least 200 years to push outward.

Due to the closed door, China's scientific and technological level has fallen behind, our army has been defeated in many anti-aggression wars, our people have been wantonly insulted by foreigners, and our country has lost a lot of hard-won land. Analyzing the reasons behind closed doors is not only to analyze the mistakes of predecessors, but also to help us better choose the future development path now.