An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China information
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China
Author
George Leonard Staunton
Cover artist
William Alexander
Language
English
Subject
First British embassy to China
Genre
Travel literature, official report
Published
1797
Publisher
W.Bulmer & Co. for George Nicol
Publication place
Great Britain
Engraving of the Qianlong Emperor, Volume One An Authentic Account (1797)
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; Including Cursory Observations made, and Information obtained, in travelling through that Ancient Empire and a small part of Chinese Tartary (1797) is the official report on the British Macartney Embassy to Qing China that took place between 1792 and 1794. It was written after the return to England by the Secretary to the mission Sir George Leonard Staunton, 1st Baronet (1737-1801), based on his own observations and notes from other crewmembers, including his twelve-year-old son Sir George Thomas Staunton, 2nd Baronet. The official publisher to King George III, W.Bulmer & Co. for George Nicol published the account in 1797.[1]
The account offers detailed insights into the British mercantile presence in China and as such makes it an important primary source for the historiography of Sino-Western relations. There is an academic dispute whether the account marks a sudden turning point in Sino-British relations or reflects a slow and complex divergence.[2][3] While the political and economic ambitions of the embassy failed, the account by Staunton brought back detailed descriptions of and observations on the Chinese culture that were received with curiosity in the West and led to the commercial success of the book and the publication of several translations and subsequent writings on the Macartney Mission.[4]
^Staunton, George (1797). An authentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China : including cursory observations made, and information obtained in travelling through that ancient empire, and a small part of Chinese Tartary ; together with a relation of the voyage undertaken on the occasion of His Majesty's ship the Lion, and the ship Hindostan, in the East India company's service, to the Yellow Sea and Gulf of Pekin, as well as of their return to Europe ; taken chiefly from the papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney, Sir Erasmus Gower, and of other gentlemen in the several departments of the embassy. London: W. Bulmer.
^Cite error: The named reference Peyrefitte was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Waley-Cohen 1993 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Reed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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