Ascendant Peace in the Four Seas: Tributary Drama and the Macartney Mission of 1793

Abstract

Apart from entertainment, the Qing court used drama extensively for ritual and political purposes. From Qianlong on, drama became an indispensable part of palace ritual. Among the five imperial rites, jili (auspicious rites), jiali (felicitous rites), junli (martial rites), binli (protocol rites), and xiongli (inauspicious rites), only the last, which dealt with funerals and disasters, did not involve the performance of ritual drama. Auspicious rites were state sacrifices offered in the suburban altars and the ancestral temple, in which emperors offered sacrifices to Heaven, Earth, ancestors and the pantheon of deities. Felicitous rites included celebrations of festivals, birthdays, marriages, and the confirmation of imperial titles. Martial rites included dramas celebrating military victories or hunting excursions, and protocol rites referred to the special dramas performed in the presence of foreign visitors. In the latter case, the audience was often entertained with colorful and lavish performances on the theme of foreign delegations paying tribute to the might of the Chinese emperor. This paper concentrates on tributary drama, especially the drama commissioned and performed on the occasion of Lord Macartney’s mission to the Qianlong emperor in 1793, the first diplomatic contact between Great Britain and China. Historians continue to argue about the details and significance of