Qianlong's Poem to Macartney

Published: June 18, 2021, 8:50 p.m.

Today's podcast is an interesting poem that functions less as a beautiful poem but more a historical artifact. In 1793, the English Ambassador met with the Chinese Emperor. After their meeting, the emperor, Qianlong, wrote an interesting poem about the encounter. In today's podcast, we dissect that poem. Below is also Lee's English translation of the poem, along with the original, straight from the pen of Qianlong.