One of Shanghai's hidden treasures is the Jesuit library, a collection of 80,000 books in Latin, French, English and other languages, dating back to the 16th century, which the missionary order left behind when it was expelled by the communist government.
The Shanghai city library took over the collection in 1956 and it was only due to the courage and tenacity of its staff that the Red Guards did not seize it - and probably burn the books - in the Cultural Revolution. Some librarians were punished for what they did.
Before 1949, the books were used by Jesuit missionaries who stayed in a dormitory next door and read them as the start of their education about the new country to which their order had sent them. Required reading was a book by Sir George Leonard Staunton about the first British mission to China from 1792-94, led by Lord George Macartney. Staunton served as his secretary.
A Protestant Irishman from a modest family, Macartney owed his illustrious career to a piece of good luck. In Geneva on a student tour, he rescued the son of Lord Holland, a prominent member of the British nobility, from being cheated. His lordship arranged for Macartney, aged just 27, to be appointed ambassador to the court of Russia's Catherine the Great, with whom he signed a commercial treaty. Unfortunately, his superiors in London rejected the treaty and, after getting one of the empress' ladies-in-waiting pregnant, he had to leave. But senior posts followed in Ireland, Grenada and Madras before he was chosen to lead the first mission to China, with the same objective as in Russia - to negotiate a commercial treaty.
It was a substantial expedition, with a 64-gun warship and more than 100 people. They carried as gifts, clocks, swords, pottery, telescopes and mercury to cure syphilis. Staunton found three Chinese to serve as interpreters but they were too afraid to work for a foreigner in their own country. So the mission had to rely on two Chinese Jesuits from a seminary in Naples who spoke Chinese and Italian. Macartney spoke Italian.
On arrival, Macartney was told to kowtow before the Son of Heaven. Instead, he offered to bow on one knee and kiss the emperor's hand, a proposal rejected as repugnant. No agreement could be reached, and the mission failed. Macartney presented his gifts and went home with nothing to show for two years' work.