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China is a sleeping giant

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China is a sleeping giant, when she wakes she will shake the world sometimes "China is a sleeping dragon," or China is a sleeping lion, is a phrase atttributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. There is no evidence that he said or wrote any of the varying forms. The quote is often given with a warning that he may not have said it, but the historian John Fitzgerald states that "in all likelihood, Napoleon never uttered the words that legend now attributes to him about China, the 'sleeping dragon'. There is no reference to a sleeping dragon in his recorded speeches or writings and no mention of the terrible fate in store for the world should China suddenly 'wake up.'"[1]

The quote has appeared in various forms, as shown in the examples below.

Claim for Lord Amherst

Scholars have found no evidence that Napoleon made such a statement to Lord Amherst or that Amherst said that he did. Some have speculated that Napoleon made the remark when Lord Amherst was returning from a trip to China and visited him in exile on St. Helena in 1817.[2] William Safire’s Political Dictionary, for instance, cites a 1978 Wall St. Journal column which says Napoleon made the remark to Lord Amherst, which gives no source for the reference. [3]


Elizabeth Knowles, editor of the Oxford University Press What They Didn't Say: A Book of Misquotations cites a remark the exiled emperor made to Barry O'Meara, his surgeon. O'Meara criticised Amherst for failing to convince the Chinese emperor to open China to trade and suggested to Napoleon that "we could easily compel the Chinese to grant good terms by means of a few ships of war; that, for example, we could deprive then altogether of salt, by a few cruisers properly stationed," Napoleon disagreed:

It would be the worst thing you have done for a number of years, to go to war with an immense empire like China, and possessing so many resources. You would doubtless, at first succeed, take what vessels they have, and destroy their trade; but you would teach them their own strength. They would be compelled to adopt measures to defend themselves against you.[4]

Knowles remarks that "the essential idea is here, if not, frustratingly, the figure of speech." [5]

Uses and significance

"Awakening," says historian John Fitzgerald, meant different things in the European Age of Enlightenment, where it meant "awakening to reason and to universal human values," and in modern times where could mean the awakening of peoples in colonial states to their predicament of oppression and awakening to the key to their emancipation. [6]

  • The cover of Time magazine (1 December 1958) “Let China sleep. For when she awakens, the world will be sorry.” [7]
  • In the 1963 film 55 Days at Peking, the character Sir Arthur Robinson says "I will never forget it: "Let China sleep. For when she wakens, the world will tremble." [8]
  • Hibbert, Christopher. The Dragon Wakes: China and the West, 1793-1911. (Newton Abbot: Readers Union, 1971).
  • "When China wakes, it will shake the world" is the epigraph on title page of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's China Wakes (1994), as "attributed to Napoleon." The note for that page gives no source but says the quote "apparently does not appear in any of his collected writings," and he "is said" (without a reference as to who said it) to have made the remark after reading Lord Macartney's account of his trip to China in 1793. [9]
  • "China is a sleeping lion. When it wakes the world will tremble," quoting from President Xi Jinping speech in Paris, 27 March 2014.[11] [12]

References

  • Fitzgerald, John (1996). Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution. Stanford, CA. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Peyrefitte, Alain (1992). The Immobile Empire Original: L'empire immobile (Paris, ). New York: Knopf. ISBN 9780002726771. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Notes

  1. ^ Fitzgerald (1996), p. 62.
  2. ^ Knowles (2006).
  3. ^ Safire, William (2008), Safire’s Political Dictionary, Oxford University Press, p. 666, ISBN 0195343344 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  4. ^ O'Meara, Barry Edward (1822). Napoleon in Exile, or, a Voice from St. Helena: The Opinions and Reflections of Napoleon on the Most Important Events of His Life and Government in His Own Words. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall. pp. 289–290. Google Book here Haithi Trust online here
  5. ^ Knowles, Elizabeth (2006). "All We Have Done is Wake a Sleeping Giant". What They Didn't Say: A Book of Misquotations. Oxford University Press. p. online. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  6. ^ Fitzgerald (1996), p. 5.
  7. ^ Cover (Time Magazine, 1 December, 1958).
  8. ^ "55 Days at Peking Quotes", Quotes: Movies, n.d.
  9. ^ KristofWuDunn (1994), p. 461.
  10. ^ James, Caryn (13 August 2018), Film review
  11. ^ Andrade, Tonio (2016). The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 1, 319. ISBN 0691135975. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help) Andrade notes that the quote has "never been traced in direct form to Napoleon."
  12. ^ Sarin, Aaron (22 July 2019), "When the Lion Wakes: The Global Threat of the Chinese Communist Party", Quillette


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