FYI, Celestial grace in his letter meant the grace of Qing Emperor, and Celestial Court the Qing Government. Lin's perspective was pretty Qing-centric which was

FYI, Celestial grace in his letter meant the grace of Qing Emperor, and Celestial Court the Qing Government. Lin's perspective was pretty Qing-centric which was of course orthodox in his ideology. The letter reads so supercilious as if it were written by someone much worse than D. Trump. I doubt if the messenger had the guts to deliver or just burnt it silently.