Could it be that it was the special nature of this unchanging empire that made it the envy of the fragmented and war-torn Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries, at any rate certainly for the court of Louis XIV, and that this was one of the foundation stones of the belief in a Chinese paradise?
不就是這種穩定不變的帝國特質，曾經是分崩離析的十七世紀歐洲，至少路易宮廷心嚮往之的政經奇蹟，也是當年築造中國樂園意象的基石信念之一？