Commissioner Lin And The Opium War

The Canton trade for almost a century had been the sole regulated channel between China and the Western world; as such, it had become the focus of many conflicts. Mr. Chang examines the development of this trading system and the British trade in China--a trade so valuable to the British that it was worth a war. He shows us the motives and tactics behind events in the crucial days of 1839, through Chinese and English eye-witness accounts, newspaper reports, official correspondence, private papers, British and American company records, and many newly available documents. He throws light on factors contributing to the conflict, such as the controversy over extra-territoriality, Britain's struggle for diplomatic equality in China, life in the foreign community confined at Canton, and the surrender and destruction of some 20,000 chests of British opium.Mr. Chang is especially interested in assessing the role of Imperial Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu, giving a clear, fresh look into the character, motives, and actions of this brilliant man who was sent by the emperor to stamp out the opium trade, and then callously made a scapegoat for all of China's woes with Britain.

This “crisp and readable account” of the nineteenth century British campaign sheds light on modern Chinese identity through “a heartbreaking story of war” (The Wall Street Journal). In October 1839, a Windsor cabinet meeting voted to begin the first Opium War against China. Bureaucratic fumbling, military missteps, and a healthy dose of political opportunism and collaboration followed. Rich in tragicomedy, The Opium War explores the disastrous British foreign-relations move that became a founding myth of modern Chinese nationalism, and depicts China’s heroic struggle against Western conspiracy. Julia Lovell examines the causes and consequences of the Opium War, interweaving tales of the opium pushers and dissidents. More importantly, she analyses how the Opium Wars shaped China’s self-image and created an enduring model for its interactions with the West, plagued by delusion and prejudice.

"In 1908, a very public crusade against opium was in full swing throughout China, and the provincial capital and treaty port of Fuzhou was a central stage for the campaign. This, the most successful attempt undertaken by the Chinese state before 1949 to eliminate opium, came at a time when, according to many historians, China’s central state was virtually powerless. This volume attempts to reconcile that apparent contradiction.The remarkable, albeit temporary, success of the anti-opium campaign between 1906 and 1920 is as yet largely unexplained. How these results were achieved, how that progress was squandered, and why China’s opium problem proved so tenacious are the questions that inspired this volume. The attack on this social problem was led by China’s central and provincial authorities, aided by reformist elites, and seemingly supported by most Chinese. The anti-opium movement relied on the control and oversight provided by a multilayered state bureaucracy, the activism and support of unofficial elite-led reform groups, the broad nationalistic and humanitarian appeal of the campaign, and the cooperation of the British government. The extent to which the Chinese state was able to control the pace and direction of the anti-opium campaign and the evolving nature of the political space in which elite reformers publicized and enforced that campaign are the guiding themes of this analysis."

First published in 1958. This volume translates and places in the appropriate historical context a number of private documents, such as diaries, autobiographies and confessions, which explain what the Opium War felt like on the Chinese side.