The Legacy of Lin Zexu: Defender and Reformer

Today, we’ll continue our discussion of Lin Zexu, whose legacy is defined by his advocacy for modernization and his pivotal role as an early champion of national sovereignty and reform in 19th-century China. 

Transcript

The Legacy of Lin Zexu: Defender and Reformer

Today, we’ll continue our discussion of Lin Zexu, whose legacy is defined by his advocacy for modernization and his pivotal role as an early champion of national sovereignty and reform in 19th-century China. 

In early 1839, after more than two months of long and arduous travel, Lin Zexu finally arrived in Guangzhou. After Lin Zexu went to Guangzhou to oversee the anti-opium campaign, he became acutely aware of his lack of knowledge about the West and the ignorance of his fellow countrymen about the world beyond the dynasty. As a result, he began to purposefully collect foreign newspapers and books for translation in order to obtain valuable intelligence and deepen both the imperial court’s and the people’s understanding of the Western world. 

He personally supervised and organized the translation of foreign publications, translating foreign accounts of China into Hua Shi Yi Yan, literally the Chinese Affairs in Foreign Words, as a reference for officials of the time. In his pursuit of foreign military, political, and economic information, he even translated The Canton Register, one of China’s first English-language newspapers, into the Macau News. Notably, he compiled a book titled International Law, which was a groundbreaking event in the history of China’s law studies. Theoretically, Lin Zexu is regarded as the first person to introduce international law to China, a pioneer in modern Chinese diplomacy, and the founding figure of Chinese international law studies.

At the time, the opium situation in Guangdong was dire. As the only port open to foreign trade, Guangzhou was the main entry point for smuggled opium. The city’s so-called Thirteen Factories housed a large number of British opium merchants, who not only made huge profits but also used bribes to corrupt officials at all levels of the local government. These officials, many of whom were also opium addicts, turned a blind eye to the illegal trade.

The Thirteen Factories of Guangdong refers to a group of foreign trading companies and their trading hubs in Guangzhou during the Qing Dynasty. These factories were a crucial part of China’s foreign trade, especially while operating under the Canton System that lasted from 1757 to 1842 to restrict foreign trade to Guangzhou. The term “thirteen factories” originally referred to the specific buildings or trading posts where foreign merchants, who were primarily from Europe or the United States, were allowed to conduct business, mostly in silk, tea, and porcelain. These factories played a significant role in facilitating trade between China and the West, particularly with British opium traders before the First Opium War.

Upon Lin Zexu’s arrival in Guangzhou, he was bombarded with attempts to bribe him from both officials and opium dealers, who tried to coerce him into turning a blind eye to the situation, hoping to undermine the opium ban.

Despite such a complex and difficult situation, Lin Zexu would not back down. During a visit to the Yuehua Academy, he inscribed the words: “The wall stands a thousand feet tall; if one has no desires, one will remain unyielding.” With this statement, he declared his unwavering determination to fight the opium trade.

When local officials proved uncooperative, Lin Zexu reached out to local gentry and intellectuals who also supported the ban. Through these efforts, he uncovered vital information about the opium distribution networks, including locations of opium warehouses and retail dealers.

At the same time, Lin Zexu’s anti-opium stance gained the support of key officials such as Deng Tingzhen, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Guan Tianpei, the Commander of the Guangdong Navy. Together, they implemented a series of harsh measures, cracking down on opium dealers and blocking supply ships.

Seeing Lin Zexu’s firm stance, the British merchants were forced to hand over more than a thousand crates of opium. But they remained hopeful, assuming that once this concession had been made, the imperial commissioner would return to Beijing, allowing them to return to business as usual.

To their great chagrin, they had underestimated Lin Zexu’s commitment to the cause, and rather than retreating to Beijing, he set a deadline for the foreign merchants to surrender all their opium, and he made his intensions clear by famously declaring publicly, “The day opium stops is the day I’ll return! I swore to see this through to the end, and I won’t stop till it’s done!” 

At that time, the British Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot, assumed that Lin Zexu was merely bluffing and refused to cooperate. In response, Lin Zexu, together with Deng Tingzhen, sealed off Guangzhou’s coastline, surrounded the Thirteen Factories with heavy troops and cut off their supplies of food and fresh water. Lin Zexu even sent a letter to Queen Victoria of Britain, condemning her for allowing the opium trade and the damage it was causing to the health of the Chinese people. 

The last paragraph of the letter says that: “A murderer of one person is subject to the death sentence; just imagine how many people opium has killed! This is the rationale behind the new law that says any foreigner who brings opium to China will be sentenced to death by hanging or beheading. Our purpose is to eliminate this poison once and for all and to the benefit of all mankind.”

The letter received no response and sources suggest that it was lost in transit, but it was later reprinted in the London Times as a direct appeal to the British public.

After a series of resolute actions, Charles Elliot and the British merchants finally relented. They handed over all the remaining opium and promised to cease all smuggling activities.

In early June of 1839, Lin Zexu oversaw the destruction of the opium at the newly constructed pits at Humen Beach. In total, over 19 thousand crates and more than 2,000 sacks of opium were destroyed. This victory made Lin Zexu famous throughout China and abroad. When Emperor Daoguang heard the news, he was overjoyed and praised Lin Zexu, calling it “a great deed that brings joy to the people.” In early 1840, Lin Zexu was promoted to the position of Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi.

With the opium trade completely cut off, the British began to reassess their relations with China and decided to use war as a means to force the Qing court to open its market. In May 1840, Britain sent a 7,000-strong expeditionary force from India, arriving at the Guangdong coastline, blocking the Pearl River and attacking Guangzhou. The First Opium War had officially begun.

Thanks to Lin Zexu’s intelligence gathering, the coastal defenses were reinforced, preventing the British from successfully launching an attack on Guangzhou. However, the British forces continued their march northward along the coastline with unstoppable momentum, eventually advancing to Zhejiang.

Under the threat of British artillery, Emperor Daoguang decided to compromise and ordered the senior official Qi Shan to negotiate with the British, offering to pay compensation for the opium in exchange for the British fleet relocating to the south. Meanwhile, Lin Zexu, who had firmly resisted, was dismissed from his post and exiled to Ili in Xinjiang.

Even though this move merely served to appease the British and was not a genuine effort to punish Lin Zexu, he was neither rewarded nor honored for his tremendous contributions to the betterment of the people. Instead, he was made into a scapegoat for the inadequacies of the rapidly declining Qing Dynasty. 

After his exile to Xinjiang, Lin Zexu did not wallow in self-pity. Instead, he took a realistic view of the current situation. And although he had resisted the British opium trade, he, nonetheless, admired the advanced technology, weapons, and warships of the West. He began to advocate for the idea of “learning from the West’s strengths in order to deal with the West.”

With the help of his friend Wei Yuan, Lin Zexu compiled the Geography of the Four Continents, which recorded the geography and history of more than 30 countries across five continents. This work sought to change the situation where “coastal civil and military officials were ignorant of foreign affairs, trembling at the name of England, yet unaware of its origins.” 

At the same time, Lin Zexu assisted Ili Governor Bu Yantai in the reclamation of wasteland. Over the course of three years, he traveled to Kucha, Aksu, Wushi, Hetian, Kashgar, Yarkand, Iliarik, and Tarnqin, covering a distance of 30,000 kilometers.

Wherever he went, Lin Zexu worked on water conservation projects, promoting the use of qanats and waterwheels, which earned him the admiration of the people of Xinjiang. 

Additionally, Lin Zexu paid special attention to the region’s geography and defense. During his travels, he keenly sensed the potential threat of Russian aggression and urged Bu Yantai to take precautionary measures. In his later years, he issued a prophetic warning: “The real danger to China will come from Russia. I am old, but you all must see this.” His foresight was proven correct with two unequal treaties signed between the Qing Dynasty and Czarist Russia in 1858 and 1860 resulting in the loss of about 400 thousand square miles of territory in China’s northeast. 

In 1845, Lin Zexu was summoned back to the capital, and over the next four years, he held key positions, including Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, Governor of Shaanxi, and Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, where he suppressed banditry and ethnic uprisings, provided disaster relief, and reorganized mining administration. In June 1850, Hong Xiuquan, leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, launched the Jintian Uprising in Guangxi. The Xianfeng Emperor urgently summoned Lin Zexu to serve as a special envoy to suppress the uprising in Guangxi.

But by this time, Lin Zexu was already over 60 years old, and his long years of travel had taken a toll on his health. In November of that year, while passing through Chaozhou, he contracted a severe case of dysentery, and after several days, he passed away. The Qing court, deeply grateful for his service, posthumously awarded him the title of Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, granted him the same allowances as a governor, and bestowed the posthumous name “Loyal to Culture”.

Famed historian Fan Wenlan praised Lin Zexu as an important pioneer of the reform movement during the Qing Dynasty, calling him “the first person of the Qing Dynasty to open his eyes to the world.” Despite the antagonism between the Chinese and the British during the two opium wars, the British diplomat and Sinologist Herbert Giles praised and admired Lin Zexu, saying, “He was a fine scholar, a just and merciful official, and a true patriot.” There is a statue of Lin Zexu in Chatham Square in Chinatown, NYC Manhattan. It honors the sacrifices and struggles of Lin Zexu against drug abuse in 19th-century China.

To this day, Lin Zexu is also widely remembered for the composition of a couplet that served as his motto: “The vast ocean accepts hundreds of rivers emptying into it; people with a broad mind can achieve greatness. Thousands of cliffs stand tall and lofty; people with no covetous desires stand firm and upright.”

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Lü Weitao, translator Wang Yuyan and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.