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| Name | Lin Zexu |
|---|---|
| Imagesize | 200px |
| Caption | A native artist's drawing of Lin (published 1843) |
| Order | Viceroy of Liangguang |
| Term start | 21 January 1840 |
| Term end | 3 October 1840 |
| Predecessor | Deng Tingzhen |
| Successor | Qishan |
| Order1 | Viceroy of Shaan-Gan |
| Term1 | 1845 |
| Order2 | Viceroy of Yun-Gui |
| Term2 | 1848 |
| Order3 | Viceroy of Huguang |
| Term3 | 1837-1839 |
| Birth date | August 30, 1785 |
| Birth place | Fuzhou, Fujian |
| Death date | November 22, 1850 |
| Death place | Puning, Guangdong |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Battles | First Opium War |
He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the opium trade in Guangzhou. Although the non-medicinal consumption of opium was banned by Emperor Yongzheng in 1729, by the 1830s China's economy and society were being seriously affected by huge imports of opium from British and other traders based in the city. Lin's forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is considered to be the primary catalyst for the First Opium War of 1839–42. Because of this firm stance, he has subsequently been considered as a role model for moral governance, particularly by Chinese people.
Lin also wrote an extraordinary "memorial" (折奏/摺奏), by way of an open letter published in Canton, to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1839 urging her to end the opium trade. The letter is filled with Confucian concepts of morality and spirituality. As a representative of the Imperial court, Lin adopts a position of superiority and his tone is condescending , despite the British clearly having the upper hand, military-wise, when the event is examined with hindsight. His primary line of argument is that China is providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, while Britain sends only "poison" in return.}} The memorial was never delivered to the queen, though it was later published in The Times.
Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839. A naval skirmish in the autumn of 1839, following the politic afterspell of the opium hand-over, was in fact the very first act of war, in what later should be recalled as "The First Opium War" . The immediate effect was that both sides, by the words of Superintendent Captain Charles Elliot, and the Chinese High-commissioner Lin Zexu made a ban to all trade. Before this, Lin had pressured the Portuguese government of Macau, so the British found themselves without refuge, except for the bare and rocky harbours of Hong Kong.
Because of this defeat, and also because of the intrinsic behaviour of Chinese imperial political structure of the Qing Dynasty, Lin was popularized as a scapegoat for these losses. His position was then given to Qishan in September 1840. As punishment for his failures, Lin was sent to the remote Ili in Xinjiang. The Chinese government considered Lin to be an official of rare virtue, and in 1845 he was appointed as governor-general of Shaanxi-Gansu. In 1847 he became governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou. But these posts were less prestigious than his previous position in Canton, and his career did not fully recover from the failures there .
While in Xinjiang, Lin was the first Chinese scholar to take note of several aspects of Muslim culture there. In 1845 he noted in a poem that the Muslims in Ili did not worship idols, but bowed and prayed to tombs decorated with poles that had the tails of cows and horses attached to them. This was the widespread shamanic practice of erecting a tugh, but this was its first recorded appearance in Chinese writings. He also recorded several Kazakh oral tales, such as one concerning a green goat spirit of the lake whose appearance is a harbinger of hail or rain.
June 3, the day when Lin confiscated the chests of opium, is celebrated as Anti-Smoking Day in the Republic of China in Taiwan. Manhattan's Chatham Square, in Chinatown, contains a statue of Lin, commemorating his early struggle against drug use. Although he has in essence led the war against the debilitating drug with some initial success, with the arrest of 1,700 opium dealers and destruction of 2.6 million pounds of opium, he had been made the scapegoat for the actions leading to British retaliation, and ultimately failing to stem the tide of opium import and use in China. Nevertheless, Lin Zexu is popularly viewed as a hero of superlative conduct and national service, and whose likeness have been immortalized at various locations around the world.
Despite the antagonism between the Chinese and the British at the time, the renowned English sinologist Herbert Giles, who was active in the later part of the 18th century and was the co-creator of Wade-Giles transliteration, praised and admired Lin. He wrote: "He was a fine scholar, a just and merciful official and a true patriot." A wax statue of Lin also appeared in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London.
A statue of Lin stands in the United States in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) in New York's Chinatown.
Category:1785 births Category:1851 deaths Category:Chinese scholars Category:People from Fuzhou Category:People of the First Opium War Category:Qing Dynasty generals Category:Qing Dynasty politicians
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