뉴스레터

If you ask the Chinese which of modern figures they respect most, their answers will always include Lin Zexu (1785-1850), who is thought of as 'an intellectual who saw the world with fresh eyes' during the rapidly changing period of East Asian history and as 'a patriotic figure who stood up against foreign aggression.' Lin Zexu made a reputation for his strict handling of the opium problem and active preparation against British aggression. How should we perceive him and still stay true to historical facts?

Lin Zexu was born during the Qianlong (乾隆) Period (1736-1795) and started a career in government once he passed the first examination for office in the Jiaqing Period (1796-1820). He held a series of important posts concerned with salt monopoly, water control, and justice. The fairness and rationality that he always showed in his government service earned him the nickname Clear Sky Lin (林靑天), as in the nickname Clear Sky Bao (包靑天) of the justice from the Song Dynasty respected for his honesty.

Suggesting Severe Punishment for the Smuggling of Opium

In the late 1830s, Lin Zexu was the governor of southern China. At that time, opium smuggled from Britain was taking its toll on Chinese society as it led to the relaxation of social discipline and the leakage of silver as currency resulting in a much heavier tax burden on the people. As more people failed to pay their taxes, the state coffer became emptier. Emperor Daoguang (道光帝) asked his officials to suggest solutions to the opium problem. Lin Zexu suggested that the smuggling of opium should be banned and opium addicts punished severely. Accepting this suggestion, the Emperor gave Lin Zexu full authority and sent him to Guangzhou (廣州) to solve the opium problem. There, Lin Zexu confiscated all the opium illegally imported by British and other foreign merchants and disposed of it by flowing it with lime down to the sea.

In 1840, the British parliament approved the dispatch of troops, but their excuse was not about opium but about China's harsh treatment of their countrymen in Guangzhou. As British battleships showed up on the coast of China and a war broke out, Emperor Daoguang held Lin Zexu responsible for the war and dismissed him, and exiled him to the Xinjiang (新疆) region. He was reinstated five years later, and assigned to administer the southwestern region of China. But he died of disease in 1850 on his way to suppress the Taiping Rebellion at the emperor's order.

When we look at the life of Lin Zexu as a bureaucrat, we see a dynasty figure who as a servant for his emperor tried to practice what he learned from Confucian teachings. But Lin Zexu is known more as a figure of modern China than as a figure of Qing. This is because while the Chinese history from the mid-19th century onward was viewed as the process of resisting Western powers and ultimately building an independent country, "fresh eyes" and "patriotic" became the words that set the important standards by which figures were evaluated. In other words, they divided the Chinese history into post-modern and modern periods, depending on whether it was before or after the Opium Wars between Qing and Britain, and applied the same dichotomy to figures as well. Patriotism as the driving force behind resistance against foreign aggression or attempts to see the world with fresh eyes might be effective in describing the sense of the crisis faced by Chinese society or the behaviors to overcome that crisis. But can it be said that such description is an accurate representation of the 'social circumstances' under which they lived or their 'perception of reality'?

In evaluating historical figures, China today is attempting a wide range of analysis that goes beyond the old polarized view and trying to reveal who they really were. Nevertheless, however, it is still stuck with the 'loyal subjects vs. disloyal subjects' model. The evaluation of Lin Zexu is also focused primarily on when and how he 'saw the world with fresh eyes,' and 'how patriotic his activities were.' Such evaluation not only fails to reveal what the figures were really like but also makes it difficult to understand their thoughts and behaviors in the context of the society of the time.

Qing warships being defeated in the Battle of Chuanbi / Lin Zexu burning confiscated opium

A Critical Review of Modern China's Model of Patriots

We can ask these questions. First, was Lin Zexu patriotic? He thought that he was working faithfully for the peace of Qing, which he perceived as a heavenly dynasty, rather than that he was wholly devoted to the country. Furthermore, from the perspective of Confucian democracy, it was the life of the people and preventing them from suffering that mattered to Lin Zexu. In other words, he was a 'Confucian bureaucrat' rather than a patriotic intellectual.

Next, did Lin Zexu see the world with 'fresh eyes'? He was certainly interested in the outside world. But the meaning of 'fresh eyes' is not limited to curiosity about the outside world. We need some basis to determine if Lin Zexu had 'fresh eyes.' As a matter of fact, he relied on the traditional method to cope with the aggression of 'barbarians' and didn't realize the necessity to introduce new weapons. While he was an impartial, unselfish, respectable and competent bureaucrat and Confucian, he was not an intellectual ahead of his time who saw the world with 'fresh eyes.' Placing him in the modern period is like dressing him with clothes that don't fit him, and it not the right way to look at historical figures.

Considering that China in the mid-19th century faced great changes in many areas including politics, economy, society, and culture, it is no wonder that they want to highlight 'change' as a keyword when evaluating figures. But to place emphasis only on 'change' is to misrepresent the Chinese society of the mid-19th century as more advanced than it really was. Modern China was divided into two regions with distinctly different degrees of development. One was seeking change while making contact with foreign countries. The other was sticking with their old way of living. And some of the Chinese who lived from the mid-19th century onward were influenced by these two worlds.

It was in this context that Lin Zexu was educated by teachers who lived in the late 18th century, formed his own way of thinking in the early 19th century, and, by the mid-19th century, made judgement of given situations and acted accordingly based on his experience. Therefore, in order to understand Lin Zexu's behavior and his time, we must look at his behavior not from the standstill point of the mid-19th century but by following the trajectory of his life from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century.