Wk. 8 Primary Source Lin Tse-Hsu, Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria (1839)

Question 1

Lin Tse-Hsu, Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria (1839)

Answer 1

Lin Tse-Hsu, Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria (1839) – Lin Tse-Hsu (1785-1850) was Commissioner of Guangdong (aka Canton), the port used by the British East India Company, at the beginning of the Opium War (1839-1842). The emperor sent Lin to Guangdong to put a stop to the illegal importation of opium by the British. Opium, which grew in British-ruled India, was the only product the British had access to that the Chinese people demanded, and the East India Company used its sale to finance their purchases of Chinese goods.

How did Lin view the English, and any people living outside China?

• China saw others as lesser in every way, less useful, less compassionate, less generous. This may have ben true, but it was the way they presented themselves. They had everything to offer while the rest of the world could only bask in their glory.

How did he perceive the relationship between China and the West?

• The relationship was fairly one-sided with China being the giver and the west being the taker. But the relationship was also one of mutual respect – except for the opium issue.

Why might the English dislike this attitude?

• No one likes to be told what to do or to have their shortcomings pointed out. So even though China was reasonable in their request, it is likely that the English did not want to be told what to do or how to handle their territories or affairs.
• The Chinese saw Britain as mostly a reliable trading partner, but one that had some ‘bad actors’ – the ones bringing opium ‘poison’ to China. – “there appear among the crowd of barbarians both good persons and bad, […] those who smuggle opium to seduce the Chinese people and so cause the spread of the poison to all provinces. Such persons who only care to profit themselves, and disregard their harm to others,”
  
  • This quote also highlights the perceived greed of the Brits in the eyes of the Chinese, that they would “profit themselves” even with “disregard” for the “harm to others” – particularly repugnant behavior.
  • The Chinese rightfully see Opium as a ‘Poison to their society and it is the Brits who are poisoning them.
• The severity of the opium problem is so great that the Chinese have imposed the punishment of death to the sellers, users, and traders of opium. – “All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should receive the death penalty. We trace the crime of those barbarians who through the years have been selling opium, then the deep harm they have wrought and the great profit they have usurped should fundamentally justify their execution according to law.”
• The Chinese are appealing to the British Monarchy to keep their merchants in check. – “the ruler of your honorable country, who takes delight in our culture and whose disposition is inclined towards us, must be able to instruct the various barbarians to observe the law with care.”
  
  • They even note that the Brits profit greatly from dealing with China even without the Opium Trade, so there is no desperation in their desire to profit from Opium, only evil greed. – “Even if you do not sell opium, you still have this threefold profit. How can you bear to go further, selling products injurious to others in order to fulfill your insatiable desire?”
• The Chinese feel like the Brits are STEALING from the Chinese – “the great profit made by barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of China.”
• China thinks the Brits are greedy to the point of being evil. – “coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring others. Let us ask, where is your conscience?”
• China sees itself as good, righteous, and productive to the benefit of the world. Within this appraisal is the implication that they are better than other countries that seem to have little to offer the world. – “Of all that China exports to foreign countries, there is not a single thing which is not beneficial to people”
  
  • Suggests their importance to the world with an implicit threat of cutting off China’s many exports that the world (including the Brits) demands. – “the foreign countries cannot get along for a single day without them. If China cuts off these benefits with no sympathy for those who are to suffer, then what can the barbarians rely upon to keep themselves alive?”
  • Also – “all the things that must be had by foreign countries are innumerable. On the other hand, articles coming from the outside to China can only be used as toys. We can take them or get along without them. Since they are not needed by China, what difficulty would there be if we closed our frontier and stopped the trade?”
    
    • These quotes also highlight the idea that China sees itself as compassionate and useful beyond all others because they supply the world with such useful goods despite China receiving nothing important to them in return. China supplies only “good” to the world. – “[they] share the benefit [of their resources] with the people of the whole world.”
    • CHINA RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WORLD: China, by referring to their imports from other countries as“toys” and“not needed”, they position themselves as being better than the other nations of the world – that the world needs them, but they do not need the world.
      
      • The CHINESE imply that the British are careless – “not permitted to carry contraband goods. This indicates that the administrative orders of your honorable rule have been originally strict and clear. Only because the trading ships are numerous, heretofore perhaps they have not been examined with care.”
      • The Chinese imply that the Brits are breaking the Golden Rule – “you would not wish to give unto others what you yourself do not want.”
  • China directs Britain how to solve this problem, which, though reasonable and correct is probably not taken well in Britain as it makes them seem either incompetent to discover the solution themselves, or unwilling to put a stop to the transacting of the ‘poison’. – “originally no opium has been produced. Only in several places of India under your control […] O King, can eradicate the opium plant in these places”
  • The Chinese frame the potential acts by the British crown as a comparison between Good and Evil. And the only way to ‘Good’ is to do as the Chinese suggest. – “that will increase the common good and get rid of evil. […] All will depend on this act.”
  • The Chinese are blaming the Brits for the Opium infusion into the country without directly taking responsibility for the behavior of their society, but perhaps only to inform the Brits that they will take action and kill brits who break their laws, possibly to avoid war in the event that British Merchants are killed by the Chinese. It is notable that the Chinese are also equally punitive of their own people in this matter. – “He who sells opium shall receive the death penalty and he who smokes it also the death penalty.”
    
    • And also – “have committed a willful violation and shall at once be executed according to law”
      
      • “The fact is that the wicked barbarians beguile the Chinese people into a death trap. […] He who takes the life of even one person still has to atone for it with his own life; yet is the harm done by opium limited to the taking of one life only? […] getting rid a harmful thing on behalf of mankind.” – and at the end of this quote, once again positioning China as above all else in a godly sort of way for the world.