I wanted
to read this book because since the Deng Xiaoping book, I’ve been really interested
in China. The First Opium War is considered the beginning of China’s “100 Years
of Humiliation,” which, according to the Communist Party, ended with the
Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. The Opium Wars were a huge event in
shaping modern China because they represented Chinese defeat at the hands of a
modernized, European power. Chinese colonization was a huge shame and embarrassment
for the so-called “Middle Kingdom.” This book not only covers the history of
the wars, but also spends a very hefty chunk of the book (maybe about a third)
discussing the result of the wars on the Chinese psyche and how Westerners and
Chinese saw the conflict and each other. That is what’s really interesting in
this book, because even today, the Opium Wars are a critical subject in Chinese
schools that is useful for Westerners to know more about.
One important
theme in the book is blame. Who is to blame for the wars and the Opium
addiction of the Chinese people? The British were conflicted, as some Brits
blamed the Chinese for being addicted to the opium while others blamed their
own country for bringing it to them. They were also conflicted on whether or
not to go to war each time, with the decisions being highly controversial. On
the opium, the Chinese were also split, but while they certainly argue that
there is blame on the British and the West for exploiting them, in a greater
sense they feel shame for having been exploited and there is a stronger current
of self-blame. As for the wars themselves, that was, for the Chinese, clearly
initiated by the British (this seems true to me), though the Chinese blame
themselves for having been a country in a position to be dominated and
manipulated.
The Qing
lost the First Opium War due to a massive underestimation of their opponents.
While the Qing were good on land (they werehorse-lord Manchus from the north
who conquered the ethnic Chinese) they had a weak navy. They also lacked the support
of the people, as nationalism had not yet developed in China as it had in
Britain. This meant that the Chinese people were really just as likely to side
with the British as with their own emperor. The war was a Manchu war and not a
Chinese one. The lack of urgency meant that generals took their sweet time to
reach the front and often an Admiral leaving England would reach China before a
Chinese general would arrive on the coast from another province. They were
consistently surprised by British strength and, in their embarrassment, lied to
the emperor and claimed great successes. This was very confusing for the emperor,
who spent years thinking that he was winning when in fact he was being easily
defeated. Neither the emperor nor his highest advisors felt that the British
merited much attention and in their communications they refer to them as “rebels”
or “thieves.” When it came time to fight, Qing forces often fled as they were
completely outmatched. They used matchlock rifles (which required lighting a
match to fire) against flintlock rifles, which were much more effective and
quicker. Chinese troops moved slowly and took just as long to get to the front lines
as the British reinforcements from India.
Why did
the British start the war? They wanted judicial power over their subjects when
in China (essentially diplomatic immunity) and they wanted access to every
Chinese coastal city, which was objectionable to the Chinese because they
wanted a strict control over trade. They were extremely protective to the point
where it was illegal for Europeans to learn Chinese and Manchu, as they wanted
to keep them dependent and week. The British were, on the other hand, extremely
greedy and capitalism will do as capitalism does. Capitalists sought to make
money in China and Britain decided to protect their “right” to do so. The
British would go to war again over a discrepancy in the Chinese-English
translation, which promised in English permanent residency for English trader
families, but not in Chinese.
A feature of Qing Chinese life was
the examinations that were required to enter into the lucrative public service
with its “Iron Rice Bowl,” AKA a cushy government job for life. Very, very few
were able to enter and it was worse during the Qing years because during that
time Manchus were given boosts to getting in while the Han Chinese they ruled
over would struggle. This pressure caused the Taiping Rebellion, in which 15
million Chinese would die and the Qing would completely lose control over the
south. It happened that this would coincide with the Second Opium War, which
ended in the sack of Beijing and the Forbidden Palace, a quadrupling of the
indemnities, and the Chinese yielding to every single English demand,
essentially becoming a colony not solely of the English, but all of the western
powers. This domination and humiliation took the form of razing villages and
towns, destroying Beijing’s city walls and cemetery, playing hockey in sacred temples,
and looting the emperor’s things. After the war, the Qing would go on to lose
Indochina to the French and Korea and Manchuria to the Japanese. It was a truly
horrible fate for a kingdom that had spent so long controlling all of its
surroundings.
By the 1890’s, a new Chinese
identity was forming which had both an admiration for and a hatred of the West.
Younger Chinese admired Western advancement and innovation but hated that it
came at the expense of Chinese power. Even the most important Chinese leaders
at the turn of the century had trouble dreaming big. Sun-Yat Sen was known to
take what he could get and regularly made promises that would never come true
to sell off pieces of China in exchange for foreign support. In the 1920’s and
30’s, the Opium Wars started to take a more central place in Chinese historiography
as the critical moment in the country’s modern history. Opium production and consumption
would surge in China at this time, making huge profits for farmers and leaving
many hopelessly addicted. At this time the popular narrative became one of
self-blame, as it was the Chinese people themselves who wanted the opium so
badly.
Today,
many Chinese see the Opium Wars as long-past history, but many young men called
the fenqing, angry and nationalistic
youth, use it as a major theme of the evil that can be done by the West. Chinese
leaders remember it as a cautionary tale and it is still taught in schools as the
beginning of modern Chinese history. It shows you the Chinese perspective in a
few major themes being the self-criticism, the hostility to outsiders, and the need
for technological advancement and modernization. This is a crucial book for
understanding the big picture of modern China. I would like to read more about
the period from the Boxer Rebellion through the Communist victory in the Civil
War next.
Miscellaneous Facts:
- Missionaries in China were allied with the drug smugglers and served as interpreters in exchange for passage along the coast.
- In the 1830s, growing opium yielded ten times as much money than growing rice.
- In 1856, opium was 22% of revenue for the British Indian government.
- The “Chinese Election” of 1857 was the first in which the Prime Minister addressed the nation in print.
- Allegedly, by the 1930’s the Chinese Fu-Manchu-style super-villain was so common that the British Guild of Crime Writers made its members swear an oath not to re-use the trope.
- In one retreat, Chiang Kai-Shek killed half a million people by destroying the Yellow River dykes in the face of a Japanese advance.
- China today executes between 1,700 and 10,000 people per year.
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