Lin Zexu and the Opium Wars

Jieyu, the Madman of Chu, went past Confucius, singing:

Phoenix, oh Phoenix!
The past cannot be retrieved,
But the future still holds a chance.
Give up, give up!
The days of those in office are numbered!

Confucius stopped his chariot, for he wanted to speak with him, but the other hurried away and disappeared. Confucius did not succeed in speaking to him.

Lin Zexu

Studied, passed the imperial exams, became an imperial mandarin.
Allowed to the Imperial Court in 1838. In the course of nineteen audiences he persuaded the emperor Dao Guang to fight against the (mainly British) opium trade into China.
Imperial Commissioner in Guangzhou (Canton), 1839.
Raid on British opium stores, May 1839. Opium War, leading to the first "Unequal Treaty", which included the cession of Hong Kong Island to Britain.
Transferred (or exiled) to Xinjiang (Northwestern China) to supervise the development of arable land there, 1842.
Died in 1850.
Has been viewed as a Chinese national hero who resisted imperialism, and been used as a role model both by the Nationalist government of mainland China (1911 - 1949) and the Communists. His story of being a decent and patriotic man was also sometimes used to vilify the "decadence" and weakness of Imperial China.
Not quite incorruptible, according to the researchers Trauzettel and Franke

Quite incorruptible, according to the author Frank Welsh

Historical background

"The two emperors that ruled (China) during the first half of the 19th century were skilled and wise men (...), and it wasn't because of mistakes or weaknesses of (these emperors, Chia Ch'ing and Dao Guang) that the empire went out of control. Between 1802 and 1834, population grew by 100 Millions to 401,008,574 inhabitants, but productivity of China's still mainly agricultural economy couldn't be increased in the least accordingly. Chinese colonialism, originally only an interest and concept of power, got increasingly economic aspects, too. The uprising of the non-Chinese Miao in 1795/96 around the borders of Kueichou, Sichuan and Hunan had its deeper roots in (Chinese) development of Miao territory, and its tighter integration into Chinese administration. (...)"

Frank Welsh about Lin Zexu, the Mandarin:

"A (..) graduate would be typically about thirty-five, and would therefore have spent over twenty years treading and retreading the same intellectual mill. It is hardly surprising that successful candidates were 'stunned into submissiveness, and became cautious and meek officials to the court' (...). Undeniably, those who survived the rigours of unremitting competition had qualities of resilience and toughness, but the supression of original thought often led to a crippling incapacity to react to new circumstances, which was to have serious effects. When faced with the baffling new problems imposed by the nineteenth-century barbarians demanding entrance to the Celestial Kingdom, even men of great personal ability such as Lin Tse-hsue (Lin Zexu) could do little more than repeat previously successful responses and fall back on platitudes. It was more often the Manchu officials, less attached to intellectual formulae than were the Chinese scholar-governors, who showed signs of readiness to adapt to changing circumstances. (.....)"

Lin Zexu and a bit of propaganda

"Lin Zexu's Descendants Rejoice Over Macao's Return
More than 50 descendants of Lin Zexu (1785 - 1850), commemorated the 160th anniversary of Lin's official inspection trip to Macao at the Lin Zexu Memorial Hall. The descendants are from east China's Fujian and Taiwan provinces.
After inspecting Macao on September 3, 1839, Lin informed the Portuguese authorities on the firm resolve of the imperial government of the Qing court (1644 - 1911) to ban opium, and safeguarded China's sovereignty.
The descendants expressed their joy over the return of Macao's return to the motherland and are determined to see China re-united with Taiwan.
Lin Zidong, a fifth generation descendant of Lin Zexu, was a former consultant for the Fujian Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. 'We all the more yearn for Taiwan to be reunited with the motherland and return to the embrace of the Chinese nation at an earlier date,' he said."

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