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percent. France and Britain each received a war indemnity of 8 million taels. They acquired the right to send permanent diplomatic missions to Peking. Russia meanwhile had taken advantage of the crisis to occupy vast territories in the Northeast; the Treaty of Peking (November 1860) confirmed the Russian acquisition of the northern bank of the Amur and the eastern bank of the Ussuri, where Muraviev had already founded Vladivostok.
The period of the Opium Wars and the opening of China funda- mentally transformed the relations between China and the Western powers. As for domestic affairs, the defeats suffered by the Manchu power were the outward expression of its political inability to win support among the most vital elements of the populace. The resis- tance at Sanyuanli in 1842 (which recurred in 1857) did not spread. The hasty capitulation of the imperial power made its weakness still more obvious and contributed to the outbreak of anti- Manchu peasant movements in the years between 1850 and 1870.
ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chang Hsin-pao, Commissioner Lin and the Opium War (Cambridge, Mass.,
Harvard University Press, 1964).
John K. Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842-1854 (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1953).
Ch. Maybon and J. Fredet, Histoire de la concession française de Changhai
(Paris, Plon, 1929).
Frank Wakeman, Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China,
1839-1861 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1966). Arthur Waley, The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes (London, Allen &
Unwin, 1958).
Wei Tsing-sing, La politique missionnaire de la France en Chine, 1842-1856
(Paris, Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1960).
DOCUMENTS
1. MORAL AND SOCIAL CRITICISM OF BRITISH OPIUM SMUGGLING: LIN ZE- XU'S LETTER TO QUEEN VICTORIA (1839)
SOURCE: English translation by Arthur Waley (from Lin Ze-xu's diary). The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes (London, Allen & Unwin, 1958), pp. 28-31.
The Way of Heaven is fairness to all; it does not suffer us to harm others in order to benefit ourselves. Men are alike in this all the world over; that they cherish life and hate what endangers life. Your country
The Opening of China
lies twenty thousand leagues away; but for all that the Way of Heaven ours; for nowhere are there men so blind as not to distinguish between holds good for you as for us, and your instincts are not different from
what brings life and what brings death, between what brings profit and what does harm. Our Heavenly Court treats all within the Four Seas as one great family; the goodness of our great Emperor is like Heaven, that covers all things. There is no region so wild or so remote that he does not cherish and tend it. Ever since the port of Canton was first opened, trade has flourished.* For some hundred and twenty or thirty years the natives of the place have enjoyed peaceful and profitable relations with the ships that come from abroad. Rhubarb, tea, silk are all valuable products of ours, without which foreigners could not live. The Heavenly Court, extending its benevolence to all alike, allows these things to be sold and carried away across the sea, not grudging them even to remote domains, its bounty matching the bounty of Heaven and Earth.
But there is a class of evil foreigner that makes opium and brings it for sale, tempting fools to destroy themselves, merely in order to reap profit. Formerly the number of opium smokers was small; but now the vice has spread far and wide and the poison penetrated deeper and deeper. If there are some foolish people who yield to this craving to their own detriment, it is they who have brought upon themselves their own ruin, and in a country so populous and flourishing, we can well do without them. But our great, unified Manchu Empire regards itself as responsible for the habits and morals of its subjects and cannot rest content to see any of them become victims to a deadly poison. For this reason we have decided to inflict very severe penalties on opium dealers and opium smokers, in order to put a stop forever to the propagation of this vice. It appears that this poisonous article is manufactured by cer- tain devilish persons in places subject to your rule. It is not, of course, either made or sold at your bidding, nor do all the countries you rule produce it, but only certain of them. I am told that in your own coun- try opium smoking is forbidden under severe penalties. This means that you are aware of how harmful it is. But better than to forbid the smoking of it would be to forbid the sale of it and, better still, to forbid the production of it, which is the only way of cleansing the contamina- tion at its source. So long as you do not take it yourselves, but continue to make it and tempt the people of China to buy it, you will be show- ing yourselves careful of your own lives, but careless of the lives of other people, indifferent in your greed for gain to the harm you do to others; such conduct is repugnant to human feeling and at variance with the Way of Heaven...
The laws against the consumption of opium are now so strict in China that if you continue to make it, you will find that no-one buys it
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That is, since the port was opened in the middle of the eighteenth century to Kitish trade under the Canton system of the Cohong.
At that time the Chinese were convinced that "red-haired barbarians" could not
without Chinese rhubarb, for use as a laxative.
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and no more fortunes will be made. Rather than waste your efforts on a hopeless endeavour, would it not be better to devise some other form of trade? All opium discovered in China is being cast into burning oil and destroyed. Any foreign ships that in the future arrive with opium on board, will be set fire to, and any other goods that they are carrying will inevitably be burned along with the opium. You will then not only fail to make any profit out of us, but ruin yourselves into the bargain. Intending to harm others, you will be the first to be harmed. Our Heavenly Court would not have won the allegiance of innumerable lands did it not wield superhuman power. Do not say you have not been warned in time. On receiving this, Your Majesty will be so good as to report to me immediately on the steps that have been taken at each of your ports.
2. POPULAR POETRY IN PRAISE OF THE PEASANT RESISTANCE AT SANYUANLI AGAINST THE BRITISH ARMY
SOURCE: Frank Wakeman, Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China, 1839-1861 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1966), p. 20. (From the anthology in Chinese compiled by A. Ying, Literature of the Opium War.)
They roared like thunder before Sanyuanli:
A thousand, ten thousand, assembled at once, Righteousness behind rage, and rage behind the braves, While the villagers' force broke the enemies' ranks. Fields and villages-all must be manned. None waited for the drum's snare to awaken his zeal. Wives were of one mind with their heroic men, Mattocks and hoes turned to weapons at hand. Around the hamlets, far and near, flashed the Banners of every colour and hue.
One brigade, then a hundred, over the hills beyond, While barbarians looked on and suddenly paled.
3. THE CONCESSIONS AS de facto AUTONOMOUS TERRITORIES: REGULATION VIII OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONCESSION OF SHANGHAI (1845)
SOURCE: Report of the Hon. Richard Feetham, CMG, to the Shanghai Muni- cipal Council (Shanghai, 1931), vol. 1, p. 74.
It being expedient and necessary for the better order and good government of the Settlement that some provision should be made for the appointment of an executive Committee or Council, and for the construction of public works, and keeping the same in repair; and for cleaning, lighting, watering and draining the Settlement generally; establishing a watch or Police force therein; purchasing and renting lands, houses and buildings for Municipal purposes; paying the persons necessarily employed in any Municipal office or capacity, and for raising money when necessary by way of loan or otherwise for any of the purposes aforesaid, the Foreign Treaty Consuls, or a majority of them, shall during the month of February or March each year, and