of the Opium War. Britain, however, was insatiable and sent more troops, led by Henry Pottinger, to China. In August, 1841, the reinforcements reached the South Sea and then captured Xiamen, Dinghai, Zhenhai and Ningbo. One year later, British warships entered the waters of the Yangtze River near Nanjing. Qiying, one of Qing’s top generals, was commissioned to launch peace talks with the British. On August 29, 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing was signed on board HMS Cornwallis signalling the end of the Opium War.
In October of 1843, China and Britain signed the Hu’men Treaty. The United States and France then later coerced Qing into signing the Wangxia Treaty and Huangpu Treaty. The result was that China was drawn into the British colonial system. The British gained huge profits from colonizing China, which included the cession of Hong Kong to the British empire; 21,000,000 silver dollars; five treaty ports (providing the justification for foreign settlements); direct interference in Chinese customs; extraterritorial jurisdiction; the right to navigate in China’s waters; unilateral most-favored-nation treatment; freedom to carry out missionary work (in treaty ports); and so on. The Western powers had made their way into China, pushing China into an abyss of semi-colonialism and semi-feudalism.
The Chinese Intellectuals’ Reaction and Solution
It is inconceivable that, even though Qing lost the war and signed a treaty, Emperor Daoguang was unaware of Britain. Therein lay the shortsightedness of Qing’s ruling elites. However, some officials, scholars and thinkers began to rewrite history and find feasible solutions for what had taken place in China. Take Lin Zexu, for example. He traveled to Guangzhou, where he would lead the work combating the opium trade, though he did not have much knowledge about the world. When he arrived in Guangzhou, he tried to gain more knowledge about the West. He set up a translation office, where information about the West and China was translated into readable Chinese. Some of the informative journals included Selected Reports of Macao Newspapers (澳门新闻报), Reports on China (华事译言), Foreign Laws (各国律例), Reports on the World (洋事杂录), The World (四洲志). Once equipped with sufficient information, Lin successfully launched a campaign against the Anglo-American opium traffickers. Furthermore, Lin and Qing’s generals strengthened Guangdong’s war preparedness. It is worth mentioning that Lin was the earliest prominent scholar-official who tried to understand the law of nations in China. For this reason, Fan Wenlan, an eminent Marxist historian, praised Lin for being the first Chinese to understand the non-Chinese world in a global context.17 In his campaign against the opium trade, Lin did not suggest that trade be stopped between China and other countries. He recommended that China study the advantages of foreign countries while fighting against their aggression. He argued that dealing with Britain depended on sophisticated weapons, superb skills, unbroken courage and significant effort.18 This laid the basis for Lin’s programs of manufacturing guns and ships and mobilizing the masses of the people.
One consequence of the Opium War was that Chinese elites felt it necessary to begin to study the nature of the changing world around them. Take Yao Ying 姚莹, for example. During the war, Yao superintended Taiwan and attacked British troops. Before the outbreak of the war, Yao began collecting foreign books and began to learn about the Western powers as well as other countries in Asia and religions such as Lamaism and Catholicism. Once the war ended, he continued to look for more effective methods of fighting against foreign invaders. For this reason, he correctly predicted that the British were bound to cast their covetous eyes on Tibet once they had finished annexing India and suggested that Qing strengthen border defenses as much as possible.
Yao argued that if China wanted to improve its image, then it was necessary for its leaders to have a better understanding of the world. He argued that the community of educated Chinese was shortsighted and ignorant and their actions caused harm to the country.
Lin Zexu left The Encyclopedia of Geography to Wei Yuan, one of Xu’s friends, after being removed from office. Liang Qichao, a renowned thinker-politician, said it was the precursor of modern Chinese geography.19 This book, which was based on Hugh Murray’s An Encyclopedia of Geography, came out in 1841. More than thirty countries including Britain, France and the United States were briefly discussed in The Encyclopedia of Geography. The book was comprised of history, geography, politics, religions, customs, culture, education, industry, foreign trade and international relations. The goal of The World was to find ways to resist colonial empires by fully understanding them. The World essentially aimed to gain a more global knowledge of history and geography and serve as a window through which the Chinese could see the world.
Wei Yuan, a scholar-official who supported the war against the British, created the Illustrated Treatise of Maritime Kingdoms on the basis of Lin Zexu’s The World. Readers of Wei’s monograph could find information about the history, geography, science, military affairs and social life of people in the five continents. Wei’s book was one of the earliest writings introducing the Chinese to the world. Wei made it very clear from the beginning that this book would be able to help the Chinese more effectively resist foreign aggressors by comprehensively understanding them.20 In the first chapter he emphasized the importance of studying the strong points of the colonialists.21 Wei criticized the conservatives in power, saying that when fighting against the enemy they should not refuse to study the enemy’s good points nor should they make no attempt to thoroughly understand the enemy. Wei argued that in order to successfully resist the invaders, China must follow the West’s example of promoting economic and military growth. He proposed detailed plans for how this could be achieved.22 Wei was especially critical of those who regarded foreign invaders as simply diabolic and wicked, arguing that they were ignorant of the importance of learning from others.23 Apart from his aim of improving China’s military prowess, Wei repeatedly sang the praises of the people’s successful resistance against the British troops in Sanyuanli, Guangdong24 and concluded that, thanks to Sanyuanli’s success, it became clear that the foreign invaders were not unbeatable. Wei’s Treatise later influenced Japan’s Meiji Restoration. The fifty-volume Treatise was printed in 1843; nine years later a hundred-volume edition was published.
Like Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan, Xu Jiyu 徐继畲, a high official of Fujian, tried to bring China into the modern world and was intent on collecting writings related to the West. He completed the ten-volume World Geography: A Concise Introduction (瀛环志略) published in 1849. In this book Xu discussed the geographic positions, historical changes, economico-cultural characteristics and local customs and practices of other countries, in particular the Western countries. This book became known to the Chinese for its rich contents and perfect narratives.
However, it must be pointed out that the (First) Opium War did not completely succeed in bringing changes to the old Chinese dynasty. It is said that the Emperor Daoguang still did not know where Britain was located despite his government signing the Treaty of Nanjing. The efforts made by men such as Wei Yuan and Xu Jiyu to bring China into the modern world did not have a great effect on the Chinese government.
Social Changes in Post-War China
In addition to seriously damaging China’s sovereignty, the unequal treaties signed during the Opium War brought about deep changes in the country’s social economy. Drastic changes were obvious even in the everyday life of the Chinese. First, the five treaty ports, Guangzhou (Canton), Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou, Shanghai and Ningbo were located on the southeast coast of China.
