24. The Opium War and Changes in Cultural
Trends After It
In i840 Britain shamelessly attacked China for a criminal pur-
pose-to protect the opium trade.
In the early nineteenth century, the British East India Company
smuggled to China large quantities of opium produced in India, which
was then a British colony. This illegal trade not only cost China enor-
mous sums of money, but did great harm to the health and moral
quality of those who were addicted to the drug. So clear-headed offi-
cials in the Qing government like Lin Zexu wanted to have the trade
completely banned. The Qing rulers also saw the danger of the spread
of opium, and in 1838 appointed Lin High Commissioner and entrust-
ed him with the task of banning the opium trade in Guangzhou,
where most British opium dealers were staying and doing business.
After arriving in Guangzhou early in 1839, Lin took resolute and
strict measures to ban the trade. He compelled the British merchants
to surrender all their opium, totaling 22, 000 chests(one chest con-
taining about 120 jin of opium)and had it publicly burned in Hu-
men, not far from Guangzhou.
The British government, urged by the interest groups connected
with the opium trade, decided to wage war on China. They sent a
fleet of over 40 battleships with 4,000 troops to Chinese seas.
The invaders were repelled by the army and people of Guang-
dong, where Lin Zexu had made necessary preparations. The British
other western countries, including France, Germany, Russia and the
United States, and Japan in the east, jointly or separately started ag-
gressive wars on China, or bullied China in different ways, to demand
privileges, special rights, indemnities, concessions and even territory,
and generally they got what they wanted. Chinese history in the sec-
ond half of the nineteenth century was full of such humiliating
events. They marked the turn of China from a feudal country into a
semi-colonial and semi-feudal country.
This situation awakened patriotic Chinese to the necessity of
finding out the causes of China's weakness and ways of rejuvenating
the country. Scholars with advanced ideas like Lin Zexu and Wei
Yuan considered it important to understand the history and geogra-
phy of western countries, and learn from their strong points. Lin com-
piled a book called Knowledge of the Four Continents, and Wei ex-
panded its content and compiled a big book called Illustrated Records
of Maritime Countries. Wei said that China should "learn the ad-
vanced techniques of foreign countries in order to control them."
Many government officials believed that China was weak mainly
because her military equipment was backward. Western troops had ri-
ties and cannon, while Chinese soldiers were armed only with swords
and spears. Therefore these officials, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang
among them, began to build factories producing weapons. To facilitate
production, mines and factories making steel and other materials were
also set up. The Qing government bought several battleships from for-
eign countries, intending to build a navy. Groups of students were
sent to Europe and Japan to study science and technology. This devel-
opment was later called the Westernization Drive.
In 1894 Japan invaded Korea and Chinese territory Taiwan. The
Qing troops sent to help defend Korea were defeated. The new Chi-
nese navy, after fighting the Japanese navy courageously on the Yel-
low Sea, was almost completely destroyed in its harbor Weihaiwei by
the Japanese troops landed on Shandong. The Qing rulers who did not
want to continue to fight were forced to accept all Japanese demands,
including the cession of Taiwan to Japan. The outcome of the war
made it clear that westernization alone could not turn China into a
strong country, because the rulers who made policies and directed
wars were weak and decadent.
After the war of 1894 China was in a deep national crisis, for the
big powers threatened to partition China. Scholars who were worried
about the fate of the country called for reform, not only in industry
and military affairs, but also in the political system. Outstanding
among these people were Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Yan Fu and
Tan Sitong.
Kang and over 1,300 other scholars who had gathered in Beijing
for the final stage of the imperial examinations submitted a memorial
to Emperor Guangxu suggesting political reform. Kang was for the
substitution of constitutional monarchy for feudal autocracy. Liang,
once a student of Kang's, helped Kang by writing articles propagating
reformist ideas. Yan studied in England for a few years, and after re-
turning to China devoted his time to translating English philosophi-
cal, political and economic classics, such as Huxley's Evolution and
Ethics. Tan was more radical than the others. He wrote On Benevo-
lence criticizing traditional ideas.
The reformists frequently made speeches, published books and
wrote articles in newspapers to explain the necessity of reform. They
were in a way helped by the critical situation of the country, which
showed that China had no way out except reform. But conservatives,
or diehards, were still a strong force in the country, especially in the
ruling class. They were against all changes. "The way handed down
from ancestors should never be changed, "they said, and they con-
tended what was necessary was to change men, not law, for all faults
came from men's wrong thinking.
In the fierce debate between the two sides, the conservatives
usually quoted from Confucius, Mencius and other ancient philoso-
phers, and the reformists often gave new interpretations to some clas-
sics. They even tried to prove that Confucius also favored changes.
Moreover, they made use of new learning like the philosophy of evolu-
tion to show that change was a principle that governed all things. To
a certain extent this debate prepared public opinion for the coming re-
form.
In 1898 Kang Youwei submitted to the emperor another memo-
rial, in which he warned that only political changes could save the
country, and that the country would perish without major changes.
He had always hoped that the emperor would start reform from
above, and had never thought of calling on the people to demand re-
form from below.
This time Emperor Guangxu was impressed by and agreed to
Kang's views and suggestions. In June 1898 he gave Kang and a few
other reformists important positions in the government and empow-
ered them to carry out reform.
They took mainly economic and educational measures, such as
the encouragement of industry and commerce, the establishment of
schools, the reform of the civil service examination system, and the
abolition of some unnecessary government organs. They never sug-
gested organizing a parliament. But the conservative force led by Em-
press Dowager Cixi, who had real power, bitterly hated and strongly
opposed these measures. With the help of some military men, Cixi
counter.-attacked in September. She put Emperor Guangxu under
house arrest, and killed Tan Sitong and five other reformists. Kang
Youwei and Liang Qichao narrowly escaped. The hundred-day reform
was thus brought to an end.
The failure of the reformists taught some progressive people a
lesson: it would be impossible to change the political system under
Qing rule. Shortly afterwards, people with more radical ideas led by
Dr. Sun Yatsen began preparing for armed uprisings to overthrow the
Qing Dynasty. After a series of failures, they finally succeeded in
1911.