Lin Zexu

Life

In 1811, he passed the jinshi examination, ranking fourth in the second class; he was selected as a shujishi and appointed a Hanlin compiler. His appointments included the Hangjiahu circuit intendant, provincial examination examiner, chief provincial examiner, circuit censor, and metropolitan patrol censor. During the Daoguang era, he served as the Shaanxi surveillance commissioner, Henan financial commissioner, Shaanxi governor, Jiangsu surveillance commissioner, Eastern River governor-general, Jiangsu governor, and Huguang governor-general; he reached the first rank and was twice appointed imperial commissioner. At each posting, he investigated local conditions and understood the advantages and shortcomings of river works, seawalls, and water conservancy.

In the eighteenth year of the Daoguang reign, he enforced an anti-opium policy in Huguang and submitted a memorial on prohibition; the following year, as imperial commissioner in Guangdong, he ordered foreign merchants to surrender opium and publicly destroyed more than 2.37 million jin at Humen. The Humen destruction became the trigger for the outbreak of the First Opium War between the Qing Empire and the British Empire. While enforcing the ban, he collected and translated foreign materials, compiled 《四洲志》, and strengthened the defenses; he remained open to Western culture, technology, and trade, advocating the adoption of what was useful in the West. After his appointment as governor-general of Liangguang, he was dismissed when the British fleet advanced northward to compel negotiations and was exiled to Ili; in Xinjiang, he established water-conservancy and tuntian projects, with notable results.

In the winter of the twenty-fifth Daoguang year, he was recalled to the central government and subsequently served as acting governor-general of Shaan-Gan, governor of Shaanxi, and governor-general of Yunnan-Guizhou; in the twenty-ninth year, illness led him to resign and return home. After the accession of the Wenzong Emperor, he was recalled as imperial commissioner to suppress the Taiping forces in Guangxi, but died of illness at Chaozhou in Guangdong. He was later granted the rank of Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent, posthumously awarded the rank of Junior Tutor of the Heir Apparent, and given the posthumous name Wenzhong.

Family and associates

His grandfather was Lin Wanxuan, his maternal grandfather Chen Shian, and his paternal uncle Lin Wenzao; his cousins included Lin Chunsan and Lin Fengji. His wife was Zheng; his daughter was Lin Puqing (1821–1873), and he had a second son, Lin Congyi, a third son, Lin Gongshu, and a nephew, Lin Longyan. His friends included Borjigit Bao Heng, Guo Shangxian, and Wang Yunxiang; Yang Xiquan was a fellow degree-holder, and Tao Shu a colleague. Feng Guifen was listed both as his student and as his disciple.

Works and thought

His works include 《林文忠公政書》, 《荷戈紀程》, 《信及錄》, and 《雲左山房詩文鈔》; other titles include 《詩餘》, 《俄羅斯國紀要》, 《四洲志》, 《林文忠公家書》, 《林文忠公禁煙奏稿》, 《滇軺紀程》, 《畿輔水利議》, 《道光廣南府志》, 《雲左山房文鈔》, and 《雲左山房詩鈔》. His poetry included two seven-character quatrains under the title 《題朱久香學使〈花間補讀圖〉》, and his ci poems are preserved separately.

Alongside his call for a strict prohibition on imported foreign opium, Lin Zexu proposed in 1833 that opium be cultivated domestically to counter imported opium. He had at least a limited command of English and Portuguese and worked to translate Western newspapers and books. Wei Yuan later compiled Lin Zexu's and his aides' translated documents as 《海國圖志》, a work that influenced the Self-Strengthening Movement of the late Qing and Japan's Meiji Restoration.