he reading indicates Chinese export includes _
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The reading indicates Chinese export includes ________________.
Transcribed Image Text:USING
HISTORICAL
SOURCES
Name
Date
26
Chapter 26 A Letter to Queen Victoria
In 1839, the emperor of China sent commissioner Lin Tse-hsu to Canton with orders to stop
the opium trade. Lin's action in destroying the opium at Canton helped to bring on war with
Great Britain. Lin presented the Chinese view in an eloquent letter to Queen Victoria, which
was probably never received by the monarch. Read the excerpt from Lin's letter below and
answer the questions that follow.
The Way of Heaven is fairness to all; it does not
suffer us to harm others in order to benefit our-
selves. Men are alike in this all the world over:
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 for-
bid the production of it, which is the only way of
cleansing the contamination 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 showing yourselves
careful of your own lives, but careless of the lives
of other people.... Such conduct is repugnant to
human feeling and at variance with the Way of
Heaven....
What is forbidden to consume, your dependen-
cies must be forbidden to manufacture, and what
has already been manufactured Your Majesty
must immediately search out and throw it to the
bottom of the sea, and never allow such a poison
to exist in Heaven or on Earth. ...
Both nations will enjoy the blessing of a peace-
ful existence, yours on its side having made clear
its sincerity by respectful obedience to our com-
mands. You will be showing that you understand
the principles of Heaven, and calamities will not
be sent down on you from above; you will be act-
ing in accordance with decent feeling, which may
also well influence the course of nature in your
favor....
that they cherish life and hate what endangers
life....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....
Ever since the port of Canton was first opened,
trade has flourished. For some hundred and twen-
ty or thirty years, the natives of the-place have
enjoyed acetul and profitable relations with the
ships thất come fron 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. 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.... 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 poi-
son. 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 certain dev-
ilish persons in places subject to your rule. . .
I am told that in your own country opium
smoking is forbidden under severe penalties. This
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.
Adapted from The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes by Arthur
Waley (Chester Springs, Penn.: Dufour Editions, Inc., 1966).
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