through the valley of death 95

CHAPTER TWO

Through the Valley of Death

The and its Aftermath

One might be tempted to suggest that the death of Zheng’s mother in 1840 was an omen for the passing of the old order and the catastrophic changes that were soon to engulf China, for 1840 was also the year in which the First Opium War erupted in .1 Trouble had been brewing for some time, as many officials were deeply troubled by increasing addiction to opium and the economic disruption caused by the outflow of silver to used to pay for the drug, and on the tenth of the intercalary fourth month (June 2) of 1838, Huang Juezi 黃爵滋 (1793-1853) submitted a me- morial to the government recommending drastic measures to stop the importation of opium. Eight days later 林則徐 (1785-1850), who had already distinguished himself as a provincial official, submitted an- other memorial supporting Huang and laying out concrete proposals about how to deal with the problem.2 The Daoguang 道光 emperor (reg. 1821- 1851) summoned Lin to the capital late in 1838, and then after nineteen audiences with him, appointed him Imperial Commissioner with plenipo- tentiary powers to deal with the opium question in Guangzhou. Lin arrived in that city on the twenty-fifth of the first month (March 10) 1839, and soon leading Chinese merchants involved in the opium trade were appearing before him in chains. When the British representative, Captain Charles Elliot (1801-1875), arrived in Guangzhou from Macao (­Aomen 澳門) fourteen days later, much of the city was blockaded, and

1 A still useful account of the First Opium War in English is Peter Ward Fay, The Opium War 1840-1842, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975. 2 For a discussion of Huang Juezi and Lin Zexu’s memorials, see the classic study on Lin in a Western language, Hsin-pao Chang, Commissioner Lin and the Opium War, 92-8. It is interesting to note that of twenty-eight memorials submitted to the throne on the subject after Huang’s memorial, only eight, including Lin’s memorial, upheld Huang’s suggestions. Lin Zexu was a highly accomplished poet, and for a selection of his verse with detailed annotations and modern Chinese translation, see Qiu Yuanyou ed., Lin Zexu, Deng Tingzhen, Huang Juezi shiwen xuanyi, 132-76. Lin’s and Huang Juezi’s memorials are also included in this anthology on 1-16 and 196-209, respectively. See also the discussion of Lin’s poetry in Guo Yanli, Zhongguo jindai wenxue fazhanshi, vol. 1, 92-107. 96 chapter two

Fig. 2.1 Zheng Zhen’s villa and his parents’ tomb at North-South Mountain, as imagined by Feng Zikai in 1942.