The inner Opium War
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The inner Opium War
（Harvard East Asian monographs, 151）
Council on East Asian Studies/Harvard University : Distributed by the Harvard University Press, 1992
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-383) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Why wasn't Ch'ing China moved to a more realistic appreciation of Western might and Chinese weakness after the Opium War? James Polachek's revisionist analysis exposes the behind-the-scenes political struggles that not only shaped foreign-policy decisions in the 1830s and 1840s but have continued to affect the history of Chinese nationalism in modern times. Polachek looks closely at the networks of literati and officials, self-consciously reminiscent of the late Ming era, that sought and gained the ear of the emperor. Challenging the conventional view that Lin Tse-hsu and his supporters were selfless patriots who acted in China's best interest. Polachek argues that, for reasons having more to do with their own domestic political agenda, these men advocated a futile policy of militant resistance to the West. Linking political intrigue, scholarly debates, and foreign affairs, local notables in Canton and literati lobbyists in Peking, this book sets the Opium War in its "inner", domestic political context.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: opium war policies - some interpretations
- the literati - an anticipatory overview. Part 1 The literati re-ascendant: who were the lliterati?
- ideals of career patronage
- constraints on clique politics
- the Hsuan-an poetry club as a literati faction
- as a bureaucratic patronage clique
- as a brotherhood of aesthete-connoisseurs
- political failure
- aftermath - Lin Tse-hsu's northern reclamation plan. Part 2 The rise of the spring purification circle: as a personal network
- as a political faction
- ritual and symbol
- literary and scholastic philosophy
- the ideal of "Moral Censure" (ching-i) politics. Part 3 The politics of opium suppression: the case against embargo
- the legalization initiative of 1836
- the failure of the initiative
- intransigents take the helm. Part 4 The myth of victory in Kwangtung: Lin Tse-hsu and the anti-oppium campaign
- Lin Tse-hsu versus Ch'i-shan
- the siege of Canton
- San-yuan-li
- paramilitary realities. Part 5 The debate over the conduct of the war: Ch'i-shan and the Tientsin negotiations
- the case of Yao Ying on Taiwan
- Wei Yuan and the strategy of defensive war
- Yao Ying and Britain's vulnerability in South Asia. Part 6 The Ku Yen-Wu shrine association: the Mu-chang-a government and literati political influence
- political organization of the association
- ritual and scholastic philosophy
- in search of a political program. Part 7 The end of Manchu diplomacy: the second victory of the Cantonese
- showdown
- the Bonham letter
- the crisis in Kwangsi
- the recall of Lin Tse-hsu.
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