No comments about China from the opium wars to the 1911 revolution (The Pantheon Asia library).

1 comments about Dope, Inc.: Britain's Opium War Against The U.S..

1. Dope Inc. makes a solid case, not just through connecting the dots and theorizing, but also indisputable documentation, that the worlds Heroin trade was and still is controlled by an octopus network of "respectable" world elites, including British aristocrats leading all the way up to the House of Windsor, British based Jewish bankers who finance and launder money for drug operations, a handful of super wealthy blue blood WASP families from the New England area of the USA, with underlings like the so called Mafia, the Chinese Triads and also shows how the drug trade is tightly interwoven with the gold and diamond trade. Another thing I found interesting is how their servants like the Bronfmans and Kennedys moved up the ladder from being disreputable gangsters to high level servants of the elites. Bronfmans have intermarried with Rothschilds and Kennedys with the British aristocracy.
   
   It also has good info on the Chinese Opium wars where the British sent troops into China because the Chinese began to crack down on Opium use and stop British shipments of Opium grown in India into China. Yes they invaded China because China had had enough of Britain enslaving their population to drugs and getting richer off of it. This is mainstream history. Just look up Chinese Opium wars or the British East India Company on Wikipedia or on a search engine. Something tells me your average dumb downed brainwashed University history major has no clue that this ever occured.
   
   The criticisms I have of this are when they go into the occultic side of some of these secret societies I don't agree with all of this books conclusions as to what these groups true beliefs or origins are. There is a lot of political and social bias in this book so you have to watch some of that. I also disagree with the stance this book takes on legalization. If it were up to me Marijuana would be legalized tomorrow and I would at least take a long hard look at legalizing other drugs. Dope Inc and the information in it is dated too. The gears have shifted quite a bit now that they have moved new world order troops into Afhanistan, whose Heroin production suddenly went through the roof after the Taliban was deposed. In spite of those critiques this is still a must read book.

2 comments about Foreign Mud: Being an Account of the Opium Imbroglio at Canton in the 1830's and the Anglo-Chinese War That Followed (New Directions Classics,).

1. Foreign Mud -- the phrase means "opium" in Chinese -- is a history of the commercial and diplomatic events that lead to the Anglo/Chinese Opium War of 1839-1842, when England attacked China to open up the latter to British trade. Author Collis tells the story with dry humor and copious quotes from contemporary Chinese and British documents, which document the cynicism and incomprehension reigning on both sides of the conflict. According to the back cover, historian A.J. P. Taylor called Foreign Mud: "A wholly admirable book, admirable as a work of history and admirable as a literary entertainment." For once the blurbs are right.



2. In 1946 the British had once more triumphed against the Germans and the Japanese. Collis here dissects the highlights that led to the "Opium wars", actually skirmishes between Britain and China, where Imperial Britain gained ground over the Celestial Kingdom that had for so long treated them as Barbarians from which they gained some pecuniary advantage.
   
   The Chinese remained conservative in their treatment of the British since the 18th century and had not grasped that by the mid 19th century Britain was a power to be reckoned with. By then, British had taken Opium trading with China to huge heights but her merchants were still greedy for yet more market space and getting shy of selling a common drug to China to enable them to make a profit.
   
   This book is proud and British in flavour, comparing China to some extent with Japan that maintained a similar hubris as the Chinese. It is I think pretty objective and really well written, very gripping and revealing in its details.
   
   The author has structured the work rather like a fantastic story in several acts. There are good maps and enough illustrations. It whets your appetite for more .... and I found this after reading Chris Patten's East and West and Tai Pan. This book was probably a source for Clavell's Tai Pan, Jardine being one of the original Tai Pan's of Hong Kong.
   
   The Opium Wars directly lead to the birth of Hong Kong and was a sign of things going wrong for Imperial China. The British and French shamelessly muscled in on their advantage subsequent to the events of the 1840s. The Chinese always maintained their cool and were incapable of fighting back and as a land power, had to give way to the naval blandishments of the then western powers.
   
   A really wonderful book if you're English, detailing aristocratic China and the elements of British Political hegemony and how they handled the unravelling of a staus quoe in China from which the crown had profiteered without candidly admitting it was from opium.
   
   The author does not defent opium trading but is clear it was not a good thing. It was a game in which as is clear, Chinese officialdom was involved on a large scale.
   
   A fascinating glimpse of the Chinese who normally seem to reveal so little of themselves, their values or their cultures to some of us barbarians.

3 comments about My Splendid Concubine.

1. My Splendid Concubine is the story of Sir Robert Hart, a nineteenth century British consular and customs official who, over several decades, grew into a position of unprecedented respect and trust in China. The story opens in 1908 with the Empress Dowager granting an audience in the Forbidden City to an elderly Hart, Inspector General of Chinese Maritime Customs, but the novel is really about Hart's early days in China as a young interpreter.
   
   Hart travels to China in 1854 seeking to redeem himself after a shameful episode of wenching and carousing at college that embarrassed his family. He first meets Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, who advises him to study everything around him in an effort to understand the Chinese and learn something new everyday. This is the only advice of its kind he receives from his own people, for Hart discovers that the rest of the Westerners view the Chinese culture with disdain and superiority. His first employer, for example, chastises him for trying to learn Mandarin, saying, "It is their place to understand us. We don't have to understand them."
   
   While most of the British and American officials dismiss the Chinese as superstitious heathens, there is one part of the Chinese culture they are quick to assimilate: the taking of concubines. Hart finds it repugnantly hypocritical that his fellow countrymen should hold so little respect for the culture while indulging their own desires in a manner that Victorian society would condemn. He notes that, "on one hand the Europeans and British were shoving Christianity's message of brotherly love down the Chinese collective throat with the barrel of a rifle. At the same time foreign merchants, mostly British, were selling opium to the populace." Hart hopes to rise above such prejudice and lack of ethics, but finds himself sorely tempted by repeated opportunities to sample a service that the Chinese take for granted and the Westerners are perfectly happy to exploit.
   
   And then Hart meets Ayaou, a fiery and courageous girl from the lowest sector of Chinese society, the boat people. Their startling and memorable introduction - which I will not reveal here - sparks a passion that takes the young Englishman by storm. Hart is willing to bankrupt himself to buy Ayaou from her father, who is selling her to provide for the rest of his family, but circumstances whisk her away and Hart finds himself compelled to buy her sister, rather than let the younger girl fall into undesirable hands.
   
   Suddenly Hart owns a concubine, although not the woman he loves, and he is caught between his own Christian beliefs and the worshipful attention of young Shao-mei, who desperately wants to earn the love of her master. And what of Ayaou, who has been sold to the violent and unstable American mercenary soldier Frederick Townsend Ward? What ethics will Hart be willing to compromise in order to get her back?
   
   Lloyd Lofthouse has created a rich cast of characters against the exotic and fascinating backdrop of nineteenth century China. Young Robert Hart is a sympathetic character who earnestly seeks to understand the Chinese culture in order to win acceptance there, and to find peace within his own soul. As Hart learns, so does the reader, for the author has skillfully woven lessons of the Chinese culture into the plot and setting. The girls, Ayaou and Shao-mei, are individually defined as characters and truly believable as sisters: sensually mature, playfully young, one moment presenting a united sisterly front, and the next moment squabbling with jealousy. And I have not even touched upon the pirates, the mercenaries, the opium dealers, and Hart's philosophizing eunuch servant! Don't pass up this debut novel by an author who will surely continue Robert Hart's saga and legendary career in a second novel.



2. Any time I read a book written by a first-time author, I worry that no matter how interesting the subject matter, the writing style will be so amateurish that it will turn me off immediately. I had these concerns with the first chapter of My Splendid Concubine, as the writing seemed very choppy. But once I got past the first chapter, the writing seemed to be coming from a completely different author. By the way, chapter one is a framing sequence which I didn't find to be particularly necessary, so don't worry if you pick the book up yourself. Read on, you won't be disappointed.
   
   Lofthouse has crafted a story about an Irishman's attempts to understand the culture of China in the 19th century, framed in large part on the love affair between the main character and a Chinese concubine. Our hero must battle with his Catholic upbringing in order to first bring himself to admit his love for the woman, and then decide whether he can live in sin with her.
   
   The story contains some scenes of action, and some scenes of sexual activity--not for the kids--but its most interesting aspects involve Chinese culture and the reasons behind how things were done back then. Explaining how fathers sell their children to feed the rest of the family, how rich men can simultaneously and openly have wives, concubines, and pillow-girls live in the same household, why young boys would willingly undergo castration so they can get a better job--these are just a few examples of the wealth of information contained in the book.
   
   The main character, Robert Hart, was a real person--Inspector General for Chinese Maritime Customs--but it is not necessary to know anything about the man to enjoy the book. Whether Hart is real or fictional, Lofthouse has written characters who have a real depth of feeling, the kind of characters you want to hear more about. It helps that the book is open-ended, as the reader is sure to want to learn what comes next for our hero. Odds are that Lofthouse's writing ability will continue to improve and the second book in the series will be even better. I'll definitely be one to buy it.



3. Love for ones wives' sister is typically forbidden by most western religions, but the most successful westerner in Chinese history is faced with this conflict. "My Splendid Concubine" is the tale of Robert Hart who deals with the matters of his lust and how to deal with them the Chinese way, which so conflict with his upbringing. The Taiping Rebellion doesn't help matters, him making enemies of established and skill mercenaries in the process of protecting his interest and the women he loves. "My Splendid Concubine" is packed cover to cover with intriguing characters and plot, a must read for historical fiction fans and a fine addition to any collection on the genre.

1 comments about King Hui: The Man Who Owned All the Opium in Hong Kong.

1. I won't say, "The story was so gripping that I couldn't put the book down", but the narrative was sufficiently interesting and well told that I read the book over a weekend.
   
   Through the author, the protagonist Peter "King" Hui recounts his life as a disreputable playboy growing up and living in Hong Kong from the 1920s through the 1960s. I say "protagonist" because this oral history resonates with enough hyperbole to qualify as part fiction.
   
   Nevertheless, Hui paints himself as a likable, if not altogether admirable, hero, whose Kung Fu was so stellar that he never lost a fight and whose personality was so magnetic that the normally demure Hong Kong women were fighting to have him.
   
   The story has choice nuggets describing Chinese culture that may be new and surprising to even those who consider themselves "old China hands". Born into a well-off family and attending Hong Kong's best English-language school for locals, Hui interacted with a number of those who subsequently made fortunes or squandered what they had inherited.
   
   It was interesting to note, however, that Hui mentions virtually no connections with any British colonialists - a testament perhaps to the strict racial segregation that lasted in the colony until the late 1960s.
   
   I've already recommended this book to a colleague in Hong Kong and would do so for anyone who knows the city and is interested in both its people and history.

1 comments about Modernization And Revolution In China: From the Opium Wars to World Power.

1. Besides the fact that this was specifically designed to be a textbook (whatever that means) ... While this book focuses on China's history in the modern period, the authors claim that, "an understanding of contemporary China requires an appreciation of it's rich historical traditions." And they've done an excellent job of looking back without losing their focus or boring the reader.

1 comments about The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes.

1. This book deserves five stars. Not because it is an exhaustive account of the first war but because it restores the balance. We have many English language texts on this subject but Arthur Waley, the distinguished sinologist, has become, with this slim volume, an extremely good historian. Using Chinese sources, occasionally adding clarifications from elsewhere, he has achieved a delightful, wistful, plaintive, penetrative and endlessly readable slim volume that finally enables the non-Chinese language reader to enter into what really motivated officials and simple, if middle class, Chinese people in the opium war - the seemingly unbridgable gulf that to this day divides East and West is washed away in this collection of notes from Commissioner Lin's diary and elsewhere, recording what it was like to be there at the time, the perplexity of the citizen and revealing the Chinese, through their thoughtful comments and opinions, their hopes and fears, as precisely like you and I. Read it.

5 comments about The Opium Wars.

1. This is a very good book , indicating a lot of research and studies
   
   For the layman who has no knowledge of China's decline in the 18th and 19th centuries, this a must-read.
   
   There are, to me, a few points of inaccuracies and incompletenss about Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping Tianguo.Hong's fall was not
   solely due to Zeng Guofeng. The English mercenary General Charles Gordon was not mentioned at all. In addition, in-fighting and disunity among Hong's subordinates played a very crucial role.
   
   None the less, the book is highly recommended



2. ...of gunboat diplomacy in perhaps its most tragic and despicable grandeur. I enjoyed this book and learned a great deal about an intriguing but, by me, previously unexplored history of events. Anyone who is interested in modern Chinese history and affairs including East/West relations would, I think, greatly benefit from a study of the events covered in this book. The UK, which thanks to Wilberforce and others, had suppressed the African slave trade, squandered so much of its moral authority in trying to force a dysfunctional Imperial China into commercial relationships that would fund the UK addction to Chinese silk and tea. Virtually all the Brits could find to sell the Middle Kingdom was opium and thus the UK became a sanctimonious, hypocritical superpower insisting that China admit, on the one hand, missionaries to preach the Gospel and liberate Chinese souls and, on the other, opium merchants to ensnare Chinese addicts and their treasure. (As another reviewer noted, it is hard indeed to read of the events in this book and not be reminded of how modern addictions of cheap petroleum and drugs have had a deleterious effect on the US balance of payments, foreign policy, and world image.) However, whether this particular volume would, for the serious scholar, be the best book on this fascinating subject, I cannot say. Reading it, I was constantly struck by the conviction that this book would have benefitted enormously had it been placed in the respective hands of a well-informed critic and a good editor prior to being published. I enjoyed the authors' hip and humorous style - each chapter reminded me of an entertaining college lecture - but since I found the editing so wanting, I was less confident in how thorough, balanced, and reliable the authors actually were with the mass of information they presented.



3. This book represents literally the worst scholarship I have ever seen. It makes no pretense of careful, thorough, or new research into its subject, but relies almost exclusively on two secondary sources--both in English, both still in print. Its dependence on Jack Beeching's book on the same subject is so thorough that it renders this book completely superfluous. I feel like my time and money were wasted on this when I could have skipped it entirely and headed directly to the source.
   
   In addition to its total lack of new insight into the subject, the book seems not have benefitted from editorial oversight prior to publication. In one chapter, the same quotation is used in two different contexts, citing two different sources, with no attempt at explanation. Indeed, I was surprised to find several ungrammatical sentences scattered throughout, as if an early draft had somehow made it to the presses. If this was a term paper, it would have been handed back for a rewrite. There is no excuse for something of such poor quality sitting on bookstore shelves.
   
   It is insulting to the reader that this book was ever allowed to the see the light of day. The authors ought to have their academic credentials revoked.



4. Colourful history that tends to ask more questions than provide answers. Not as successful as Maurice Collins' 1946 classic "Foreign Mud".
   
   Deeper research is still needed into the merchant companies, their composition and practices, that participated in the opium trade world-wide: a trade that made huge fortunes for individuals and Imperial nations in the 19th and early 20th centuries.



5. An interesting discussion of two obscure wars fought by Victorian Britain.
   
   While the book suffers from inadequate maps and a too-brief description of the events, its major fault is that the authors were unable to suppress their contempt for Britian in general and the British participants in particular. As a result, the book is replete with snide remarks about both. If you are already disgusted with Britian's foisting opium upon the Chinese, these remarks will not add to your opinion; if you are indifferent to the moral issue, you will remain indifferent.
   
   As a by-the-way: in general, whenever an author is listed as "Joe Blow, Ph.D." you are entitled to doubt he has any other recommendation whatsoever; the first author is so listed.

3 comments about Opium War, 1840-1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates.

1. Peter Fay's book on the Opium War is one of the most detailed studies of the period between 1838-1842 one can find at anything like the price, and would be a valuable resource except for one major flaw--there is no time-line given, and dates are provided, at most, with day and month, not year. This may seem like an insignificant thing, but given that correspondence took at least six months in one direction from China to England, and that the war was taking place with sailing ships up and down most of China's coast, it quickly becomes impossible to tell, either from the footnotes or the text, what year precisely specific events happened. Since so few dates are given at all, it is impossible to get a good sense of the exact sequence of events, particularly as the fighting part of the war heated up. When the book is next released, it should have a time line!



2. Nearly three decades after it was first published, Fay's book remains the best single volume on the Opium War, and one of the best books on China in the 19th century. It is easy to read, but is scholarly enough for the most fastidious. Unlike the other reviewer I had no particular difficulties with the timeline, although that can be a problem with any historical narrative. Be advised that this is a narrative history and can be read with joy by those who find social or economic histories tedious, but the background of the war is covered in particular detail as well. Fay is not a professional sinologist, and came to this book through his studies of the East India Company, but the book seems none the worse for his wide knowledge. It was recommended to me by some very distinguished historians of China, and their enthusiasm was justified. It is not a weighty tome, like those of Mary Wright or Vincent Shih on China in the 19th century, but it is authoritative on its subject, and like the best of Fairbank, it is great fun to read. Can one say better things about a book? If you are interested in the Opium War, Qin dynasty history, imperialism, or just like reading a good narrative about a war, please indulge yourself-- and read this book.



3. While there are regrettably few definitive one-volume accounts of the imperialist foreign rape of China (and anyone seeking a balanced and fair account is forced by this dearth of material to digest the information contained across vastly differing accounts from both the Chinese and foreign side), Fay's study is easily one of the most engaging. It is not a dry history, nor a polemic. It is beautiful, fresh and literary writing that reads like a novel, packed with ground-level observations, much gathered from the journals of the Western participants themselves. Fay also does a better job than many others in dissecting the psychologies behind the politics and clashing cultures. Fay also succeeds by never straying from the bottom line: the opium and opium trafficking.

5 comments about The Chinese Opium Wars.

1. Oh the wonders of free trade. The Americans grow King Cotton with slaves. They then export it to Manchester to be made into textiles. These textiles are produced with child labor. These textiles are then exported to India, where they wipe out the local clothes trade. The Indians then discover a great crop that has great potential--opium. The only problem with opium is that it is addictive and eventually kills those using it. The British want products from China such as tea and silk. The Chinese desire no Western made goods, so the British introduce opium. The Chinese government under the detested Manchu rulers want no part of opium, so the British fight two wars to open China up to free trade, including opium. They seize an island and part of a peninsula to protect the merchant houses that deal in this drug. They name this Hong Kong. Other grim business includes the coolie trade (similar to slavery, but only for long periods of time), and the Chinese version of Christianity--the Taipings. The French and the Americans are also involved in the opium and coolie trade.
   Beeching does a good job of detailing how the British and to a lesser extent the Americans were not always so noble in their dealings with Third World people. As detailed above, we exploited their economy, made off with millions of coolies, made others opium addicts, and burned one of their prized monuments--the Summer Palace (looting it in the process). The men that did this thought the Chinese were the barbarians. I think Beeching was fair to both sides. I liked his reference section in which he listed his sources, and then summarized what the opinion was--pro British, pro Chinese. An excellent work.



2. I actually read this book several years ago and purchased this copy to give to a friend to explain why China is going to be so difficult to deal with. China thinks we owe them big because of what happened 140-160 years ago. This is not ancient history to them -- it is the present and they are not going to be our friends after what happened then.



3. This ia a very detailed and readable book about China and her forced entry into the world.
   
   I would caution those who advocate free trade to read it carefully and do some serious thinking. Free trade is good but could be abused with no moral standards. When a stronger power forced a weak country to go for free trade using military might with no moral restrains, the outcome could be devastating with serious repercussions for ages. Hopefully such things will never happen again



4. The opium wars in China were a contest between the Chinese and the British which extended from 1840 to 1842, and were renewed in 1857. What these wars were about is a matter of contention. Jack Beeching, in this engaging and detailed book about the conflicts takes the position that they really were about what the name implies, smuggling opium into China in violation of its laws. An analogy today, would be if Columbia or Mexico were to invade the U.S. in order to open our markets to cocaine regardless of the fact that our laws prohibit its sale. Britain had the sea power and disciplined troops to do it and did.
   
   British and American commentators at the time and since have strongly urged the view that in 1839 the real issue was not opium but extra-territoriality - or, sometimes, the Open Door in China. The argument is respectable, but it must be recognized that the British government laid down from the start a policy and a strategy which corresponded very closely to the declared needs of the big opium smugglers."
   
   Beeching is up against some fairly strong "respectable" opposition. For example, Peter Ward Fay, a professor emeritus of history at the California Institute of Technology, wrote a book about the first opium war, evidently intending to satisfy what he and Beeching must both have realized at the time they wrote, both books being published in 1975: "There does not exist, for the West's first major intrusion into China, what the subject deserves and a reader is entitled to. The popular books on the war leave it a piece in the larger story of the `awakening dragon' or treat it decidedly hurriedly. The scholarly monographs approach it from one angle or another, rarely making much of an effort at narrative." (Fay, Peter Ward, The Opium War, 1840-1842, 1975, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1997, Paperback Edition. Evidently Fay did not think much of Beeching's narrative. Writing a preface in a new edition in 1997, he said: ... "Nothing has been added to the existing Notes on Sources, in part because in the years since it was drawn up, nothing that seriously added to or challenged the narrative has to my knowledge appeared.") Fay subscribes to the other "respectable" argument. "Readers may discover that though I am quite aware what damage opium did, I do not believe that the Opium War was really about opium at all. It was about other particular things, shaped by circumstances as most history is; and it was, if you look for an overarching principle, about somehow getting the Chinese to open up. The desire is still very much with us today."
   
   This view is echoed by John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman. They argue that the British expeditionary force led by the new paddle wheel steamer, Nemesis, was intended "...to secure privileges of general commercial and diplomatic intercourse on a Western basis of equality, and not especially to aid the expansion of the opium trade. The latter was expanding rapidly of its own accord and was only one point of friction in the general antagonism between the Chinese and British schemes of international relations." (Fairbank, John King, Goldman, Merle, China a New History, 2nd Edition, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006. It should be noted that Fairbank's review of both Fay's and Beeching's books in The New York Times is cited on the cover of each.) The objective being in dispute even today, what happened in China?
   
   The background of the conflict is complex, but the central aspect of it is generally agreed. In the eighteenth century the British had developed a substantial liking for tea. They obtained it from China for which they paid in silver. As the consumption grew the balance of payments with China tilted more and more in favor of the Chinese. For example, between 1710 and 1759 Britain bought 26,833,614 Pounds Sterling worth of tea and sold only 9,248,396 Pounds worth of goods to the Chinese.
   
   That the Chinese did not admire British goods or want them is a frequently told story. Lord Macartney took a representative selection of British goods when he went to the Summer Palace in 1793 to establish an embassy. The Emperor took one look at them and said: "I set no value on strange objects and ingenious (sic.) and have no use for your country's manufactures." They languished in a warehouse only to be discovered in their crates at the end of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. The British simply could not afford to continue buying tea and not selling anything. In India the British were growing opium (a white poppy which produces a milk from which opium is derived). While there was no market for it in 1782, the British thought they could purchase it cheaply in India where they were selling textiles and develop a market for it in China to offset their tea purchases. A couple of British firms did just that. "By 1830, the opium trade there was probably the largest commerce of its time in any single commodity, anywhere in the world." But the Chinese banned the sale and tried to shut down the sellers and importers. While the emperor had issued an edict against its sale in 1799 and closed outlets by force in 1821-3, the trade persisted. The proximate cause of the war was the righteous action of the incorruptible Chinese Imperial Commissioner, Lin Zixu, in 1839, to arrest the Chinese opium dealers in Canton and to quarantine the foreign suppliers and seize their supplies of opium. The British responded by forcibly "opening the door," but the door was to the opium den.
   
   The arrogance of the British at that time cannot be overstated. Disraeli, opposing war, challenged Palmerston, the Prime Minister to put the matter to a vote of the nation. Palmerston did just that. He dissolved Parliament and appealed to the electorate calling Commisioner Lin "an insolent barbarian." Evidently gunboat diplomacy was more popular with the people than the House of Commons, for his government was returned with a majority. It should be noted, that during this time opium was not prohibited in Britain and many there regarded it as less harmful than alcohol and, indeed, used it for medical purposes.
   
   Beeching describes the ensuing war in detail, recognizing that it was not an even contest. The British had disciplined troops and modern weapons. In one instance, after the British had captured Ningpo, the Chinese massed a force and invaded the city. They broke through a city gate and attacked down the street toward the market. The British brought up one howitzer, and a platoon of infantry which barred the only side street of escape. It was a slaughter. "No British were killed that night, but over 500 Chinese dead were counted. All units of the Chinese army which had been in action at Ningpo were permanently demoralized from the effect on their minds of grapeshot and musketry at close quarters. Henceforth, against any European army, they were defeated in advance." The treaty of Nanking ended the war and granted the British the right to resume trade on an expanded basis and other concessions.
   
   The personalities involved on both sides seem to be caricatures of their time. The British Victorian statesmen and soldiers were conquerors and the Chinese mandarins were still the foundation of Chinese society. Both empires had cracks, and Beeching describes them. However, the Chinese, being isolated compared to the British, did not recognize their weeknesses. A new emperor in 1850, Hsien Feng, was not a match for the time. There were disasters, the Yellow River altered its course and the Taiping rebellion swept the country. Parts of the treaty of Nanking were not honored. The British wanted what the treaty provided and more. They concentrated their fleet on Chinese waters after the Crimean War was over. An excuse came when the Arrow, a British flag vessel, was boarded by Chinese marines who arrested the Chinese crew. The following clash, in 1859, was even more one sided than the previous one. After another treaty was negotiated but not honored by the Chinese, the British captured Beijing. They looted and destroyed the Summer Palace and opened up the interior of China to trade and missionary activity.
   
   The Chinese Opium Wars has remained in print for the last thirty years because it is readable and its scope is extensive, from 1798 to 1864. Furthermore, Beeching dwells upon the personalities and turmoil in China along with British aggression. It may well be that the isolation the Chinese imposed upon themselves from the time of Zheng He would have dissipated over time without foreign intervention. However, Chinese social and governmental structure, which did not lend itself to change, was anachronistic. Gentry were selected to command troops without having received training other than in Confucian texts. Official promotions from ninth grade, and later eighth grade, were offered for cash starting in 1838. And the revolutions in China did not include the industrial one.
   
   Beeching describes his modest intent in a postscript referring to his sources:
   "Materials for the serious academic history of the Chinese Opium wars which has not yet been written are abundant. For instance there are over 2000 books and articles, many in Chinese or Russian, on the Taiping Rising alone. To append a scholarly apparatus of references to an essay in popular narrative history, compiled from less than a hundred sources, all secondary, and in only two languages, would be willfully misleading. Yet the narrative historian writing for the man in the street has valid standards of his own - corresponding to those of the responsible journalist. History is the resurrection of the dead; this book is only a sketch of a possible beginning."
   
   Given that objective, Beeching successfully outlined the conflicts.



5. This book chronicles one of the pivotal events of the 19th century; growth of the opium trade into China and the ensuing Opium wars between China and the West; the latter being primarily England. Starting with initial introductions in the late 1700s, the book concentrates on the events fro 1830s - 1860s when most of the action took place. This action consisted of diplomatic chess matches between Chinese and Western representatives, debates in England's Parliament about the opium trade, battles along the Chinese coast between English warships and local junks, the Taiping uprising in China, smuggling, bribery, backstabbing, and the ransacking of cities.
   
   This book is full of many themes. First and foremost is the theme that an industrialized country cannot be matched in terms of raw power and ability to project that power around the world. China was the oldest of civilizations, and even though it was materially self-sufficient and had the world's largest population; it was no match for the English. Second, if the Chinese had dealt earnestly and on equal terms with the foreigners from the get-go; much of the hostility and hatred on the part of the British might have been mitigated later on. Third, drug addictions and trade can and do drive government policies. It drove the foreign policy of China and England for much of the 19th century. Fourth, money talks, not morals. One of the substories told in this book is the conversion of W.E. Gladstone, that career English Parliamentarian, from anti-opium to pro-opium. Last, insularity do not last long in a world of global trade. Try they might to stave of the English and their opium, but as long as China had tea, and locals on both sides were willing to trade, the Chinese government would eventually fail in its fight against opium and the outsiders.
   
   This is a good book; the story it tells is important in understanding the history of Chinese - Western relations. Many important events apart from the opium trade are covered; such as the growth of the coolie trade, the transfer of Hong Kong from China to England, the growth of a Western presence on Formosa, and France's initial steps into Indo-China. There are several minuses of this book. First is the language of the text. The book was written in the 1970's, but the grammar and wording seem to reflect the time of the events themselves. Terms are used to describe battles, dialogue, and government intrigue that would baffle most lay readers. Second, for a book that involves a lot of geography, there is a paucity of maps. This considering that many of the Chinese places mentioned in the book go by different names now. But overall, a good history book and a great story.