Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China PDF
Preview Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China
DEADLY DREAMS The great powers of the world - China, Britain, France, the United States, and Russia - were involved in the Arrow War (1856-60). But for the fact that it was regionally contained (though it stretched from Canton to Beijing), it could be called a world war because of its global economic and diplomatic drivers. Dr. John Wong's investigation into the casus belli - an alleged insult to the British flag ascribed to the Arrow, a sailing vessel registered in Hong Kong - led him to twenty-five years of research across the globe. In Deadly Dreams, he identifies the origins of the war and analyzes the intricate, competing interests and passions that fueled the conflict. These include complex Chinese and British diplomacy; Chinese tea and silk exports and their world markets; British India's jealously guarded economic strategies and opium monopoly; intricate Westminster politics and British global trade; French pride and cultural priori- ties; Russian intrigues and territorial designs; and America's apparent aloof- ness and real ambitions. This history is about economic realities, and the pursuit of personal vanity and national pride at the expense of terrific bloodshed; it is about drugs, lies, scandals, conspiracies, and strategems. Dr. Wong details how an outrageous war was started without authority, then sanctioned, and justified spiritedly (to this day). He offers penetrating insights into British offensive and Chinese defensive diplomacy, into territorial and court politics in China, into Victorian values, rhetoric and free-trade ideology. His findings shed new light on the mechanics and theories of imperialism and how they might be reassessed. J. Y. Wong is Senior Lecturer in History in the Department of History at the University of Sydney. Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions General Editor, Denis Twitchett DEADLY DREAMS Other books in the series Victor H. Mair Tunhuang Popular Narratives Ira E. Kasoff The Thought of Chang Tsai Chih-P'ing Ghou Yuan Hung-tao and the Kung-an School Arthur Waldron The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth Hugh R. Clark Community, Trade, and Networks: Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Centuries Denis Twitchett The Writing of Official'History Under the T'ang J. D. Schmidt Stone Lake: The Poetry of Fang Chengda Brian E. McKnight Law and Order in Sung China Jo-Shui Ghen Liu Tsung-yiian and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773-819 David Pong Shen Pao-chen and China's Modernization in the Nineteenth Century J. D. Schmidt Within the Human Realm: The Poetry of Huang Zunxian, 1848-1905 Arthur Waldron From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, 1924-1925 Ghin-Shing Huang Philosophy, Philology, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century China: Li Fu and the Lu-Wang School under the Ch'ing Glen Dudbridge Religious Experience and Lay Society in T'ang China: A Reading of Tai Fu's 'Kuang-i chi' Eva Shan Ghou Reconsidering Tu Fu: Literary Greatness and Cultural Context Frederic Wakeman Jr. The Shanghai Badlands: Wartime Terrorism and Urban Crime, 1937-1941 Sarah A. Queen From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn Annals according to Tung Chung-shu Deadly Dreams Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856-1860) in China J. Y. Wong CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1998 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1998 Reprinted 1999 First paperback edition 2002 Typeface Baskerville 10/12 pt, in QuarkXPress™. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 52155255 9 hardback ISBN 0 52152619 1 paperback To Grahame Harrison True scholar, genuine friend, wonderful colleague Contents List of Tables xi List of Figures xv Poem by the late Mr Qin Esheng xvii Foreword by Professor Wang Gungwu xix Foreword by Professor C. A. Bayly xxi Preface xxiii I The confusion of imperialism i An attempt to peel the onion of confusion 3 II The pretext for imperialism 2 An international incident: 'That wretched question of the Arrow7 43 III The personalities of imperialism 3 Harry Parkes: 'If you would read a little international law.' - Punch. 69 4 Sir John Bowring: Possessed by a monomania 84 5 Commissioner Yeh: A 'monster'? 109 6 Rule, Britannia and vox populi, vox Dei 128 IV The rhetoric of imperialism 7 Marx, Punch, and a political press: The debate among the British newspapers 153 8 The Arrow incident and international law: The debate in the House of Lords 174 Contents 9 Triumph of the liberal conscience: The debate in the House of Commons 193 10 'Johnny' is on his knees: The 'Chinese Election' 216 V The mechanics of imperialism 11 Behind the scenes: The diplomacy of imperialism 261 12 Behind the scenes: The politics of imperialism 283 13 In the wings: The lobbies of imperialism 310 VI The economics of imperialism 14 Anglo-Chinese trade: The Chinese should buy more 333 15 China's maritime trade: The Chinese could buy more 365 16 The problem of India: The Chinese should and could buy more 386 17 The balance sheet: The Chinese are now buying more 434 VII The dynamics of imperialism 18 Conclusion 457 Chronology of major events 487 Word list 490 Abbreviations 494 Bibliography 495 Index 525
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