The Troublesome Legacy of Commissioner Lin: The Opium Trade and Opium Suppression in Fujian Province, 1820s to 1920s

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In 1908, a very public crusade against opium was in full swing throughout China, and the provincial capital and treaty port of Fuzhou was a central stage for the campaign. This, the most successful attempt undertaken by the Chinese state before 1949 to eliminate opium, came at a time when, according to many historians, China's central state was virtually powerless. This volume attempts to reconcile that apparent contradiction. The remarkable, albeit temporary, success of the anti-opium campaign between 1906 and 1920 is as yet largely unexplained. How these results were achieved, how that progress was squandered, and why China's opium problem proved so tenacious are the questions that inspired this volume. The attack on this social problem was led by China's central and provincial authorities, aided by reformist elites, and seemingly supported by most Chinese. The anti-opium movement relied on the control and oversight provided by a multilayered state bureaucracy, the activism and support of unofficial elite-led reform groups, the broad nationalistic and humanitarian appeal of the campaign, and the cooperation of the British government. The extent to which the Chinese state was able to control the pace and direction of the anti-opium campaign and the evolving nature of the political space in which elite reformers publicized and enforced that campaign are the guiding themes of this analysis. The Troublesome Legacy of Commissioner Lin The Opium Trade and Opium Suppressionin Fujian Province, 182os to 1920s Acknowledgments Contents Tables, Maps, and Figures Preface 1 Commerce, Compulsion, and Control State, Society, and a New Public Space Opium in Rhetoric and Reality: A Historiographical Caveat Structure of the Volume "Portable Ecstasies" Setting the Analytical Stage 2 Constructing Fujian's Opium Economy, 1820s-1906 The Setting The Supply Side: Clandestine Commerce and Taxable Vice "Can You Hear the Poppies Singt 'Morality, Money, and Demand Opium in Fujian on the Eve of Suppression 3 Ambitious Interlude, I906-1910 The View from Fujian The Framework of Opium Reform in Fujian Opium Reform and the Public Sphere, 1906-1910 The Provincial Assembly and the Deliberate Dismantling of the Public Sphere Opium and Conflicting Loyalties 4 Provincial Patterns of Reform Before the Revolution of I911 Opium Suppression in the Northwest Opium Suppression in the Northeast Opium Suppression in the Southeast Opium Suppression in the Southwest Glimpses of Reform Across the Province 5 Tartars, Treaties, and Turmoil Tartars: Opium and the Fuzhou Banner Garrison Revolutionary Rumblings The Treaty: Opium and the British Factor on the Eve of Revolution Revolution in Fuzhou and the End of Manchu Rule A Pivotal Year 6 Opium Reform Under the Republic, 1912-1914 Opium and the Military Opium, the Public Sphere, and Imperialism Opium Reform Outside Fuzhou The Joint Inspections The Closure of Fujian The Beginning of the End 7 Race, Religion, and Reform Protestant Missionaries and Opium in Fujian Missionary Motivations Missionary Involvement in Fujian's Anti-Opium Campaign The Impact of Missionary Activism 8 Huang Lian's Revolt and the Politics of Prohibition Context for Rebellion Huang Lian's Revolt A Rancorous Resolution The Politics of Reform and Revolution 9 The Collapse of the Crusade, 1914-1927 Opium and China's New Reality Opium in Fujian, 1914-1917 Civil War, Unification, and Opium Opium and the Public Sphere, 1914-1927 The Ignominious End of the Crusade Epilogue: The Challenge of Narcotics Control in China Reference Matter Character List Bibliography Index Harvard East Asian Monographs