Chinese society and culture after the First Opium War

The First Opium War was the beginning of China’s modern history. Since then, China has entered a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The so-called semi-colony, from the perspective of national status, China's territorial sovereignty, judicial sovereignty, customs autonomy and other aspects have been destroyed, and it is no longer an independent and complete sovereign country. But China was not completely reduced to a colony. The Qing government still existed and was still exercising its power. The so-called semi-feudal, from an economic point of view, refers to the Western capitalist powers imposing a series of non-parallel treaties on China in an attempt to turn China into their commodity market, raw material market and labor market, and to integrate the Chinese economy into the chain of capitalist development. , impacting the feudal self-sufficient natural economy. After the Opium War, the main contradiction in Chinese society was, in addition to the old contradiction between the masses of the people and feudalism, the contradiction between the Chinese nation and colonialism. The latter often becomes the most important contradiction among various social contradictions. These major changes mentioned above have affected China's politics, economy, thought, and culture, leading to a situation that had never been seen before the Opium War.

(1) "A state within a state" - the emergence of concessions

After the First Opium War, some cities on the southeastern coast of China underwent major changes. After Hong Kong was ceded to Britain, its population quickly grew from 2,000 to 20,000, reaching 70,000 or 80,000 by the 1850s. Hong Kong became a base for Britain to carry out economic plunder and armed aggression against China. After the Portuguese settled in Macau in the 16th century, China has still had territorial, administrative and judicial sovereignty over Macau. After China's defeat in the First Opium War, the Portuguese colonists took the opportunity to expel Chinese officials in Macau and forced residents to pay taxes to the Portuguese and Macau authorities, turning Macau into a Portuguese colonial residence. Since then, Macau has not only continued to serve as another large warehouse for the opium trade outside of Hong Kong, but has also become a base for the West to plunder and sell Chinese laborers. At the same time, in Shanghai, China, a unique political "landscape" that was rare among sovereign states emerged, which was the concession that later evolved into a "state within a state."

Shanghai was originally a county under Songjiang Prefecture, Jiangsu Province. Because it is located in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions where the commodity economy is relatively developed, and has a superior geographical environment and convenient transportation, it was already the first port in China before the war. Su Songtai Road, Jiangsu Province, is stationed in Shanghai. After the Opium War, Shanghai developed rapidly. In the early years of Tongzhi, Shanghai replaced Guangzhou and became China's most important trading port. Because of this, Western colonists tried every means to seize greater rights and interests in Shanghai.

After the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing was signed, Shanghai was about to open as a port. The British colonists immediately planned to establish a foreigner’s residence area in Shanghai and initially selected the address of the settlement area. In 1843, Shanghai was officially opened to the outside world. G. Bal-four, the first British consul in Shanghai, rented a large courtyard on Dongxi Street in Shanghai County as the consulate. Bafur misinterpreted the relevant provisions of the Humen Treaty to blackmail the Qing side and demanded that a residential area be designated purely for foreigners to occupy. On November 29, 1845, Su Songtai Taoist official Mu Jiu promulgated a "Shanghai Land Lease Regulations" in his personal name "agreed with the British consul". On the surface, the document contained nothing that overtly and directly undermined China's sovereignty, but in fact many clauses reflected the British colonists' aggressive intentions. According to this land lease charter, the "outsider residential areas" set aside in Shanghai were still in the nature of residential areas and could not be called "concessions". Moreover, there was no such thing as "concession" at that time.

In March 1848, the British consul in Shanghai who succeeded Bafur used the Qingpu incident to force the new Daotai Linzhu to agree to the request to expand the residence, which more than tripled the area of ??the residence (the original area Approximately 830 acres).

In 1848, American missionaries headed by Bishop W.J. Boone purchased land and built houses in the Hongkou area without authorization. Other Americans followed suit. Although Daotai Wu Jianzhang agreed at that time, there was no specific demarcation of the boundary site. By the time the boundaries were officially delineated in 1863, 7,856 acres of land had become an area occupied by the United States, which was much larger than the British settlement.

After L.C. Montigny, the first French consul in Shanghai, took office in 1848, he asked Wu Jianzhang to assist the British in setting up a residence in the following year, and later coerced the new Daotai Linzhu. A notice was issued on April 6, 1849, dedicating 986 acres of land as a French settlement.

It must be pointed out that at the beginning, in the settlement area, the Chinese government had the right to intervene in administrative and judicial aspects, and it maintained territorial sovereignty. This was clearly stipulated. However, as the invasion of China by capitalist powers deepened, and during the Taiping Rebellion period, China's rights were gradually lost. In 1854, the consuls of the United Kingdom, the United States and France and Su Songtai signed the "Shanghai Anglo-American and French Concession Charter", which stipulated that foreign invaders should enjoy administrative, taxation, financial, police and other rights and exercise judicial power in the Shanghai concession. In order to exercise the above-mentioned powers, an agency translated as "Ministry of Industry Bureau" appeared in the Shanghai Concession. It is divided into police, taxation, finance, academic affairs and other agencies, as well as courts. It is like a municipal government, and the residence is completely autonomous. It became a concession and a "state within a state." In September 1863, the American and British concessions merged into the public concession.

After the criminal concession system was established in Shanghai, it was gradually extended to other ports. From 1859 to 1904, foreign invaders successively established concessions in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Tianjin, Zhenjiang, Hankou, Jiujiang, Yantai, Wuhu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shashi, Gulangyu and Changsha. The concession became a bridgehead for capitalist powers to invade China and interfere in China's internal affairs. Of course, the concession is objectively a window to introduce Western civilization, but it is also a paradise for Western adventurers. An Englishman who once served in China's customs had to admit that Shanghai "has become a real El Dorado for lawless foreigners. ... Many of them belong to this type: as long as it is profitable, Then smugglers will not care about anything, even murder." (Volume 1 of "China Coastal Trade and Diplomacy")

(2) Natural economy under the impact of capitalism

After the end of the First Opium War, Western capitalist powers immediately began By dumping goods into China and plundering large quantities of raw materials from China, the self-sufficient natural economy of Chinese society has suffered an unprecedented impact.

The total value of British goods exported to China (excluding opium) was more than 900,000 pounds in 1837, which increased to more than 1,456,000 pounds in 1843, and reached 1.456 million pounds in 1845. Over ￡2,394,000. At the same time, the raw silk and tea leaves plundered by Western colonists from China also increased significantly. From 1838 to 1842, China's annual export of tea averaged more than 40 million dan, and by 1846 it doubled to more than 80 million dan. During the same period, raw silk exports increased from more than 3,000 bales to more than 18,000 bales, which was six times the original number.

British goods exported to China are mainly cotton textiles, accounting for about 70% of the total value. Cotton cloth accounts for more than 80% of the industrial products exported by the United States to China. The dumping of large amounts of cotton textiles from the West has had a great impact on the cotton textile industry, the most important sector of China's traditional handicraft industry. The original self-sufficient natural economy in the southeastern coastal areas has begun to show signs of disintegration.

The cotton textile industry has always been relatively developed in the Songjiang and Taicang areas of Jiangsu. However, with the influx of Western machine-made cotton textiles after the opening of Shanghai, most of the sales in Song and Taibu cities were reduced. A large amount of foreign yarn was flooded, and many villages that were engaged in cotton spinning had no yarn to spin. The cost of foreign gauze and foreign fabrics is already low, and many British businessmen are willing to dump them at prices that are 20 to 30% lower than the cost price, which has seriously impacted the cotton market. The homespun cloth from Zhangzhou Prefecture and Tong'an County in Fujian Province was once transported and sold by cloth traders to Ningbo, Shanghai, Tianjin, Liaodong and Taiwan. After the market opened in Xiamen, foreign textiles and fabrics were accumulated in Xiamen. Cloth traders abandoned homespun cloth and sold foreign cloth, making it difficult to export homespun cloth. The situation near Guangzhou is generally similar.

The large-scale export of silk tea and other products stimulated the production of these products. Producers sell these products to traders, who then sell them to big businessmen or compradors for resale abroad. The export trade of silk tea is almost completely controlled by foreign businessmen, making China's silk tea production and trade dependent on the world capitalist market.

With the development of import and export trade, a group of comprador merchants emerged in the Wukou area. These merchants sell goods (even opium) to foreign merchants, purchase silk and tea, collect intelligence, and handle other matters. , the fate of these people gradually became more and more closely linked to the fate of the Western colonists. The famous comprador Wu Jianzhang was originally a businessman in Guangzhou, and later moved to Shanghai to work as a comprador for the American Qichang Foreign Company. He also spent money to donate his official position, acting as Su Songtai Dao and serving as the supervisor of Jiang Customs. This group of compradors later acted as accomplices to China's feudal forces and Western colonialists in suppressing peasant uprisings.

After the Opium War, foreign capitalists set up some enterprises in China's treaty ports to facilitate economic plunder. Such enterprises at that time mainly included printing, shipyards, ship repairs and other industries. A varying number of Chinese are employed in these enterprises. In this way, China's earliest modern industrial workers appeared. Of course, the number of industrial workers was still very small at that time.

(3) The intensification of internal conflicts within the "Chinese" society

The British colonists' war of aggression against China brought endless suffering to the Chinese people. Various reparations, plus the Qing government's huge military expenditures, amounting to more than 100 million taels of silver, will undoubtedly come from the working people. At the same time, after the end of the Opium War, the import of opium continued unabated. When the Sino-British negotiations began in 1841, the British proposed a memorandum to the senior British to lift the smoking ban. Qiying did not dare to agree, but he also did not dare to offend the invaders. He just said that "China does not have to worry about whether foreign merchant ships carry opium inside or outside the ban." ("Ma Shi: "History of the Foreign Relations of the Chinese Empire") This kind of tacit consent made opium smuggling even more serious. In 1842, the British imported more than 33,000 boxes of opium into China, which surged to nearly 53,000 boxes in 1850. Hong Kong became the center of opium smuggling, and Macau became another opium warehouse besides Hong Kong. Shanghai and Guangzhou were the two largest ports for opium import. As a result of the import of large amounts of opium, the old problem of "silver is expensive and money is cheap" not only did not ease during this period, but intensified. Zeng Guofan also said in a memorial in 1852: In the rice-producing areas of the southeast, most of the stone rice is sold for three thousand. In the past, one tael of silver could be exchanged for a thousand coins, and one stone of rice could be exchanged for three taels of silver. Nowadays, one tael of silver can be exchanged for two thousand coins, and one tael of rice can be sold for only one tael or five taels of silver.

In the past, selling three bushels of rice could pay the tax for one acre of land. Now, selling six bushels of rice is not enough to pay the tax for one acre of land. ("Bei Chen's Notes on Folk Sufferings") In fact, in some places, the amount of money exchanged for every two taels of silver has reached as high as 2,300 to 400 wen.

When the Qing government collected land taxes and grain, there were always various kinds of extortion. If there was a so-called floating collection, it would be an extra charge. ”, “increased consumption” and other various forms of plunder. After the Opium War, the government intensified its efforts, and officials were like wolves and tigers. In the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, one stone was required to pay for one stone, and the rice was paid at a discount. The original price of rice was two thousand yuan per stone, but it was discounted to more than seven or eight thousand yuan. Anhui levied taxes, and the extortion amount exceeded the amount several times. Jiangxi's floating income is more than two or three stones. The floating rate per stone in Hubei's canal rice is more than three times. The land in Hunan is worth one tael of silver, and the people must pay several taels of silver. For one stone of land tax, the people must pay several stones. When it comes to paying taxes, large households either try to escape or try to shift the burden to small households, which makes farmers even more miserable. A few people abandon their fields and leave because they cannot afford to pay taxes. Even if there is a good harvest, more people will suffer from hunger and cold. When there is flood, drought or famine, they will go into exile one after another.

The exploitation of peasants by landlords has also become increasingly severe. The land rent rate is getting higher and higher, usually above 50%, forcing many farmers to go bankrupt and sell the land they depend on for survival. Therefore, the problem of land concentration is becoming more and more serious. According to some statistics, in Zhili, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and the Northeast, 40%-80% of the land is concentrated in the hands of 10%-30% of the people. And 60%-90% of people have no land. ("The Land Issue on the Eve of the Taiping Revolution")

Sharp social contradictions led to repeated social trends. After the Opium War, farmers' struggles against grain and rent continued to emerge, and they tended to become larger and larger. In 1842, Zhong Renjie in Chongyang, Hubei Province gathered a crowd to protest against grain supply, with the number reaching up to 10,000 people. The rebel army once captured Chongyang and Tongcheng counties, named it "King Zhongqin", set up a command platform, and erected the flag of the governor-general. The struggle lasted for more than a month before being suppressed. Since then, major cases have occurred in Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Guangdong and other provinces. Anti-Qing struggles in minority areas also occurred one after another. The people either demanded a reduction in land tax or refused to provide enough food. Some of them gathered people to petition, some demolished the grain collection bureau, and some openly rebelled and confronted the officers and soldiers who came to suppress them. According to official records alone, in the ten years from 1842 to 1850, there were more than ninety armed uprisings and peasant riots across the country. This is a product of social unrest, which in turn contributes to further social unrest.

(4) Open your eyes to see the world - the germination of the pioneering ideas of the reform of the landlord class and the world-minded faction

Before the Opium War, the Qing government implemented a closed-door policy for a long time, which seriously hindered the development of China's economy. development and scientific and cultural progress. The cannons of Western colonialists knocked on the closed door of China and startled people to re-understand the world. Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan were the first representatives in modern Chinese history to open their eyes to the world.

Before the Opium War, Lin Zexu served as an inspector, chief envoy, governor, and river governor. Before and after taking office, he advocated the elimination of bad governance, managed rivers to promote profits, and participated in the rectification and reform of salt administration and water administration. He showed his outstanding management skills and clean style and attracted people's attention.

The ignorance, arrogance and arrogance of the scholar-official class caused by the seclusion policy were inevitably reflected in Lin Zexu. When he was appointed as the imperial envoy to Guangdong to ban smoking, he also believed that the Western colonialists were just "dogs and sheep" and that the British soldiers were "covered in clothes" (referring to wearing uniforms, armed belts, leggings, etc.) , the waist and legs will inevitably be stiff, and you will fall into a fight and be unable to get up again. This is not Lin Zexu's fault, but a result of the times. What is valuable is that once Lin Zexu's thoughts on practical affairs collided with Western forces, he came up with the idea of ??learning from the West based on resisting aggression.

In order to resist the invasion of Western colonialists, Lin Zexu quickly changed his blind contempt for the West after arriving in Guangzhou. He organized people to translate the English "Guangzhou Weekly" to understand the enemy's situation. In order to understand the situation in foreign countries, he organized people to translate the "Encyclopedia of World Geography" published in London in 1836 into Chinese and named it "Four Continents". In addition, he also selected and translated books such as "Laws of Various Countries", "On Crimes of Trade with China", and "Hua Shi Yiyan". After contacting the British army, Lin Zexu quickly changed his original idea. Seeing the British's "strong ships" and "powerful artillery", he had to learn from it. To this end, he organized the collection and translation of foreign warship diagrams, artillery aiming methods and other information. This is in line with the insular and arrogant thoughts and opinions of some bureaucrats in the Qing government at that time who believed that foreign advanced science and technology, machinery and weapons were "wonderful skills", and that studying and understanding foreign situations was "strange and dazzling". A stark contrast.

During the anti-aggression war, Lin Zexu attached great importance to weapons and equipment, actively purchased cannons, imitated clippers, and also attached great importance to improving the quality of the army. After the Opium War, he once summed up the key words to defeat the enemy, namely "good weapons, skilled skills, courage and unity of heart". (Lin Zexu: "To Yao Chun and Wang Baixin") He recognized that "the people's support can be used" and proposed that if the British invaders entered China's inland rivers, the people would be allowed to "kill them with knives."

After Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, he saw the harm caused by the seclusion policy, so he categorically rejected the absurd proposition of "closing off the sea" and cutting off trade with all countries put forward by some people, believing that that would The first result is that the attack surface is expanded, and the second is that it harms the interests of our country's business people. He adhered to the correct trade policy and strategy of "those who follow the law will come, and those who resist the law will go", and protected and encouraged legitimate trade and trade. Lin Zexu's above-mentioned opinions were of course based on the stance of safeguarding the Qing Dynasty, but they objectively followed the trend of historical development and had a positive impact on the subsequent reform movement.

In his early days, Wei Yuan served as the chief envoy to Jiangsu Province, He Changling Mu, and edited the "Dynasty Jingshi Wenbian". Wei Yuan paid attention to the knowledge of managing the world and applying it, and participated in the reform of salt administration and other aspects. The Opium War had a great influence on his thinking. In 1841, he participated in the anti-British struggle under Yuqian. After the war, Wei Yuan worked hard to write books and compiled them into major books such as "Shengwu Ji" and "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", which inspired the people to work hard, learn from the West, and resist invasion.

"Hai Guo Tu Zhi" is a work with great influence in the history of modern Chinese thought. In 1841, Wei Yuan was asked by Lin Zexu to compile this book in Zhenjiang. Based on the translation of "Four Continents" and Chinese and foreign literature, Wei compiled it into a book shortly after the conclusion of the "Treaty of Nanjing". The book describes the geographical distribution and historical political conditions of various countries in the world, analyzes the experiences and lessons of the Opium War, and explores ways to enrich a country and strengthen its military. It is rich in content.

Wei Yuanshu believes that China’s disastrous defeat in the Opium War was not only due to inferior ships and artillery, but also mainly due to command errors and military corruption. Many generals of the Qing Dynasty were "either conceited or arrogant." The army lacked training and lacked discipline. "With undisciplined and unplanned troops, they can capture all the enemies, cannons and ships. Can they suddenly compete in the ocean?" In terms of strategy and tactics, Wei Yuan An insightful proposition was made. He believed that the British army came from afar alone, its strength lay in the sea and its weakness lay in the land. Therefore, in fighting the British army, "it is better to defend the seaport than to defend the outer sea, and it is better to defend the inland river than to defend the seaport." In view of the corruption of the Qing army and the heroic resistance of the local people, he proposed that "it is better to train local soldiers than to transfer foreign troops, and it is better to train water bravery than to transfer water divisions." Wei Yuan also advocated "letting them (referring to the British army) go deep and intercept their exits" and "strengthen the walls and clear the country...set up ambushes unexpectedly, mislead the enemy from many sides, and make it unpredictable." He said, the enemy is a guest, and I am the host. "The guest's army fights quickly, the host's army is cautious, do not fight with each other but stick to each other, walk with each other, stop with each other, (leave the enemy) with no fresh water to draw. There are no cattle and sheep to plunder, no saltpeter to prepare, no iron to buy, no tent cables to mend, no place to sell smoke and soil goods, no place to repair rudders and masts, and there is no water to attack by sneak attacks, so there is no way to anchor. "If you fire a bomb, you will lose one bomb. If you kill a barbarian, you will lose a barbarian. If you destroy a boat, you will lose a boat... (I will) wait for work when I am full, wait for hunger when I am full, and wait for the few when I am full." In the end, I will surely win. (Volume 1 of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi")

The central idea of ??"Hai Guo Tu Zhi" is "Learn the skills of the barbarians to control the barbarians." Wei Yuan criticized the Qing government's seclusion policy, pointing out that the Qing government had not understood the world for many years, was not allowed to translate Western books, did not learn the skills of Western ships and artillery, and did not know how to exploit the complex contradictions of Western countries and their colonies, so that This leads to a defeat in which one cannot fight and cannot defend. He clearly pointed out: "Those who want to control foreign barbarians must first understand the feelings of barbarians." Only by understanding and familiarizing with the "barbarian sentiments" can we use barbarians to attack barbarians, use barbarians to compensate barbarians, and learn from barbarians' skills to control barbarians. (Volume 2 of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi")

Wei Yuan believes that the West has three strong skills: first, battleships, second, firearms, and third, the method of raising and training troops. In this regard, China should seriously learn from the West and make use of it. He advocated building shipyards and firearms bureaus in Guangdong, hiring technicians from France and the United States to teach technology, and sending Chinese craftsmen to learn manufacturing. An additional 30,000 elite navy personnel were recruited, and Westerners were invited to teach driving, artillery drills, and combat techniques. "After one or two years of mastering his skills, he no longer has to rely on foreigners." (Ibid.)

After the Opium War, Wei Yuan showed his dissatisfaction with the feudal autocratic monarchy system and expressed envy of certain Western capitalist systems. Of course, his understanding of the Western capitalist system is extremely limited and he is in a state of half-knowledge. Wei Yuan believes that Western countries have “many political affairs, and everyone has to follow his or her own course.” The United Kingdom has "Bali Man" (that is, the transliteration of the English parliament parliament, and later translated as Baal Gate), the Council of Five Lords (ie, the House of Lords) and the Council of Squires (ie, the House of Commons). He said that Western parliaments are similar to China's military. He praised the U.S. presidential election every four years and believed that it "changed the situation of officials in ancient and modern times, and yet people are distraught, which is not fair"! As for the majority rule in parliamentary elections, he lamented: “It’s not so trivial!” Wei Yuan also praised the U.S. federal system charter as “one that can last through the ages without any harm.” He expressed his admiration for the fact that Switzerland "does not establish a throne" and "does not establish princes". "The country is free from political slander, its customs are frugal, and it has not seen military action for hundreds of years." He said: "It is the land of peach blossoms in the west"! (Postscript of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi")

Although the starting point of Wei Yuan's comments is still that one cannot make far-reaching decisions without knowing the barbarian sentiments, his introduction is of no small importance and serves as a pioneer and pioneer. The role of the first path. Wei Yuan's "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" played a major role in the emergence of reform ideas in modern Chinese history. After the book reached Japan, it was quickly translated into dozens of abridged versions. Many Japanese historians believe that the dissemination of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" in Japan promoted Japan's Meiji Restoration Movement.

(5) Changes in traditional academic culture

The Opium War in 1840 caused strong social shock.

Correspondingly, the ideological field has developed from applying the knowledge of the world to learning from foreigners and developing skills to control foreigners. The sense of worry has also caused important changes in traditional Chinese academic culture.

Traditional Confucian classics has developed to a new stage. Although Song studies (i.e., Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism) and Qing Dynasty's Han studies (i.e., textual criticism, which belongs to ancient Chinese classics) were designated as official and orthodox studies by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, they competed with each other for orthodoxy and eventually declined because they were far away from social reality. , lifeless. Jinwen classics, which had re-emerged during the Qianjia period, took shape around the time of the Opium War. Relatively speaking, the form of Jinwen Jingxue is more able to accommodate some new ideas. Gong Zizhen, who had a premonition that the Qing Dynasty had declined, devoted himself to modern classics and expressed his social critical thoughts. But he still draws on both Han and Song Dynasties, and is compatible with modern and ancient texts. When it came to Wei Yuan, the barriers were tight. His works such as "Shi Gu Wei" and "Shu Gu Wei" would completely overthrow the classical classics and then quickly.

One of the major changes that has taken place in the field of history is the change from the trend of focusing on textual research on ancient history since the Qian and Jiaqing Dynasties. Contemporary history has attracted great attention from scholars, and a number of influential works have emerged.

The failure of the Qing government in the Opium War and the rampant Western colonialists greatly stimulated Wei Yuan. In 1842, he wrote the book "Shengwu Ji" in chronicle style. The book details the military achievements of the early Qing Dynasty and is intended to inspire Chinese people to build up the courage and confidence to defeat Western invaders. Another history book by Wei Yuan, "Daoguang's Ship Conquest and Fu Ji", is a history of the Opium War written after the end of the first British invasion of China. In the process of narrating this important historical event, the book exposes various British crimes from smuggling opium to launching a war of aggression against China. He praised Lin Zexu, Deng Tingzhen, Guan Tianpei and the people of Sanyuanli and other places for their anti-British struggle, and he wrote straightforwardly about the Qing court's cowardice, the corruption of the government and the army, especially the cowardly pursuit of peace by Qishan, Yishan and others. The book also discusses some of the problems exposed by China during the Opium War and proposes ways to save them.

The "Yi Fen Wen Ji" written by Liang Tingzhu traces the entire process of the Opium War from the smoking ban in the early years of Daoguang's reign to the people's struggle against entering the city in 1849. The book praises the anti-British achievements of Lin Zexu and others, exposes the ugly behavior of Qishan, Yishan, Yijing, etc., and records in detail several major anti-invasion struggles of the Guangzhou people. Because of the straightforward nature of the book's narrative and many violations of contemporary taboos, the author's name is not signed on the printed copy.

Faced with the harsh reality of Western colonists invading China, people of insight began to pay attention to the exploration of Western geography and history. In addition to the "Four Continents" and "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" mentioned above, there are also works in this field such as "Yinghuan Zhi Lue" and "Hai Guo Si Shuo". The book "Yinghuan Zhilue" compiled by Xu Jishe gives a relatively systematic introduction to the customs, geographical evolution and social changes of nearly 80 countries in the world. Each volume begins with a rough map. After the book was introduced to Japan, it had a great influence.

After the Opium War, some insightful people realized that there would be a crisis in China's border areas and began to pay attention to the study of border geography. Yao Ying's "Journey to Kangfu" was written after inspecting Tibet. He proposed to be wary of British aggression against Tibet and strengthen coastal and border defenses. He believes that Britain, France, the United States and other countries are tens of thousands of miles away from China. They have studied China for many years and are familiar with China's geography and personnel, but no one in our country understands them. This is the reason for China's failure. Feeling this, Yao Ying recorded a lot of historical and geographical knowledge about Britain, France, Russia, India and other countries in the book. "Mongolian Nomads" written by Zhang Mu (edited and edited by He Qiutao) studied the geographical location of various Mongolian tribes and the facilities of previous generations in this area. He Qiutao paid attention to the study of border geography and believed that northern China and Tsarist Russia should have special works to study it. So he collected relevant materials from home and abroad, and after identification and textual research, he wrote the "Beijing Compilation". The book describes the history and geography of Mongolia, Xinjiang and Northeast China from the Han and Jin Dynasties to the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, and pays attention to the Sino-Russian relations. After reading it, Emperor Xianfeng gave the book the name Shuofang Beicheng.

Before and after the Opium War, some changes also occurred in China’s literary field. Gong Zizhen's talented and boldly innovative new style of writing had an important impact not only on that time but also on the literary world in the future. The emergence of a large number of patriotic literary works that reflected the Chinese people's struggle against aggression was a particularly noteworthy thing in the literary world during this period. This type of works passionately reflected and praised the Chinese people's anti-aggression struggle, and criticized the atrocities of the British invaders and the compromise and surrender of the Qing government. During the anti-invasion struggle, Guangdong people published many posters and appeals, such as "A Public Message to the Righteous Soldiers and Righteous People of Guangdong" and "An Instruction to the Yingyi from the Residents of Sanyuanli". These words were simple in language, short, sharp, and vivid, and they immediately played a role in inspiring the people to fight against the enemy. It also left living materials for us to study this period of history. Some patriotic poems are widely circulated. Jinshi Zhang Weiping's long poem "Sanyuanli" praises the anti-British patriots and rebukes Yishan and other flattering enemies for begging for peace. "The sound in Sanyuanli was like thunder, and thousands of people came at the same time. Out of righteousness, anger and courage came, and the villagers worked together to urge them on."

These verses make it easy for readers to feel the high patriotic enthusiasm and majestic momentum of the masses