Section II: Foreign Aggression and Domestic Rebellions, 1800-1864
Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, The Rise of China
7. The Canton System of Trade
In 1757, in an effort to prevent foreign trade at northern Chinese ports, the Qing court officially defined
Canton as the only port open to foreign trade, thus beginning the Canton system of trade. At the time, China felt it
had no need for foreign goods and therefore was allowing trade in Canton as a favor to foreigners. The Qing court
left direct contact between foreign traders in the hands of hong merchants, Chinese traders who acted on behalf of
Chinese government officials. Incoming ships were subject to various exactions and fees, which were usually made
by the hong merchants for the foreign traders to examining officials, customs officials, etc. Trading season in Canton
ran from October through January. After that, foreigners were required to leave Canton immediately.
Because the Chinese saw trade with foreigners as a privilege granted by the Qing court, they imposed
various rules of conduct on foreigners in China. For instance, foreigners were prohibited from talking with Chinese
officials other than through hong merchants, and were not allowed to buy Chinese books or learn Chinese. Pidgin
English became the lingua franca of the China coast trading communities. Enforcement of these rules became
another source of friction between the Chinese and foreigners. Westerners found the Chinese sentences too harsh
and demanded exemption from Chinese law.
In 1793, the British diplomat Lord Macartney led a China mission to open trade with China and place
bilateral relations on a regular treaty basis. The Emperor turned Macartney away, however, saying China had no use
for anything foreign. In 1816, Britain made another attempt to send a diplomatic mission to China led by Lord
Amherst, ex-governor of India. Emperor Chia-ch’ing (son of Ch’ien-lung) refused the audience with Amherst because
he declined to perform the kowtow. The failure of diplomatic efforts left Britain, the strongest global power at the time,
feeling as if force was its only solution to open trade with China. For its part, China, governed by its concept of
“universal overlordship”, felt Britain’s behavior was intolerable.
8. The Opium War
The Canton trade system worked in favor of China. Foreign traders purchased many goods from China, but
the Chinese only wanted silver and gold in return. After 1826, however, the balance began to shift in favor of
foreigners. Canton trade became dominated by private traders and opium-smuggling from India, which contributed to
the breakdown of the Canton system. The Qing court appointed Lin Tse-hsu as imperial commissioner to suppress
the Canton opium traffic. When Lin attempted to hold British subjects responsible for opium trade, the British refused
to submit to Chinese law. The Chinese claim to “universal overlordship” was incompatible with the Western idea of
national sovereignty, which led to the confrontation between self-sufficient China and an expansive Britain (192). The
Chinese regarded the war as an effort to stop opium trade. The British saw it as a fight for the right to equal status
and free trade in China.
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According to Hsu, there were three stages of the Opium War: 1) June 1840-January 1841: British forced
the Chinese to draft a “Ch’uan-pi Convention” to reopen Canton and force cession of Hong Kong; 2) February-May
1841: the Ch’uan-pi Convention was repudiated by the emperor and the throne, and replaced with a second truce
that agreed to the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Canton within six days and the postponement of the question of
the cession of Hong Kong. Angered by the agreement, irate Cantonese launched a sudden attack on the British; and,
3) August 1841-August 1842: The British forced the Chinese to sign the Treaty of Nanjing. No mention of opium was
made in the treaties.
9. Second Treaty Settlement
After the Opium War, the five ports accessible to Britain opened on schedule, except for Canton. The latter
refused entry of foreigners, arguing that the Treaty of Nanjing did not stipulate that foreigners be allowed into the city.
In 1846, not wanting a clash over the “Canton city question,” the British agreed to postpone entry into Canton in
exchange for a promise of non-alienation of the Chusan Islands to any other power. By 1848, new Chinese antiforeign officials took power in Beijing. Meanwhile, foreign desire to revise the Treaty of Nanjing intensified. SinoBritish relations worsened.
During the Arrow Incident of 1856, Chinese officials seized the Hong Kong-registered ship Arrow sparking
the Second Opium War. The British and French defeated the Chinese in two separate campaigns. The first involved
the capture of Canton and Tianjin, which led to the Treaty of Tientsin of 1858. The treaty focused on diplomatic
representation in Peking, trade along the Yangtze, inland travel, and indemnity. The second campaign led to the fall
of Beijing and the burning of the Summer Palace by the British. The war greatly expanded foreign trading rights and
territorial concessions in China.
10. The Taiping Revolution and the Nien and Moslem Rebellions
The Qing court failed to adequately deal with the foreign intervention and internal strife, including China’s
social and economic problems, military degradation, political corruption, population pressure, national calamities and
an explosive situation in Kwang-tung that resulted in the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion in the south. Consequently,
Four different rebellions erupted in protest against the ruling power, including: Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864); Nien
Rebellion (1851-1868); Moslem rebellion in Yunnan (1855-1873); and, the Tungan Rebellion (1862-1878).
Despite the growth of the Taipings, the group faced internal dissension, and was ultimately defeated in 1864
by Tseng Kuo-fan and the Hunan Army. The legacy of the rebellion was multifold. Politically, it resulted in the
transfer of government power from the Manchus to the Chinese. Militarily, the Hunan and Huai armies were the
forerunners of private armies that characterized the warlords of later periods. Finally, the Taipings inspired future
revolutionaries, including Sun Yat-sen, and offered a new view on the possibility of peasant revolution.
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