A communication: magnificently our great Emperor soothes and pacifies China
and the foreign countries, regarding all with the same kindness. If there is
profit, then he shares it with the peoples of the world; if there is harm,
then he removes it on behalf of the world. This is because he takes the mind
of heaven and earth as his mind.
The kings of your honorable country by a tradition handed down from
generation to generation have always been noted for their politeness and
submissiveness. We have read your successive tributary memorials saying,
"In general our countrymen who go to trade in China have always received
His Majesty the Emperor's gracious treatment and equal justice." and so
on. Privately we are delighted with the way in which the honorable rulers of
your countip deeply understand the grand principles and are grateful for the
Celestial grace. For this reason the Celestial Court in soothing those from
afar has redoubled its polite and kind treatment. The profit from trade has
been enjoyed by them continuously for two hundred years. This is the source
from which your country has become known for its wealth.
But after a long period of commercial intercourse, there appear among the
crowh of barbarians both good persons and bad, unevenly. Consequently there
are those who smuggle opium to seduce the Chinese people and so cause the
spread of the poison to all provinces. Such persons who only care to profit
themselves, and disregard their harm to others, are not tolerated by the laws
of heaven and are unanimoly hated by human beings. His Majesty the Emperor,
upon hearing of this, is in a towering rage. He has especially sent me, his
commissioner, to come to Kwangtung, and together with the governor-general and
governor jointly to investigate and settle this matter.
All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should receive the
death penalty. We trace the crime of those barbarians who through the years
have been selling opium, then the deep harm they have wrought and the great
profit they have usurped should fundamentally justify their execution
according to law. We take into to consideration, however, the fact that the
various barbarians have still known how to repent their crimes and return to
their allegiance to us by taking the 20,183 chests of opium from their
storeships and petitioning us, through their consular officer [superintendent
of trade], Elliot, to receive it. It has been entirely destroyed and this has
been faithfully reported to the Throne in several memorials by this
comissioner and his colleagues.
Fortunately we have received a specially extended favor Born His Majesty
the Emperor, who considers that for those who voluntarily surrender there are
still some circumstances to paliate their crime, and so for the time being he
has magnanimously excused them from punishment. But as for those who again
violate the opium prohibition, it is difficult for the law to pardon them
repeatedly. Having established new regulations, we presume that the ruler of
your honorable country, who takes delight in our culture and whose disposition
is inclined towards us, must be able to instruct the various barbarians to
observe the law with care. It is only neccessary to explain to them the
advantages and advantages and then they will know that the legal code of the
Celestial Court must be absolutely obeyed with awe.
We find your country is sixty or seventy thousand li [three li make one
mile, ordinarily] from China Yet there are barbanan ships that strive to come
here for trade for the purpose of making a great profit The wealth of China is
used to profit the barbarians. That is to say, the great profit made by
barbarians is all taken from the rightful share of China. By what right do
they then in return use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people? Even
though the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in
coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring others. Let us
ask, where is your conscience? I have heard that the smoking of opium is very
strictly forbidden by your country; that is because the harm caused by opium
is clearly understood. Since it is not permitted to do harm to your own
country, then even less should you let it be passed on to the harm of other
countries -- how much less to China! Of all that China exports to foreign
countries, there is not a single thing which is not beneficial to peo ple:
they are of benefit when eaten, or of benefit when used, or of benefit when
resold: all are beneficial. Is there a single article from China which has
done any harm to foreign countries? Take tea and rhubarb, for example; the
foreign countries cannot get along for a single day without them. If China
cuts off these benefits with no sympathy for those who are to suffer, then
what can the barbarians rely upon to keep themselves alive? Moreover the
woolens, camlets, and longells [i.e., textiles] of foreign countries cannot be
woven unless they obtain Chinese silk. If China, again, cuts off this
beneficial export, what profit can the barbarians expect to make? As for other
foodstuffs, beginning with candy, ginger, cinnamon, and so forth, and articles
for use, beginning with silk, satin, chinaware, and so on, all the things that
must be had by foreign countries are innumerable. On the other hand, articles
coming from the outside to China can only be used as toys. We can take them or
get along without them. Since they are not needed by China, what difficulty
would there be if we closed our the frontier and stopped the trade?
Nevertheless, our Celestial Court lets tea, silk, and other goods be shipped
without limit and circulated everywhere without begrudging it in the
slightest. This is for no other reason but to share the benefit with the
people of the whole world. The goods from China carried away by your country
not only supply your own consumption and use, but also can be divided up and
sold to other countries, producing a triple profit. Even if you do not sell
opium, you still have this threefold profit. How can you bear to go further,
selling products injurious to others in order to fulfill your insatiable
desire?
Suppose there were people from another country who carried opium for sale
to England
and seduced your people into buying and smoking it; certainly your
honorable ruler would deeply hate it and be bitterly aroused. We have heard
heretofore that your honorable ruler is kind and benevolent. Naturally you
would not wish to give unto others what you yourself do not want. We have also
heard that the ships coming to Canton have all had regulations promulgated and
given to them in which it is stated that it is not permitted to carry
contraband goods. This indicates that the administrative orders of your
honorable rule have been originally strict and clear. Only because the
trading ships are numerous, heretofore perhaps they have not been examined
with care. Now after this communication has been dispatched and you have
clearly understood the strictness of the prohibitory laws of the Celestial
Gourt, certainly you will not let your subjects dare again to violate the law.
We have further learned that in London, the capital of your honorable rule,
and in Scotland,
Ireland, and other places, originally no opium has been produced. Only in
several places of India under your control such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay,
Patna, Benares, and Malwa has opium been planted from hill to hill, and ponds
h ave been opened for its manufacture. For months and years wark is continued
in order to accumulate the poison. The obnoxious odor ascends, irritating
heaven and frightening the spirits. Indeed you, O King, can eradicate the
opium plant in these places, hoe over the fields entirely, and sow in its
stead the five grains [millet, barley, wheat, etc.]. Anyone who dares again
attempt to plant and manufacture opium should be severely punished. This will
really be a great, benevolent government policy that will increase the common
weal and get rid of evil. For this, Heaven must support you and the spirits
must bring you good fortune, prolonging your old age and extending your
descendants. All will depend on this act.
As for the barbarian merchants who come to China, their food and drink and
habitation,
all received by the gracious favor of our Celestial Court. Their
accumulated wealth is all benefit given with pleasure by our Celestial Court.
They spend rather few days in their own country but more time in Canton. To
digest clearly the le gal penalties as an aid to instruction has been a valid
principle in all ages. Suppose a man of another country comes to England to
trade, he still has to obey the English laws; how much more should he obey in
China the laws of the Celestial Dynasty?
Now we have set up regulations governing the Chinese people. He who sells
opium shall receive the death penalty and he who smokes it also the death
penalty. Now consider this: if the barbarians do not bring opium, then how can
the Chinese people resell it, and how can they smoke it? The fact is that the
wicked barbariians beguile the Ghinese people into a death trap. How then can
we grant life only to these barbarians? He who takes the life of even one
person still has to atone for it with his own life; yet is the harm done by
opium limited to the taking of one life only? Therefore in the new
regulations, in regard to those barbarians who bring opium to China, the
penalty is fixed at decapitation or strangulation. This is what is called
getting rid a harmful thing on behalf of mankind.
Moreover we have found that in the middle of the second month of this year
[April 9] Consul [Superintendent] Elliot of your nation, because the opium
prohibition law was very stern and severe, petitioned for an extension of the
time limit. He requested an estension of five months for India and its
adjacent harbours and related territories, and ten months for England proper,
after which they would act in conformity wi th the new regulations. Now we,
the commissioner and.others, have memorialized and have received the
extraordinary Celestial grace of His Majesty the Emperor, who has redoubled
his consideration and compassion. All those who from the period of the coming
one year (from England) or six months (from India) bring opium to China by
mistake, but who voluntarily confess and completely surrender their opium,
shall be exempt from their punishment. After this limit of time, if there are
still those who bring opium to China then they will plainly have committed a
wilful violation and shall at once be executed according to law, with
absolutely no clemency or pardon. This may be called the height of kindness
and the perfection of justice.
Our Celestial Dynasty rules over and supervises the myriad states, and
surely possesses
unfathomable spiritual dignity. Yet the Emperor cannot cear to execute
people without having first tried to reform them by instruction. Therefore he
especialiy prornulgates these fixed regulations. The barbarian merchants of
your country, if they wish to do business for a prolonged period, are required
to obey our statues respectfully and to cut off permanently the source of
opium. They must by no means try to test the
effectiveness of the law with their lives. May you, O King, check your
wicked and sift your wicked people
before they come to China, in order to guarantee the peace of your nation,
to show further the sincerity of your politeness and subrnissiveness, and to
let the two countries enjoy together the blessings of peace How fortunate, how
fortunate indeed! After receiving this dispatch will you immediately give us a
prompt reply regarding the details and circumstances of your cutting off the
opium traffic. be sure not to put this off. The above is what has to be
communicated.