sections of the Dynastic History of the Later Han and of the Three Kindgoms, respectively.
[1/488/25a; 2/69/50b; 3/259/34a; 6/41/8b; Appendix to the second edition of the Hsiu-pên t'ang ts'ung-shu; Literary collections of Chin Hsi-ling and Huang P'ei-fang (not consulted); Jung Chao-tsu 容肇祖, 學海堂考 in Lingnan Journal vol. III, no. 4 (1934).]
LIN Tsê-hsü 林則徐 (T. 元撫, 少穆, H. 竢村老人), Aug. 30, 1785–1850, Nov. 22, official, was a native of Hou-kuan, Fukien. His father, Lin Pin-jih 林賓日 (T. 孟養, H. 暘谷, 1749–1827), was a teacher. Lin Tsê-hsü became a chü-jên in 1804 and was engaged as a secretary for several years by Chang Shih-ch'êng (see under Liang Chang-chü), governor of Fukien (1806–14). In 1811 he became a chin-shih and was selected a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. Three years later he was made a compiler. After filling various posts, he was in 1819 made chief-examiner of the Yunnan provincial examination. A short work, entitled 滇軺紀程 Tien-yao chi-ch'êng, is his diary concerning this journey to Yunnan which started from Peking on July 29 and ended at Yunnanfu on September 19. With his appointment as intendant of the Hang-Chia-Hu Circuit of Chekiang in 1820 Lin began his career as an administrative official. He had, however, to abandon his post abruptly in the following year on account of the illness of his father. After service as intendant of the Huai-Hai Circuit in Kiangsu and as salt controller in Chekiang (1822) he was promoted (1823) to judicial commissioner of Kiangsu. In his judgment of cases he gained the reputation of being so just and humane that the people called him "Lin, Clear as the Heavens" (林青天). Owing to the death of his mother he went home in the autumn of 1824, but the period of mourning was interrupted for several months by an imperial summons (1825) to superintend repairs of a broken dyke on the Yellow River in Kiangsu. Two years later (1827) he was appointed judicial commissioner of Shensi and was then transferred to the post of financial commissioner at Nanking. Late in this year his father died and Lin once more retired to his home. Reporting in Peking in 1830 at the conclusion of the mourning period, he was made financial commissioner of Hupeh and then of Honan. In the following year he was transferred to a similar position at Nanking and then was appointed director-general of conservancy on the eastern stretches of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, in Shantung and Honan, with headquarters at Chi-ning, Shantung. Early in 1832 he became governor of Kiangsu, a post he held until 1837. Under his administration the people of Kiangsu benefitted in many ways; by improved dams and embankments, by various forms of social relief, and by postponement of tax collection owing to flood conditions. During this period he also twice acted as governor-general of Liang-Kiang (1835, 1836). Early in 1837 he became governor-general of Hupeh and Hunan.
At this time the question of opium smuggling into China attracted nationwide attention and became a pressing problem. Drug addicts were rapidly increasing and a large amount of silver was being exported annually in payment for the drug, which in turn was associated with a rise in the price of silver and a corresponding rise in commodity prices. On June 2, 1838 Huang Chüeh-tzŭ 黃爵滋 (T. 德成, H. 樹齋, 1793–1853, chin-shih of 1823) presented to the throne a significant memorial on this matter, recommending the enactment of drastic laws to prohibit the drug. The memorial was sent to all high administrative officials in the provinces for discussion. On July 10 Lin Tsê-hsü memorialized the throne on the subject with the result that his name was thereafter inseparably associated with opium suppression. He not only agreed with Huang on the necessity for stricter enforcement of the laws concerning opium but proposed definite steps to put them into effect; such as a systematic program for destroying the equipment of smokers, setting a time limit within which opium users were to correct their habits, and the punishment of dealers, smugglers, etc. In the meantime he actually enforced these measures within the territory of his viceroyalty—Hupeh and Hunan. He also had prescriptions made out for the gradual curing of the addicts. In September he reported that in his two provinces he had searched out and obtained some 5,500 pipes and some 12,000 Chinese ounces of the drug. He followed this with a hortatory memorial warning that the man-power and financial resources of the nation would be seriously imperiled should opium smoking fail to be strictly prohibited and suppressed. Stirred by his memorials and inspired by his achievements, the government summoned Lin to Peking (late in 1838). After nineteen audiences with Emperor Hsüan-tsung, Lin was appointed
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