The Opium War

by Julia Lovell

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  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank my agent, Toby Eady, for offering me the opportunity to turn his idea into a book, and for his support throughout the writing process. Many thanks also to Jamie Coleman and Samar Hammam, for their careful and astute readings of an early draft. Frank Dikötter, Lars Laaman, Joyce Madancy, Rana Mitter, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom all took the time to read the manuscript at very busy points in the year; the book has benefited greatly from their interventions. I am very grateful to Brian Callingham for pharmacological advice on opiates, and to Sean Brady for guidance on nineteenth-century British politics. Finlay McLeod and Evan Osnos offered much help on sources. Sam Humphreys and Nicholas Blake were meticulous editors, and Zhang Ruihua kindly provided calligraphy.

  The primary research for the book was carried out in winter 2007 while I was a visiting fellow at Beijing University’s Department of History. I owe enormous thanks to members of the department for the generous help and support that they offered: in particular Professors Guo Weidong and Mao Haijian. Their students Liang Minling and Li Kunrui gave invaluable assistance on classical Chinese sources. As will be apparent from my endnotes, my understanding and analysis of primary Chinese sources on the Opium War were greatly helped by reference to Mao Haijian’s Tianchao de bengkui and its guidance concerning Chinese archival materials for the war. I have also learnt much from other historians of nineteenth- and twentieth-century China. As far as possible I have tried to acknowledge this in my endnotes; I offer grateful apologies to any names I have inadvertently omitted.

  The book was started during a research fellowship at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and completed after a move to the history department of Birkbeck College, London. I have benefited constantly from the supportive research atmospheres of both these academic communities.

  My debt to my family is the greatest, and I would like to thank above all my
husband, parents, brother and sister for their encouragement, advice and insightful readings of the manuscript.

  PICTURE CREDITS

  1 Courtesy of private collection.

  2 By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

  3 By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

  4 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  5 Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing.

  6 Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  7 Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  8 Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  9 Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  10 Copyright © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

  11 Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  12 Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

  13 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  14 Courtesy of Martyn Gregory Gallery, London.

  15 Courtesy of the descendants of Lin Zexu.

  16 Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

  17 Photo supplied by, and by permission of, the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

  18 WOA 5196, © Palace of Westminster Collection.

  19 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  20 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  21 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  22 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  23 Courtesy of Qingshi tudian, Gugong Bowuguan.

  24 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  25 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  26 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  27 Courtesy of Qingshi tudian, Gugong Bowuguan.

  28 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  29 By permission of the Hong Kong Museum of Art Collection.

  30 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.

  31 By permission of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library.