On June 3, 1839, the Qing government appointed Lin Zexu as Imperial Commissioner to centrally destroy opium at Humen in Guangdong, a process that lasted 23 days and destroyed over two million jin of opium. Subsequently, Britain used this as a pretext to launch the First Opium War against China.
The Opium Destruction at Humen occurred during the late Qing Dynasty, a time of unprecedented political corruption within the court, where bribery and malfeasance were rampant, compounded by the policy of seclusion, which drove the once-prosperous Qing Dynasty down an irreversible path of decline. Although capitalist sprouts had emerged by the late Ming Dynasty, the natural economy still dominated domestically. Severe land annexation intensified conflicts between the peasant and landlord classes, leading to frequent peasant uprisings across the country and growing political instability. Meanwhile, to strengthen central authority, the Qing government vigorously enforced a system of cultural autocracy. During the Qing era, "literary inquisition" was unprecedentedly prevalent, forcing most scholars to either cater to the rulers or remain silent to protect themselves. During this period, the Qing military was also extremely weak, with prolonged peace and comfort having eroded most of its combat effectiveness. Additionally, China's technological level had fallen behind, and its military equipment was completely incomparable to that of Western nations, placing the Qing army at a distinct disadvantage against the Western powers' firearms and cannons.
In stark contrast, Western nations rose rapidly after the Industrial Revolution, with Britain emerging as the most powerful. As industrial production expanded swiftly, Britain urgently needed to open up overseas markets. However, because China persistently pursued a policy of isolation, its exports to Britain exceeded imports in Sino-British trade. To reverse this situation, the British began exporting large quantities of opium to China. By the 1830s, China had lost its former advantageous position in trade with Britain, with vast amounts of silver flowing overseas in exchange for the disastrous opium that harmed both the nation and its people.
Opium not only plunged the Qing government into a severe economic crisis but also ravaged the health of countless common people. Under these circumstances, the anti-opium faction, led by Huang Juezi and Lin Zexu, began submitting memorials to the reigning Daoguang Emperor, petitioning for a ban on opium.
Lin Zexu was born in the 50th year of the Qianlong reign (1785), and his father was merely an ordinary tutor. With many siblings in the family, Lin Zexu lived a very impoverished life from childhood, and precisely because of this, after becoming an official, he was deeply empathetic to the hardships of the common people. Lin Zexu was naturally gifted and received meticulous instruction from his father; at the age of fourteen, he passed the imperial examination to become a xiucai (scholar), and at twenty, he passed to become a juren (provincial graduate). In 1806, in his early twenties, Lin Zexu went to Xiamen to serve as a secretary for coastal defense, where he witnessed firsthand the harm opium inflicted on the people. It is easy to imagine that his ideas on banning opium began to take root during this period.
Five years later, Lin Zexu passed the imperial examination with the highest degree, becoming a jinshi, and began his official career in the imperial court. He served as an official in the capital for seven years, during which time, to promote agricultural development, he devoted himself to studying water conservancy and wrote the book "Beizhi Water Conservancy Manual." At the age of thirty-six, Lin Zexu took up a local post in Zhejiang, where he vigorously undertook water conservancy projects. After Emperor Daoguang ascended the throne, he held Lin Zexu in great favor, successively appointing him as Judicial Commissioner of Jiangsu, Judicial Commissioner of Shaanxi, and Financial Commissioner of Hubei. Due to Lin Zexu's outstanding performance and remarkable achievements, he was repeatedly entrusted with greater responsibilities by Emperor Daoguang.
In the 18th year of the Daoguang reign (1838), court official Huang Juezi submitted a memorial requesting severe punishment for opium smokers, and Lin Zexu immediately submitted a memorial in support. Lin Zexu first implemented six anti-opium measures in the two provinces of Huguang under his jurisdiction, achieving good results. Within just two months, the Daoguang Emperor summoned him to the palace for an audience eight times. In November 1838, Lin Zexu was appointed Imperial Commissioner and dispatched to Guangdong to carry out anti-opium activities.
On March 10, 1839, Lin Zexu officially arrived in Guangdong to begin the opium prohibition. He ordered the opium merchants in Guangdong to guarantee that they would no longer sell opium from then on, and if anyone was found smuggling opium on their ships, they would be immediately executed. To protect their own interests, the opium merchants repeatedly tried to bribe Lin Zexu, but this had no effect on the incorruptible Lin Zexu. Under these circumstances, foreign opium merchants began to find various excuses to delay, and Lin Zexu countered each move with appropriate measures, ordering them to surrender all their opium within a set deadline. However, when the deadline arrived, they only handed over a little over a thousand chests of opium to Lin Zexu.
Deng Tingzhen, who had come to Guangdong alongside Lin Zexu to suppress the opium trade, arrested the head of these opium merchants, Lancelot Dent, as a warning to others. Not only that, but Deng Tingzhen also blockaded Guangzhou's foreign trade center—the Thirteen Factories—and Lin Zexu ordered all Chinese workers employed there to withdraw, trapping the foreign merchants inside, ultimately forcing Charles Elliot, the British Superintendent of Trade in China, to capitulate. On March 28, Charles Elliot handed over more than 20,000 chests of opium to Lin Zexu.
After the opium was confiscated, Lin Zexu decided to destroy it using the "seawater immersion method." He ordered workers to dig pools by the sea at Humen, lining the bottoms with stones and surrounding them with wooden planks to prevent leakage, then dug a channel to fill the pools with saltwater. After cutting each opium ball into four pieces and soaking them in the saltwater for half a day, lime was thrown in, causing it to boil in the water and dissolve the opium. To ensure complete mixing, workers were instructed to stir the pools repeatedly with tools. When the tide went out, the pools were opened to let the liquid flow into the sea, and the bottoms were thoroughly rinsed clean with water.
During the Humen Opium Destruction, aside from a small amount of opium kept as samples for the imperial court and destroyed later, over two million jin (a Chinese unit of weight) of opium were completely eradicated. Although this action only addressed the symptoms rather than the root cause and gave Britain an opportunity to launch the First Opium War against the Qing government, sparking a century of anti-aggression struggles for the Chinese people, it still made many Chinese citizens realize the immense harm opium brought them, curbed its spread among the population to some extent, and awakened countless patriots to join the fight against foreign invaders. Lin Zexu and other key figures in the Humen Opium Destruction became renowned national heroes. As a major global event in the fight against drugs, its impact reached worldwide. The day after the destruction ended, June 26, later became the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.