1839, when smoking was banned in Guangdong, Lin Zexu forced foreign opium dealers to hand over opium and destroyed the confiscated opium in Humen. The destruction of opium in Humen brought Sino-British relations into a state of extreme tension and became the fuse of the first opium war.
Although Lin Zexu struggled against western invasion all his life, he was open to western culture, technology and trade, and advocated taking the essence and using it. According to the literature, he knows at least a little English and Portuguese, and is committed to translating western newspapers and books. Wei Yuan, a thinker in the late Qing Dynasty, compiled the documents translated by Lin Zexu and his aides into "Seaside Map", which inspired the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty and even the Meiji Restoration in Japan.
Lin Zexu's father, Lin Binri, formerly known as Lin Tianhan, was a local teacher and opened a bookstore near Roche. Lin Zexu's mother, Chen Biao, is the fifth daughter of Chen Shengling, a year-old tribute student in Min County.
Lin Binri and Chen Lin gave birth to eleven children: the eldest son Lin (who died young), the second son Lin Zexu, the third son Lin Yulin and eight daughters.
Although Lin Binri is a private school teacher, he can receive public grain after winning a scholar. But the family has a large population and not enough porridge, and even three meals are unsustainable. Chen Lin, Lin's mother, secretly helped her family with needlework without telling her husband, and passed this paper-cutting skill on to her daughter to maintain her family life. Later, Lin Zexu recalled in his book The First Conglue:
In these years, Jia Jun went to school and brought meals. Since then, although the pavilion valley is slightly full, the index finger has gradually become poor. First of all, the work is made of needles, and the color is as good as the flowers of vegetation. The big ones become trees, and the small ones are stems and leaves, all of which have business. /kloc-you can easily earn tens of dollars at the age of 0/0, and you can use it to support your family. Eight unfilial sisters, all of whom are the first to be taught, are ready to make great contributions. Unfilial young people follow their families to school, and every night when they go home, they are surrounded by walls, ranging from a few miles short to studying in Sri Lanka and sewing in Sri Lanka. Filial piety goes to bed at night, and Xian Yan leads her sisters to do their own things diligently, often missing the crowing of chickens and not sleeping. Other difficulties are beyond the reach of perseverance. If you feel sad when you are unfilial, please work hard or give up eating and drinking for you, and say with a straight face,' Men's affairs are big and far away, and trivial matters are unfilial! It's not worth my trouble to study hard. "
Although family planning doesn't have to help him, Lin Zexu takes his mother's and sister's handicrafts to the store for consignment before going to the bookstore every day, and then goes to the store to collect money and return it to his mother after school. His poor childhood and strict family education enabled him to keep the habit of thrift and observe the sufferings of the people when he was promoted in the future.
Lin Zexu, a famous feudal politician and a representative of the landlord class reformists, has been in politics for 40 years and served in 13 province. Although as a feudal official, he had the idea of loyalty to the monarch and suppressed the uprising of ethnic minorities, at the critical moment when the Chinese nation was facing semi-colonialism, he stepped forward, put aside misfortune and honor and disgrace, resolutely banned smoking, resisted foreign armed aggression and defended national sovereignty and territory. It also advocates learning advanced western technology and developing national industry and commerce. This is the mainstream of his life activities and thoughts. Lin Zexu was the first national hero in modern China. Lin Zexu loves poetry and calligraphy all his life, and has written works such as Yunzuoshanfang Paper Money, Yunzuoshanfang Paper Money, Yunnan Grass Singing, Lin Wenzhong's Official Letter and Hogg Ji Cheng. Manuscripts, diaries, official letters, letters, poems, etc. after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC). Was compiled as a collection of Lin Zexu's works.