What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Lin Zexu is the ambassador of the Great Righteousness and Anti-Smoking Ban in modern history, the uncle of Guan Who loves the people like a son in the Qing Dynasty, and a stroke of great color in China's modern history. In China, in order to commemorate Lin Zexu, many memorials were built to commemorate his heroic deeds.
However, it is surprising that across the ocean, such a statue of Lin Zexu has also been erected on the New York Plaza.
Lin Zexu Square in the United States
The cold door is out of the noble son, talented and intelligent
Fifty years after Qianlong, Lin Zexu was born in a poor family in Fuzhou. His father was Mr. Private School, who made a living by teaching, and his mother was just a very ordinary fishing village woman, who sewed and mended all day long to maintain the family.
Although Lin Zexu's family was poor, he was still born in a family of readers, so he was still lucky. Although he was poor and his life was poor, his father always believed that "no matter how poor he was, he could not be poor in education" and his children could not be lost here for a lifetime. Therefore, he was able to study, to enter his career, and to have the anti-smoking ambassador who later became famous in the world- Lin Zexu.
Because of his young age, his father was afraid that he would be bullied by other classmates, and he did not hesitate to hold him while lecturing.
Lin Zexu did not live up to his father's expectations in the slightest, not only was he talented, but he also studied hard.
Lin Zexu stone statue
When he was 4 years old, he was taken to a private school to follow his father to start reading, painting red;
At the age of 7, he can already make a smooth article.
"Be a man first, then read", his father, Lin Binri, taught him to learn to read and write, and his character education was not left behind.
Lin Binri's education was civilized and mature, teaching Lin Zexu that "rich and noble cannot be adulterous, and poor and lowly cannot be moved." It was precisely because of this kind of follow-up temptation that he later grew up to be a generation of loyal subjects, and he was able to get out of the mud without staining.
"Where there is a will, there is a way". In the nine years of Jiaqing, Lin Zexu's years of efforts finally paid off, and he took the township test. On the same day, he took advantage of the second of the three major fortunate events in his life, "when the title of the gold list was even more the night of the cave flower candle", on the day of the list, he married the love of his life - Zheng Shuqing. He had a good relationship with her wife, he was the only one in his life, the two Qinser and Ming, and it was still a good relationship at that time.
But luck doesn't always flock, it always turns a thousand times.
Lin Zexu
The road of official eunuchs, love the people like a son
Lin Zexu participated in the first examination and was named Sun Shan, but he was not discouraged, he chose to return to his hometown to teach and wait for the opportunity.
After a few years of silence, he once again entered Beijing to take the examination, and finally in the sixteenth year of Jiaqing, he ranked fourth in the second class in the temple examination, was elected as a Shu Jishi, and was taught Hanlin to edit, and from then on embarked on the road of official eunuchs.
With his temperament, he was incompatible with the officialdom that had been mixed up at that time, so his official eunuch career was not smooth, but he was capable and the government was heavy, and along the way, he could be regarded as a smooth step.
Every time he went to become an official, he would always be respected by the local people as "Lin Qingtian", and he did not have an official frame, he and the people were even more harmonious, and he was a respectable and lovely magistrate.
But later, with the opening of the port market, foreign opium in Britain was rampant, and more and more people were poisoned by opium. Lin Zexu watched his people sink into the depths of the water, watched one family after another be broken, watched people's wives and children disperse, and sorrow came from it, so he made up his mind to ban smoking.
After the success of the first anti-smoking campaign in Jiangsu, he was transferred to Guangdong to take charge of anti-smoking affairs. When he went to Guangdong, Lin Zexu knew that the ban on smoking would definitely affect the interests of many people, especially the forces that relied on opium smuggling and colluded with the British side.
The resistance he faced was extremely great, but he still disregarded his personal honor and disgrace and safety, and resolutely went south. He even wrote down in a dashing manner, "This battle is a soup fire, but vows to eliminate the great troubles for the Central Plains."
As soon as he arrived in Guangzhou, he carried out drastic reforms, first issuing orders, then suspending trade and sealing ships for inspection. On June 3, 1839, Lin Zexu achieved a world-famous feat by publicly destroying all 20,000 tons of opium he had seized at Humen. This feat shows the Determination of the Chinese Nation to Resist Imperialism and demonstrates the Determination of the Chinese Nation to Combat Narcotics.
At that time, wherever Van Lin went, opium was not left, and the people lived happily and healthily.
However, the British used the pretext of starting a war, so that Lin Zexu was slandered and forced to leave his post. During the Opium War, he did not have the wisdom to protect himself, on the contrary, he still actively resisted. The imperial court was ridiculous, so he was dismissed from his post again and again, and even sent to Xinjiang.
Xinjiang's career is not smooth, but Lin Zexu is still worried about the country, and even began to pay attention to the world, rather than immersed in the dream of a big country.
Although, forced by imperialist coercion, the Qing government removed Lin Zexu from his post. However, soon after, he was reinstated as an official, and he was even more known for his iron-blooded wrists, and even foreigners were afraid to see him.
Lin Zexu made a bold move to destroy opium, and the famous Humen tobacco sales shocked China and foreign countries.
How powerful is Lin Zexu? All the thorny problems that cannot be solved are almost all lin Zexu, and where Lin Zexu has been, the economy has been greatly developed. At that time, he was very famous in China, and even foreigners had to pay tribute to his name.
Humen sells cigarettes
Non-smoking image, international model
Opium, and even the later further refining and purification of D products, is not only infinitely harmful to modern China. For Britain and the United States, during the Opium War, Lin Zexu's feat of selling cigarettes attracted the world's attention.
He was the first to deal with opium in such a blatant landfill. Such a man has been admired by all walks of life in the world. In his book A History of the Opium Trade, Marx mentioned that "the culmination of the Chinese government's resistance to opium in modern times was a series of measures taken by Lin Zexu after he arrived in Guangzhou." Therefore, Lin Zexu is not only the pride of the Chinese nation, but also a force that cannot be underestimated in the history of world drug control.
After Lin Zexu's death in 1850, Madame Tussauds in London, England, even made a wax figure for him. Therefore, Lin Zexu's anti-opium behavior and determination to ban smoking are recognized by the world, and this admiration has long transcended the boundaries of the country, and his spirit will be permanently circulated at home and abroad.
Lin Zexu wax figure
In addition, the practical significance of the lin zexu statue to the United States cannot be ignored. With the rise of hippie culture in the 1960s, the D-product trading and D-sucking population in the United States was even more rampant, while at the same time, the control of D-products in other developed countries was not optimistic.
Smoking D will not only destroy a family, but also affect social security and economic development, so the control of poison D is imminent. As a result, countries desperately need a hero to shock people.
Later, at the 1987 United Nations Anti-Narcotics Conference, Lin Zexu, the "anti-smoking ambassador", attracted the world's attention. His heroism is exactly the anti-drug determination that European and American countries are looking for.
The efforts of the Chinese are of great significance
The erection of Lin Zexu's statue began with the establishment of the Lin Zexu Foundation.
With the improvement of China's international status and the further improvement of China's cultural soft power influence, Lin Zexu's deeds have once again broken into the international eye.
In 1995, with the efforts of overseas Chinese, the "Lin Zexu" Foundation was officially approved by the US government, and later, in 1997, a bronze statue of Lin Zexu was erected on the New York Plaza.
The bronze statue is about 3 meters high, and Lin Zexu in the bronze statue is dressed in the official clothes of the Qing Dynasty, with his head held high, his breath is exuberant, and his eyes are like a torch. The bottom of the bronze statue is engraved with Lin Zexu's life deeds, and his eyes have entered history and looked into the future.
The erection of this bronze statue has exhausted many Chinese people's hard work for this hundred times.
The foundation was originally established because a group of Chinese led by Wong Kejun at the time believed that the world should know what the real reason for the Opium War was. So they set up one such foundation to fight against the distortions of facts in the textbooks of the time.
However, under pressure, they can only start from the practical significance of Lin Zexu's drug control to achieve their goals. Lin Zexu is an internationally recognized warrior who dares to fight drugs, and his fearless and anti-drug spirit is always worthy of admiration.
So, with the efforts of Huang Kejun, finally, the statue was built.
Lin Zexu's statue still stands tall, but the struggle between mankind and drugs has never stopped, but I believe that the anti-drug cause will be like the eyes of the statue, the history is desolate, and the future is bright.