Memòria de Zhu Zun en contra de legalitzar el comerç de l'opi, octubre de 1836

CHENG, P. and M.LESTZ with J.D.SPENCE (1999). The Search for Modern China. New York, London, W.W.Norton & Company. Pàg. 110-127.

Zhu Zun, member of the council and of the Board of Rites, kneeling, presents the following memorial, wherein he suggests the propriety of increasing the severity of certain prohibitory enactments, with a view to maintain the dignity of the laws, and to remove a great evil from among the people: to this end he respectfully states his views on the subject, and earnestly entreats his sacred majesty to cast a glance thereon.
I would humbly point out, that wherever an evil exists it should be at once removed; and that the laws should never be suffered to fall into desuetude. Our government, having received from heaven, the gift of peace, has transmitted it for two centuries: this has afforded opportunity for the removal of evils from among the people. For governing the central nation, and for holding in submission all the surrounding barbarians, rules exist perfect in their nature, and well-fitted to attain their end. And in regard to opium, special enactments were passed for the prohibitions of its use in the first year of Jiaqing [1796]; and since then, memorials presented at various successive periods, have given rise to additional prohibitions, all which have been inserted in the code and the several tariffs. The laws, then, relating thereto are not wanting in severity; but there are those in office who, for want of energy, fail to carry them into execution.
Hence the people's minds gradually become callous; and base desires, springing up among them, increase day by day and month by month, till their rank luxuriance has spread over the whole empire. These noisome weeds, having been long neglected, it has become impossible to eradicate. And those to whom this duty is entrusted are, as if handbound, wholly at a loss what to do.
When the foreign ships convey opium to the coast, it is impossible for them to sell it by retail. Hence there are at Canton, in the provincial city, brokers, named 'melters.' These engage money-changers to arrange the price with the foreigners, and to obtain orders for them; with which orders they proceed to the receiving ships, and there the vile drug is delivered to them. This part of the transaction is notorious, and the actors in it are easily discoverable. The boats which carry the drug and which are called 'fast-crabs' and 'scrambling-dragons,' are all well furnished with guns and other weapons, and ply their oars as swiftly as though they were wings. Their crews have all the over-bearing assumption and audacity of pirates. Shall such men be suffered to navigate the surrounding seas according to their own will? And shall such conduct be passed over without investigation? ...
It is said that the opium should be admitted, subject to a duty, the importers being required to give it into the hands of the hong merchants, in barter only for merchandise, without being allowed to sell it for money. And this is proposed as a means of preventing money from secretly oozing out of the country. But the English, by whom opium is sold, have been driven out to Lintin [a small island in the Pearl River estuary] so long since as the first year of Daoguang [1821], when the then governor of Guangdong and Guangxi discovered and punished the warehousers of opium: so long have they been expelled, nor have they ever since imported it into Macao. Having once suppressed the trade and driven them away, shall we now again call upon them and invite them to return? This would be, indeed, a derogation from the true dignity of government. As to the proposition to give tea in exchange, and entirely to prohibit the exportation of even foreign silver I apprehend that, if the tea should not be found sufficient, money will still be given in exchange for the drug. Besides, if it is in our power to prevent the extortion of dollars, why not also to prevent the importation of opium? And if we can but prevent the importation of opium, the exportation of dollars will then cease of itself, and the two offenses will both at once be stopped. Moreover, is it not better, by continuing the old enactments, to find even a partial remedy for the evil, than by a change of the laws to increase the importation still further? As to levying a duty of opium, the thing sounds so awkwardly, and reads so unbeseemingly, that such a duty ought sorely not to be levied.
Again, it is said that the prohibitions against the planting of the poppy by natives should be relaxed; and that the direct consequences will be, daily diminution of the profits of foreigners, and in course of time the entire cessation of the trade without the aid of prohibitions. Is it, then, forgotten that it is natural to the common people to prize things heard of only by the ear and to undervalue those which are before their eyes,-to pass by those things which are near at hand, and to seek after those which are afar off-and, though they have a thing in their own land, yet to esteem more highly such as comes to them from beyond the seas? Thus, in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, they will not quietly be guided by the laws of the empire, but must needs make use of foreign money: and this foreign money, though of an inferior standard, is nevertheless exchanged by them at a higher rate than the native sycee silver, which is pure. And although money is cast in China after exactly the same pattern, under the names of Jiangsu pieces, Fujian pieces, and native or Canton pieces, yet this money has not been able to gain currency among the people. Thus, also, the silk and cotton goods of China are not insufficient in quantity; and yet the broadcloths, and comlets, and cotton goods of the barbarians from beyond the place of the empire are in constant request. Taking men generally the minds of all are equally unenlightened in this respect, so that all men prize what is strange, and undervalue whatever is in ordinary use.
From Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Yunnan, and Guizhou, memorials have been presented by the censors and other officers, requesting that prohibitions should be enacted against the cultivation of the poppy, and against the preparation of opium; but while nominally prohibited, the cultivation of it has not been really stopped in those places. Of any of those provinces, except Yunnan, I do not presume to speak; but of that portion of the country I have it in any power to say, that the poppy is cultivated all over the hills and the open campaign, and that the quantity of opium annually produced there cannot be less than several thousand chests. And yet we do not see any diminution in the quantity of silver exported as compared with any previous period; while, on the other hand, the lack of the metal in Yunnan is double in degree to what it formerly was. To what cause is this to be ascribed? To what but that the consumers of the drug are very many, and that those who are choice and dainty, with regard to its quality prefer always the foreign article?
Those of your majesty's advisers who compare the drug to the dried leaf of the tobacco plant are in error. The tobacco leaf does not destroy the human constitution. The profit too arising from the sale of tobacco is small, while that arising from opium is large. Besides, tobacco may be cultivated on bare and barren ground, while the poppy needs a rich and fertile soil. If all the rich and fertile ground be used for planting the poppy; and if the people, hoping for a large profit therefrom, madly engage in its cultivation; where will flax and the mulberry tree be cultivated, or wheat and rye be planted? To draw off in this way the waters of the great fountain, requisite for the production of goods and raiment, and to lavish them upon the root whence calamity and disaster spring forth, is an error which may be compared to that of a physician, who, when treating a mere external disease, should drive it inwards to the heart and centre of the body. It may in such a case be found impossible even to preserve life.
And shall the fine fields of Guangdong, that produce their three crops every year, be given up for the cultivation of this noxious weed-those fields in comparison with which the unequal soil of all other parts of the empire is not even to be mentioned?
To sum up the matter-the wide-spreading and baneful influence of opium, when regarded simply as injurious to property, is of inferior importance; but when regarded as hurtful to the people, it demands most anxious consideration:
for in the people lies the very foundation of the empire. Property, it is true, is that on which the subsistence of the people depends. Yet a deficiency of it may be supplied, and an impoverished people improved; whereas it is beyond the power of any artificial means to save a people enervated by luxury. In the history of Formosa we find the following passage: "Opium was first produced in Kaoutsinne [?], which by some is said to be the same as Kalapa [or Batavia]. The natives of this place were at the first sprightly and active, and being good soldiers, were always successful in battle. But the people called Hongmao [Red-hairs, a term originally applied to the Dutch] came thither, and having manufactured opium, seduced some of the natives into the habit of smoking it; from this the mania for it rapidly spread throughout the whole nation, so that in process of time, the natives became feeble and enervated, submitted to the foreign rule, and ultimately were completely subjugated." Now the English are of the race of foreigners called Hongmao [Red-hairs]. In introducing opium into this country, their purpose has been to weaken and enfeeble the central empire. If not early aroused to a sense of our danger, we shall find ourselves, ere long, on the last step towards ruin....
Since your majesty's accession to the throne, the maxim of your illustrious house that horsemanship and archery are the foundations of its existence, has ever been carefully remembered. And hence the governors, the lt. governors, the commanders of the forces, and their subordinates have again and again been directed to pay the strictest attention to the discipline and exercise of the troops, and of the naval forces and have been urged and required to create by their exertions strong and powerful legions. With admiration I contemplate my sacred sovereign's anxious care for imparting a military as well as a civil education, prompted as this anxiety is by desire to establish on a firm basis the foundations of the empire, and to hold in awe the barbarians on every side. But while the stream of importation of opium is not turned aside, it is impossible to attain any certainty that none within the camp do ever secretly inhale the drug. And if the camp be once contaminated by it, the baneful influence will work its way, and the habit will be contracted beyond the power of reform. When the periodical times of desire for it come round, how can the victims- their legs tottering, their hands trembling, their eyes flowing with child-like tears-be able in any way to attend to their proper exercises? Or how can such men form strong and powerful legions? Under these circumstances, the military will become alike unfit to advance to the fight, or in a retreat to defend their posts. Of this there is clear proof in the instance of the campaign against the Yao rebels in the 12th year of our sovereign's reign [1832]. In the army sent to Yongzhou [Hunan], on that occasion, great numbers of the soldiers were opium-smokers; so that although their numerical force was large, there was hardly any strength to be found among them....
At the present moment, throughout the empire, the minds of men are in imminent danger; the more foolish, being seduced by teachers of false doctrines, are sunk in vain superstitions and cannot be aroused; and the more intelligent, being intoxicated by opium, are carried away as by a whirlpool, and are beyond recovery. Most thoughtfully have I sought for some plan by which to arouse and awaken all but in vain. While, however, the empire preserves and maintains its laws, the plain and honest rustic will see what he has to fear, and will be deterred from evil; and the man of intelligence and cultivated habits will learn what is wrong in himself, and will refrain from it. And thus, though the laws be declared by some to be but waste paper, yet these their unseen effects will be of no trifling nature. If, on the other hand, the prohibitions be suddenly repealed, and the action which was a crime be no longer counted such by the government, how shall the dull clown and the mean among the people know that the action is still in itself wrong? In open day and with unblushing front, they will continue to use opium till they shall become so accustomed to it, that eventually they will find it as indispensable as their daily meat and drink, and will inhale the noxious drug with perfect indifference. When shame shall thus be entirely destroyed, and fear removed wholly out of the way, the evil consequences that will result to morality and to the minds of men will assuredly be neither few nor unimportant. As your majesty's minister, I know that the laws of the empire, being in their existing state well fitted to effect their end, will not for any slight cause be changed. But the proposal to alter the law on this subject having been made and discussed in the provinces, the instant effect has been, that crafty thieves and villains have on all hands begun to raise their heads and open their eyes, gazing about, and pointing their finger, under the nation that, when once these prohibitions are repealed thenceforth and for ever they may regard themselves free from every restraint and from every cause of fear.
Though possessing very poor abilities I have nevertheless had the happiness to enjoy the favor of your sacred majesty, and have, within a space of but few years, been raised though the several grades of the censorate, and the presidency of various courts in the metropolis, to the high elevation of a seat in the Inner Council. I have been copiously imbued with the rich dew of favors; yet have been unable to offer the feeblest token of gratitude; but if there is aught within the compass of my knowledge, I dare not to pass it by unnoticed. I feel in my duty to request that your majesty's commands may be proclaimed to the governors and lieut-governors of all the provinces, requiring them to direct the local officers to redouble their efforts for the enforcement of the existing prohibitions against opium; and to impress on every one, in the plainest and strictest manner, that all who are already contaminated by the vile habit must return and become new men,-that if any continue to walk in their former courses, strangers to repentance and to reformation, they shall assuredly be subjected to the full penalty of the law, and shall not meet with the least indulgence,-and that any found guilty of storing up or selling opium to the amount of 1000 catties or upwards, the most severe punishment shall be inflicted. Thus happily the minds of men may be impressed with fear, and the report thereof, spreading over the seas (among foreigners) may even there produce reformation. Submitting to my sovereign my feeble and obscure views, I prostrate implore your sacred majesty to cast a glance on this my respectful memorial.