Xu Naiji

Biography

Classical Pedigree and the Hanlin Academy Xu Naiji was a native of Qiantang in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. He descended from one of the most culturally celebrated scholar-gentry lineages of Qing China. His father, Xu Xuefan, was a 1772 AD Jinshi who served as Vice Director in the Ministry of Justice. Xuefan educated seven sons: of these, Naiji, Naipu, and Naizhao attained the Jinshi degree while the remaining four achieved the Juren degree, earning national fame as the 'Seven Sons Passing the Imperial Examinations'. Furthermore, Xu Naiji, his brothers, and cousins all entered the prestigious Hanlin Academy, hailed in Jiangnan folklore as the 'Five Phoenixes Soaring into the Hanlin'. In 1809 AD, thirty-two-year-old Xu Naiji achieved the Jinshi degree in the palace examination, admitted to the Hanlin Academy as a Bachelor under the patronage of Minister Guiqing. In 1811 AD, he was confirmed as a Hanlin Compiler, dedicating his early career to compiling dynastic records. In 1820 AD, Xu was appointed Investigating Censor of the Shandong Circuit. Upon Emperor Daoguang's accession in 1821 AD, Xu presented memorials criticizing the rigidity of examination essay requirements, arguing that classical examinations failed to identify practical administrative talent and urging the institution of personal recommendations by provincial grandees. In 1823 AD, as Supervising Censor of the Office of Scrutiny for War, he drafted practical police regulations for the capital, tying promotions to case clearances. ### Maritime Governance in Guangdong In 1825 AD, Xu transitioned from central remonstrance to provincial governance upon appointment as Circuit Intendant of Zhaoluo in Guangdong. For nearly a decade, he held key regional positions, including Grain Transport Intendant, Gaolian Intendant, and Provincial Education Commissioner. During this decade, the illicit trafficking of Indian opium by British merchants reached unprecedented volumes along the Guangdong coast. Opium importation had caused a catastrophic drainage of silver specie from the Qing empire, destabilizing the national economy and triggering severe price deflation where commoners had to pay extortionate exchange rates to convert copper coins into tax silver. Stationed at the epicenter of maritime administration, Xu observed that official imperial bans were entirely farcical. Imperial naval patrols along the Pearl River estuary accepted systematic bribes, actively shielding foreign opium receiving ships anchored at Lintin Island. Intimate discussions with fellow examination scholar He Taiqing and scholar Wu Lanxiu (author of Dispelling Harm) persuaded Xu that prohibition was technically impossible; they concluded that official proscriptions merely enriched corrupt mandarins and smugglers, and that the only pragmatic solution was legalizing importation under barter terms to halt the drain of bullion. ### The 1836 Memorial and the Relaxation Controversy In 1833 AD, Xu was recalled to Beijing, serving as Sub-Director of the Court of Banqueting and subsequently Sub-Director of the Court of Sacrificial Worship in 1836 AD. By 1836 AD, the opium crisis had paralyzed court politics. On June 10, 1836 AD, Xu Naiji submitted his fateful memorial: Memorial Urging Expedient Modifications in View of the Greater Evils Resulting from Stricter Prohibitions Against Opium. In this historic document, Xu laid out the manifesto of the Relaxation Faction:

1. Recognizing that thirty years of imperial bans had witnessed imports surge from 4,000 to over 30,000 chests, generating endemic smuggling and official extortion.
2. Re-adopting the Qianlong-era regulations by classifying opium as a legal medicinal commodity, imposing regular customs duties through the Canton Hong merchants, and decreeing that foreign merchants could trade opium only by exchanging it for tea, silk, and rhubarb, strictly banning all silver outflows.
3. Differentiating between classes: imperial officials, scholars, and soldiers were to be strictly barred from smoking on pain of immediate dismissal and public disgrace; commoners, however, should be permitted to smoke without state interference.
4. Encouraging domestic poppy cultivation throughout the provinces, calculating that cheap domestic supply would ruin foreign import profit margins: "When foreign traders find no profit remaining, the barbarian ships will cease arriving of their own accord." Emperor Daoguang forwarded the proposal to Viceroy Deng Tingzhen, who endorsed the measures. In London, British Trade Superintendent Charles Elliot enthusiastically informed Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston that Chinese legalization would immensely stimulate Indian production. However, the memorial ignited furious moral outrage among Confucian scholars. Sub-Chancellor Zhu Zun submitted an uncompromising refutation, accusing Xu of sacrificing the moral and physical health of the empire for mere bookkeeping convenience. Censors Xu Qiu and Yuan Yulin swiftly joined the assault, arguing that legalizing poison would destroy the physical fiber of the nation. ### The Triumph of Prohibition and Demise in Retirement By 1838 AD, the balance of power shifted decisively. Court Director Huang Juezi proposed the death penalty for opium smokers, and Huguang Viceroy Lin Zexu warned that failing to eradicate opium would leave the empire without silver to fund armies or soldiers to defend frontiers. Moved by Lin's arguments, Emperor Daoguang resolved to pursue total eradication. To demonstrate royal commitment to prohibition, on November 4, 1838 AD, Emperor Daoguang issued an edict denouncing Xu Naiji's proposals as "utterly perverse and subversive of imperial laws." Xu was stripped of his third-rank status, demoted two grades to the sixth rank, and ordered into instant, humiliating retirement. Broken in spirit and afflicted by chronic illness, Xu retired to his ancestral home in Qiantang. In 1839 AD, as Lin Zexu conducted the historic incineration of British opium at Humen, sixty-three-year-old Xu passed away quietly at his Hangzhou residence. His literary legacy was compiled by disciples in the Qiujizhai Poetry Collection and Memorials of Sub-Director Xu.

Major Activities

Formulating the Opium Relaxation Doctrine Penned the celebrated 1836 AD memorial advocating legal tariffs, barter trade, domestic cultivation, and differentiated prohibition, serving as the supreme intellectual exponent of the Relaxation Faction. ### Provoking the National Opium Debate His proposals triggered the momentous ideological confrontation between the Relaxation and Strict Prohibition factions, compelling Emperor Daoguang to appoint Lin Zexu as imperial commissioner and directly precipitating the Opium War. ### Administrative Remonstrance and Educational Reforms Advocated personal talent recommendation over rote examination testing and reformed the imperial capital's police appraisal mechanisms during his censorial service; successfully managed grain transport and examinations in Guangdong.

Personal Relations

• Brothers: Xu Naipu (Grand Secretary, Minister of Personnel), Xu Naizhao (Governor of Jiangsu), Xu Naigu (Hanlin Compiler).
• Nephews: Xu Pengshou (Minister of Works), Xu Gengshen (Grand Councilor, Minister of War).
• Sons: Xu Huashen, Xu Guishen, Xu Tongshen. ### Guangdong Allies - Guiqing: Minister of Rites, Xu's patron and examiner.
• He Taiqing: Shunde scholar who originally formulated the barter relaxation theory.
• Wu Lanxiu: Guangdong man of letters whose Dispelling Harm provided the textual basis for Xu's memorial.
• Deng Tingzhen: Viceroy of Liangguang who initially endorsed relaxation before executing Lin Zexu's strict ban. ### Opponents - Lin Zexu: Viceroy of Huguang, Imperial Commissioner, national hero of the strict prohibition movement.
• Huang Juezi: Director of Court of State Ceremonial who proposed capital punishment for addicts.
• Zhu Zun, Xu Qiu, Yuan Yulin: Censors who violently attacked Xu's memorial as moral treason.

Historical Assessment

Dynastic Historiographical Perspectives - Zhu Zun (Memorial Demanding Stricter Prohibitions): "Xu Naiji's expedient scheme claims to stem silver leaks, but in truth it encourages commoners to smoke poison. To abandon the populace to wickedness is to abandon the realm!"

• Charles Elliot (British Chief Superintendent of Trade): "Xu Naiji's memorial on the legalization of the opium trade will provide the most extraordinary encouragement to British commerce; Indian production will expand enormously."
• Karl Marx (History of the Opium Trade): "Xu Naiji, one of the most celebrated statesmen of China, proposed to legalize the trade and extract profit from it; but after more than a year of nationwide deliberation, the Chinese government resolved that this abominable commerce poison the people no longer."
• Zhao Erxun et al. (Draft History of Qing): "During the Daoguang era, Lin Zexu strictly outlawed opium. Xu Naiji had argued: 'The stricter the laws, the greater the corruption; legal bans cannot halt smuggling, so it is better to legalize and tax it.' The court rejected his counsel and dismissed him." ### Modern Scholarship - T.F. Tsiang (Modern Chinese History): "Xu Naiji's relaxation theory represented a realistic bureaucratic compromise to solve silver drain. Economically he identified the monetary drain, but morally and biologically he overlooked the fatal degeneration opium inflicted upon society."
• Fan Wenlan (Modern Chinese History): "Xu Naiji represented the defeatist faction willing to compromise with foreign aggression, whose proposals would have reduced China to a drug colony."