Foreign Mud: Being an Account of the Opium Imbroglio at Canton in the 1830s and the Anglo-Chinese War That Followed

By Maurice Collis

Book Overview

Another enduring work by the brilliant historian Maurice Collis. First published in 1946 and long out of print, Foreign Mud is a marvelous historical reconstruction of the events surrounding the illegal trade of opium in Canton during the 1830s and the Opium Wars between Britain and China that followed. Based largely on voluminous documents written by British doctors, missionaries, merchants, and government officials, Collis's tale, far from being a dry assemblage of dates and facts, is a fascinating example of twentieth-century Orientalist literature: "...you must picture the broad river puckered with little waves, the green sweep of the rice, on the horizon blue hills; you must conjure the many sorts of passing craft, the Mandarin house-boats, dainty and lacquered, the streamers and lanterns of passenger boats, the high tilted junks with demon-painted sterns; and you must plunge these images into a light more intense than we know in these countries, into a warmer wind and an air, purer and more scented than we can sniff except in dreams." Collis describes, in all its complexities, a moment in time when China is forced, after more than two thousand years of self-contained sufficiency, to open its doors to the culture, commerce, and evangelization of the Westthe casus belli, foreign mud: the opium the British grew and shipped from India. Interspersed with various maps, plans, and illustrations, Foreign Mud is a historical narrative the reader will find more entertaining than any Spielberg film.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811215067
• ISBN13: 9780811215060
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

a teen could read it

I'd wanted to learn about the history of the British opium affair in China for a long time. Don't know if this could be the best account of events, but it could be. In spite of the copyright date of 1946, it is extremely easy to read and moves right along, concisely relating the situation and opinions in Britain (on both sides of the fence) re: the drug trade. I was surprised to learn they were actually ashamed of it in one way. But as we all know, they weren't ashamed enough to let it get in the way of keeping India afloat for them. One thing: if you're looking for extended combat accounts of the war, this isn't it. The actual "war" is sort of a postscript in the book, and that's all it needs to be in this writing. I highly recommend it.

The Birth of Hong Kong from 1946

In 1946 the British had once more triumphed against the Germans and the Japanese. Collis here dissects the highlights that led to the "Opium wars", actually skirmishes between Britain and China, where Imperial Britain gained ground over the Celestial Kingdom that had for so long treated them as Barbarians from which they gained some pecuniary advantage. The Chinese remained conservative in their treatment of the British since the 18th century and had not grasped that by the mid 19th century Britain was a power to be reckoned with. By then, British had taken Opium trading with China to huge heights but her merchants were still greedy for yet more market space and getting shy of selling a common drug to China to enable them to make a profit. This book is proud and British in flavour, comparing China to some extent with Japan that maintained a similar hubris as the Chinese. It is I think pretty objective and really well written, very gripping and revealing in its details. The author has structured the work rather like a fantastic story in several acts. There are good maps and enough illustrations. It whets your appetite for more .... and I found this after reading Chris Patten's East and West and Tai Pan. This book was probably a source for Clavell's Tai Pan, Jardine being one of the original Tai Pan's of Hong Kong. The Opium Wars directly lead to the birth of Hong Kong and was a sign of things going wrong for Imperial China. The British and French shamelessly muscled in on their advantage subsequent to the events of the 1840s. The Chinese always maintained their cool and were incapable of fighting back and as a land power, had to give way to the naval blandishments of the then western powers. A really wonderful book if you're English, detailing aristocratic China and the elements of British Political hegemony and how they handled the unravelling of a staus quoe in China from which the crown had profiteered without candidly admitting it was from opium. The author does not defent opium trading but is clear it was not a good thing. It was a game in which as is clear, Chinese officialdom was involved on a large scale. A fascinating glimpse of the Chinese who normally seem to reveal so little of themselves, their values or their cultures to some of us barbarians.

Great History

Foreign Mud -- the phrase means "opium" in Chinese -- is a history of the commercial and diplomatic events that lead to the Anglo/Chinese Opium War of 1839-1842, when England attacked China to open up the latter to British trade. Author Collis tells the story with dry humor and copious quotes from contemporary Chinese and British documents, which document the cynicism and incomprehension reigning on both sides of the conflict. According to the back cover, historian A.J. P. Taylor called Foreign Mud: "A wholly admirable book, admirable as a work of history and admirable as a literary entertainment." For once the blurbs are right.