Fancy learning more about Jane Austen's inspiration for her novel Persuasion (1817)? In 1810, her brother Francis was involved in a legal battle over the killing of a Chinese shoemaker by a British sailor. /1 https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-royal-naval-inspiration-behind-jane-austens-work/ @UkNatArchives

In 1807, Thomas Manning described a similar incident, also in Canton (Guangzhou), in which "hundreds of Chinese and a smaller group of sailors from the East Indiaman Neptune" got into a fight resulting in the death of a Chinese man. /2 https://royalasiaticsociety.org/british-legal-disputes-and-literary-connections-in-1800s-canton/ @RAS_Soc

In both incidents the British were reluctant to hand over one of their sailors to the Chinese authorities. The latter stated that if it were the other way around, the British would insist on a Chinese man being handed over. /3

It is interesting to think that it was these killings, among others, that precipitated Chinese scholar-official Lin Zexu's confiscation and destruction of foreign opium, ultimately leading to the First Opium War. /4

In this painting, Lin is depicted as a fairly typical literati in a garden landscape with the proper accoutrements such as zither. But he also raises his cup whilst admiring his sword (as indeed the title points out) - an expression perhaps of his desire to destroy the enemy 5/5