Prince Yongxing
Character Profile
| Name: | Yongxing |
| Date of Birth: | unknown; died in 1806 |
| Service: | Empire of China |
| Rank: | Prince |
| Nationality: | Chinese |
| Billets: |
Biography
Yongxing was a brother of the Jiaqing Emperor. He believed strongly that companionship with Celestials should be limited to the imperial family. His belief was so strong that he adopted the albino Lung Tien Lien as a companion to prevent her being sent to a prince in Mongolia, even though by doing so he ended his own chances of becoming Emperor. For the same reason as well as his strong anti-Western views, he opposed the intended gift of the second-born egg of Lung Tien Qian to the Emperor Napoleon, a gift made in order to avoid creating a rival candidate for the Chinese throne.
Yongxing's point of view gained strength when the Chinese learned that the egg had hatched aboard a British ship and that Temeraire had been adopted by a "common soldier" and was serving in the Aerial Corps. Yongxing was sent to Britain to retrieve Temeraire as leader of a delegation that also included Liu Bao and Sun Kai.
What no one except perhaps Lien may have known was that Yongxing was planning to use Temeraire in a plot to murder the Jiaqing Emperor and gain de facto control of the throne. Yongxing wanted to convince Temeraire to accept the child Prince Miankai as his new companion. Once the Jiaqing Emperor had been killed, Yongxing presumably then hoped to place Miankai on the throne in place of his adult brother Prince Mianning, the rightful heir and the companion of Temeraire's twin, Lung Tien Chuan. Since Miankai was a child, Yongxing would rule as regent and would be able to sever all ties with the West
In pursuit of this plan, Yongxing tried to win Temeraire's trust by teaching him Chinese characters and literature, as well as by describing to him the pleasant conditions under which dragons lived in China. Temeraire was quite interested by all of this, but reacted with fierce displeasure when Yongxing suggested that in China, he might have a companion more "worthy" than Laurence.
Yongxing also attempted to command Laurence to give up Temeraire; to cajole him into doing so; to bribe him with 10,000 taels (almost 900 pounds in weight) of silver and trade advantages for Britain; and, when all else failed, to have him murdered. Yongxing's servant Feng Li made two attempts to kill Laurence during the voyage to China aboard the HMS Allegiance. Yongxing was also probably behind the hunhun attack on the British residence in Peking.
His final attempt on Laurence's life, during a theatrical performance in Peking, cost him his own life. At the performance, Roland and Dyer recognized Miankai as the child whom Yongxing had brought to meet Temeraire. With this evidence, Arthur Hammond and George Staunton were at last able to make the connection between the attempts on Laurence's life and Yongxing's other actions. Temeraire, who had already wanted to kill Yongxing after Feng Li's second attack on Laurence, was now more determined than ever to do so.
When one of the actors on stage was seen by Roland to throw a knife at Laurence, Temeraire killed the man, then turned to attack Yongxing. Lien immediately came to Yongxing's defense, provoking a duel between her and Temeraire. Ironically, Yongxing was killed by accident, when the two wrestling dragons knocked the stage over. A flying shard of bamboo struck Yongxing in the eye and entered his brain, killing him instantly.
After Yongxing's death, Miankai testified that Yongxing had promised him his own Celestial and had asked if he would like to be Emperor. Yongxing's supporters were cast into disgrace, leaving Mianning ascendant in the court. Hammond was able to arrange to have Laurence adopted as a son by the Emperor, clearing the way for him and Temeraire to be sworn as companions.
Lien, mourning Yongxing deeply, was persuaded by the French ambassador De Guignes to revenge herself on Temeraire and Laurence by travelling to France to assist Napoleon.
East India Company opium smuggling
Yongxing's attitude towards Western nations, although perhaps extreme, was not atypical of the Qing government in China. As he explained to Laurence, China was sufficient unto itself and did not need Britain's "trinkets, your clockworks and lamps and guns." He viewed Britain as a lesser nation, comparable to China's other tributary nations and therefore owing "threefold gratitude and submission to the Emperor."
Laurence in turn was baffled to hear Yongxing lump Christian missionaries in with opium smugglers and to refuse to acknowledge what Laurence considered to be "the benefits of free and open trade to both parties."
Laurence may not have been aware that the British East India Company was smuggling hundreds of tons of opium into China each year. The smuggling went on despite the fact that opium had been illegal in China since 1729 and that the Jiaqing Emperor had reaffirmed the opium import ban in 1799. There was far more demand for Chinese tea, porcelain and silks in Britain than for British goods in China. Britain's trade deficit was compounded by the fact where Britain operated under the gold standard, China insisted on the silver standard. Britain was thus forced to buy silver from other European nations in order to trade to China for goods.
In order to address the British trade deficit, the East India Company pursued an opium monopoly in Bengal. By 1773, they had obtained it. Opium produced in Bengal was sold by the Company to various agents and traffickers in Calcutta with the understanding that it would end up in China. The proceeds from illegal sales of opium in China were then paid into the Company's factory at Canton, where they were used to purchase tea and other Chinese goods.
To understand Yongxing's attitude towards Britain, one need only imagine what would happen if a small 21st century nation attempted to balance its trade deficit with a larger and more powerful one - the United States, for example - by smuggling heroin or cocaine into the larger nation.
