As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Historical person
1782–1850
The Daoguang Emperor ruled Qing China from 1820 to 1850. His government faced fiscal weakness, official corruption, maritime smuggling and growing foreign pressure, above all over the opium trade. He appointed Lin Zexu to suppress opium at Canton, but Britain responded with military force in the First Opium War. The Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ceded Hong Kong and opened treaty ports, marking a major loss of Qing sovereignty.
The emperor’s reign forms the political background to Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, particularly River of Smoke and Flood of Fire, which follow merchants, soldiers and officials through the opium crisis and war. Daoguang is often distant from the fictional action, reflecting the immense separation between the Beijing court and events at Canton. Novels use that distance to explore failures of information as well as the violence of British commercial imperialism.
Series
The Ibis Trilogy, written by acclaimed Indian author Amitav Ghosh, is an epic historical fiction series comprising Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011), and Flood of Fire (2015). Set in the 1830s, the sweeping narrative centers on the Ibis—a repurposed slave ship—and traces the devastating geopolitical…
All books in this series
Standalone books
