When in 1839 the imperial commissioner Lin Zexu embarked on a campaign to eradicate opium and wrote an eloquent letter to Queen Victoria, the British response was one which pains the heart of every Chinese to this day: the Opium War of 1840, described by English-language history books as "the first Anglo-Chinese war, which arose out of a series of small incidents."
一八三九年林則徐大舉禁煙，又修書維多利亞女王慷慨陳詞，得到的回應是每個中國人心頭的痛﹘﹘一八四○年的「鴉片戰爭」；也就是英文書中所謂的「一連串小衝突導致的第一次英中戰爭」。