{ "id": "ep0p5t3975", "slug": "lin-zexu-1959-film", "title": "Lin Zexu (1959 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics", "label": "Historical dramas and epics", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-symbols-to-l", "label": "Titles symbols to L", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-symbols-to-l" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-symbols-to-l.alpha-en-to-l", "label": "Titles En to L", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-symbols-to-l.alpha-en-to-l" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Lin Zexu (林则徐, The Opium Wars) is a 1959 Chinese color historical biographical film by Shanghai Haiyan Film Studio, directed by Zheng Junli and Cen Fan, starring Zhao Dan as the Qing commissioner who destroyed opium at Humen; a tenth-anniversary tribute film.", "snippet": "Lin Zexu (林则徐, The Opium Wars) is a 1959 Chinese color historical biographical film by Shanghai Haiyan Film Studio, directed by Zheng Junli and Cen Fan, starring Zhao Dan as the Qing commissioner who destroyed opium at Humen; a tenth-anniversary tribute film.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.historical-dramas-and-epics.alpha-symbols-to-l.alpha-en-to-l", "markdown": "# Lin Zexu (1959 film)\n\n**Lin Zexu** (林则徐) is a 1959 Chinese color historical biographical film directed by Zheng Junli and Cen Fan, with Zhao Dan starring as the Qing commissioner [Lin Zexu](https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu), who suppressed the opium trade at Canton and was later dismissed and exiled as the Opium War broke out.[1](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=160) It was produced in 1958 by the Shanghai film studio system and released in 1959 as one of the tribute films for the tenth anniversary of the People's Republic of China.[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2017/0524/c403992-29295660.html) • [3](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/09/17/8/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 林则徐; released abroad as *The Opium Wars*[1](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=160) |\n| Production | Shanghai Haiyan Film Studio; directors Zheng Junli and Cen Fan; screenwriters Lü Dang and Ye Yuan; cinematography by Huang Shaofen and Cao Weiye[1](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=160) • [4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html) |\n| Cast | Zhao Dan (Lin Zexu), Li Yong (Deng Tingzhen), Deng Nan (Guan Tianpei), Han Fei (Qishan), Qin Yi (A-Kuan's wife), Gao Bo (Kuang Dongshan)[1](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=160) • [4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html) |\n| Length | 100 minutes per the Virtual Shanghai film database; 90 minutes per the Japan-China Friendship Association program notes[1](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=160) • [5](https://www.jcfa-net.gr.jp/eiga/kaisetu/004.html) |\n| Premiere context | One of the color features in the tenth-anniversary New Films Exhibition Month, 25 September to 24 October 1959, in 27 cities[3](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/09/17/8/) |\n| Standing | Called one of the two artistic pinnacles of 1950s Chinese cinema; the first Chinese color feature film released in the United States[6](https://comm.ecnu.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/64/06/baa2de0343a4b7ab3aad168fd9e3/f0e162ce-d14b-4c55-81e2-351e5f8bbb1f.pdf) • [2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2017/0524/c403992-29295660.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film opens in 1838, with opium imported by Western merchants poisoning the population and silver draining abroad, leaving the Qing state in distress.[5](https://www.jcfa-net.gr.jp/eiga/kaisetu/004.html) The Daoguang Emperor appoints Lin Zexu as imperial commissioner with full authority to enforce the opium ban in Canton, over the opposition of the capitulationist faction led at court by Muzhang'a and the governor-general Qishan, who secretly tip off the British opium merchant Lancelot Dent.[4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html)\n\nIn Canton, Lin inspects the city in disguise, strengthens coastal defenses with the governor-general [Deng Tingzhen](https://www.edgepedia.org/deng-tingzhen), orders foreign merchants to surrender all opium within three days, and detains suspect British ships.[4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html) On 3 June 1839 he destroys the confiscated opium, more than 20,000 chests, publicly on the Humen beach.[4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html) • [5](https://www.jcfa-net.gr.jp/eiga/kaisetu/004.html) The destruction triggers the Opium War of 1840; British forces push north to Tianjin, the emperor dismisses Lin for supposed negligence, sends Qishan to negotiate a surrender, and finally exiles Lin to Xinjiang's Ili region, while the people of Sanyuanli near [Guangzhou](https://www.edgepedia.org/guangzhou) mount their armed resistance.[4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html)\n\nFictional commoner characters, the fisherman Kuang Dongshan and his wife A-Kuan-sao, thread the popular struggle through the story: their encounters with Lin, on a ferry, after intercepting Dent, at the Humen destruction and the battery works, and finally in the presentation of a plaque after Lin's dismissal, link the people's resistance to the official's anti-opium campaign.[11](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/11/15/7/)\n\n## Production background\n\nThe film grew out of the political culture of early People's Republic cinema. After the 1951 campaign against the film *[The Life of Wu Xun](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-life-of-wu-xun)*, which elevated the class view in [Chinese historiography](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-historiography), Qing-dynasty historical films such as *Song Jingshi* (1955) and *Lin Zexu* (1959) embodied a tension between that class view and historicism in Mao-era China, according to the historians He Qiliang and Wang Meng.[7](https://ra.lib.hksyu.edu.hk/entities/publication/5bf8f164-475e-44f0-8598-d29d72fbc974) Zheng Junli, who had co-directed *[The Spring River Flows East](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-spring-river-flows-east)* (1947) and directed *Crows and Sparrows* (1949), turned to historical subjects after his 1951 film *We Two* was criticized, making *Song Jingshi*, *Lin Zexu*, and *Nie Er* (1959) in succession.[6](https://comm.ecnu.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/64/06/baa2de0343a4b7ab3aad168fd9e3/f0e162ce-d14b-4c55-81e2-351e5f8bbb1f.pdf)\n\n**A revised ending.** In the first draft of the screenplay, the story ended with the historical tragedy of Lin's dismissal and the fall of Guangzhou. In the finished film, the ending shows Lin riding into exile while the people of Sanyuanli fight the British behind him. Zheng Junli wrote that this ending \"on the one hand reveals Lin Zexu's historical limitations and tragedy, and on the other highlights the revolutionary optimism and idealism of the people.\"[8](https://wenxueyuan.ruc.edu.cn/UploadFile/20150711/20150711224312563.pdf) [Zhou Enlai](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhou-enlai) contributed directly: in 1958, while the film was being shot, he sent from Guangzhou materials he had found on the spontaneous Sanyuanli anti-British movement and suggested adding a scene of that struggle at the end.[9](https://ivantsoi.myds.me/web/schoolebook/pdf/089028.pdf)\n\nThe screenplay by Ye Yuan and Lü Dang was among seven scripts, including *Hai Hun*, that won awards in a national screenplay competition organized under a joint Writers Association and cultural-authority solicitation program.[10](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/attachment/202506/11/dd2f0e71-25bb-420b-bb66-89fdd6530f39.pdf)\n\n## Style and music\n\n**National style.** The film is noted for drawing on classical [Chinese literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-literature) and art, using poetic mood and imagery to convey the characters' inner world.[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2017/0524/c403992-29295660.html) Zhao Dan's performance absorbed elements of traditional opera: his first appearance, bowing before the [Daoguang Emperor](https://www.edgepedia.org/daoguang-emperor), was inspired by the [Peking opera](https://www.edgepedia.org/peking-opera) \"entrance style,\" with the old-role's measured gait used to project Lin's dignity.[12](https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/jinri/201904/23/258058.html) The riverside farewell to Deng Tingzhen, which adapts classical poetry-and-painting mood, has been widely praised by film historians.[13](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details12_27860.html)\n\nThe composer Wang Yunjie wrote the score, performed by the Shanghai Film Orchestra under Chen Chuanxi.[4](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html) In a 1961 [People's Daily](https://www.edgepedia.org/peoples-daily) article on the film's music, he described building the score on the Chinese qupai (traditional Chinese labelled melody forms) melodic form while borrowing orchestral techniques of layered part-writing, so that feeling could unfold in stages over a long scene, such as the music accompanying Lin's grief when [Guan Tianpei](https://www.edgepedia.org/guan-tianpei) dies fighting because Qishan withholds reinforcements.[14](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1961/06/07/7/)\n\n## Reception\n\nContemporary reviews were strongly positive. The writer Yang Hansheng, in a September 1959 People's Daily symposium, called the film Zheng Junli's most successful work, praising its clean, economical direction and Zhao Dan's deep, restrained performance, and defended the film's deliberate shifts of dates and invented episodes as legitimate tools of the historical dramatist.[3](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/09/17/8/) A November 1959 review by the historian Zhang Kaiyuan praised the film for replacing the gloomy tones of older depictions of modern Chinese history with national confidence and optimism, while noting the final contrast between the victorious Sanyuanli fighters and Lin riding alone into exile.[11](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/11/15/7/) Later scholarship has placed the film among the high points of 1950s Chinese cinema and among the historical epics made with unusual care for the PRC's first decade.[6](https://comm.ecnu.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/64/06/baa2de0343a4b7ab3aad168fd9e3/f0e162ce-d14b-4c55-81e2-351e5f8bbb1f.pdf) • [15](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/new-chinas-forgotten-cinema-1949-1966-more-than-just-politics.pdf)\n\n**Abroad.** In 1960 the China Foreign Culture Association presented a widescreen print to the Japan-China Friendship Association. Japanese customs levied about 400,000 yen in import duty on the eleven reels plus 100,000 yen for subtitling, and the [Ministry of Finance](https://www.edgepedia.org/ministry-of-finance) required a written pledge not to publicize or screen the film grandly; despite this, the 2,000 tickets for the screening at Tokyo's Chiyoda Public Hall sold out in advance.[16](https://cn.govopendata.com/cankaoxiaoxi/1960/05/04/4/) The film was also the first Chinese color feature to be released in the United States.[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2017/0524/c403992-29295660.html)\n\nFilm historians Zhiwei Xiao and Xue Feng treat *Lin Zexu* as one of three influential Chinese features on the Opium War, alongside *Eternity* (1943) and *The Opium War* (1997), each reflecting the ideological concerns of its time.[17](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ac.11.1.68_1) • [13](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details12_27860.html) Zheng Junli did not live to see later reassessments of the film: persecuted after the start of the [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution), he died in prison on 23 April 1969.[18](https://ywang.uchicago.edu/history/zhengjunli.htm)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Lin Zexu (1959), Virtual Shanghai film database](https://www.virtualshanghai.net/films/collection?ID=160)\n2. [《郑君里全集》出版：循着400万字看到\"山有多高\"，中国作家网 (2017)](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2017/0524/c403992-29295660.html)\n3. [《向国庆献礼的国产片丰富多彩》，人民日报 1959年9月17日 第8版](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/09/17/8/)\n4. [电影：林则徐，红色文化网 (2014)](https://www.hswh.org.cn/wzzx/hsyx/2014-02-28/25041.html)\n5. [甦る新中国草創期の映画（阿片戦争），日本中国友好協会](https://www.jcfa-net.gr.jp/eiga/kaisetu/004.html)\n6. [新中国电影语言的民族化，华东师范大学传播学院](https://comm.ecnu.edu.cn/_upload/article/files/64/06/baa2de0343a4b7ab3aad168fd9e3/f0e162ce-d14b-4c55-81e2-351e5f8bbb1f.pdf)\n7. [He Qiliang and Wang Meng (2022). Wu Xun, Song Jingshi, and Lin Zexu: Cinema and Historiography in Mao's China (1949-1966). Asian Studies Review 46(2).](https://ra.lib.hksyu.edu.hk/entities/publication/5bf8f164-475e-44f0-8598-d29d72fbc974)\n8. [激昂情怀与政治规训，\"十七年\"时期郑君里的导演创作，中国人民大学文学院](https://wenxueyuan.ruc.edu.cn/UploadFile/20150711/20150711224312563.pdf)\n9. [一位对电影创作有关键性影响人（回忆资料）](https://ivantsoi.myds.me/web/schoolebook/pdf/089028.pdf)\n10. [中国作家网·文学报：电影剧本创作历程回顾 (2025)](https://wyb.chinawriter.com.cn/attachment/202506/11/dd2f0e71-25bb-420b-bb66-89fdd6530f39.pdf)\n11. [《\"傲霜花艳岭南枝\"，评历史故事片\"林则徐\"》，人民日报 1959年11月15日 第7版](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1959/11/15/7/)\n12. [郑君里与传统戏剧假定性美学，文汇报 (2019)](https://wenhui.whb.cn/third/jinri/201904/23/258058.html)\n13. [华语历史电影的言情边际与当代想象，中国文艺评论网](https://www.zgwypl.com/content/details12_27860.html)\n14. [《从影片〈林则徐〉谈电影音乐民族化问题》，人民日报 1961年6月7日 第7版](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1961/06/07/7/)\n15. [New China's Forgotten Cinema, 1949-1966: More Than Just Politics, Asian Studies](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/new-chinas-forgotten-cinema-1949-1966-more-than-just-politics.pdf)\n16. [我影片\"林则徐\"大受日本观众欢迎，参考消息 1960年5月4日 第4版](https://cn.govopendata.com/cankaoxiaoxi/1960/05/04/4/)\n17. [Zhiwei Xiao (2000). The Opium War in the Movies: History, Politics and Propaganda. Asian Cinema 11(1), 68-83.](https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ac.11.1.68_1)\n18. [郑君里（1911-1969）小传，据《上海电影志》](https://ywang.uchicago.edu/history/zhengjunli.htm)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › Historical dramas and epics › Titles symbols to L › Titles En to L*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Lin Zexu (1959 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Lin Zexu (1959 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Lin Zexu (1959 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/lin-zexu-1959-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Lin Zexu is a 1959 Chinese color historical biographical film by Shanghai Haiyan Film Studio, directed by Zheng Junli and Cen Fan, starring Zhao Dan as the Qing commissioner who destroyed opium at Humen; a tenth-anniversary tribute film." }