Lin Zexu

Lin Zexu , courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese scholar and official of the Qing dynasty, hailing from Fuzhou, Fujian province.

Lin was born in Houguan . The second son of the family, his father was Bin Re, a Chinese official in the Qing dynasty. As a child, he was already unusually brilliant. In 1811, he received a jinshi degree in the imperial examination, and in the same year, he was appointed to the Hanlin Academy. He rose rapidly through various grades of provincial service. He opposed the opening of China but felt the need of a better knowledge of foreigners, which drove him to collect material for a geography of the world. He later gave this material to Wei Yuan, who published the Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms in 1843. He became GovernorGeneral of Hunan and Hubei in 1837, where he launched a suppression campaign against the trading of opium.

Source: Wikipedia