In the twentieth year of the Qing Dynasty (1840), the British Expeditionary Fleet, led by commander Charlie Yilu, blockaded the sea surface of Guangzhou, and the "Opium War" broke out. Soon after, the British army marched north to Dagukou in Tianjin, forcing the Daoguang Emperor to send envoys to negotiate and punish Lin Zexu. Two years later, the Treaty of Nanking, the first unequal treaty in China's modern history, was signed, and the Opium War came to an end. Although the war was temporarily over, the Qing Dynasty was thus reduced to a tool for the great powers to divide China.
Although in the course of the Opium War, the Qing government adopted an attitude of seeking perfection from the great powers, the qing military and people showed a valuable fighting spirit to resist imperialist aggression. In addition to the well-known "Sanyuanli Resistance to The British", Yao Ying, a famous literary historian in the late Qing Dynasty, was defending Taiwan at the outbreak of the Opium War, and he led the Taiwanese military and people to resist the British army and won five battles and five victories. However, after the end of the war, Yao Ying was persecuted by the ministers of the main subordinates and was completely displaced.
In the fifty years of the Qianlong Dynasty (1785), Yao Ying was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province, into a family of scholars, and her grandfather Yao Nai was the master of the "Tongcheng School" prose. Under the influence and cultivation of her grandfather, Yao Ying loved to read and learn from an early age, and accumulated profound knowledge at a young age. While familiar with Confucian classics, he also paid great attention to social reality, and his articles often boldly pointed out the shortcomings of the times and had his own unique views and insights.
In the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808), the twenty-three-year-old Yao Ying was admitted to the jinshi, and was subsequently summoned by Zhang Bailing, the governor of Liangguang, as a staff member. At that time, there were often pirates in the coastal areas of Liangguang, and Yao Ying had a certain understanding of the importance of coastal defense. In the twenty-first year of Jiaqing (1816), Yao Ying was sent to Pinghe County, located in the southwest of present-day Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, as a Zhi County, and during her tenure, she achieved great political achievements and was loved by the local people.
The following year, Yao Ying was reassigned to Longxi County, which also belonged to Zhangzhou, as a county commander, and his performance in Longxi was equally outstanding, and he was praised by the people at the time as "the first official of Fujian". Because of her outstanding ability and ability to improve the bad customs and habits existing in her jurisdiction, Yao Ying was sent to Taiwan in the twenty-fourth year of Jiaqing (1819) as the zhi county of Taiwan County, Taiwan Prefecture, which was about the area of central Taiwan today. After working for two years, Yao Ying, who was deeply respected by local officials and the people, was promoted to taiwanese general judge.
Unfortunately, Yao Ying had not been seated in the seat of Taiwan's general judge for long before she was implicated and dismissed from her official post. When he left, the people of Taiwan were extremely reluctant and even went to the government to ask Yao Ying to stay. After stepping down from her official post, Yao Ying returned to the academic community, focused on research and learning, and later exchanged and studied with progressive people such as Wei Yuan, the compiler of the "Atlas of the Sea Country", and the famous poet Gong Zizhen in Beijing, discussing the application of the world and seeking the way to make the country rich and strong.
In the twelfth year of Daoguang (1832), Yao Ying was reinstated and successively served as Zhi County in Wujin County and Yuanhe County in Jiangsu Province. Later, the Daoguang Emperor issued an edict to ask for xian, and Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang, and Lin Zexu, the governor of Jiangsu, jointly recommended Yao Ying, saying that this person could be of great use. Therefore, the imperial court first made Yao Ying a Gaoyou Zhizhou, and then when she was not yet in office, it changed her to the two Huai Supervisor Tongzhi and protected the salt transport envoys.
In the sixteenth year of Daoguang (1836), Yao Ying entered the palace to see him, and the Daoguang Emperor believed that he was indeed talented, so the following year he appointed him as a Taiwan military officer, responsible for handling Taiwan's military affairs. After arriving in familiar Taiwan, Yao Ying cooperated with Dahong A, the commander-in-chief of Taiwan Town, who was born with a yellow flag, to reorganize the armaments on the island. Within a few years, the Opium War broke out, and the British army that had been coveting Taiwan for a long time landed on the island, but Yao Ying and Dahong'a led the Taiwanese military and people to resist vigorously, repelling the british troops who attacked five times and defending Taiwan from falling into the hands of the British invaders.
Yao Ying's heroic deeds in defending Taiwan were admirable, but at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, the Chinese representative Ai Xinjue Luo Qiying and the main and sent minister Guo Jia Mu Zhang'a were dissatisfied with Yao Ying's act of fighting with the British, and went so far as to arrest and imprison her. Although the society of the late Qing Dynasty was already quite decayed, the people also knew that Yao Ying was a fighter against the invaders and should not be guilty of it. Under the pressure of public opinion, the lord and faction eventually released Yao Ying, but still sent her to Sichuan in order to please the British.
Not only that, after Yao Ying arrived in Sichuan, the Lord and the Party sent another paper to transfer her to the more remote Tibet. Despite traveling thousands of miles and experiencing countless hardships, Yao Ying did not become depressed and depressed, but insisted on reading on the way, and also wrote about the customs and customs and mountain terrain along the way into the fifteen-volume "Kang Xuan Ji Xing".
Although "Kang Xuan Ji Xing" is a travelogue, Yao Ying, who is concerned about the country, introduces the history of the British and French powers and the activities of the British on the Tibetan border, and also proposes that to resist the Western invaders, it is necessary to understand their specific situation and learn their advanced technology. Nowadays, many people regret that Wei Yuan's "Chart of the Sea Kingdom" was not valued by the Qing government at that time, in fact, the "Kang Xuan Ji xing" was also of great significance for opening up Chinese ideological enlightenment, and it also did not receive due attention.
After the Xianfeng Emperor ascended the throne, Qi Ying and Mu Zhang'a, who had previously persecuted Yao Ying, were given to commit suicide, and one was dismissed from his post, and he would never be used. At the same time, Lin Zexu was reinstated, and Yao Ying had to go to Hubei, Guangxi, Hunan and other places to continue to exert her political talents. After the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Yao Ying also fell ill in the process of accompanying the army to fight against the British, and finally died in the army in the third year of Xianfeng (1853). As a hero of the anti-British resistance, a master of literature and history, and a progressive thinker, he deserves to be known to more people and worthy of respect by more people.