In Full Flower 313ters, leading to armed confl ict with Britain, in the form of the so- called
Opium War of 1839– 42. Th e legal issue in the confl ict, though, was not Chi-
na’s right to prohibit the trade. Th at was always conceded, both before and
aft er the hostilities. Th e legal casus belli was an allegation of mistreatment of
British nationals who were accused of violating the Chinese laws and taken
into Chinese custody.
Th e Chinese took a further step in the adoption of Western international
law by having Wheaton’s treatise translated, in its entirety, into Chinese in
1864. Th is was the work of another American missionary, William A. P.
Martin. Western diplomats were not unambiguously pleased to see this
knowledge being brought to Chinese attention. Th e French chargé d’aff aires in
the country is said to have grumbled that China could cause “endless trouble”
if it were armed with this legal ammunition. An American diplomat was
similarly concerned that the Chinese might start looking for legal grounds
to contest the various unequal treaties to which it was being energetically
subjected.
Th at there was some foundation to these worries was demonstrated al-
most immediately, when China became embroiled in a dispute with Prus sia.
Th is was over the capture by Prus sia, in 1864, of a Danish ship in Chinese
territorial waters (Prus sia and Denmark then being at war over Schleswig-
Holstein). Th e capture was in violation of China’s rights as a neutral state.
With some welcome assistance from Wheaton’s text, the matter was resolved
to China’s satisfaction, with the Prus sian government releasing the ships and
paying $1,500 in compensation. Chinese offi cials were duly impressed with
their new discovery. Conceding that Wheaton’s treatise “contains sporadic
useful points,” the chief minister of the Chinese government ordered three
hundred copies to be distributed among provincial functionaries.
As a reward for his contribution, Martin was made president and profes-
sor of international law at the Tongwen Guan Library (the Academy of For-
eign Languages) from 1868 to 1894, and then became the fi rst chancellor of
the Imperial University of Peking (1898– 1900). In the course of this second
career, he became the foremost Western student of traditional Chinese ap-
proaches to international law and international relations. He also continued
his noble task of making Western international-law literature accessible to
the Chinese. Th is included translating Woolsey’s Introduction to the Study of
International Law into Chinese in 1877, as well as a Manual of War compiled