Editing Lin Zexu (section)

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Lin Zexu Memorial in Fuzhou.jpg|thumb|right|The Lin Zexu Memorial in Fuzhou from 2004]]
[[File:Ling Caik-su.jpg|thumb|300px|Statue of Lin Zexu in [[Chatham Square]] in [[Chinatown, Manhattan]], New York City, United States]]

Lin died in 1850 while on the way to [[Guangxi|Guangxi Province]], where the Qing government was sending him to help put down the [[Taiping Rebellion]]. Though he was originally blamed for causing the First Opium War, Lin's reputation was rehabilitated in the last years of the Qing dynasty, as efforts were made once more to eradicate opium production and trade. He became a symbol of the fight against opium and other drug trades, with his image displayed in parades, and his writings quoted approvingly by anti-opium and anti-drugs reformers.{{sfn|Madancy|2003|pp=96–97}}

Despite the antagonism between the Chinese and the British at the time, the English sinologist [[Herbert Giles]] praised and admired Lin: "He was a fine scholar, a just and merciful official and a true patriot."

Lin's former home, situated in Fuzhou's historic Sanfang-Qixiang ("Three Lanes and Seven Alleys") district, is open to the public.  Inside, his work as a government official, including the opium trade and other work where he improved agricultural methods, championed water conservation (including his work to save Fuzhou's West Lake from becoming a rice field) and his campaign against corruption are well documented.

In China, Lin is popularly viewed as a [[national hero]] and [[culture hero]] against drug abuse. June 3—the day when Lin confiscated the chests of opium—is unofficially celebrated as [[Public holidays in Taiwan#Unofficial holidays|Opium Suppression Movement Day]] in [[Taiwan]], whereas June 26 is recognized as the [[International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking]] in honour of Lin's work.
Monuments to Lin have been constructed in Chinese communities around the world.<ref>[http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_museum/2003-09/24/content_30174.htm Lin Zexu Memorial] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613173704/http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_museum/2003-09/24/content_30174.htm |date=2016-06-13 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.olamacauguide.com/lin-zexu-memorial-museum.html Lin Zexu Memorial Museum | Ola Macau Travel Guide<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326125530/http://olamacauguide.com/lin-zexu-memorial-museum.html/ |date=2016-03-26 }}</ref> A statue of Lin stands in [[Chatham Square]] in [[Chinatown, Manhattan|Chinatown]], New York City, United States. The base of the statue is inscribed with "Pioneer in the war against drugs" in English and Chinese.<ref>David Chen, [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/20/nyregion/chinatown-s-fujianese-get-a-statue.html Chinatown's Fujianese Get a Statue], New York Times, 20 November 1997.</ref><ref>[http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/kimlau-square/monuments/1979 Kimlau Square Monuments - Lin Ze Xu : NYC Parks ]</ref> A wax statue of Lin also appeared in [[Madame Tussauds]] wax museum in London.{{sfn|de Bary|Lufrano|2000|pp=201–204}}

More recently, Lin has appeared as a character in ''[[River of Smoke]]'', the second novel in the [[Ibis trilogy]] by [[Amitav Ghosh]], which takes the Opium Wars as its setting to shed new light on a much-repressed history while offering a contemporary critique of globalisation.<ref>[http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2011/09/river-of-smoke-by-amitav-ghosh.html Long, strange trip: ''River of Smoke'' finds globalization's roots in the Opium Wars]</ref> The novel takes place in 1838–1839, during which time Lin arrived in Canton and tensions escalated between the foreigners and the Chinese officials.

He was also depicted in film, such as in the 1997 movie ''[[The Opium War (film)|The Opium War]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elley |first=Derek |date=1997-06-08 |title=The Opium War |url=https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/the-opium-war-1117432659/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref>

His grandson [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] [[Lin Taizeng]] was an officer in the [[Beiyang Fleet]] and commanded one of China's two modern battleships purchased from Germany in the 1880s, ''[[Chinese ironclad Zhenyuan|Zhenyuan]]'', during the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (1894–1895). He committed suicide with an opium overdose after the ship ran aground and had to be abandoned. 

Lin descendants are living in [[Fuzhou]], [[Fujian]] and surroundings, [[Jieyang]] (Puning), [[Meizhou]], [[Guangdong]] and surroundings, various places in China and United States.<ref>Paine, S.C.M. ''The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perception, Power, and Primacy.'' 2003, [[Cambridge University Press]], Cambridge, MA, p. 204. {{ISBN|0-521-61745-6}}</ref>

Lin is remembered for a couplet he wrote while serving as an imperial envoy in Guangdong:
{{Verse translation|lang=zh|italicsoff=1|
海納百川，
有容乃大。
壁立千仞，
無欲則剛。
|The sea accepts the waters of a hundred rivers,
Its tolerance results in its grandeur.
The cliff towers to a height of a thousand ''ren'',<ref>Roughly 2.5 kilometres. A ''ren'' (仞) is equivalent to 8 ''[[Chi (unit)|chi]]'' (尺), and during the Qing dynasty, a ''chi'' was roughly 32 cm.</ref>
Its lack of desire gives it its resilience.}}

In particular, the first half of the couplet was chosen as the motto for [[Chinese Wikipedia]].