Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 21

Foreign merchants halt their steps and gaze out across the ocean in hesitation. In the Book of the Later Han, "Biography of Zhang Huan," it is recorded that when Huan was promoted to Commandant of the Dependent State of Anding, the Qiang people—who are by nature greedy yet value integrity in officials—had suffered greatly under the eight previous commandants who were all fond of amassing wealth and goods. When Huan arrived, he maintained a pure and upright character, and his authority and civilizing influence became widely known.

Ban Chao A famous Han Dynasty general and diplomat who secured the Silk Road once said to Ren Shang: "The tribes beyond our borders are difficult to nurture but easy to provoke into rebellion. It is best to be broad-minded and simple, forgiving small faults and focusing only on the general outline."

Now, if one refuses to adopt a simple and broad approach because they are preoccupied with correcting minor faults, yet remains willing to endure the suffering caused by a love of wealth and goods—how is this not an extreme case of "measuring the peak of a building while ignoring its base"? This refers to a metaphor from the philosopher Mencius, criticizing those who lose sight of fundamental priorities (the 'root' or base) by focusing on superficial details (the 'peak' or tip). From this, the gentleman knows that Ban Chao truly understood the root of how to guide profit and sincerely recognized that Zhang Huan’s integrity was the means to pacify the customs of those in distant lands.

Opium Opium: Referred to here by the phonetic transliterations yapian (鴉片) and apian (阿片)., also known as afurong original: 阿芙蓉, a transliteration of the Arabic afyun, later becoming a poetic name meaning "Beauty of the Hibiscus", is produced in the dependencies of England. They plant red poppies with leaves like indigo and pods shaped like eggplants. Each stalk yields only two or three pods. When they are ripe, at night, people use...