Humen Opium Destruction
E579840
Humen Opium Destruction refers to the 1839 event in which Chinese official Lin Zexu ordered and carried out the large-scale confiscation and destruction of foreign opium at Humen, an act that helped trigger the First Opium War between China and Britain.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Destruction of opium at Humen | 1 |
| Humen Opium Destruction canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6263147 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Humen Opium Destruction Context triple: [Humen, knownFor, Humen Opium Destruction]
-
A.
Huế Massacre
The Huế Massacre was a mass killing of thousands of civilians and prisoners by communist forces during their occupation of the city of Huế in the 1968 Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War.
-
B.
Chinese reoccupation of Guangzhou
The Chinese reoccupation of Guangzhou was the 1945 restoration of Chinese control over the city following the end of Japanese rule in World War II.
-
C.
Chinese Nationalist reoccupation of Shanghai
The Chinese Nationalist reoccupation of Shanghai was the post–World War II return of Kuomintang government forces to reclaim and administer Shanghai after the end of Japanese control.
-
D.
British concession in Canton
The British concession in Canton was a foreign-controlled enclave in Guangzhou, China, established in the 19th century as part of the treaty port system that facilitated British trade and extraterritorial rights.
-
E.
Shanghai massacre of 1927
The Shanghai massacre of 1927 was a violent purge in which Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces brutally suppressed and killed thousands of Communists and labor activists in Shanghai, decisively rupturing the First United Front and escalating the Chinese Civil War.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Humen Opium Destruction Target entity description: Humen Opium Destruction refers to the 1839 event in which Chinese official Lin Zexu ordered and carried out the large-scale confiscation and destruction of foreign opium at Humen, an act that helped trigger the First Opium War between China and Britain.
-
A.
Huế Massacre
The Huế Massacre was a mass killing of thousands of civilians and prisoners by communist forces during their occupation of the city of Huế in the 1968 Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War.
-
B.
Chinese reoccupation of Guangzhou
The Chinese reoccupation of Guangzhou was the 1945 restoration of Chinese control over the city following the end of Japanese rule in World War II.
-
C.
Chinese Nationalist reoccupation of Shanghai
The Chinese Nationalist reoccupation of Shanghai was the post–World War II return of Kuomintang government forces to reclaim and administer Shanghai after the end of Japanese control.
-
D.
British concession in Canton
The British concession in Canton was a foreign-controlled enclave in Guangzhou, China, established in the 19th century as part of the treaty port system that facilitated British trade and extraterritorial rights.
-
E.
Shanghai massacre of 1927
The Shanghai massacre of 1927 was a violent purge in which Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces brutally suppressed and killed thousands of Communists and labor activists in Shanghai, decisively rupturing the First United Front and escalating the Chinese Civil War.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
anti-opium campaign
ⓘ
historical event ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Destruction of opium at Humen
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Humen Opium Destruction Incident NERFINISHED ⓘ Taku Opium Destruction NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| authority | Lin Zexu NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| commemoratedBy |
Humen Opium War Museum
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
monuments at Humen ⓘ |
| confiscatedFrom |
British opium traders at Guangzhou
ⓘ
foreign merchants in Canton ⓘ |
| coordinateLocation | 22.82°N 113.67°E ⓘ |
| country | Qing Empire NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| describedBySource |
British diplomatic correspondence of 1839
ⓘ
Lin Zexu’s memorials to the throne ⓘ |
| followedBy | First Opium War NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre | event in 19th-century Chinese history ⓘ |
| hasCause |
Lin Zexu’s anti-opium policy
ⓘ
Qing imperial ban on opium ⓘ illegal importation of opium into China by foreign merchants ⓘ |
| hasEffect |
deployment of British naval forces to China
ⓘ
escalation of tensions between Qing China and Britain ⓘ immediate British diplomatic protests ⓘ outbreak of the First Opium War in 1839 ⓘ strengthening of Chinese anti-opium sentiment ⓘ symbolic beginning of China’s modern national humiliation narrative ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
iconic event in Chinese anti-drug history
ⓘ
key trigger for the First Opium War ⓘ major turning point in Sino-British relations ⓘ |
| legalBasis | imperial edicts of the Daoguang Emperor banning opium ⓘ |
| location |
China
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Guangdong NERFINISHED ⓘ Humen NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
First Opium War
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
opium trade ⓘ |
| method |
dissolving opium in trenches with lime and salt water
ⓘ
flushing dissolved opium into the sea ⓘ |
| opponent |
British opium traders
ⓘ
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| participant |
British East India Company-affiliated traders
ⓘ
British merchants ⓘ Chinese coastal defense forces ⓘ Qing government NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| partOf | Qing dynasty anti-opium enforcement campaign ⓘ |
| pointInTime |
1839
ⓘ
June 1839 ⓘ |
| quantityDestroyed |
approximately 1,000–1,200 tons of opium
ⓘ
over 20,000 chests of opium ⓘ |
| significantPerson |
Charles Elliot
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Daoguang Emperor NERFINISHED ⓘ Lin Zexu NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Humen Opium Destruction Description of subject: Humen Opium Destruction refers to the 1839 event in which Chinese official Lin Zexu ordered and carried out the large-scale confiscation and destruction of foreign opium at Humen, an act that helped trigger the First Opium War between China and Britain.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.