Wei Yuan and China took several important lessons from the First Opium War:

China lacked the tactical and technical knowledge to compete with Western militaries.

China’s diplomatic skills and understanding of international relations trailed far behind the West’s.

China needed to get better at “using the barbarians to manage the barbarians,” or yiyizhiyi (以夷治夷). China could have turned to the Americans or French for support during the war, as both nations might have supported China against the British, but Chinese officials lacked the required understanding of international politics.

These perceived failures, and the inability of Chinese leaders to recognize them, sent Wei into a frenzy of research and writing.

Rising British opium sales to China