First of all, he saw the harm of opium to China, so the destruction of opium in Humen shocked China and foreign countries.
Because Daoguang Emperor valued Lin Zexu very much, he sent him to Guangzhou to inspect opium. Lin Zexu saw the poison of opium to the people of China, and felt that if opium was not banned, the Chinese nation would be in danger. So he secretly arrested cigarette dealers in Guangzhou, forcibly seized a large number of foreign opium, and destroyed it all in Humentan. Smoking ban in Humen is a great victory in the struggle against smoking in China's modern history. Lin Zexu is a well-deserved national hero.
The second is to translate western works and guide the Qing dynasty to learn western technology and improve weapons.
In order to let more people know about the West like him, Lin Zexu set up a translation library to translate some western works he saw into something that the Han people could understand, such as The Annals of Four Continents, which recorded the geographical history and political situation of many countries in detail, and was the first translated world geography work in China's modern history. He also studied and reformed weapons, redesigned the style of the gun car and overcame the shortcomings of the old gun car.
Third, in the imperial court, he was a reformist and advocated introducing the western strategy of governing the country.
Lin Zexu was a reformist in the Qing court. He advocates innovation and change. He suggested learning from foreigners to control them. He thinks the government should introduce advanced western strategies for governing the country. Only in this way can the Qing dynasty be more in line with the west in the process of reform.
It is such a national hero that it has no good end in the end. Because he was an anti-graft, a hawk and a thorn in the side of the British, the Qing Dynasty finally sent him to the frontier under the pressure of the British. But on the whole, when many people in China were awake, Lin Zexu had seen farther and became the first person to open his eyes to the world in a real sense.