Jin-qua


Jin-Qua is a character in James Clavell's novel Tai-Pan. His full Chinese name is Chen-tse Jin Arn. Jin-Qua was a Cohong who possessed a monopoly on all the foreign trade in China during the early 19th century era of the Canton System.
With the arrival of the British merchants and the establishment of Hong Kong, he began cultivating a relationship with Dirk Struan, the Tai-pan of the Noble House, the chief trading company in Hong Kong. He arranged for two of his own descendants to become Struan's mistresses.
The first, Kai-sung, was Jin-Qua's daughter. She was the mother by Dirk Struan of Gordon Chen.
The second was T'Chung Jin May-may, Jin-Qua's granddaughter. She was secretly assigned the task of teaching Struan "civilized" ways.
In 1841, Struan & Company was on the brink of ruin, about to be destroyed by rival Tyler Brock. In desperation, Dirk Struan turned to Jin-Qua, who lent him one million sterling in specie. Six hundred thousand of the million cleared out the Cohong's debt to Struan's. In return, Struan agreed that a member of the Chen family would forever be compradore of the Noble House, the first being Gordon Chen.
Additionally, four bronze coins were split in half with Dirk Struan given one half of each coin. Struan agreed that whenever anyone presented the Tai-pan with the other half-coin, the Tai-pan would be obliged to grant that person one favor, whether legal or illegal. Furthermore, this obligation was handed down to all successive tai-pans.
Of the four coins, one was kept by Jin-Qua, one given to the warlord Wu Fang Choi, one given to Gordon Chen, and one given out in secret.
The character's biography has similarities with the historical merchant Howqua.