the Economic Products of India.
13
and Opium-smoking.
PAPAVER
somniferum.
HISTORY :
Chinese.
Introduction
of Tobacco
into China :
1620 A.D.
1620 A.D.
MANCHU
DYNASTY.
(17th cen-
tury,.
Predisposi-
tion of
Chinese to
Narcotism.
Introduction
of Opium-
smoking
(18th cen-
tury).
Appeared in
Formosa and
Amoy.
Assam.
the sketch written by Dr. F. Porter Smith (Mat. Med. & Natural History
of China, pp. 162-164) and with the learned discoveries made known
from time to time by Dr. Bretschneider—the indefatigable student of
Chinese classic literature. Dr. Edkins, in the further pages of his admir-
able paper, deals with the growth of the indulgence of opium-smoking To-
wards the end of the Ming dynasty, he says, the legitimate practice of tak-
ing opium medicinally was destined to soon change for the habit of smoking
it. This new phase of the opium question was intimately associated with
the introduction of tobacco-smoking. Tobacco was introduced into China
from the Philippine Islands. On these Islands the Spaniards had settled,
and being in intimate relations with America, they conveyed the tobacco
plant to the Philippines : from these Islands it soon after crossed to Amoy,
being conveyed there by Fuhkien sailors trading with Manila.
It thus reached China about 162o A.D., just at the time King
James I. published his Counterblast to Tobacco. Dr. Edkins remarks that
though tobacco-smoking was prohibited by the last Ming Emperor, the
habit rapidly spread, and in the provinces of China various substances
were mixed with it in the preparation of smoking-mixtures. Amongst
these were opium and arsenic. The first of the Manchu Emperors in 1641
accused his nobility of neglecting to set the soldiery and populace a good
example, instead of leading them into the vicious practice of tobacco-smok-
ing. But the edicts against tobacco were just as ineffectual as were those
framed in far more stringent terms against opium-smoking. " The immense
popularity of tobacco-smoking was an indication of the readiness of the
Chinese nation to adopt the use of narcotics. The same thing which took
place in the nineteenth century with opium-smoking occurred in the seven-
teenth century with tobacco-smoking. The Confucian mind was shocked,
the sense of propriety was wounded ; but this did not prevent the rapid
spread of both of these modes of indulgence in all circles. Prohibitory edicts
were issued in vain by Emperors animated by paternal affection for their
people. Tobacco was a less evil than they supposed ; opium-smoking
was a far greater evil than they feared. In both cases the Emperor was
powerless. The Emperor Ch'êng Tsung, as we should call him, but who
is better known as Tao Kuang, is much to be respected for his strong
moral convictions on the subject of opium. He made really great efforts
to cope with this evil, but it was in vain. The fondness of the people for
inhaling a narcotic was too strong for him to overcome. He failed utterly
in the attempt to put down opium-smoking even in the city of Peking."
" The habit of tobacco-smoking became national, and went on extending
itself for a century, till soon after the close of the long reign of Kang Hsi
the attention of the Government was drawn to opium-smoking as a new vice
in Formosa and at Amoy." The first edict against opium-smoking was
issued about 1729, and by 1746 the practice had become firmly established
in Formosa. Several writers about that period mention that this form of
indulgence came from Java. It thus took its birth in the country where
tobacco-smoking had been indulged in for the longest time. Dr. Bret--
schneider (in a letter to M. DeOandolle) says that according to Don
Sinibaldo di Mas, the Chinese took the practice of opium-smoking from
the people of Assam " where the custom had long existed." This is very
probably a mistake ; at all events, there is no sufficient grounds for suppos--
ing that the people of India anywhere smoked opium prior to the Chinese,
and it seems much more natural to suppose that it came to China from the
same source as the earlier indulgence—tobacco-smoking.
Dr. Edkins, who has been placed under contribution for the chief
facts given above, regarding China, turns from the ancient writings of
that country to the journal of the great Westphalian traveller Kampfer.