How long does it take to have a bag of cigarettes?

The ice cream of Bishi opened, and the feast had already given up the deep cup.

After the Yaochi banquet, the cloud screen is open, and human fireworks are not allowed to come.

This poem, written by people during the Kangxi period, praises Emperor Kangxi for not being close to tobacco and alcohol and being clean. Its background is about Kangxi's southern tour through Texas, and there are quite a lot of cigarettes and guns among the accompanying ministers, who naturally cannot smoke in front of the emperor, and secretly swarm into hiding, causing Kangxi's displeasure to follow the law of the Qing Dynasty.

Smoking is strictly prohibited in the Forbidden City, warehouses, temples and other important places, and violators are punished by dismissal, flail, flogging, exile, etc., and the person in charge is also fined. But on the way to the south, the smoking ban was out of control, and although Kangxi was angry, he had only a reprimand.

As a matter of fact, Kangxi never smoked. The motto of court training recorded that Kangxi was "quite good at eating cigarettes" in his adoptive mother's house when he was young, but since he became emperor, he naturally had to set an example, so he gave up smoking. Before he ascended the throne at the age of 8, Kangxi lived outside the Forbidden City to avoid the epidemic of court smallpox. It can be seen that Kangxi was exposed to tobacco before the age of 8, and may have been addicted to tobacco, but fortunately smallpox and nicotine failed to defeat him.

Tobacco (N.tabacum) Picture: Joachim M ü llerchen / wikimedia

Since the New World

Tobacco genus Nicotiana contains more than 60 species of plants, which are native to America, Australia, South Pacific and southwest Africa, among which tobacco N. tabacum and N. rustica are the most widely used by humans.

Solanaceae plants generally contain nicotine (nicotine), a self-protective alkaloid that is highly toxic to most insects. Tobacco has a high content of nicotine, which can excite the central nervous system of human beings, and has a strong addiction.

The flowers of tobacco are pink. Picture: Orchi / wikimedia

In Mexico, the country of origin of yellow tobacco, the use of tobacco can be traced back to 1400 BC. The Indians began to smoke tobacco early and even used it as money. When European explorers discovered the American continent, the plant quickly attracted the attention of Spanish colonists.

Tobacco fruit. Photo: H. Zell / wikimedia

The English name tabacco of tobacco comes from the Spanish tabaco, while today's cigar cigar and cigarette cigarette are said to come from the Mayan language "Sikar". However, there is another saying that in 1559, Hern á ndez de Boncalo, the Spanish chronicler, was ordered by King Philip II to bring tobacco back to Spain, which was also the first time tobacco came to the Old World.

Pictures of Europeans smoking. Picture: Anthony Chute / wikimedia

The tobacco is grown in an area called Los Cigarrales on the outskirts of Toledo. The place name comes from the Spanish cicada (cigarras). Because there are so many cicadas in this area, it is so annoying that the Spaniards have since called tabaco cigarras.

This second statement is interesting and consistent with the characteristics of tobacco. Smokers are as annoying as singing cicadas. But when it comes to harm, tobacco is much bigger than cicadas.

Tobacco (N. rustica) in full bloom. Picture: Wowbobwow12 / wikimedia

In 1565, Spain occupied Luzon (present-day Philippines) and brought American tobacco with it. Coincidentally, the land in the Philippines is very suitable for growing tobacco.

Around the end of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, businessmen from Luzon, Fujian, Taiwan and other places brought tobacco into China. At that time, according to the Spanish name of tobacco, it was transliterated as Zizania latifolia, light meat fruit, Dan not to return, and so on, and some people called it Jin Sixun in its form.

Multi-purpose with one stroke

For addiction, people always accept it the quickest. Tobacco has been planted all over southern China in the decades after it was introduced, and has become one of the necessities of people's daily life. At the end of Chongzhen, there were even "planted everywhere, although a three-foot boy, did not eat tobacco, customs suddenly changed."

People all over the world have developed tubular smoking tools of different sizes, appearance and materials, such as ceremonial pipes (ceremonial pipe) used by the earliest Indians, large pipes from Europe and the United States, dry tobacco stems from China, "Kiseru" from Japan, and so on. Based on these smoking sets, people have created many classic images of literary or film and television characters.

Real fans, even silhouettes, can recognize who this is. Picture: edupics.com

In fact, besides smoking, cigarette sticks had other wonderful uses in ancient times. In China, the most famous smoker is Ji Xiaolan. In "so I hear", he recorded a doctor named Hu Guanshan, who was a spy for Wu Sangui when he was young and was still nimble when he was old. When he met a thief on a boat at night, Dr. Hu used a cigarette pipe as a weapon and instantly knocked down seven or eight people, but instead of playing real kung fu, he turned the pipe upside down and stabbed his nose with a cigarette holder.

Ji Xiaolan, played by teacher Zhang Guolan, is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Picture: stills of "Iron Tooth Copper Tooth Ji Xiaolan"

There is a word to describe time called "kung fu of a bag of cigarettes". In fact, this time is difficult to judge, because the smoking customs are different in different places, and the smoking tools and tobacco used are not the same. Generally speaking, the time is probably shorter than that of "a cup of tea" or "a cup of fragrance".

In Lei Lin's Yuji banknote in the Qing Dynasty, it was recorded that a man named Han Xiaotong could finish a poem after smoking. When others asked him to write a poem, he lit a cigarette and finished the poem after smoking a tube. At that time, the tobacco was yellow smoke, and one tube was only enough to smoke two or three mouthfuls, about a minute.

The Road of banning smoking in Ming and Qing dynasties

The tobacco epidemic in the last years of Chongzhen brought high profits to tobacco farmers, and tobacco cultivation was further expanded, which seriously affected the yield of major crops and cash crops. At that time, there were frequent wars in the north and the Central Plains, which required a lot of military pay, so the smoking ban was imposed in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1643), and those who were privately planted were imprisoned.

The picture of people drying tobacco leaves in the Ming Dynasty. Picture: eastday.com

However, this penalty is too light compared with the profits of tobacco, and the southern tobacco farmers do not intend to implement it. In a fit of anger, Chongzhen changed his prison sentence to death. Now the tobacco farmers are well-behaved, but most of the soldiers who fought with Hou Jin in Liaodong have become addicted, protesting that smoking can "cure cold diseases" and how to fight without cigarettes. As a result, Chongzhen's anti-smoking campaign aborted.

Like Chongzhen, the Houjin government and the early Qing government also encountered the situation that the smoking ban could not be implemented. Huang Taiji imposed a ban on smoking and tobacco cultivation, but tobacco was so popular that smoking became an irreversible social atmosphere from princes and ministers to slum people. The enforcement of the tobacco ban can only turn a blind eye.

Copper cigarette bottles in the Qing Dynasty. Picture: liveauctioneers.com

The emperor's attitude also affected a group of old smokers in the Forbidden City. During the reign of Kangxi, ministers dared not smoke in the palace, so they had to hide and smoke even outside. When it came to Yongzheng, smoking was not strictly banned, often giving priority to persuasion, so we can often see ministers, guards, eunuchs and so on smoking unscrupulously inside and outside Qianqing door, but no one stopped it.

In the second year of Emperor Qianlong, there was a large-scale debate on banning smoking and alcohol. One school, considering the national economy, thought that growing tobacco occupied arable land, consumed labor, hindered normal agricultural production, and strongly demanded a ban on smoking. The other school thought that banning smoking would lead to the bankruptcy of the people, then break the law, and the hearts and minds of the people were unstable. This debate is naturally one-sided, saying that seven out of ten should not be banned. Qianlong himself did not declare his position, but only said, "I have my own discretion."

Putuo Zongsheng Temple, located in Chengde, Hebei Province, was originally built to celebrate Qianlong's 60th birthday and the 80th birthday of the Empress Dowager. A fire broke out in the 36 year of Qianlong (1771), which was later found to be caused by craftsmen smoking. Picture: Gisling / wikimedia

In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), some people advocated that smoking should be strictly prohibited, and the fields where tobacco was planted were changed to grow grains, and violators were punished. As a result, he was refuted by the military aircraft first, and then scolded by Jiaqing, saying that he spoke falsely about national politics, wanted to change the old rules, and suppressed the common people with severe punishment. In the end, the man was taken back to his place of origin by the torture department. As a result of this case, the court's attitude towards tobacco has been determined, and no one dares to publicly express its anti-smoking attitude. After Jiaqing, opium became popular, and no one cared about tobacco any more.

No fireworks in the world.

In fact, many people hate tobacco not because of the national economy and people's livelihood, but because they naturally hate its smell and harm to the body.

The Tobacco Spectrum records that a man named Wang Youtang did not smoke all his life. He said, "Lanhui is fragrant. If there is smoke, but Lanhui is not fragrant, it takes away its fragrance. Shit is the most smelly, and it smells better than shit." How can you clean the intestines and hide the stinky grass? " The scolding is very rough and profound in philosophy.

Tobacco fields in Dali, Yunnan. Picture: caixinglobal.com

Some people say that smoking is freedom and power, but it is freedom at the cost of hurting others. Because of the existence of secondhand and third-hand smoke, no smoker in the world is innocent, unless every time he smokes, he has to enter a completely sealed room that belongs to him, wash his hair thoroughly and change his clothes after smoking. Only in this way can the harm to others be minimized.

Maybe many aspects of your life are affected by tobacco in different ways. The picture shows sun-dried tobacco. Photo: H. Zell / wikimedia

Some people say that today's cigarettes are no more ferocious than they used to be. However, in fact, low-tar cigarettes are not safer, and their theoretical tar values do not reflect the actual situation of smokers inhaling harmful substances. Low-tar cigarettes, no matter which process they are based on, are just a misleading marketing strategy. As a former R & D staff involved in the research and development of low-tar cigarettes, I am particularly familiar with the copywriting planning of this kind of marketing. If you want to completely cut off the harm of tobacco to yourself and the people around you, the only way is to give up smoking completely.

Smoking is not only harmful to your health. Picture: vemale.com

Stephen King's short story "smoking cessation Company" describes a company that helps customers quit smoking. the scary thing about this company is that once signed, the company will monitor customers for life, and if they find that they smoke or gain weight after quitting smoking, the company will arrest the customer's family and inflict cruel physical abuse.

98% of customers successfully quit smoking in this way. What about the remaining 2%? We have no choice but to kill it. after all, the dead can't smoke. This company is as ruthless as the devil, but what is the real devil? The answer is self-evident.

Although the poem that should be written at the beginning is a tribute to merit, the sentence "No fireworks in the world" is especially in line with the meaning of today's "World No Tobacco Day". Tobacco has been in the world for more than 500 years. I don't know whether mankind can control this demon in the next 500 years and really realize "no fireworks on earth".

This is the 151st article in the fourth year of the species calendar, from @ Frost Moth, the author of the species calendar.

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Solanaceae pepper