What is the name of opium?
Opium (English opium, Arabic Afyūm), also called opium, commonly known as opium, is derived from the capsule of the poppy plant and contains more than 20 alkaloids, which can be divided into phenanthrenes and isoquinolines. The former such as morphine (content about 10%) and codeine, the latter such as papaverine.
Opium is a primary drug and may be black or brown depending on where it is produced. It has a strong smell, like ammonia or old urine. Generally, after cooking and fermentation, it becomes cooked opium that can be smoked, and is made into strips or cakes. At this time, it is brown or golden, and has a sweet smell when smoked.
The poppy, as a plant considered by archaeologists to be a transcendent symbol of power, was accidentally discovered by people in the Neolithic Age when they were traveling in the mountains on the east coast of the Mediterranean; the cultivation of poppy dates from Beginning in Asia Minor, it took a long time to spread throughout the ancient world. Opium has also been obtained from the poppy plant for over 6,000 years.
The main use is in medical treatment, and it is still used in medicines, such as opium powder, opium tablets, Compound Platycodon powder, Tuoshi powder, Ajie tablets, etc., which are mainly used for antitussives and diarrhea. . The annual import quantity is based on the quantity required by each country and must be filled in at the customs and the pharmaceutical import tax paid. The customs will then agree to the import. Generally speaking, half-cooked opium is imported. The main medical uses are anesthesia and staining.
Chinese name
Opium
Foreign name
opium
Pinyin
yā piàn
Plant
Poppy
Extract
Poppy juice
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History of development
In the Neolithic village ruins excavated in Switzerland in 4000 BC, archaeologists discovered the remains of the seeds and fruits of the "opium poppy", which belonged to Artificially hybridized varieties. By 3400 BC, people had planted this crop on a large scale in the two river basins of what is now Iraq, and gave it the reputation of "happy plant". By at least 2160 BC, opium had become a veterinary and gynecological drug.
In the excavated ancient Egyptian tombs from 1500 BC, "Thebes opium" is already a high-end brand. As late as 300 BC, ancient Greece had used opium as a popular drink. In the Bible and Homer's "The Odyssey," opium is described as a "forgetfulness medicine" and is also used by God. At least as early as the second century BC, the famous ancient Greek doctor Galen recorded the diseases that opium can treat: headache, dizziness, deafness, epilepsy, stroke, amblyopia, bronchitis, asthma, cough, hemoptysis, abdominal pain, jaundice, splenic sclerosis, kidney disease Stones, urinary diseases, fever, edema, leprosy, irregular menstruation, depression, drug resistance, insect bites and other diseases.
Opium was introduced to China when Zhang Qian was on his mission to the Western Regions in 139 BC. During the Three Kingdoms period, Hua Tuo, a famous doctor, used cannabis and opium as anesthetics; in the second year of Emperor Qianfeng of the Tang Dynasty (667 AD), there were records of opium imports. In the Tang Dynasty, Arabic opium was called "Afurong"; in 973 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty printed In "Kaibao Materia Medica", opium is named poppy, and the last "millet" means capsule.
Scenes of Chinese opium smoking in the 19th century
About the 1600s, the Dutch introduced pipes and tobacco leaves from North American Indians to China through Taiwan, and smokers began to appear in China. Its widespread alarmed China's rulers, and Emperor Chongzhen ordered a smoking ban. Because some people once mixed opium with tobacco and smoked it. Unexpectedly, the ban on tobacco led to the proliferation of pure opium smoking. It was not until the mid-18th century that Huang Yupu, an official of the Qing Dynasty, first recorded the specific process of opium smoking in Taiwan. He asserted that there was no way to get rid of opium addicts except by killing them.
The "Da Ming Huidian" [1] records the opium tribute paid by Asian vassal states to the Ming royal family.
It is said that the kings of Siam, Java, and Bangladesh regularly sent tribute missions to China, and among the tributes were opium, but the "Da Ming Huidian" called it "Wuxiang." Siam paid tribute of 200 kilograms to the emperor and 100 kilograms to the queen each time. The amounts of tribute paid by the other two countries are unknown in history. However, this quantity could not meet the needs of the royal family. The emperor also sent eunuchs to search for and purchase opium. At that time, the price of opium was the same as the same weight of gold.
It is said that Emperor Wanli did not go to court for 30 years. He experimented and took elixirs in the palace. His elixirs contained opium. He named the opium "Fushou Gao". His excuse for not going to court was dizziness and vertigo. In fact, the main reason was excessive indulgence and opium addiction. In 1958, after Dingling was excavated, scientists conducted tests on the body of Emperor Wanli and found that his bones contained morphine.
Thomas Sydenham, a 17th-century British doctor and the founder of clinical medicine, sang: "I cannot help but sing loudly to the great God, the maker of all things, who Opium has brought comfort to human suffering, no matter in terms of the number of diseases it can control, or in terms of its efficiency in eliminating diseases, no drug has the value of opium. "Without opium, medicine would not be able to do anything." He's a cripple." This medical master also earned the nickname "Opium Philosopher".
The Qing government in China one hundred to two hundred years ago could not ban opium or restrict its use. However, Western countries vigorously dumped opium into China, reversing the Western world's trade deficit with China (China then produced its own opium ), these opium made many Chinese people become the "sick men of East Asia".
Books from the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century recorded the pain of opium smoking in this way:
When addicted, the person burst into tears, his limbs were too tired to lift, that is, a white blade was thrust in front of him, and a leopard and tiger forced him to After that, he just bowed his head and suffered death, unable to move even a little bit. Therefore, those who have been eating opium for a long time will have hunched shoulders and shrunken necks, and will appear withered and emaciated (léi, second tone) as if they were just starting to get sick. ——Yu Jiao: "Dream Factory Miscellaneous Works"
In the late period of the Japanese occupation, due to the awakening of Taiwanese national consciousness, the resistance to "opium" (that is, opium) gradually became successful, and the number of smokers decreased significantly. Therefore, The revenue from the opium monopoly has also decreased. At that time, the import of Taiwan's opium was monopolized by Mitsui & Co. Due to the decrease in the number of opium users, the Taiwan Governor-General promulgated the "Opium Correction Order" in January 1929 and re-issued user licenses. After the promulgation of this decree, it aroused the anger of knowledgeable people across Taiwan. However, on March 2, 1930, Lien Heng published "On the Praise of the New Opium Policy" (commonly known as "Theory on the Benefit of Opium") in the Japanese official newspaper "Taiwan Daily News", arguing that opium is beneficial, among which The most despicable remarks include: "Taiwanese people take opium because they are hard-working, not lazy. ... Our ancestors were able to work hard to cultivate the land, stay ahead, and make persistent efforts to build the foundation of today. It is not because of opium. Does it work?" After Genghis Khan's cavalry traveled across the Eurasian continent, opium also became an important type of social commodity, but it was only a good medicine.