How long exactly is "the time it takes to smoke a pipe"?

Jade bowls with icy brew sparkle open, at the banquet the deep cups are already forbidden.

The Feast of the Jade Pool ends, the cloud screens are thrown wide; no mortal smoke or fire is permitted to come.

This ceremonial poem was composed by a man of the Kangxi era, praising the Kangxi Emperor for abstaining from tobacco and alcohol and keeping himself pure. Its background is roughly that when Kangxi toured the south and passed through Dezhou, quite a few of the accompanying ministers were heavy smokers. In the emperor's presence they naturally could not puff away, so in private they scurried off in droves to sneak a smoke, which displeased Kangxi. According to the legal code of the Great Qing...

Smoking was strictly forbidden within the Forbidden City and at important places such as warehouses and altars and temples; violators were punished with dismissal, wearing the cangue, flogging, or exile, and the officials in charge were also fined part of their salary. But on the southern tour, the smoking ban could not reach them; though Kangxi was angry, he had no choice but to settle it with a reprimand.

In fact, Kangxi had not always abstained from smoking. The Maxims of the Court records that as a child in his foster mother's home, Kangxi "was quite fond of smoking"; but once he became emperor, he naturally had to lead by example, and so he quit. Before ascending the throne at age 8, Kangxi lived outside the Forbidden City to avoid a smallpox epidemic in the palace. This shows that before the age of 8, Kangxi had already come into contact with...tobaccoand may already have been addicted; fortunately, neither smallpox nor nicotine managed to defeat him.

Tobacco (N. tabacum). Image: Joachim Müllerchen / wikimedia

From the New World

The genus Nicotiana, or tobacco, contains more than 60 species of plants, native to the Americas, Australia, the South Pacific, and southwestern Africa. Of these, the most widely used by humans are N. tabacum and N. rustica, both from the Americas.

Plants in the nightshade family generally contain nicotine, a self-protective alkaloid that is highly toxic to most insects.Nicotiana plants have a relatively high nicotine content, which stimulates the human central nervous system and is strongly addictive.

The tobacco flower is pink. Image: Orchi / wikimedia

In Mexico, the native home of N. rustica, the use of tobacco can be traced back to 1400 BCE.Indigenous peoples began smoking tobacco leaves very early on, and even used it as currency.After European explorers discovered the American continent, this plant quickly drew the attention of the Spanish colonizers.

Tobacco fruit. Image: H. Zell / wikimedia

The English name for tobacco, tabacco, comes from the Spanish tabaco, and the words cigar and cigarette are said to derive from the Mayan word "Sikar." Yet there is another account: in 1559, the Spanish chronicler Hernández de Boncalo, on the orders of King Philip II, brought tobacco back to Spain, which was also the first time tobacco came to the Old World.

A picture of Europeans smoking. Image: Anthony Chute / wikimedia

This batch of tobacco was grown in an area called Los Cigarrales on the outskirts of Toledo. The place name comes from the Spanish word for cicada (cigarras), because this area had an especially large number of cicadas whose calls were especially annoying; from then on, Spaniards also called tabaco cigarras.

This second account is rather amusing and fits the character of tobacco: smokers are as annoying as chirping cicadas. But when it comes to harm, tobacco is far greater than the cicada.

N. rustica in full bloom. Image: Wowbobwow12 / wikimedia

In 1565, Spain occupied Luzon (present-day Philippines) and incidentally brought American tobacco there as well. Coincidentally, the soil of the Philippines was very well suited to growing tobacco.

Around the late Wanli era of the Ming dynasty, merchants traveling between Luzon and Fujian, Taiwan, and other places brought tobacco into China. At the time, based on the Spanish name for tobacco, people transliterated it as danbagu, danrouguo, danbugui, and so on; some also called it jinsi xun (golden-thread incense) after its form.

One pipe, many uses

People always accept addictive substances the fastest. Within a few decades of tobacco's introduction, it was planted throughout southern China and became one of the necessities of daily life. By the late Chongzhen era, it was even said that "it is planted everywhere; even a child of three feet knows how to smoke, and customs have suddenly changed."

Peoples around the world all developed tubular smoking tools of different sizes, appearances, and materials, such as the ceremonial pipe first used by Indigenous peoples, the large pipes of Europe and America, the Chinese dry-tobacco pipe, the Japanese "Kiseru," and so on. Based on these smoking implements, people also created many classic literary or film characters.

True fans can recognize who this is even from a silhouette. Image: edupics.com

In fact, besides smoking, the tobacco pipe had other clever uses in ancient times. In China, the most famous "pipe smoker" was none other than Ji Xiaolan. In Rushi Wo Wen, he recorded a doctor named Hu Guanshan, who as a young man was a spy for Wu Sangui and who remained nimble even in old age. One night on a boat he encountered robbers; this Doctor Hu used his pipe as a weapon and instantly knocked down seven or eight men. Yet it was not real kung fu, but rather turning the pipe around and jabbing the mouthpiece into their nostrils.

Teacher Zhang Guoli's portrayal of Ji Xiaolan is truly deeply ingrained in people's minds. Image: still from the TV series Iron Teeth and Copper Teeth Ji Xiaolan

There is a phrase describing time called "the time it takes to smoke a pipe" In fact, this length of time is hard to determine, because smoking customs differ from place to place, and the smoking implements and tobacco used are also different. Generally speaking, it is probably shorter than "a cup of tea" or "a stick of incense."

In the Qing dynasty work Yuji Man Chao by Lei Lin, it is recorded that a man named Han Xiaotong could "finish a poem as soon as he finished smoking." When others set him a topic and asked him to compose a poem, he would light his tobacco, and by the time he finished one pipe the poem was done. The tobacco of the time was yellow tobacco; one pipe held only enough for two or three puffs, probably about a minute's time.

The road to banning tobacco in the Ming and Qing dynasties

The popularity of tobacco in the late Chongzhen era brought tobacco farmers high profits, and tobacco cultivation expanded further, which seriously affected the output of staple crops and cash crops. At the time, wars were frequent in the north and the Central Plains, requiring large amounts of military pay, so in the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643) a tobacco ban was issued, with imprisonment for those who planted it privately.

A scene of Ming dynasty commoners drying tobacco leaves. Image: eastday.com

But compared with the profits from tobacco, this punishment was still too light, and southern tobacco farmers had no intention of obeying it. Enraged, Chongzhen changed imprisonment to the death penalty. This time the tobacco farmers behaved, but most of the soldiers fighting the Later Jin in Liaodong had already become addicted, and they protested that smoking could "cure cold ailments"; without tobacco, how could they fight? Thus Chongzhen's anti-tobacco campaign fizzled out.

Like Chongzhen, the Later Jin government and the early Qing government likewise found themselves unable to enforce a tobacco ban. Hong Taiji laid down prohibitions against smoking and tobacco cultivation, but tobacco was simply too popular,fromprinces and ministers above to the poor common people below, smoking became an irreversible social custom. The enforcement of the tobacco ban could only turn a blind eye.

A Qing dynasty bronze tobacco flask. Image: liveauctioneers.com

The emperor's attitude also influenced a group of heavy smokers within the Forbidden City. During the Kangxi period, ministers still did not dare to smoke inside the palace; even outside they had to hide away to smoke in secret.By the Yongzheng period, the tobacco ban was not strict, and was often mainly a matter of persuasion, so one could often see ministers, guards, eunuchs, and others smoking brazenly inside and outside the Qianqing Gate, yet no one stopped them.

In the second year of Qianlong, a great debate arose at court over banning tobacco and alcohol. One faction, considering the national economy, held that growing tobacco occupied farmland, consumed labor, and hindered normal agricultural production, and strongly demanded a tobacco ban; another faction held that banning tobacco would ruin common people, who would then break the law, destabilizing public sentiment. This debate naturally tipped to one side,"those who said it should not be banned were seven or eight out of ten". Qianlong himself also did not take a stance, saying only, "I shall weigh it myself."

The Putuo Zongcheng Temple in Chengde, Hebei, was originally built by imperial order for Qianlong to celebrate his own 60th birthday and the Empress Dowager's 80th birthday. In the 36th year of Qianlong (1771) a great fire broke out there, later found to have been caused by artisans smoking. Image: Gisling / wikimedia

In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), someone submitted a memorial advocating a strict ban on smoking, converting tobacco fields to grain fields, and punishing violators. As a result, he was first rebutted by the Grand Council and then scolded by Jiaqing, who said he spoke recklessly about state affairs, wanted to disrupt the old regulations, and sought to suppress the common people with harsh laws and severe punishments. In the end the man was handed over to the Ministry of Justice and sent back to his native place. After this case, the court's attitude toward tobacco was settled, and no one dared to publicly express an anti-tobacco stance again.As for after Jiaqing, opium began to spread, and no one bothered with the tobacco issue anymore.

No mortal smoke or fire is permitted to come

In fact, many people disliked tobacco not out of concern for the national economy or people's livelihood, but because they were naturally disgusted by its smell and its harm to the body.

The Tobacco Manual records a man named Wang Youtang who never smoked his whole life, saying: "Orchids and thoroughworts are supremely fragrant, but with smoke, orchids and thoroughworts are not fragrant, for it steals their fragrance; excrement and urine are the foulest, but with smoke, excrement and urine are not foul, for it is fouler than excrement and urine. Why, then, would one use it to cleanse the intestines and bowels and store that stinking weed?" The scolding is very coarse, yet rich in profound philosophy.

A tobacco field in Dali, Yunnan. Image: caixinglobal.com

Some say smoking is freedom, is a right, but this is freedom at the cost of harming others. Because ofsecondhand smokeand thirdhand smoke, there is no smoker in this world who is innocent, unless every time he smokes he enters a fully sealed room of his own, and after smoking thoroughly washes his body and hair and changes all his clothes; only thus can the harm to others be minimized.

Perhaps many aspects of your life are influenced by tobacco in different ways. The picture shows dried tobacco leaves. Image: H. Zell / wikimedia

Some say today's cigarettes are not as "fierce" as before. Yet in fact,low-tar cigarettes are not safer; their theoretical tar values cannot reflect the actual situation of the harmful substances a smoker inhales. No matter which process a low-tar cigarette is based on, it is merely a marketing strategy that misleads consumers. As a former R&D staff member who once participated in the development of low-tar cigarettes, I am especially familiar with this kind of marketing copywriting.If you want to completely end tobacco's harm to yourself and those around you, the only way is to quit smoking entirely.

Smoking harms more than your own health. Image: vemale.com

Stephen King's short story "Quitters, Inc." describes a company that helps clients quit smoking. The terrifying thing about this company is that once a contract is signed, the company monitors the client for life; if it finds the client smoking, or gaining weight after quitting, the company seizes the client's family members and subjects them to cruel physical abuse.

98% of clients successfully quit smoking this way. What about the remaining 2%? They simply had to be killed, since dead people can't smoke, after all. This company is as cruel and merciless as a demon,but what is the real demon? The answer is self-evident.

The ceremonial poem at the beginning, though a work of praise and flattery, has the line "no mortal smoke or fire is permitted to come," which especially fits the meaning of today's "World No Tobacco Day." Tobacco has been spreading across the world for more than 500 years; who knows whether in the next 500 years humanity can hope to control this demon and truly achieve "no mortal smoke or fire is permitted to come."

This article is the 151st article of the 4th year of Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Shuangtian'e.

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