Nowadays, everyone knows the harm of opium, it will completely destroy a person's health and spirit, but at the end of the Qing Dynasty, smoking opium was a "fashion", a symbol of status, the last empress Wanrong's family smoked opium, and therefore heard that they were contaminated with opium, and eventually became a person who is not a ghost or a ghost, and does not know where to bury after death.
Opium is actually not only appeared in modern times, as early as the Western Han Dynasty traveler Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions, opium has been introduced to China, and later the famous doctor Hua Tuo of the Three Kingdoms also used marijuana and opium as an anesthetic, developed to the Ming Dynasty, the "Daming Huidian" recorded the original Asian vassal states to the Ming Dynasty royal family tribute to opium, when opium was called "wuxiang".
In addition, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch brought North American Indian pipes and tobacco leaves into China, and these things were very popular in China, and the number of people who swallowed clouds and vomited fog grew rapidly, which caused panic among the Chongzhen Emperor, so he ordered a ban on smoking, after which people turned to pure opium.
During the Qing Dynasty, opium was seized during the Yongzheng period, so the reputation of opium was not very widespread in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, but in the later period of Qianlong's reign, corrupt officials and corrupt officials could not be cleaned up, and the phenomenon of opium smuggling had also emerged.
In the mid-18th century, the Qing dynasty official Huang Yupu recorded for the first time the whole process of a person's opium smoking, and asserted that he could not get rid of bad habits except to kill the opium addict. The Western colonialists, on the other hand, intended to encroach on our country and dumped a large amount of opium into our country.
For a time, whether it is an official or a commoner; whether it is a man or a woman, they all smoke opium, according to incomplete statistics, when the Opium War broke out, about 10% of the people in our country smoked opium, so let's take a look at the real old photos of the opium house in the late Qing Dynasty: men are as thin as wood, women are dressed in fashion, and let others ravage.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yu Jiao, a Shanyin man, described the pain of opium consumption in the "Dream Factory Miscellaneous Works": "Addiction is so much that its people are in tears, and their hands and siblings cannot be lifted, that is, the white blade is added to the front, the leopard and tiger are forced to be behind, and they only bow their heads and die, and they cannot exercise a little." Therefore, those who have been eating opium for a long time have their shoulders shrugged and shrunken, and their colors were withered and dying, if the sick man first rose. ”
The initial feeling of smoking opium is like the first breath of smoke smoked by people who have never smoked, which is not a very good experience, but under the influence of social atmosphere and people around them, there are more people who smoke opium, and the state after that is like "addicts", even if they are sober when they understand that opium is not a good thing, but once the "addiction" is committed, they only think about opium in their minds, and men and women do their best in order to obtain opium.
Compared with men, women's suffering is even worse, after getting opium, it is easy to be used by people with bad intentions, and more serious ones are reduced to money-making tools; if the "addiction" is suddenly committed, convulsions and falls on the street, it is likely to be picked up by beggars, and the fate can be imagined.
Opium has brought a bad impact on the whole society, men are so skinny, have no strength, all day long for opium, women are completely degenerate because of opium, the Qing government also had to order a ban on smoking, but with little effect, even if the smoke house is closed, burn opium, because when opium is burned, the juice will flow into the soil, and addicts who have lost the source of opium will eat the soil.
Therefore, Lin Zexu Also took this phenomenon into account when selling cigarettes, completely burning opium, which lasted 23 days, destroying 19187 boxes and 2119 bags of opium, with a total weight of 2376254 kilograms, and this anti-smoking campaign greatly increased people's understanding of the harm of opium in the late Qing Dynasty.