The history of Opium in China begins in the mid-Ming dynasty, when as a tribute from vassal states, it was initially used as an aphrodisiac in the Ming court. The Chinese then began to collectively redefine the foreign recreational resource's usage and created a complex culture around its comsumption. This book traces the transformation over a period of five hundred years, revealing the nature of Opium's introduction and development in China as a universal cultural institution.
The history of Opium in China begins in the mid-Ming dynasty, when as a tribute from vassal states, it was initially used as an aphrodisiac in the Min...
Generations of Chinese scholars have made China synonymous with the Great Wall and presented its civilization as fundamentally land-bound. This volume challenges this perspective, demonstrating that China was not a "Walled Kingdom," certainly not since the Yongjia Disturbance in 311. China reached out to the maritime world far more actively than historians have acknowledged, while the seas and what came from the seas--from Islam, fragrances and Jesuits to maize, opium and clocks--significantly changed the course of history, and have been of inestimable importance to China since the Ming. This...
Generations of Chinese scholars have made China synonymous with the Great Wall and presented its civilization as fundamentally land-bound. This volume...
