CHAPTER  XI

OPIUM
Opium  presents  a  thorny  subject  to  handle  for  any  writer.
If  he  is  a  partisan  of  the  opium  trade,  his  tendency  is  strong
to  leave  the  ground  with  which  he  may  be  familiar,  that  of
commercial  dealings  and  statistics,  and  to  try  to  demonstrate
the  innocuousness  of  the  drug  as  smoked  by  the  Chinese—,
to  compare  it  to  the  relatively  harmless  ante-prandial  glass
of  sherry.  If  his  mission  is  to  denounce  the  opium  traffic,
he  invariably  seems  impelled,  by  an  irresistible  inclination,
to  leave  the  high  moral  ground  on  which  he  is  unassailable,
and  descend  into  the  arena  of  facts  and  figures,  with  which
he  is  not  likely  to  be  so  familiar,  and  among  which  his  predisposition ­
  will  lead  him  to  pass  by  or  to  misinterpret  those
which  make  against  his  case.  The  writer  who  tries  to
investigate  the  facts  with  no  predisposition  to  either  side,
is  likely  to  find  himself  branded  as  a  trimmer  by  the  one
party  and  a  Laodicean  by  the  other,  with  no  opportunity
to  defend  himself.  This  chapter  falls  into  the  third  category,
and  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  present  the  general  facts  of
the  history  of  opium  in  China,  in  such  a  way  that  either
party,  by  judicious  selection  of  passages,  may  find  arguments
with  which  to  confute  its  opponents.  There  will  be  no
attempt  to  elucidate  the  really  vital  point  in  the  opium
question,  the  moral  aspect  pure  and  simple.
The  Poppy  *
Previous  to  the  Tang  Dynasty  (a.d.  618)  the  poppy  was
apparently  unknown  to  the  Chinese  botanists  and  physicians.
*  “The  Poppy  in  China,”  by  J.  Edkins.
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