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sap,  and  drying  it  in  the  sun,  much  as  practised  to-day  ;
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  preparation  of  opium
was  introduced  into  China  through  Arab  channels  by  the
end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  “  Introduction  to
Medicine  ”  of  Li  Ting,  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,
gives  an  exact  account  of  the  method  of  preparing  opium,
under  the  name  A-fu-yung.  The  Arabs,  in  taking  the
Greek  name  opium  ottiov),  transformed  it  into  afyiin.
In  China  the  provinces  along  the  coast  have  transliterated
the  name  opium  into  ya-pien,  by  which  the  drug  is  generally
known  ;  but  in  the  inland  province  of  Yunnan,  where  the
Mohammedan  influence  has  always  been  strong,  and  the
Mohammedan  population  predominated  up  to  the  Panthay
rebellion  (1867)  and  the  resultant  massacres,  opium  of
indigenous  production  is  to  this  day  referred  to  in  official
documents,  tax  receipts,  etc.,  as  fu-yung,  which,  except  as
a  truncated  form  of  a-fu-yung,  is  unintelligible  in  Chinese.
Opium  Smoking
It  may  be  said  broadly  that,  while  all  other  opiumusing ­
  peoples  take  it  by  the  mouth  and  stomach,  the  Chinese
alone  smoke  it.
Opium  smoking  came  in  through  tobacco  smoking.
As  we  have  seen  (Chapter  IX.*)  the  Spanish  occupied  the
Philippines  from  the  west  in  1543,  and  made  their  first
attempt  to  trade  with  China  in  1575  ;  thereafter  they  left
the  development  of  the  trade  between  China  and  Manila
entirely  to  the  Chinese.  Through  the  Philippines  the
American  narcotic,  tobacco,  was  introduced  at  Amoy,
and  thence  to  Formosa,  which  was  in  process  of  colonisation
from  Amoy  in  that  period.  In  the  “  Notes  on  the  Conduct
of  Business  ”  published  about  1650,  the  year  1620  is  given
as  the  date  of  the  introduction,  about  the  time  of  the
“  Counterblaste  to  Tobacco  ”  of  King  James  the  Sixth  of
Scotland  and  First  of  England.  The  Chinese  Emperors  were
animated  by  the  same  feelings  as  King  James,  and  the
*  Page¿27i.