TY  - BOOK
AU  - Yangwen,Zheng
TI  - The Social life of opium in China
SN  - 0521846080
U1  - 306.1 
PY  - 2005///
CY  - Cambridge
PB  - Cambridge University Press
KW  - Opium abuse
KW  - China
KW  - History
N1  - The book explores the history of opium consumption in China from 1483 to the late twentieth century. The story begins in the mid-Ming dynasty, when opium was sent as a gift by vassal states and used as an aphrodisiac in court. Over time, the Chinese people from different classes and regions began to use it for recreational purposes, so beginning a complex culture of opium consumption. The book traces this transformation over a period of five hundred years, asking who introduced opium to China, and how it spread throughout all sections of society, embraced by rich and poor alike as a culture and an institution
ER  -