Anecdotes About Tobacco in Ancient and Modern Times at Home and Abroad

The burning cigarette at your fingertips has always been more than the combination of nicotine and paper - it is the code of civilization hidden in the brightness and extinguishing of fireworks, wrapped in stories that have lasted for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian priests offered dried tobacco leaves as offerings to the gods, and the Mayans used smoke lit from clay pipes to measure the stars. The "devil's grass" brought back to Europe by Columbus's fleet actually evolved into an elegant prop in aristocratic salons over the past century, and even rewritten the economic map of the colonies. You may not know that officials of the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period once lamented in memorials that "Tamba wild rice (the old name for tobacco) was disruptive to government." In the trenches of World War II, soldiers exchanged cigarettes for bullet casings, which opened up the front line before military orders. It was once a "magic medicine" for treating diseases, and it also became a "hard currency" in wars; some people used it to write poems handed down from generation to generation, and some people used it to set off a trade frenzy. Those anecdotes rolled up in the paper hide the greed and romance of human nature, as well as the absurdity and solemnity of the times. When you open this book, there are no boring historical materials, only vivid stories flowing in the fireworks. When you light a cigarette, you may suddenly understand: What is burned in this small fire paper roll is never tobacco, but a whole condensed and interesting history of mankind.