Cannabis in China
 Location of China (dark green) | |
| Medicinal | Illegal |
|---|---|
| Recreational | Illegal |
| Hemp | Legal |
Cannabis is illegal in Chinaexcept for industrial purposes (hemp)[1]and some forms of medicine. Historically, cannabis has been used inChinaforfiber,seeds,as atraditional medicine,as well as for some ritual purposes withinTaoism.
Chinese etymology
[edit]Má (Mandarin pronunciation:[mǎ]), a Chinese word forcannabis,is represented by the Han characterMa.[2][3][4]The termma,used to describemedical marijuanaby 2700 BCE, is the oldest recorded name for thehempplant.[5]
The wordmahas been used to describe the cannabis plant since before the invention of writing five-thousand years ago.Mamight share a common root with theProto-Semiticwordmrr,meaning "bitter."[citation needed]Evidence of the earliest human cultivation of cannabis was found inTaiwan.[6][7][8]Ancient Chineseprose and poems, including poetry in theShi jing (Book of Odes),mention the wordmamany times. An early song refers to young women weaving ma into clothing.[2][9][8]
The wordmais often paired with the Chinese word for "big" or "great" to form the compound worddamaorCần sa (dàmá).Dama is sometimes used to describe industrial hemp, as there is a negative connotation meaning "numbness" associated with the wordmaby itself.[10][11]Historical Chinese medical texts (c. 200 CE) through contemporary twentieth century Chinese medical literature discuss individual terms for ma, includingmafen ( ma gai ),mahua ( bánh quai chèo ),andmabo ( ma bột ),referring to specific parts of the male and female flowers of a cannabis plant with differingcannabinoidratios.[12]
History
[edit]Cannabis has been confirmed to have originated in Northwest China before the Ancient Chinese domesticated the plant to India and other parts of Asia, particularly the Central Asian steppe in 10,000 BC.[13] In the 19th century,Xin gian gprovince was a major producer and exporter ofhashish,withYarkandbeing a major center.[14]Tens of thousands of kilograms annually were exported toBritish India,legally and under tariff, until 1934 when Chinese authorities cut off the legal trade, though smuggling continued for some years after.[15]
According to theMinistry of Public Securityin 2015, cannabis use was on the rise among Chinese youth.[citation needed]
Legal status
[edit]In 1985, thePeople's Republic of Chinajoined theConvention on Psychotropic Substancesand identifiedmarijuanaas a dangerous narcotic drug, and illegal to possess or use it. The penalty for marijuana possession in China is disputed from various sources, but according to the Law on Public Security Administration Punishments, marijuana smokers shall be detained for 10 to 15 days and fined a maximum of 2,000yuan.[16][17]However, the cultivation of cannabis for industrial purposes (hemp) has never been prohibited in China.[1]
On another hand, cannabis seeds have been continuously listed in theChinese Pharmacopeia[18]and hemp has never been prohibited in the history of the country.[19]
Cultivation
[edit]Cannabis plants are widely grown inYunnan Province,especially around the city ofDali.[20]However, the Yunnan government began an eradication campaign in 1998 to make the province "cannabis free" by 2000, resulting in less wild and commercially grown cannabis. A similar campaign has also caused a rise in marijuana prices inXin gian g.[21]
Taoism
[edit]Beginning around the 4th century, Taoist texts mentioned using cannabis incensers.Needham cited the (ca. 570 AD) Taoist encyclopediaWushang BiyaoVô thượng bí muốn ( "Supreme Secret Essentials" ) that cannabis was added into ritual incense-burners, and suggested the ancient Taoists experimented systematically with "hallucinogenic smokes".[22]TheYuanshi shangzhen zhongxian jiNguyên thủy thượng thật chúng tiên nhớ ( "Records of the Assemblies of the Perfected Immortals" ), which is attributed toGe Hong(283-343), says:
- For those who begin practicing the Tao it is not necessary to go into the mountains.… Some with purifying incense and sprinkling and sweeping are also able to call down the Perfected Immortals. The followers of the Lady Wei and of Hsu are of this kind.[23]
LadyWei HuacunNgụy hoa tồn (252-334) and Xu Mi hứa mịch (303-376) founded the TaoistShangqing School.The Shangqing scriptures were supposedly dictated toYang Xi(330-c. 386) in nightly revelations fromimmortals,and Needham proposed Yang was "aided almost certainly by cannabis". TheMingyi bieluDanh y đừng lục ( "Supplementary Records of Famous Physicians" ), written by the Taoist pharmacologistTao Hongjing(456-536), who also wrote the first commentaries to the Shangqing canon, says, "Hemp-seeds ( ma bột ) are very little used in medicine, but the magician-technicians (shujiaThuật gia ) say that if one consumes them withginsengit will give one preternatural knowledge of events in the future. "[24][25]A 6th-century AD Taoist medical work, theWuzangjingNgũ tạng kinh ( "Five Viscera Classic" ) says, "If you wish to command demonic apparitions to present themselves you should constantly eat the inflorescences of the hemp plant."[26]
Joseph Needham connected myths aboutMagu,"the Hemp Damsel", with early Daoist religious usages of cannabis, pointing out that Magu was goddess ofShandong'ssacredMount Tai,where cannabis "was supposed to be gathered on the seventh day of the seventh month, a day of séance banquets in the Taoist communities."[27]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^abWang, Qingbin; Shi, Guanming (1999). "Industrial Hemp: China's Experience and Global Implications".Review of Agricultural Economics.21(2): 344–357.CiteSeerX10.1.1.868.9241.
- ^abJann Gumbiner Ph.D. (May 10, 2011),"History of Cannabis in Ancient China",Psychology Today
- ^Bretschneider 1895,p. 378.
- ^"character 1".Kangxi Dictionary.1716. p. 1515.
- ^Hanson, Venturelli & Fleckenstein 2014,p. 408.
- ^Abel 1980.
- ^Barber, E.J.W.(1991)."The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean".Prehistoric Textiles.Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-00224-8.
- ^abAlan Piper, "The Mysterious Origins of the Word 'Marijuana'",Sino-Platonic Papers, 153 (July 2005)
- ^Shurtleff, Huang & Aoyagi 2014,p. 45.
- ^Touw, Mia (1981)."The Religious and Medicinal Uses of Cannabis in China, India and Tibet"(PDF).Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.13(1): 23–34.doi:10.1080/02791072.1981.10471447.PMID7024492.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-07-18.Retrieved2019-05-09.
- ^Qian, Zhang (February 8, 2014)."Healing with hemp".Shanghai Daily.
- ^Brand, E. Joseph; Zhao, Zhongzhen (March 10, 2017)."Cannabis in Chinese Medicine: Are Some Traditional Indications Referenced in Ancient Literature Related to Cannabinoids?".Frontiers in Pharmacology.8:108.doi:10.3389/fphar.2017.00108.PMC5345167.PMID28344554.
- ^Metcalfe, Tom (2021-07-17)."Cannabis originated in China, genetic analysis reveals".Live Science.
- ^Journal of the Society of Arts.The Society. 1871. pp.647–.
- ^S. Frederick Starr (4 March 2015).Xin gian g: China's Muslim Borderland: China's Muslim Borderland.Taylor & Francis. pp. 364–.ISBN978-1-317-45136-5.
- ^"Public Security Administration Punishment Law of The People's Republic of China, Article 72".
- ^"Cannabis Use in China – Laws, History, Uses and More Info".Sensi Seeds.Retrieved2020-12-02.
- ^Riboulet-Zemouli, Kenzi (2020)."'Cannabis' ontologies I: Conceptual issues with Cannabis and cannabinoids terminology ".Drug Science, Policy and Law.6:205032452094579.doi:10.1177/2050324520945797.ISSN2050-3245.S2CID234435350.
- ^Wang, Q; Shi, G (1999). "Industrial Hemp: China's Experience and Global Implications".Review of Agricultural Economics.21(2): 344–357.
- ^Allen, Greg (May 1, 1999)."China High".Cannabis Culture.
- ^Labrousse, Alain; Laniel, Laurent (29 June 2013).The World Geopolitics of Drugs, 1999/1999.ISBN9789401735056.
- ^Needham and Lu (1974),p. 150.From ancient Chinese fumigation techniques with "toxic smokes" for pests and "holy smokes" for demons, "what started as a 'smoking out' of undesirable things, changed now to a 'smoking in' of heavenly things into oneself."
- ^Needham and Lu (1974), p. 152.
- ^Needham and Lu (1974),p. 151.
- ^Rudgley, Richard (1998).The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances.Little, Brown and Company. Archived fromthe originalon 2009-03-09.Retrieved2017-05-03.
- ^Joseph Needham, Ho Ping-Yu, and Lu Gwei-djen (1980).Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology; Part 4, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention.Cambridge University Press,p. 213.
- ^Needham, Joseph. 1974.Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology; Part 2, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality.Cambridge University Press, p. 152
Sources
[edit]- Abel, Ernest L. (1980)."Cannabis in the Ancient World".Marihuana: the first twelve thousand years.New York City: Plenum Publishers.ISBN978-0-306-40496-2.
- Bretschneider, Emil(1895).Botanicon Sinicum: Notes on Chinese Botany from Native and Western Sources. Part III, Botanical Investigations in the Materia Medica of the Ancient Chinese.Kelly & Walsh.
- Clarke, Robert; Merlin, Mark (1 September 2013)."History of use ofCannabisuse for fiber ".Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany.University of California Press.pp. 135–198.ISBN978-0-520-95457-1.OCLC927967115.
- Hanson, Glen R.; Venturelli, Peter J.; Fleckenstein, Annette E. (2014)."Marijuana".Drugs and Society.Jones & Bartlett Publishers.ISBN978-1-284-05478-1.
- Shurtleff, William; Huang, H.T.; Aoyagi, Akiko (June 22, 2014).History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in China and Taiwan, and in Chinese Cookbooks, Restaurants, and Chinese Work with Soyfoods Outside China (1024 BCE to 2014).Soyinfo Center.ISBN978-1-928-91468-6.
Further reading
[edit]- Alain Labrousse; Laurent Laniel (29 June 2013).The World Geopolitics of Drugs, 1998/1999.Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 85–.ISBN978-94-017-3505-6.
- Li, Hui-Lin (1974). "An Archaeological and Historical Account of Cannabis in China".Economic Botany.28(4): 437–448.doi:10.1007/bf02862859.S2CID19866569.
- Touw, Mia (1981). "The Religious and Medicinal Uses of Cannabis in China, India and Tibet".Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.13(1): 23–34.doi:10.1080/02791072.1981.10471447.PMID7024492.
