|
(Editor’s note: The Sixth Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards for
Excellence awarding ceremony will be held at 7 p.m., June 14, at the
Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center on Anda and Cabildo streets,
Intramuros, Manila.)
By Go Bon Juan
Believe it or not, one jin
(equivalent to 0.5 kilo) of tobacco once cost as much as one horse
in China. That was during the late Ming dynasty or more than 300
years ago in the 17th century.
Tobacco was introduced to China
through the Philippines, more specifically Luzon. It was first
introduced into Fujian province through the Chinese who shuttled
back and forth from Luzon. In fact, it was even called jian yan (Fujian
tobacco) then, because it was produced in Fujian.
Initially, soldiers from Southern
China assigned to guard China’s northern border smoked tobacco.
Southerners smoked to keep themselves warm, because they weren’t
used to the chilly northern climes. It was said tobacco was so
expensive that to exchange one jin of tobacco, one would have to pay
with a horse.
During the latter part of Emperor
Zhong Jing’s reign that lasted from 1628 to 1644, in the
municipality of Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, north of Fujian,
tobacco was planted everywhere. Even children only three feet tall
were allowed to, and would smoke, tobacco.
Tobacco in China spread from
Fujian and Guangdong provinces to central China, eventually reaching
northern China, and even as far as Manchuria and Mongolia.
This information comes mainly
from a book published in 1884, entitled Kuei Si Chun Gao, which is
originally a manuscript written in 1833 by Yu Zheng Xue.
Besides tobacco, sweet potato or
kamote, maize, coffee and peanuts were also introduced to China from
the Philippines, although these products all originated from Latin
America. It was through the galleon trade that these products were
brought to the Philippines and eventually to China.
Unfortunately, except for
historians or people generally interested in history, not so many
people today realize that a lot of things in China—a country with
a long history and civilization— were actually introduced from a
small group of islands eventually called the Philippines.
|
