What would people have been smoking in 700 AD Central / Eastern Asia?
score:26
Historically:
They wouldn't have been smoking anything.
This is some evidence that Arabian traders brough opium to Tang dynasty China, and one might reason it could've been accessible to steppe nomads. However, this would've been extremely costly and reserved for "medicinal" uses, not smoked by random soldiers on a hunt.
Folklore:
There is a legend of tobacco of some kind from the Tang dynasty, which fits this context. As the story goes, when Emperor Suzong - who took the throne in modern Ninxia - was moving back to the Imperial Capital (modern Xi'an), he took a rest stop on a hill. An old man passed by smoking from a pipe bag, and the Emperor found it enticingly refreshing. So the locality was ordered to send tobacco as tribute to the court ever since. And that's the story of how Zhengning County, in Ganshu, got started on its famous tobacco industry
The story is almost certainly absolutely apocryphal.
In the Movie:
I looked up the movie and the actual sentence was:
風颳過來的土煙味，我聞到了
The wind blows over the smell of [tǔyān, lit. soil/ground/earth smoke], I smell it.
A thousand years later, [tǔyān] would come to mean domestically produced opium, or alternatively, nightshade. For the context of the movie however, a historically accurate interpretation is the literal meaning: he's smelling the cloud of dust kicked up by the pursuant.
Whether the writers intended this is, of course, another question altogether.
More post
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 What are the origins of this pendant?
- 📝 Were the Puritans for a State Church?
- 📝 why were animals domesticated? (for meat and fur)
- 📝 What is the significance of "Flappers" in American history?
- 📝 Do there exist or have there ever existed "gang war referees"?
- 📝 How were medieval castles built in swamps or marshes without draining them?
- 📝 When was grass seed first imported specifically for aesthetic reasons?
- 📝 How accurate was rocket artillery in the 18th and 19th centuries?
- 📝 Are these uniforms credible for American sailors just after WW2?
- 📝 Why are the Portuguese so obsessed with salted codfish?
- 📝 Did English/British merchant sailors receive written testimonials between 1500 and 1750?
- 📝 When did countries start developing military aircraft?
- 📝 Why don't the Americas use ISO paper sizes?
- 📝 Why were the Huns so successful at siege warfare but the Goths were not?
- 📝 Request for ancient history video lecture references
- 📝 Why were Red Army Officers and soldiers not prosecuted for War Crimes in WWII?
- 📝 An online old style Julian calendar for England?
- 📝 Is it possible to say whether any historical empire was ever recreated after dissolution?
- 📝 What is meant by this medieval reference to combat 'under-ground'?
- 📝 Need help interpreting "silver" hallmark - 1706?
- 📝 Is there a quote that expresses Mill's opposition to Indian democracy?
- 📝 Help identifying this WW1 badge
- 📝 What is the significance of the term "never start changing the borders in Eastern Europe by force?"
- 📝 Since when is the Nile Delta known as "Delta"?
- 📝 Why did the Sykes-Picot agreement divided the middle east into more than 10 countries?
- 📝 Were there any high-ranking female soldiers during the Middle ages?
- 📝 Why do musketeers shoot in volley?
- 📝 Which king was this?
- 📝 Why was Tegh Bahadur executed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What would people have been smoking in 700 AD Central / Eastern Asia?
- 📝 What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?
- 📝 What would have been the price of a loaf of bread in 1645 Amsterdam?
- 📝 What courses would have been required to get a B.A. in America in the 1930s?
- 📝 What would have been the carrying capacity for 11th-13th century backpacks?
- 📝 What plane would have been used to airdrop someone into occupied Europe?
- 📝 What would have been on the menu in an Ancient Egyptian tavern?
- 📝 What psychology would have been taught at the 19th century Lyceum?
- 📝 What would the Royal Sussex Regiment have been doing in South Africa between 1900-1902?
- 📝 What materials would have been used in the ancient Mesopotamian crown?
- 📝 What would have been the signal that Pontiac would have given to attack in Fort Detroit?
- 📝 If WW2 trench warfare really was a poor use of outdated tactics then what what would have been more appropriate tactics to employ?
- 📝 What knowledge may have been lost at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 Where would the first nuke have been dropped in Germany?
- 📝 Why would graphite have been confused with lead?
- 📝 What would a Norseman in the early 11th century have worn as daily clothing?
- 📝 Would colonial Maryland have been tolerant to all religions?
- 📝 What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
- 📝 Have Germans expelled from Eastern Europe been re-enfranchised?
- 📝 What would the Arch of Titus have looked like painted?
- 📝 What other one word responses have been made to military ultimatums besides "Nuts!", "Mokusatsu" and "If"?
- 📝 What household servants would a Tudor gentleman have had?
- 📝 How would Chess have been played in England in 1450-1600?
- 📝 What profession(s) would have used this folding 'ruler'?
- 📝 Why would this word have been an unsuitable name in Communist Poland? Is it because it's a racial slur?
- 📝 Before 1961, what did they think would happen to people in weightlessness?
- 📝 What effect did awareness of devastating bombing at home have on the fighting spirit of German troops on the Eastern front?
- 📝 What sources could Tacitus or Appian have used that have since been lost?
- 📝 What laws did the king "refuse to pass... unless those people would relinquish the right of representation"?
- 📝 Would the trial of Jesus of Nazareth have been recorded on an Acta Diurna?