The history of hookah

1. The historical hookah of Yanshuitai, also known as hookah, hookah. Water-absorbing smoke is a traditional way of smoking in China.

Smoke with a hookah, the smoke passes through the water, and the smoke is mellow. Luyao's Smoke Spectrum published in the middle period of Qianlong mentioned the situation of water-containing smoking: "Water is first contained in the mouth, so the smoke is thick but not poisonous ... or water is filled in an iron can, and another tube is inserted in the can, making it like a pipe of a crane's head, so that the smoke passes through the water, and the people of Yemen hold cold water first."

The hookah is mainly made of white copper, but it is also made of bronze, brass or tin. Rich people pay more attention to hookah, such as jadeite agate in the mouth of the cigarette and gold and silver in the connecting part. Among farmers, hookahs are made of bamboo, and they usually have different styles.

Empress Dowager Cixi has many hobbies, one of which is hookah, and the relics of the hookah she used are still hidden in the museum of the Forbidden City.

According to the records of the Qing internal affairs office, there are copper hookahs, silver hookahs and silver tidal hookahs among the funerary objects of Cixi. Absorbent smoke is also an elegant hobby. Most people who have seen hookahs know that hookahs are strange and interesting in shape, mostly brass and copper, but also tin and silver. It is mainly composed of a smoke pipe, a straw, a bucket, a smoke bin, a needle, an armrest and the like. One end of the smoke pipe is a bowl, and a thin tube is connected below it, which extends into the water of the bucket. This part is usually put in front. Straws are generally about 30 cm long, and some are longer. Located behind the smoke pipe, or side by side, or slightly spaced, the upper end is bent backwards to facilitate smoking, and the lower end is inserted into the bucket, but above the water surface of the bucket. Tired pipes, straws and buckets are generally a whole. Most tobacco warehouses are barrel-shaped with lids to prevent tobacco from drying out. The hand rest mainly plays a connecting role, and the bucket part and the tobacco bin are inserted in it. Generally, hookahs are integrally cast, carved, inlaid with precious stones, inlaid with ink and silver, or burned with enamel. Its patterns include flowers, birds, grass, insects, fish, auspicious patterns, poems and couplets. With interesting shapes, it becomes something that smokers play with and a valuable handicraft. One end of the smoking set sucks air, the two ends stand upright, and the middle is filled with water. When smoking, the smoke passes through the water storage, which can not only filter out some impurities in the smoke, but also make a "purring" sound, just like a bird singing Feng Ming, which sounds very pleasant. The difference between elegance and nobility of smoking utensils lies not only in the material, but also in the identity and status of the user. As Empress Dowager Cixi, Cixi's smoking set is naturally among the best.

In recent years, with the increase of film and television works reflecting the life of Empress Dowager Cixi, people often see her smoking a hookah while manipulating political affairs. After that "Gollum" sound, the lingering sound curled up and the clouds filled, enveloping Cixi in a mysterious cloud. Cruel decrees, treaties that humiliated the country ... poured out like clouds.

Why doesn't Cixi smell snuff and dry tobacco, don't appreciate exquisite snuff bottles, and only love hookahs? Generally speaking, there are four points: first, the queen mother likes this thing naturally because of her own hobbies; Second, it is different from many men who smoke dry cigarettes, including emperors and court ministers since the Ming and Qing Dynasties; Third, the queen mother is Manchu. Like other ethnic minorities who smoke grass, the proportion of people who smell snuff and hookah is far more than that of Han people, which is probably due to their living habits and hobbies. Mongolians are used to sniffing snuff, one of which is to avoid fires caused by smoking and ignition; Fourth, water-absorbing cigarettes are elegant and hygienic, which can not only meet people's needs, but also add a little leisure.

At that time, smoking in the court was divided into four types: water, drought, tide and snuff. The raw materials of hookah are mainly Lanzhou leather silk, green silk and young silk (all the above are the names of tobacco shredding).

Empress dowager cixi smokes, and someone has to wait on her. Little eunuchs do everything carefully, serving tea and cigarettes. According to records, when the master wants to smoke, the eunuch must kneel on the ground, hold the hookah of the crane leg tightly with his hand, stand there and hold it in his hand, filling the cigarette and blowing the lit paper media. I also know the time to light a cigarette. When to smoke generally has its rules, but there are exceptions.

2. The origin of hookah, which was very popular in the late Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, gradually withdrew from the historical stage after the popularity of cigarettes in the 20th century.

Men in western Guangdong still keep the habit of smoking hookah. On the streets of many small towns in Maoming and Yangjiang, you can see men in modern clothes, holding big hookahs and constantly "humming" and smoking.

Absorbent cigarette is one of the traditional smoking methods in China. The hookah can be sucked through the hookah. Both the hookah and the hookah are sucked in through the clear water in the bag and the barrel, so that negative pressure is generated inside, and the smoke is sucked into the mouth through the water, making a "goo … goo" sound when smoking, which is really "the most difficult thing to find is a vast wave of smoke". It is said that this can reduce harmful ingredients. If the pipe is filled with white sugar water, the smoke is sweet; Holding licorice mint water can clear away heat and quench thirst. Suction pipes can also be seen in Yunnan, but hookahs are relatively rare.

3. Father's hookah Father has a hookah, which was handed down by his grandfather.

The hookah is made of brass, and the base is cylindrical, with a height of seven or eight centimeters. There is a hole in front of the upper plane for inserting a cigarette pot, and a copper tube with a height of more than one foot is tilted at the back, which is a cigarette holder for smoking. I don't think this hookah should be called hookah. Judging from its shape, it should be called hookah.

Because it's a bit like a teapot, but the cigarette holder is a bit long. As long as I can remember, I have known that my father smoked.

I especially like watching my father smoke a pipe. He took out the hookah and filled it with half water. The ashtray is actually a copper tube five or six centimeters long. A copper pot is installed at one end, the bottom of the pot is connected with the copper tube, and there is a mesh screen to prevent tobacco from leaking into the copper tube.

When smoking, fill the hookah with tobacco, insert it into the hole in front of the hookah, then light the tobacco with a match and smoke while smoking. The hookah makes a "glug, glug" sound, and the smoke will reach the mouth through the copper tube. There is also a little trick about hookahs. You can only take a sip and stop, so as not to suck the water from the hookah into your mouth. The cigarette holder is tilted more than a foot high and waterproof.

It is in this kind of "glug, glug" voice that my father passes the day one after another. Speaking of which, the ancients were really smart. They filter nicotine and cigarette oil in cigarettes with water to reduce the harm to human body.

Before long, the water in the hookah becomes the oil of the hookah, and the oil of the hookah is poured out, showing a deep yellow color. When I was a child, I poisoned leeches with cigarette oil. I caught leeches and put them in cigarette oil. Within two or three minutes, the leech died.

At that time, my family was poor and couldn't afford packaged cigarettes, so my father planted tobacco leaves in a corner of the vegetable garden. Tobacco leaf is a broad-leaved plant. A big leaf is more than two feet long and one foot wide.

I only remember that every year the tobacco leaves in my home are richer than vegetables, and my father carefully dries them one by one. Father has a complete set of smoking equipment.

He used a thick log to make a rectangular hole in the middle, put the dried tobacco leaves in the rectangular hole layer by layer, stuffed them with small boards, and then cut them into tobacco shreds with a long knife. He also has a hand-made cigarette machine.

The equipment is very simple, the width of tobacco shreds is different, and the thickness of each cigarette is also different. The wrapping paper of each cigarette was cut by my exercise book full of type. At that time, my family was the smallest self-sufficient "small cigarette factory" in China. My father smoked several pots of hookah at home, and it was inconvenient to bring hookah to work in the fields, so he packed his cigarettes in a small iron box.

Whenever I have a rest after work, my father will sit at the head of the field or at the edge of the field, put on an old cotton-padded jacket that has been taken off because of work and smoke one. His eyes were calm and he looked straight ahead. In front of him was a wheat field, green wheat seedlings, some sprouting and some heading.

Further away is the paddy field, which looks watery from a distance. The sun was shining, my father took a deep breath, and the smoke rose, drifting across his bald head and into the sky. Maybe my father's hope will disappear like this smoke.

At this time, smoke is all my father's thoughts, because smoke makes him comfortable and comfortable. Although life is like the first picked plums, it is sour and astringent, and there is no sweetness.

That year, the production team reduced everyone's private plots, saying that it was "taking grain as the key link" and producing more grain. Every family's vegetable garden has been redistributed.

My vegetable garden has been reduced by nearly half. The vegetable garden is the source of vegetables for farmers for 365 days a year.

Mother said to father, "Grow less tobacco." The tobacco planting area has decreased, and the father who smokes can't be self-sufficient. He will go to the canteen to buy cigarettes "subsidies" every three or five times.

Only "Economy" and "Honghua" brands of cigarettes are the cheapest in the canteen, with a pack of 90 cents. These two kinds of cigarettes were bought by my father specially. Sometimes the money in the bag is not enough to buy a pack, but fortunately, at that time, the canteen could retail cigarettes for two cents. Over time, my father became a "retail investor" in the canteen.

Mother advised father to give up smoking, and father decided to give up smoking. Father quit smoking not because smoking is harmful to health, but because of money.

My father was determined to give up smoking. He chopped logs, small boards and cigarette makers into firewood and set it on fire. Hide the brass hookah in the turret; Cucumber is planted in that tobacco field. My mother also actively supports me. In order to help my father through the difficult period of quitting smoking, my mother often fried broad beans and put them in my father's pocket. Once my father is addicted to smoking, he will eat them.

My father ate five or six liters of fried broad beans, but he didn't give up smoking after all, and soon "returned to his old job". Later, every morning, the first thing my father did after getting up was to squat on the dirt platform in front of the door and smoke.

There was no money to buy cigarettes for a long time, and soon my father took out the hookah from the turret, and there was the sound of hookah at home. This voice, with his father's pure hope.

4. The history of drought corresponds to hookah.

I used to have a tobacco rod or pipe for smoking, but now I don't have one. The hookah is to filter out the smoke in a bucket, and the dry smoke will be directly imported.

Nowadays, dry tobacco refers to crushed tobacco leaves, and many people still smoke them in rural areas, or use pipes or paper rolls.

Modern dry tobacco is bulk cut tobacco, which is sold by the catty, so it is cheaper. People who are heavy smokers and have little money buy them and roll them with pipes or notes.

It is said that flue-cured tobacco leaves originated in America, and were introduced into Taiwan Province Province and Fujian Province from the Philippines during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. Gradually expand to all provinces and the mainland.

Smoking cigarettes has become a pastime for China people after meals. Holding a cigarette, click. Take a breath and see that the smoker's expression is really as happy as a fairy after dinner.

There are different lengths of tobacco stems. The long stems I have seen are Phyllostachys edulis, Phyllostachys multifida, mahogany and rosewood, and elegant tobacco stems are twisted and carved. The cigarette holder is made of copper, jade, jadeite and agate, like the huge pipe in the TV series Ji Xiaolan with iron teeth and copper teeth and the master Bai Jiaqi in the TV series Da Zhai Men. Both of them are holding long cigarettes, especially the golden cigarette rod sent by Ji Xiaolan, which has become a status symbol.

Ordinary working people use a short bamboo pole cloth to make a tobacco pouch, which is inserted at the waist so that they can smoke it at any time after work. It is called a "spear"

Before liberation, the famous dry cigarette shops in northern Jiangsu, such as Huangqiao "Laobaocheng". When the New Fourth Army moved eastward, Huangqiao dry cigarettes were used as the price for everyone, so Huangqiao dry cigarettes were as famous as Huangqiao sesame cakes.

Rugao also has a well-known dry cigarette shop. The shop number is "Ganzhitai", which is located about 80 meters west to south of Rugao County. Rugao people are familiar with the older generation. "Ganzhitai" cigarette shop is a self-produced and self-sold dry cigarette shop, with more than 0/00 shops, warehouses and workshops around * * and staff. The shelves are full of neatly packed cigarette packets, each packet 1 kg, each packet 1-2. There are upper, middle and lower grades of cigarettes. I remember that there is a kind of gourmet cigarette called "Pei's", which is for ladies and wives. It is golden in color, as thin as hair and fluffy as meat. It is called "Pei's" and it is a satire.

"Pei's" tobacco production is extremely exquisite. Made of "Tiger Skin Wrinkle" tobacco produced in Guangdong, it is as thick as Pu Ye and has natural stripes. Remove the tobacco ribs, and the tobacco leaves will stick to the tobacco juice, which is not easy to wash off. The color of tobacco leaves is golden yellow and has a unique smoke smell. Boil jujube soup with sugar when cooking. When planing, the iron plane for planing tobacco requires that fingers should not touch the blade. According to the planer, Pei's tobacco is in it.

"Pei" brand cigarettes smell like smoke when lit. It is a luxury for women's leisure. When it was packaged into a gift package, it was printed with a red gold signboard. First, it looks beautiful and expensive. Second, it is used for advertising, which is specially for giving gifts to dignitaries.