Volume 2

The Chinese Empire illustrated : being a series of views from original sketches, displaying the scenery, architecture, social habits etc. of that ancient and exclusive nation / by Thomas Allom ; with historical and descriptive letterpress by G.N. Wright. The work will also contain a succinct account of the history of China : a narrative of British connexion with that nation, the opium war of 1840, and full details of the causes and events of the present war.

  • Allom, Thomas, 1804-1872.
Date:
[1858?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Chinese Empire illustrated : being a series of views from original sketches, displaying the scenery, architecture, social habits etc. of that ancient and exclusive nation / by Thomas Allom ; with historical and descriptive letterpress by G.N. Wright. The work will also contain a succinct account of the history of China : a narrative of British connexion with that nation, the opium war of 1840, and full details of the causes and events of the present war. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of its provinces, even those bordering on Chinese Tartary, being gathered in several of them for home consumption only, while the whole produce of the green and black tea districts is reserved for exportation to Europe and America. The distinctions assigned by commerce to the different descriptions of tea are sup- posed to have originated with the Canton merchants; the epithets hohea, congo, campo, souchong, pouchong,jiowery pekoe, and orange pekoe, for black teas; and of twankay, hyson skin, young hyson, hyson, imperial, and gunpowder, for green teas, being wholly unknown in China, with the exception of that styled imperial. This latter, called yu-tien, which is only served on occasions of ceremony, consists of the young leaves of the plants, riot of any rare species, and is identical with the high-flavoured tea which Du Halde, who calls it Mao-tcha, asserts to have been appropriated tto the emperor. Even the cups used with the imperial preparation are different from those generally employed, being furnished with a perforated silver plate, to keep the leaves down while the infusion passes through; and also with a stand or saucer of precious metal, shaped like a Chinese boat. As for the many varieties of tea known to European merchants, they can be but mixtures of different values and qualities, or successful imitations by ingenious Asiatics. In Kwan-tung a superior description of tea is sold, obtained from a species of moss peculiar to the mountains of that province; and European travellers have frequently seen ferns, prepared for a similar purpose, exposed for sale at Nan- chang-foo, on the lake Po-yang, where an infusion from that plant was a very favourite beverage. There is much reason to suppose also, that if the Chinese do not actually sell the camellia leaves as tea to foreign dealers, they mix them, and in no measured proportions, in their chests for exportation. The introduction of a few leaves of the olea fragrans, a system adopted by the Japanese to impart a high and aromatic flavour to the leaf, can hardly be viewed as a violation of commercial integrity, and is not exposed therefore to the censure with which other admixtures are justly chargeable. But there* are numerous schemes, both for increasing the weight and adulterating the contents of each chest, which have been imputed to Chinese merchants since the first commence- ment of our humiliating trade with Canton. It is somewhat singular, that tea is supposed to have been first employed by the Chinese as a preventive of leprosy, the precise object for which ardent spirits were first distilled and drank in the northern countries of Europe. The same apprehensions, errors, and superstitions, therefore, appear in this instance to have influenced a large portion of the human race in different countries from the earlier ages. These qualities, however, do not now continue to be attributed to the infusion of tea-leaves ; but others, perhaps more valuable in an age when leprosy is unfrequent, are allowed to attend its use. Its effects on the human system are those of a very mild narcotic and sedative; and, like those of any similar medicine taken in small quantities, exhilarating. Chemical analysis, however, has not yet discovered that principle in tea to which its exciting property is due. The green tea preparations possess this quality in a much higher degree than the black ; and a strong infusion of the former will, in most constitutions,