Chapter 5: Quitting Drugs
"When I first met the president, it was really embarrassing. At that time, I was in a state of opium addiction and was in unbearable pain. A guard knocked open my mouth and stuffed a detoxification pill into it. Not long after, I fell asleep in a daze. When I woke up, I heard a guard shouting loudly: "Number 18 has woken up!" Soon, a young man of only 16 or 17 years old appeared before me, asked about my physical condition, made some notes on a notebook and then walked away - this young man was the future president, while I was a detestable opium ghost..." --- "The Fox of War - Biography of Li Tao", written by Wu Tongxuan and Li Tao, published by Qiang Xue Book Society in 1940.
For the task of the Translation Department, Tan Yanxian had already discussed with Tan Zhonglin and considered Tan Zhonglin's conservative attitude. Tan Yanxian decided to position the responsibility of the Translation Department as translating a large number of foreign books, introducing advanced science and technology from abroad into China. In Tan Yanxian's view, Zhang Zhidong's Translation Department was too luxurious, serving only one person, which would inevitably lead to waste of resources. The Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang had to deal with foreigners, but compiling a translation department just for this purpose seemed excessive.
Under the sponsorship of Tan Zhonglin, Tan Yankai bought a printing workshop and ordered foreign newspapers from the firm every day. These newspapers were mainly transported by regular ships from Hong Kong. In addition, he also opened an order list with the firm, which was full of scientific books published abroad, and there were also many biographies of celebrities in between. This printing workshop was named "Qiangxue Book Bureau" by Tan Yankai. After the public vehicle petition in history, Kang Youwei and others established Qiangxuehui (Strong Learning Society), Tan Yankai would not "occupy" this name because "Hui" has similar political meanings with "Peng" and "Dang" in China. The Qing government did not ban parties at that time. Later, after the Strong Learning Society was attacked, it took refuge under the guise of "Qiangxue Book Bureau".
Tan Yanqing would not make such a mistake, he does not want to get involved in politics at this time, once the name is worn with "association", it will have a deep relationship with politics, which is not what he expects. Even Tan Zhonglin would also extinguish his idea at the first time. The most important task of Qiangxue Book Bureau is translation, and of course, in the selection of some books, he also chose several books about Western politics on the book list very quietly, and biographies of celebrities are also with a certain political color. Tan Yanqing was not clear how much effect this would have, nor did he hope to achieve much effect, he put all his energy into translating scientific and technological books, as for political things, it was just casting a wide net, and he didn't care how many fish he could catch.
Although many traitorous treaties have been signed, possibly even the rulers themselves can't count them all, unfortunately from the emperor to the loyal ministers of the court, it was with the sacrifice of a reduced Chinese population that the four ministers Zeng, Zuo, Peng and Hu brought about the "Tongzhi Restoration", but they probably didn't know what the difference was between France and England. The current Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong are slightly better than them, but they also know very little about foreign affairs.
"Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" was specifically aimed at changes abroad, translating summaries from foreign newspapers into a collection of pamphlets. However, the service objects were not limited to high-ranking officials like Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, but also local gentry, merchants, and relatively enlightened scholars who had a demand for "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai".
Thus, the newly established Translation Department became the busiest department of the Fujian-Zhejiang Governor's Office. After a series of preparations, the first issue of "Qiangxue Wenzhai" was finally published on March 30th, with an initial print run of 1,000 copies. Two hundred copies were subscribed by various government offices in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and ten copies each were sent to the governor's offices of Jiangsu-Jiangxi, Hubei-Hunan, Guangdong-Guangxi, and Zhili. The remaining copies were sold in major cities in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. Although Tang Yanke did not expect "Qiangxue Wenzhai" to bring him a huge fortune, he also did not plan to lose money. The cover price of each issue was set at half a tael of silver, and if 500 copies could be sold per issue, the publication would break even.
In fact, the sales of "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" were quite good. The opinions sent to the four governors' offices had not been fed back, but hundreds of copies that were digested by the market in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces had already been sold out. Especially in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places, the sales were the best, and even the news of requiring reprints was sent back to the Fujian-Zhejiang Governor's Office. With such good results, Tang Yanke naturally printed 500 more copies for sale in various places.
"Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" did not have any unusual content, all of which were translated from foreign newspapers and compiled into a book after categorizing some topics. Each article was marked with its source.
In this era, China was very closed off. Although the powerful countries used strong ships and cannons to open up China's doors, this kind of passive opening was not accepted by the Chinese people. However, after repeatedly losing wars against foreign countries, the Chinese people themselves began to put down their "Celestial Empire" pretensions. They also hoped to know what foreign countries were like and how China looked in the eyes of foreigners. Tan Yankai did not expect that his Strong Learning Extracts would meet this demand of the nation. Of course, those who could afford to buy Strong Learning Extracts at such a high price were still those intellectuals with an open spirit and some officials similar to Zhang Zhidong, which helped them understand international trends.
Beyond Tan's expectations, within less than half a month, the governor-general offices of Liangjiang, Huguang and Zhili all sent letters expressing their desire to purchase 300 copies of "Qiangxue Pianyihui" from Qiangxue Shushe every month. As for the governor-general office of Liangguang, it was estimated that there was no hope left. At this time, Liu Kunyi, Governor-General of Liangjiang, Zhang Zhidong, Governor-General of Huguang and Li Hongzhang, Governor-General of Zhili were all key figures in the Westernization Movement. After Tan Zhonglin explained to Tan Yanxian the relationship between the three men, Tan Yanxian also understood their career paths and the connections between them. As for the governor-general of Liangguang, he was Li Hongzhang's elder brother Li Hanzhang, perhaps because his territory was in Guangdong, a relatively developed region, they didn't need "Qiangxue Pianyihui" as much, so they didn't subscribe to it.
Tan Yanxian had to admit that Tan Zhonglin was a seasoned politician, he had done many good things for the people when he was in office before, even Wu Tang, the benefactor of Empress Dowager Cixi, was offended by him. However, he still has a very good reputation in the officialdom of the Qing court, and his relationship with some officials who have deep contradictions, such as the Westernization Group and the Clear Stream Party, is quite good, without any particularly outstanding political enemies, which can no longer be described as "smooth". Although Tan Zhonglin was conservative, it was precisely because of his suggestion that Tan Yanxian submitted the "Strong Learning Digest" to the four governor's offices, and now three governors have issued documents requesting subscription, showing that Tan Zhonglin had expected this result.
In this era, a journal as expensive as "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" could reach a circulation of 2,500 copies per issue, which is a moderate miracle. Later, the Governor's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi also sent a letter to subscribe to 200 copies every month, making the circulation close to 3,000 copies per issue. For a time, "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" made a name for itself in China. For Tan Yanke, this journal was indeed profitable, bringing him at least 3,000 taels of silver in pure profit every month. Even Tan Zhonglin, who had always been strict with his expenses, did not control this income and instead put it under Tan Yanke's name. Tan Zhonglin also hoped to see what his son would do with this large sum of money after getting such a rich return. It wasn't until May that he got the answer - Tan Yanke started a pharmaceutical workshop, and the product was even more surprising - an anti-opium pill.
Since seeing the miserable state of an opium ghost when he went to look at the list last year, Tan Yanqing had long wanted to bring out the detoxification pill. He just needed time to turn the detoxification pill from a prescription into a product. The most important thing was that this era did not have the equipment he needed. Fortunately, it only prolonged the treatment cycle and increased the dosage after extracting the effective components of traditional Chinese medicine, which wasn't a big problem. When Tan Yanqing received a large sum of money on "Strong Learning Digest", he couldn't wait to turn the detoxification pill into a product.
Feng Wenyu had done many such research projects in his previous life, with the main targets being morphine, heroin, marijuana, and ice poison. The most effective product was a modified version of a traditional Chinese medicine, which not only had a short treatment course but also had an excellent detoxification effect. At this time, Tan Yankai's main target was opium, although he didn't have the advanced modern equipment to extract the effective ingredients, the toxicity of opium was much lower than that of heroin and other poisons. He was very confident in the detoxification pills being produced now.
"Where did this detox pill formula come from?" Tan Zhonglin asked, holding a detox pill in his hand.
"This was given to me by a wandering Taoist priest I met on the road from Hunan through Jiangxi. Although I made the medicine according to the prescription, it has not been tested yet. Please ask Father to find several people who smoke opium to try it." Tan Yanke replied.
"Uh, finding a few people like that isn't difficult, but will there be any danger after taking this pill?" Tan Zhonglin asked with some concern. The main method of quitting opium in the late Qing dynasty was still forced detoxification, which made the addict suffer greatly. After repeated torture, long-term opium smokers were already very weak, and this ordeal might even cost them their lives.
"It shouldn't be, the young master has already asked the doctor about the prescription, and the Chinese medicine used in this pill itself is non-toxic, and there are no conflicts between them. After taking the pill, it should not pose any danger to humans. It's just that testing the efficacy of this pill requires finding different types of opium ghosts at various stages." Tan Yanqin replied with great confidence, he himself was most clear about whether this prescription had any effect or not, in his previous life he studied pharmacy, although he didn't understand traditional Chinese medicine very well, but he had some knowledge, and since the prescription had already been identified as having no toxic side effects, his confidence was naturally very strong.
"Why is this?"
"The length of time spent smoking opium determines the degree of addiction, and I want to find a few people with different lengths of time smoking opium to see what kind of opium ghost this medicine is most effective against."
Tan Zhonglin nodded and smiled, saying: "This matter is not difficult, you can go and do it, and report back as soon as there is any news. This is a very good thing, the imperial court has the heart to ban opium, but on the one hand, the attitude of the powers is very firm, and on the other hand, there are many officials in the court who cannot give up opium themselves, and they have developed various techniques for smoking opium. This makes the harm of opium more and more severe. If this detoxification medicine can be effective for most opium addicts, then it will not be necessary to provoke the powers by confiscating their opium like Lin Zexu did in order to achieve the goal of banning opium!"
This is perhaps the most shameful thing a country can do, even more shameful than losing a war - despite the fact that opium has brought disaster and suffering to our people, we are still unable to prohibit it, and must instead take into account the attitudes of the powerful nations. Is there anything more shameful than this? Whenever he thinks about the scene of an addict in the throes of withdrawal, Tan Yankai feels a surge of uncontrollable anger, but alas, reality is just that way - our country's strength is too weak, and no matter how strong an individual may be, it is all for naught. In two more years will come the First Sino-Japanese War, and after the Boxer Rebellion, China will truly have lost its last shred of dignity.
Tan Zhonglin was very concerned about the detoxification pills, and the yamen runners were ordered to bring in more than 20 opium addicts from the streets as quickly as possible. These opium addicts had probably lived well before, some of them might even have been small landlords with assets, but they couldn't withstand the consumption of opium and had squandered their family property early on. The yamen runners found it easy to do this by simply guarding the entrances of the opium dens in the city, where these opium addicts were caught for various reasons because they didn't have money to continue smoking.
The yamen runners of the governor's office found Tan Zhonglin's order very strange and couldn't understand why the governor had given this order, but it wasn't difficult to carry out. In order not to stir up trouble all over the city, the head of the runners came up with a plan. The opium ghosts were brought in, but they were all in the midst of withdrawal symptoms, crying and making a ruckus everywhere. The runners then concentrated them in several small houses on the southwest corner of the governor's mansion.
When Tan Yanjin saw these opium ghosts, he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. The bailiffs didn't care about finding addicts at different stages, they just grabbed anyone who looked like an addict and dragged them away. It was a matter of life and death for these opium ghosts, who were in the midst of withdrawal symptoms, which made Tan Yanjin start to doubt whether his detoxification pills would work. Anyway, these opium ghosts had fallen into his hands, and regardless of whether they were good or bad, they would become his first batch of test subjects. Without saying another word, the bailiffs, under Tan Yanjin's command, took down one opium ghost after another, forcing open their mouths to shove in the detoxification pills before throwing them aside and moving on to find the next one.
It took almost an hour to finally get all the opium ghosts to take the detox pills. Although these opium ghosts are thin and look like skeletons, they still have a lot of strength when they're going through withdrawal, and it took a group of guards half dead from exhaustion to finish the task.
Because the detox pill itself has a certain numbing effect, and these opium ghosts have been struggling for a long time, after taking the detox pill, they all fell asleep one after another in a short while. Only two or three opium ghosts with particularly severe addiction were still suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Tan Yanqian waved his hand, and two or three attendants immediately opened the mouths of these opium ghosts again, stuffed in a detox pill, and soon these opium ghosts finally calmed down.
Looking at these opium ghosts, Tan Yanqin wiped the sweat beads that had seeped out of his forehead with his hand, shaking his head helplessly and thinking to himself: "No wonder the people in the detox center said they were the most ruthless people under the sky - forcing addicts to quit all day long, this job is not for ordinary people after a long time, if their mental quality is not good enough, it's inevitable that problems will arise. They can do this for so long, besides being born with a cold-blooded and ruthless heart, it's really hard to find other reasons."
After the bailiffs had settled these opium ghosts in different rooms, Tan Yanqing also breathed a sigh of relief - it was good if these opium addicts could fall asleep after taking the medicine. If they didn't react to the medicine like some people, that would be troublesome. Although the detoxification pills were very effective in later generations, Tan Yanqing did not have advanced equipment for process refinement, so the efficacy had to be discounted. However, even if it was opium, this detoxification was a relatively long-term thing, and according to his estimate, at least one month of treatment would be required, taking medicine every day to get rid of the opium addiction.
The greatest benefit of this prescription is not that it can quickly and effectively cure addiction, but rather that it can very well prevent relapse after detoxification. After the first course of treatment, if the addiction is cured, then afterwards when the addict sees drugs again, they will have a certain intense reaction, such as vomiting, headaches, etc. These negative reactions will very effectively prevent the already detoxified addict from relapsing, and this is also why Tan Yanjin attaches so much importance to this prescription.
