Poisonous gift

摘要

In 1643 Fang Yizhi, a Chinese scholar, wrote that smoking tobacco for too long would "blacken the lungs" and lead to death. The then-emperor, Chongzhen, didn't bother with warning labels. He outlawed growing and smoking the leaf. Violators were to be beheaded. (As it happens, a year later, the Ming dynasty and Chongzhen were both dead, neither from blackened lungs.)