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*''Japanese'': 阿片 ''(ahen)''
[[File:Opium-ball.jpg|right|thumb|320px|A replica opium ball on display at the Museum of the Chinese in America (MoCA) in New York Chinatown. Balls like these, each about the size of a bowling ball, were packed in crates of forty or so for shipment to China.]]
*''Chinese/Japanese'': 阿片 ''(Āpiàn / ahen)''
Opium, a drug made from the poppy plant, was a prominent export from British India to China during the [[Qing Dynasty]]. The widespread addiction to opium which resulted is frequently identified as a major societal problem of the mid-to-late Qing, and as contributing to the decline and collapse of the dynasty. It was originally imported (especially in such great volume) as a substitute for [[silver]], of which the British had little supply, and yet which was one of the only goods the Chinese market & Court would accept. Though its cultivation and importation was quickly banned by the Qing Court, the British were quite successful in illegally smuggling much opium into China in the 18th-19th centuries, eventually resulting in the [[Opium War]], which contributed, in turn, dramatically, to the decline and eventual collapse of the dynasty.
Opium, a drug made from the poppy plant, was a prominent export from British India to China during the [[Qing Dynasty]]. The widespread addiction to opium which resulted is frequently identified as a major societal problem of the mid-to-late Qing, and as contributing to the decline and collapse of the dynasty. It was originally imported (especially in such great volume) as a substitute for [[silver]], of which the British had little supply, and yet which was one of the only goods the Chinese market & Court would accept. Though its cultivation and importation was quickly banned by the Qing Court, the British were quite successful in illegally smuggling much opium into China in the 18th-19th centuries, eventually resulting in the [[Opium War]], which contributed, in turn, dramatically, to the decline and eventual collapse of the dynasty.
