Tobacco was introduced to Asia in the second half of the16th century, mainly from Spain and Portugal. The time when tobacco was introduced into China was about the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1573- 16 19). According to Zhang Jiebin (1563- 1640), a famous doctor in the late Ming dynasty, "this thing (referring to tobacco) has never been heard since ancient times, and Wanli was originally planted in Wu Chu." Fang Yizhi's Notes on Physics (1664) states that "at the end of Wanli, there were people who brought (Guanggu) to Ma Ming's naked fruit, which was gradually spread to nine sides. They all held long pipes, smoked them with fire, and had drunken servants." According to Quanzhou Fuzhi, "Smoked seeds (referring to tobacco) come from overseas, with leaves as big as taro and smoked leaves, and Anxi wins Zhangpu Shidian." Li E's "Fan Xie and Fang Shan" contains: Tobacco "spread from the Philippines to Fujian and Guangxi, and then from Fujian and Guangxi to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hubei, and then to the southwest."
But modern archaeological discoveries have another new theory. During the period of 1980, Zheng, a cultural relic investigation team of Guangxi Museum, excavated three porcelain tubes and a hammer for making porcelain in Hepu County, Guangxi. The back of the hammer is engraved with the words "Made on April 24th, 28th year of Jiajing" 13. This is the first archaeological discovery of smoking apparatus in China, and the exact age is recorded (1549). Excavators believe that tobacco was introduced into China from Portugal during Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty. This was 50 years earlier than the Wanli period, which was consistent with the early Portuguese aggression against the coastal areas of China (1522- 1560).