Difference between revisions of "Irano-Sinica (Sino-Iranica)"

Revision as of 21:40, 16 December 2015

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After dealing with the cultural elements derived by the Chinese from the Iranians, it will be only just to look also at the reverse of the medal and consider what the Iranians owe to the Chinese.

1. Some products of China had reached Iranian peoples long before! any Chinese set their foot on Iranian soil. When Can K'ien in 128 B.C. reached Ta-hia (Bactria), he was amazed to see there staves or walkingsticks made from bamboo of Kiun JJS 1t ££^ and cloth of Su (Se-c'wan) §3 ^. What this textile exactly was is not known.2 Both these articles hailed from what is now Se-5'wan, Kiun being situated in Zun Sou Ufa. #H in the prefecture of Kia-tih, in the southern part of the province. When the Chinese envoy inquired from the people of Ta-hia how they had obtained these objects of his own country, they replied that they purchased them in India. Hence Can K'ien concluded that India could not be so far distant from Se-c'wan. It is well known how this new geographical notion subsequently led the Chinese to the discovery of Yun-nan. There was accordingly an ancient trade-route running from Se-c'wan through Yun-nan into north-eastern India; and, as India on her north-west frontier was in connection with Iranian territory, Chinese merchandise could thus reach Iran. The bamboo of Kiun, also called £!j, has been identified by the Chinese with the so-called square bamboo (Bambusa or Phyllostachys quadrangularis) . 3 The cylindrical form is so universal a feature in bamboo, that the report of the existence in China and Japan of a bamboo with four-angled stems was first considered in Europe a myth, or a pathological abnormity. It is now well assured that it represents a regular and normal species, which grows wild in the north-eastern portion of Yun-nan, and is cultivated chiefly as an ornament in gardens and in temple-courts, the longer stems being used

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1 He certainly did not see "a stick of bamboo," as understood by Hirth {Journal Am. Or. Soc, Vol. XXXVII, 1917, p. 98), but it was a finished product imported in a larger quantity.

2 Assuredly it was not silk, as arbitrarily inferred by F. v. Richthofen (China, Vol. I, p. 465). The word pu never refers to silk materials.

3 For an interesting article on this subject, see D. J. Macgowan, Chinese Recorder, Vol. XVI, 1885, pp. 141-142; further, the same journal, 1886, pp. 140-141. E. Satow, Cultivation of Bamboos in Japan, p. 92 (Tokyo, 1899). The square bamboo (Japanese Ukaku-dake) is said to have been introduced into Japan from Liukiu. Forbes and Hemsley, Journal Linnean Soc, Vol. XXXVI, p. 443.

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for staves, the smaller ones for tobacco-pipes. The shoots of this species are prized above all other bamboo-shoots as an esculent.

The Pet hu lu 1 has the following notice on staves of the square bamboo: "C'eh cou §£ #H (in Kwah-si) produces the square bamboo. Its trunk is as sharp as a knife, and is very strong. It can be made into staves which will never break. These are the staves from the bamboo of K'iuh 3%, mentioned by Can K'ien. Such are produced also in Yun cou ra$ 'M, 2 the largest of these reaching several tens of feet in height. According to the Ceh hh tsi jE M ft, there are in the southern territory square bamboo staves on which the white cicadas chirp, and which C'en Cen-tsie W> M tp has extolled. Moreover, Hai-yen 9$ H3 produces rushes (lu M., Phragmites communis) capable of being made into staves for support. P'an cou M ^H 4 produces thousand-years ferns ^ He W. and walking-sticks which are small and resemble the palmyra palm jt & (Borassus rflabelliformis) . There is, further, the su-tsie bamboo J8l W 1T, from which staves are abundantly made for the Buddhist and Taoist clergy,— all singular objects. According to the Hut tsui H" Jt, the t'un M bamboo from the Cen River $£ JH is straight, without knots in its upper parts, and hollow."

The Ko ku yao lun5 states that the square bamboo is produced in western Se-c'wan, and also grows on the mountain Fei-lai-fuh 3$ 2fS Hr on the West Lake in Ce-kiah; the knots of this bamboo are prickly, hence it is styled in Se-6'wan tse lu JW 1T ("prickly bamboo").

According to the Min siao ki P5 /h IS, 6 written by Cou Lian-kun ffl $& X in the latter part of the seventeenth century, square bamboo and staves made from it are produced in the district of Yun-tih ^C % in the prefecture of T'ih-Cou and in the district of T'ai-nih ^ ^ in the prefecture of Sao-wu, both in Fu-kien Province.7

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1 Ch. 3, p. 10 b (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan); see above, p. 268.

2 In the prefecture of Liu-2ou, Kwan-si.

3 Explained in the commentary as the name of a locality, but its situation is not indicated and is unknown to me.

4 The present Mou-mih hien, forming the prefectural city of Kao-cou fu, Kwan-tun.

5 Ch. 8, p. 9 (ed. of Si yin Man ts'un Su).

6 Ed. of Swo tin, p. 17.

7 The San hai kin mentions the "narrow bamboo (hia cu $$£ 1T) growing in abundance on the Tortoise Mountain"; and Kwo P'o (a.d. 276-324), in his commentary to this work, identifies with it the bamboo of Kiuh. According to the Kwan li, the Kiun bamboo occurred in the districts of Nan-kwan ff^J llf (at present Nan-k'i f|| $£) and Kiuh-tu in Se-5*wan. The Memoirs of Mount Lo-fou (Lo-fou San ki) in Kwan-tuh state that the Kiun bamboo was originally produced on Mount Kiun, being identical with that noticed by Can K'ien in Ta-hia, and that villageelders use it as a staff. A treatise on bamboo therefore calls it the "bamboo supporting the old" ffi ^g 'fj*. These texts are cited in the T'ai p'in yii Ian (Ch. 963, p. 3).

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It is said to occur also in the prefecture of Teh-cou $£ 4H, San-tun Province, where it is likewise made into walking-sticks. 1 The latter being much in demand by Buddhist monks, the bamboo has received the epithet "Lo-han bamboo" (bamboo of the Arhat).2

It is perfectly manifest that what was exported from Se-6'wan by way of Yun-nan into India, and thence forwarded to Bactria, was the square bamboo in the form of walking-canes. India is immensely rich in bamboos; and only a peculiar variety, which did not exist in India, could have compensated for the trouble and cost which this long and wearisome trade-route must have caused in those days. For years, I must confess, it has been a source of wonder to me why Se-c'wan bamboo should have been carried as far as Bactria, until I encountered the text of the Pet hu lu, which gives a satisfactory solution of the problem.3

2. The most important article by which the Chinese became] famously known in ancient times, of course, was silk. This subject is so extensive, and has so frequently been treated in special monographs, that it does not require recapitulation in this place. I shall only recall the fact that the Chinese silk materials, after traversing Central Asia, reached the Iranian Parthians, who acted as mediators in this trade with the anterior Orient.^\It is assumed that the introduction of sericulture into Persia, especially into Gilan, where it still flourishes, falls in the latter part of the Sasanian epoch. It is very probable that the acquaintance of the Khotanese with the rearing of silkworms, introduced by a Chinese princess in a.d. 419, gave the impetus to a further growth of this new industry in a western direction, gradually spreading to Yarkand, Fergana, and Persia.5 Chinese brocade (diba-i llri) is fre- --'*"' quently mentioned by FirdausI as playing a prominent part in Persian decorations.6 He also speaks of a very fine and decorated Chinese silk under the name parniyan, corresponding to Middle Persian parntkan? Iranian has a peculiar word for "silk," not yet satisfactorily explained: Pahlavi *apresum, *aparesum; New Persian abre*>urn, abreiam (Arme-

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1 San tun t'un li, Ch. 9, p. 6.

2 See K'ien Su 3^ ilF, Ch. 4, p. 7 b (in Yue ya fan ts'un Su, t'ao 24) and Su K'ien hi, Ch. 7, p. 2 b (ibid.). Cf. also tu p'u sian lu 1t Wt f£ £&. written by Li K'an ^ ffX "! I299 (Ch. 4, p. I b; ed. of Ci pu tsu lai ts'un Su).

3 The speculations of J. Marquart (Eransahr, pp. 319-320) in regard to this bamboo necessarily fall to the ground. There is no misunderstanding on the part of Can K'ien, and the account of the Si ki is perfectly correct and clear.

4 Hirth, Chinesische Studien, p. 10.

5 Spiegel, Eranische Altertumskunde, Vol. I, p. 256.

6 J. J. Modi, Asiatic Papers, p. 254 (Bombay, 1905).

7 HtJBSCHMANN, Persische Studien, p. 242.

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nian, loan-word from Persian, aprUum)\ hence Arabic ibarisam or ibrlsam; Pamir dialects warSum, war$um, Sugni wrelom, etc.; Afghan writs'am. 1 Certain it is that we have here a type not related to any Chinese word for "silk." In this connection I wish to register my utter disbelief in the traditional opinion, inaugurated by Klaproth, that Greek ser (" silk- worm " ; hence Seres, Serica) should be connected with Mongol Urgek and Manchu sirge ("silk"), the latter with Chinese se M.2 My reasons for rejecting this theory may be stated as briefly as possible. I do not see how a Greek word can be explained from Mongol or Manchu,—languages which we merely know in their most recent forms, Mongol from the thirteenth and Manchu from the sixteenth century. Neither the Greek nor the Mongol-Manchu word can be correlated with Chinese se. The latter was never provided with a final consonant. Klaproth resorted to the hypothesis that in ancient dialects of China along the borders of the empire a final r might (pent- tire) have existed. This, however, was assuredly not the case. We know that the termination V jrcl, so frequently associated with nouns in Pekingese, is of comparatively recent origin, and not older than the Yuan period (thirteenth century) ; the beginnings of this usage may go back to the end of the twelfth or even to the ninth century. 3 At any rate, it did not exist in ancient times when the Greek ser came into being. Moreover, this suffix V is not used arbitrarily : it joins certain words, while others take the suffix tse ?", and others again do not allow any suffix. The word se, however, has never been amalgamated with V. In all probability, its ancient phonetic value was *si, sa. It is thus phonetically impossible to derive from it the Mongol-Manchu word or Korean sir, added by Abel-R6musat. I do not deny that this series may have its root in a Chinese word, but its parentage cannot be traced to se. I do

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1 Hubschmann, Arm. Gram., p. 107; Horn, Neupers. Etymologie, No. 65. The derivation from Sanskrit ksautna is surely wrong. Bulgar ibriUm, Rumanian ibrisin, are likewise connected with the Iranian series.

2 Cf. Klaproth, Conjecture sur l'origine du nom de la soie chez les anciens (Journal asiatique, Vol. I, 1822, pp. 243-245, with additions by Abel-Remusat, 245-247); Asia polyglotta, p. 341; and M£moires relatifs a TAsie, Vol. Ill, p. 264. Klaproth's opinion has been generally, but thoughtlessly, accepted (Hirth, op. tit., p, 217; F. v. Richthofen, China, Vol. I, p. 443; Schrader, Reallexikon, p. 757). Pelliot (T'oung Pao, 191 2, p. 741), I believe, was the first to point out that Chinese se was never possessed of a final consonant.

3 See my note in T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 77; and H. Maspero, Sur quelques textes anciens de chinois parle\ p. 12. Maspero encountered the word mao'r (" cat ") in a text of the ninth century. It hardly makes any great difference whether we conceive V as a diminutive or as a suffix. Originally it may have had the force of a diminutive, and have gradually developed into a pure suffix. Cf. also P. Schmidt, K istorii kitaiskago razgovornago yazyka, in Sbornik stat'ei professorov, p. 19 (Vladivostok, 1917).

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not believe, either, that Russian folk ("silk"), as is usually stated (even by Dal'), is derived from Mongol lirgek: first of all, the alleged phonetic coincidence is conspicuous by its absence; and, secondly, an ancient Russian word cannot be directly associated with Mongol; it would be necessary to trace the same or a similar word in Turkish, but there it does not exist; "silk" in Turkish is ipak, torgu, torka, etc. It is more probable that the Russian word (Old Slavic Mk, Lithuanian szilkai), in the same manner as our silk, is traceable to sericum. There is no reason to assume that the Greek words ser, Sera, Seres, etc., have their origin in Chinese. This series was first propagated by Iranians, and, in my opinion, is of Iranian origin (cf. New Persian sarah, "silk"; hence Arabic sarak).

Persian kimxaw or kamxab, kamxd, kimxd (Arabic kimxaw, Hindustani kamxdb), designating a "gold brocade," as I formerly explained, 1 may be derived from Chinese $S ^£ kin-hwa, *kim-xwa.

3-4. Of fruits, the West is chiefly indebted to China for the peacm I (Amygdalus persica) and the apricot (Prunus armeniaca). It is not\ impossible that these two gifts were transmitted by the silk-dealers, first to Iran (in the second or first century B.C.), and thence to Armenia, Greece, and Rome (in the first century a.d.) . InRome the two trees appear \ as late as the first century of the Imperium, being mentioned as Persicaj and Armeniaca arbor by Pliny 2 and Columella. Neither tree is mentioned by Theophrastus, which is to say that they were not noted in Asia by the staff of Alexander's expedition. 3 De Candolle has ably pleaded for China as the home of the peach and apricot, and Engler4 holds the same opinion. The zone of the wild apricot may well extend from Russian Turkistan to Sungaria, south-eastern Mongolia, and the Himalaya; but the historical fact remains that the Chinese have been the first to cultivate this fruit from ancient times. Previous authors \ have justly connected the westward migration of peach and apricot I with the lively intercourse of China and western Asia following Ca6j K'ien's mission.5 Persian has only descriptive names for these fruits, the peach being termed lajt-alu, ("large plum"), the apricot zard-alu

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1 Toting Pao, 1916, p. 477; Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 484.

2 xv, 11, 13.

3 De Candolle (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 222) is mistaken in crediting Theophrastus with the knowledge of the peach. Joret (Plantes dans l'antiquite\ p. 79) has already pointed out this error, and it is here restated for the benefit of those botanists who still depend on de Candolle's book.

4 In Hehn, Kulturpflanzen, p. 433.

5 Joret, op. cit., p. 81; Schrader in Hehn, p. 434.

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("yellow plum")-1 Both fruits are referred to in Pahlavi literature (above, pp. 192, 193).

As to the transplantation of the Chinese peach into India, we have an interesting bit of information in the memoirs of the Chinese pilgrim Hiian Tsah.2 At the time of the great Indo-Scythian king Kaniska, whose fame spread all over the neighboring countries, the tribes west of the Yellow River (Ho-si in Kan-su) dreaded his power, and sent hostages to him. Kaniska treated them with marked attention, and assigned to them special mansions and guards of honor. The country where the hostages resided in the winter received the name Cinabhukti ("China allotment," in the eastern Panjab). In this kingdom and throughout India there existed neither pear nor peach. These were planted by the hostages. The peach therefore was called clnani ("Chinese fruit"); and the pear, clnarajaputra ("crown-prince of China"). These names are still prevalent. 3 Although Hiian Tsan recorded in a.d. 630 an oral tradition overheard by him in India, and relative to a time lying back over half a millennium, his well-tested trustworthiness cannot be doubted in this case: the story thus existed in India, and may indeed be traceable to an event that took place under the reign of Kaniska, the exact date of which is still controversial.4 There are mainly two reasons which prompt me to accept Hiian Tsah's account. From a botanical point of view, the peach is not a native of India. It occurs there only

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1 In the Pamir languages we meet a common name for the apricot, Minjan leri, WaxI liwan or loan (but Sariqoll noS, Signi na£). The same type occurs in the Dardu languages (jui or ji for the tree, jarote or jorote for the fruit, and juru for the ripe fruit) and in Kagmlrl (tser, tser-kul) ; further, in West-Tibetan lu-li or lo-li, Balti su-ri, Kanaurl lul (other Tibetan words for "apricot" are k'am-bu, a-$u, and la-rag, the last-named being dried apricots with little pulp and almost as hard as a stone). Klaproth {Journal asiatique, Vol. II, 1823, p. 159) has recorded in Bukhara a word for the apricot in the form tserduti, It is not easy to determine how this type has migrated. Tomaschek (Pamir-Dialekte, p. 791) is inclined to think that originally it might have been Tibetan, as Baltistan furnishes the best apricots. For my part, I have derived the Tibetan from the Pamir languages (T'oung Pao, 1916, p. 82). The word is decidedly not Tibetan; and as to its origin, I should hesitate only between the Pamir and Dardu languages.

2 Ta T'an Si yil hi, Ch. 4, p. 5.

3 There are a few other Indian names of products formed with "China": clnapitfa ("minium"), clnaka ("Panicum miliaceum, fennel, a kind of camphor"), clnakarpura ("a kind of camphor"), clnavanga ("lead").

4 Cf. V. A. Smith, Early History of India, 3d ed., p. 263 (I do not believe with Smith that "the territory of the ruler to whose family the hostages belonged seems to have been not very distant from Kashgar"; the Chinese term Ho-si, at the time of the Han, comprised the present province of Kan-su from Lan-c"ou to An-si); T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels, Vol. I, pp. 292-293 (his comments on the story of the peach miss the mark, and his notes on the name Clna are erroneous; see also Pelliot, Bull, de VEcolefranqaise, Vol. V, p. 457).

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in a cultivated state, and does not even succeed well, the fruit being mediocre and acid. 1 There is no ancient Sanskrit name for the tree; nor does it play any rdle in the folk-lore of India, as it does in China. Further, as regards the time of the introduction, whether the reign of Kaniska be placed in the first century before or after our era, it is singularly synchronous with the transplantation of the tree into western Asia.

5. As indicated by the Persian name dar-llnl or dar-lln ("Chinese wood" or "bark"; Arabic dar ?lni), cinnamon was obtained by the Persians and Arabs from China.2 Ibn Khordadzbeh, who wrote between a.d. 844 and 848, is the first Arabic author who enumerates cinnamon among the products exported from China.3 The Chinese export cannot have assumed large dimensions: it is not alluded to in Chinese records, Cao Zu-kwa is reticent about it. 4 Ceylon was always the main seat of cinnamon production, and the tree {Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is a native of the Ceylon forests.5 The bark of this tree is also called dar-cini. It is well known that cassia and cinnamon are mentioned by classical authors, and have given rise to many sensational speculations as to the origin of the cinnamon of the ancients. Herodotus6 places cinnamon in Arabia, and tells a wondrous story as to how it is gathered. Theophrastus 7 seeks the home of cassia and cinnamomum, together with frankincense and myrrh, in the Arabian peninsula about Saba, Hadramyt, Kitibaina, and Mamali. Strabo8 locates it in the land of the Sabasans, in Arabia, also in Ethiopia and southern India; finally he has a "cinnamon-bearing country" at the end of the habitable countries of the south, on the shore of the Indian ocean.9 Pliny 10 has cinnamomum or cinnamum grow in the country of the Ethiopians, and it is carried over sea on rafts by the Troglodytae.

1 C. Joret, Plantes dans l'antiquite\ Vol. II, p. 281.

2 Leclerc, Traite" des simples, Vol. II, pp. 68, 272. The loan-word darilenik in Armenian proves that the word was known in Middle Persian (*dar-i £gnik) ; cf. Hubschmann, Armen. Gram., p. 137. * G. Ferrand, Textes relatifs a l'Extreme-Orient, p. 31.

4 Schoff (Periplus, p. 83) asserts that between the third and sixth centuries there was an active sea-trade in this article in Chinese ships from China to Persia. No reference is given. I wonder from what source this is derived.

5 De Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 146; Watt, Commercial Products of India, p. 313.

6 in, 107, 111.

7 Hist, plant., IX. IV, 2.

8 XV. iv, 19; XVI. IV, 25; XV. I, 22.

9 1, iv, 2.

10 xii, 42.

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The descriptions given of cinnamon and cassia by Theophrastus1 show that the ancients did not exactly agree on the identity of these plants, and Theophrastus himself speaks from hearsay ("In regard to cinnamon and cassia they say the following: both are shrubs, it is said, and not of large size. . . . Such is the account given by some. Others say that cinnamon is shrubby or rather like an under-brush, and that there are two kinds, one black, the other white"). The difference between cinnamon and cassia seems to have been that the latter possessed stouter branches, was very fibrous, and difficult to strip off the bark. This bark was used; it was bitter, and had a pungent odor.2

Certain it is that the two words are of Semitic origin. 3 The fact that there is no cinnamon in Arabia and Ethiopia was already known to Garcia da Orta.4 An unfortunate attempt has been made to trace the cinnamon of the ancients to the Chinese.5 This theory has thus been formulated by Muss-Arnolt:6 "This spice was imported by Phoenician merchants from Egypt, where it is called khisi-t. The Egyptians, again, brought it from the land of Punt, to which it was imported from Japan, where we have it under the form kei-chi ('branch of the cinnamon-tree'), or better kei-shin ('heart of the cinnamon') [read sin, *sim]. The Japanese itself is again borrowed from the Chinese kei-U [?]. The -t in the Egyptian represents the feminine suffix." As may be seen from O. Schrader,7 this strange hypothesis was first put forward in 1883 by C. Schumann. Schrader himself feels somewhat sceptic about it, and regards the appearance of Chinese merchandise on the markets of Egypt at such an early date as hardly probable. From a sinological viewpoint, this speculation must be wholly rejected, both in its linguistic and its historical bearings. Japan was not in existence \ in 1500 B.C., when cinnamon-wood of the country Punt is spoken of in ; the Egyptian inscriptions; and China was then a small agrarian inland *, community restricted to the northern part of the present empire, and

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1 Hist, plant., IX. v, 1-3.

2 Theophrastus, IX. v, 3.

3 Greek Kaala is derived from Hebrew qest'a, perhaps related to Assyrian kasu, kasiya (Pognon, Journal asiatique, 1917, I, p. 400). Greek kinnamomon is traced to Hebrew qinnamon (Exodus, xxx, 23).

4 Markham, Colloquies, pp. 1 19-120.

5 Thus also Fluckiger and Hanbury (Pharmacographia, p. 520), whose argumentation is not sound, as it lacks all sense of chronology. The Persian term dar-cinl, for instance, is strictly of mediaeval origin, and cannot be invoked as evidence for the supposition that cinnamon was exported from China many centuries before Christ.

6 Transactions Am. Phil. Assoc, Vol. XXIII, 1892, p. 115.

7 Reallexikon, p. 989.

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not acquainted with any Cassia trees of the south. Certainly there was no Chinese navigation and sea-trade at that time. The Chinese word kwei ££ (*kwai, kwi) occurs at an early date, but it is a generic term for Lauraceae; and there are about thirteen species of Cassia, and about sixteen species of Cinnamomum, in China. The essential point is that the ancient texts maintain silence as to cinnamon; that is, the product from the bark of the tree. Cinnamomum cassia is a native of Kwah-si, Kwahtuh, and Indo-China; and the Chinese made its first acquaintance under the Han, when they began to colonize and to absorb southern China. The first description of this species is contained in the Nan fan ts'ao mu cwan of the third century.1 This work speaks of large forests of this tree covering the mountains of Kwah-tuh, and of its cultivation in gardens of Kiao-ci (Tonking). It was not the Chinese, but non-Chinese peoples of Indo-China, who first brought the tree into cultivation, which, like all other southern cultivations, was simply adopted by the conquering Chinese. The medicinal employment of the bark {kwei p'i t£ $£) is first mentioned by T'ao Huh-kih (a.d. 451-536), and probably was not known much earlier. It must be positively denied, however, that the Chinese or any nation of Indo-China had any share in the trade which brought cinnamon to the Semites, Egyptians, or Greeks jat the time of Herodotus or earlier. The earliest date we may assume £or any navigation from the coasts of Indo-China into the Indian Ocean \s the second century b.c. 2 The solution of the cinnamon problem of the ancients seems simpler to me than to my predecessors. First, there is no valid reason to assume that what our modern botany understands by Cassia and Cinnamomum must be strictly identical with the products so named by the ancients. Several different species are evidently involved. It is perfectly conceivable that in ancient times there was a fragrant bark supplied by a certain tree of Ethiopia or Arabia or both, which is either extinct or unknown to us, or, as F6e inclines to think, a species of Amyris. It is further legitimate to conclude, without forcing the evidence, that the greater part of the cinnamon supply came from Ceylon and India, 3 India being expressly included by Strabo. This, at least,' is infinitely more reasonable than acquiescing in the wild fantasies of a Schumann or Muss-Arnolt, who lack the most elementary knowledge of East-Asiatic history.

6. The word "China " in the names of Persian and Arabic products,

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1 The more important texts relative to the subject are accessible in Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. Ill, No. 303.

2 Cf. Pelliot, Toung Pao, 1912, pp. 457-461.

3 The Malabar cinnamon is mentioned by Marco Polo (Yule's ed., Vol. II, p. 389) and others.

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or the attribution of certain products to China, is not always to be understood literally. Sometimes it merely refers to a far-eastern product, sometimes even to an Indian product,1 and sometimes to products handled and traded by the Chinese, regardless of their provenience. Such cases, however, are exceptions. As a rule, these Persian- Arabic terms apply to actual products of China.

Schlimmer2 mentions under the name Killingea monocephala the zedoary of China : according to Piddington's Index Plantarum, it should be the plant furnishing the famous root known in Persia as jadware xitai ("Chinese jadvar"); genuine specimens are regarded as a divine panacea, and often paid at the fourfold price of fine gold. The identification, however, is hardly correct, for K. monocephala is kin niu ts'ao ^ 41 ^ in Chinese, 3 which hardly holds an important place in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. The plant which Schlimmer had in mind doubtless is Curcuma zedoaria, a native of Bengal and perhaps of China and various other parts of Asia.4 It is called in Sanskrit nirvisa ("poisonless") or sida, in KuSa or Tokharian B viralom or wiralom, 5 Persian jadvar, Arabic zadvar (hence our zedoary, French zedoaire). Abu Mansur describes it as zarvar, calling it an Indian remedy similar to Costus and a good antidote.6 In the middle ages it was a much-desired article of trade bought by European merchants in the Levant, where it was sold as a product of the farthest east.7 Persian zarumbdd, Arabic zeronbdd, designating an aromatic root similar to zedoary, resulted in our zerumbet. s While it is not certain that Curcuma zedoaria occurs in China (a Chinese name is not known to me), it is noteworthy that the Persians, as indicated above, ascribe to the root a Chinese origin: thus also ka%ur (from Sanskrit karcura) is explained in the Persian Dictionary of

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1 Such an example I have given in T'&ung Pao, 1915, p. 319: biS, an edible aconite, does not occur in China, as stated by Damlrl, but in India. In regard to cubebs, however, Garcia da Orta (C. Markham, Colloquies, p. 169) was mistaken in denying that they were grown in China, and in asserting that they are called kabab-£inl only because they are brought by the Chinese. As I have shown {ibid., pp. 282-288), cubebs were cultivated in China from the Sung period onward.

2 Terminologie, p. 335.

3 Also this identification is doubtful (Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 228).

4 W. Roxburgh, Flora Indica, p. 8; Watt, Commercial Products of India, p. 444, and Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 669.

5 S. Levi, Journal asiatique, 191 1, II, pp. 123, 138.

6 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 79. See also Leclerc, Traits des simples, Vol. I, P- 347.

7 W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du levant, Vol. II, p. 676.

8 Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 979.

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Steingass as "zedoary, a Chinese root." Further, we read under māhparwār or parwîn, "zedoary, a Chinese root like ginger, but perfumed."

7. Abu Mansur distinguishes under the Arabic name zanjabīl three kinds of ginger (product of Amomum zingiber, or Zingiber officinale),— Chinese, Zanzibar, and Melinawi or Zurunbāj, the best being the Chinese.^[1] According to Steingass,^[2] Persian anqala denotes "a kind of China ginger."^[3] The Persian word (likewise in Arabic) demonstrates that the product was received from India : compare Prakrit singabēra, Sanskrit çṛṅgavera (of recent origin),^[4] Old Arabic zangabīl, Pahlavi šangavīr, New Persian šankalīl, Arabic-Persian zanjabīl, Armenian sṅrvēl or snkrvil (from *singivēl), Greek ζιγγίβερις, Latin zingiberi ; Madagasy šakavīru (Indian loan-word).^[5]

The word galangal, denoting the aromatic rhizome of Alpinia galanga, is not of Chinese origin, as first supposed by D. Hanbury,^[6] and after him by Hirth^[7] and Giles.^[8] The error was mainly provoked by the fact that the Arabic word from which the European name is derived was wrongly written by Hanbury khalanjān, while in fact it is khūlanjān (xūlandžān), Persian xāwalinjān. The fact that Ibn Khordādzbeh, who wrote about A.D. 844-848, mentions khūlanjān as one of the products of China,^[9] does not prove that the Arabs received this word from China ; for this rhizome is not a product peculiar to China, but is intensively grown in India, and there the Arabs made the first acquaintance of it. Ibn al-Baiṭār ^[10] states expressly that khūlanjān comes from India ; and, as was recognized long ago, the Arabic word is derived from Sanskrit kulañja,^[11] which denotes Alpinia galanga. The European forms with ng (galangan, galgan, etc.) were suggested by the older Arabic pronunciation khūlangān.^[12] In Middle Greek we have

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1. ↑ Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 76.
2. ↑ Persian Dictionary, p. 113.
3. ↑ Concerning ginger among the Arabs, cf. Leclerc, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 217 ; and regarding its preparation, see G. Ferrand, Textes relatifs à l'Extreme-Orient, p. 609.
4. ↑ Cf. the discussion of E. Hultzsch and F. W. Thomas in Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1912, pp. 475, 1093. See also Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 374.
5. ↑ The curious word for "ginger" in Kuča or Tokharian B, tváṅkaro (S. Lévi, Journal asiatique, 1911, II, pp. 124, 137), is not yet explained.
6. ↑ Science Papers, p. 373.
7. ↑ Chinesische Studien, p. 219.
8. ↑ Glossary of Reference, p. 102.
9. ↑ G. Ferrand, Textes relatifs à l'Extrême-Orient, p. 31.
10. ↑ Ibid., p. 259. Cf. also Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 60.
11. ↑ Roediger and Pott, Z. K. d. Morgenl., Vol. VII, 1850, p. 128.
12. ↑ Wiedemann (Sitzber. Phys.-Med. Soz. Erl., Vol. XLV, 1913, p. 44) gives as Arabic forms also xaulangād and xalangān.

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κολούτζια, χαυλιζέν, and γαλαγγά ; in Russian, kalgán. The whole group has nothing to do with Chinese kao-liaṅ-kiaṅ.^[1] Moreover, the latter refers to a different species, Alpinia officinarum ; while Alpinia galanga does not occur in China, but is a native of Bengal, Assam, Burma, Ceylon, and the Konkan. Garcia da Orta was already well posted on the differences between the two.^[2]

8. Abu Mansur mentions the medical properties of māmīrān.^[3] According to Achundow,^[4] a rhizome originating from China, and called in Turkistan momiran, is described by Dragendorff, and is regarded by him as identical with the so-called mishmee (from Coptis teeta Wall.), which is said to be styled mamiračin in the Caucasus. He further correlates the same drug with Ranunculus ficaria (χελιδόνιον τὸ μικρόν), subsequently described by the Arabs under the name mamirun. Al-Jafiki is quoted by Ibn al-Baiṭār as saying that the māmīrān comes from China, and that its properties come near to those of Curcuma ;^[5] these roots, however, are also a product of Spain, the Berber country, and Greece.^[6] The Sheikh Daūd says that the best which comes from India is blackish, while that of China is yellowish. Ibn Baṭūṭa^[7] mentions the importation of māmīrān from China, saying that it has the same properties as kurkum. Hajji Mahomed, in his account of Cathay (ca. 1550), speaks of a little root growing in the mountains of Succuir (Su-čou in Kan-su), where the rhubarb grows, and which they call Mambroni Cini (māmīrān-i Čīnī, "mamiran of China"). "This is extremely dear, and is used in most of their ailments, but especially where the eyes are affected. They grind it on a stone with rose-water, and anoint the eyes with it. The result is wonderfully beneficial."^[8] In 1583 Leonhart Rauwolf^[9] mentions

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1. ↑ Needless to say that the vivisections of Hirth, who did not know the Sanskrit term, lack philological method.
2. ↑ Markham, Colloquies, p. 208. Garcia gives lavandou as the name used in China ; this is apparently a corrupted Malayan form (cf. Javanese laos). In Java, he says, there is another larger kind, called lancuaz ; in India both are styled lancuaz. This is Malayan leṅkūwas, Makasar laṅkuwasa, Čam lakuah or lakuak, Tagalog laṅkuas. The Arabic names are written by Garcia calvegiam, chamligiam, and galungem ; the author's Portuguese spelling, of course, must be taken into consideration.
3. ↑ Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 138.
4. ↑ Ibid., p. 268.
5. ↑ Leclerc, Traité des simples, Vol. II, p. 441. Dioscorides remarks that the sap of this plant has the color of saffron.
6. ↑ In Byzantine Greek it is μαμηρέ or μεμηρέν, derived from the Persian-Arabic word.
7. ↑ Ed. of Defrémery and Sanguinetti, Vol. II, p. 186.
8. ↑ Yule, Cathay, new ed., Vol. I, p. 292.
9. ↑ Beschreibung der Raiss inn die Morgenländer, p. 126.

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