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0137 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 137 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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SAFFRON AND TIIRMERIC   31I

garding the introduction or cultivation of saffron.' The confusion of Li Si-éen is simply due to an association of the two plants known as "red flower." Safflower is thus designated in the Tsti min yao . u, further by Li Cun 1 of the Tang and in the Sun i, where the yen-ei red flower is stated to have been sent as tribute by the prefecture of

Hin-yüan   7G in Sen-si.2

The fact that Li Si-ben in the above passage was thinking of saffron becomes evident from two foreign words added to his nomenclature of the product: namely, in eki-fu-lan and Ai a U sa fatsi. The first character in the former transcription is a misprint for tsa (*tsap, dzap) ; the last character in the latter form must be emendated into lan.3 Tsa-fu-lan and sa fa-lan (Japanese safuran, Siamese faran), as was recognized long ago, represent transcriptions of Arabic za`ferân or za`farân, which, on its part, has resulted in our "saf-

1 BRETSCHNEIDER (Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 222) asserts that saffron is not cultivated in Peking, but that it is known that it is extensively cultivated in other parts of China. I know nothing about this, and have never seen or heard of any saffron cultivation in China, nor is any Chinese account to that effect known to me. Crocus sativus is not listed in the great work of F. B. FORBES and W. B. HEMSLEY (An Enumeration of All the Plants known from China Proper, comprising Vols. 23, 26, and 36 of the Journal of the Linnean Society), the most comprehensive systematic botany of China. ENGLER (in Hehn, Kulturpflanzen, p. 270) says that Crocus is cultivated in China. WATT (Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 593) speaks of Chinese saffron imported into India. It is of especial interest that Marco Polo did not find saffron in China, but he reports that in the province of Fu-kien they have "a kind of fruit, resembling saffron, and which serves the purpose of saffron just as well" (YuLE, Marco Polo, Vol. II, p. 225). It may be, as suggested by Yule after Flückiger, that this is Gardenia florida, the fruits of which are indeed used in China for dyeing-purposes, producing a beautiful yellow color. On the other hand, the Pen ts'ao kan mu Si i (Ch. 4, p. 14 b) contains the description of a " native saffron " (t `u hun hwa -f ;

, in opposition to the "Tibetanred flower" or genuine saffron) after the Continued Gazetteer of Fu-kienia #514 , as follows: "As regards the native saffron, the largest specimens are seven or eight feet high. The leaves are like those of the p`i-p`a Tit Tt (Eriobotrya japonica), but smaller and without hair. In the

autumn it produces a white flower like a grain of maize (su-mi   )K, Zea mays).

It grows in Fu-6ou and Nan-nen-Lou (Mj , . J'ti [now Yarn-kiain   ir in Kwarn-tun]

in the mountain wilderness. That of Fu-èou makes a fine creeper, resembling the fu-yun (Hibiscus mutabilis), green above and white below, the root being like that of

the ko   (Pachyrhizus thunbergianus). It is employed in the pharmacopoeia, being
finely chopped for this purpose and soaked overnight in water in which rice has been scoured; then it is soaked for another night in pure water and pounded: thus it is ready for prescriptions." This species has not been identified, but may well be Marco Polo's pseudo-saffron of Fu-kien.

2 T`u Su tsi 6`en, XX, Ch. 158.

3 Cf. WATTERS, Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 348. This transcription, however, does not prove, as intimated by Watters, that " this product was first imported into China from Persia direct or at least obtained immediately from Persian traders." The word zafartin is an Arabic loan-word in Persian, and may have been brought to China by Arabic traders as well.