IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
AROMATICS—PIITCHIICK 463
no botanical value, being merely a commercial label covering different roots from most diverse regions. If Cao Zu-kwa compares the putchuckyielding plant with Luffa cylindrica, a Cucurbitacea of southern China, with which he compares also the cardamom, it is perfectly clear that he does not visualize the genuine costus-root of Saussurea lappa, a tall, stout herb, indigenous to the moist, open slopes surrounding the valley of Kashmir, at an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet. If he further states that the product is found in Hadramaut and on the Somali coast, it is, in my opinion, not logical to reject this as "wrong," for a product of the name mu hian was certainly known in the China of his time from that region. And why not? Also Dioscorides mentions an Arabian costus, which is white and odoriferous and of the best quality; besides, he has an Indian costus, black and smooth, and a Syrian variety of wax color, dusky, and of strong odor. It is obvious that these three articles correspond to the roots of three distinct species, which have certain properties in common; and it has justly been doubted that the modern costus is the same thing as that of the ancients. The Arabs have Adopted the nomenclature of Dioscorides.' The Sheikh Daûd distinguishes an Indian species, white; a black one from China; and a red, heavy one, adding that it is said to be a tree of the kind of Agallochum. Nearly everywhere in Asia have been found aromatic roots which in one way or another correspond to the properties of the Indian kustha. Thus in Tibet and Mongolia the latter is adjusted with the genus Inula; and the Tibetan word ru-rta, originally referring to an In.ula, was adopted by the Buddhist translators as a rendering of Sanskrit ku$tha.2 In the same manner, the Chinese term mu hian formerly denoted an indigenous plant of Yün-nan, which, according to the ancient work Pie lu, grew in the mountain-valleys of Yuen-6`aù.3 The correctness of this tradition is confirmed by the Man §u, which mentions a mountain-range, three days' journey south of Yun-6`arn, by name Ts`in-mu-hian (" Dark-Wood Aromatic "), and owing its name to the great abundance of this root.4 The Man.fu, further, extends its occurrence to the country
1 LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. III, pp. 85-86.
2 H. LAUFER, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der tibetischen Medicin, p. 61.
Also Wu K`i-tsün (Ci wu min Si t`u k`ao, Ch. 25, p. H) observes correctly that this species is not the putchuck coming from the foreign barbarians. His three illustrations, putchuck from Hai-Lou in Kian-su, from Kwan-tun, and from `u-éou
in Nan-hwi, are reproduced from the T`u u tsi I`en (XX, Ch. 117), and represent three distinct plants.
4 The Tien hai yit hen ci (Ch. 3, p. I; see above, p. 228) states that mu kiwi is
produced in the native district C`ô-li * ± r, formerly called C`an-li
of Yün-nan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.