IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
IRANIAN PRECIOUS STONES—SE-SE
women of the Nan Man (the aboriginal tribes of southern China), being fastened in their hair;' and were known in the kingdom of Nan-6ao.2
Likewise the women of Wei-cou M1 in Se-6`wan wore strung se-se
in their hair.' Further, we hear at the same time of se-se utilized by the Chinese and even mined in Chinese soil. In some cases it seems that a building-stone is involved; in others it appears as a transparent precious stone, strung and used for curtains and screens, highly valued, and on a par with genuine pearls and precious metals.' Under the year 786, the Tang Annals state, "The Kwan-6`a-si Itt d5 of San-6ou
01 (in Ho-nan), Li Pi by name, reported to the throne that the
foundries of Mount Lu-si a. & produce se-se, and requested that it should be prohibited to accept these stones in the place of taxes; where-. upon the Emperor (Te Tsun) replied, that, if there are se-se not produced by the soil, they should be turned over to the people, who are permitted to gather them for themselves." The question seems to be in this text of a by-product of metallic origin; and this agrees with what Kao Se-sun remarks in his Wei lio, that the se-se of his time (Sung period) were made of molten stone.
I have given two examples of the employment of se-se in objects of art from the Ktao ku t`u and Ku yü t`u p'u (p. 31). Meanwhile I have found two instances of the use of the word se-se in the Po ku t'u lu, published by Wan Fu in 1107—I I. In one passage of this work,6 the patina of a tin Jd, attributed to the Cou period, is compared with the color of se-se: since patinas occur in green, blue, and many other hues, this does not afford conclusive evidence as to the color of se-se. In another case' a small tin dated in the Han period is described as being decorated with inlaid gold and silver, and decorated with the seven jewels (saptaratna) and se-se of very brilliant appearance. This is striking, as se-se are not known to be on record under the Han, but first appear in the accounts of Sasanian Persia : either the bronze vessel in question was not of the Han, but of the Tang; or, if it was of the Han, the stone thus diagnosed by the Sung author cannot have been identical with what was known by this name under the T`ang. I already had occasion to state (p. 33) that the Sung writers knew no longer what the
' rat/ Xis, Ch. 222 A, p. 2. = Man Su, p. 48.
T'ai p`in hwan yû ki, Ch. 78, p. 9 b.
Min hwan tsa lu, Ch. By P. 4; Wei lio, Ch. 5, P. 3; Tu yal3 tsa pien, Ch. Al pp. a, 8; Ch. c, pp. 5, 9 b, 14 b.
5 Official designation of a Tao-t'ai.
6 Ch. 3, p. 15 b. Ch. 5, p. 46 b.
517
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