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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

562   SING-IRANICA

petits.... On les fabrique avec des filaments tendres du mûrier et, après y avoir apposé un sceau au nom de l'empereur, on les met en circulation."'

The bank-notes of the Ming dynasty were likewise made of mulberry-pulp, in rectangular sheets one foot long and six inches wide, the material being of a greenish color, as stated in the Annals of the Dynasty.' It is clear that the Ming emperors, like many other institutions, adopted this practice from their predecessors, the Mongols. KLAPROTH3 is wrong in saying that the assignats of the Sung, Kin, and Mongols were all made from the bark of the tree cu (Broussonetia), and those of the Ming from all sorts of plants.'

In the Hui kian ci L 1 WI It, an interesting description of Turkistan by two Manchu officials Surde and Fusambô, published in 1772,5 the

following note, headed "Mohammedan Paper" i i   , occurs: "There
are two sorts of Turkistan paper, black and white, made from mulberry-bark, cotton S Ai, and silk-refuse equally mixed, resulting in a coarse, thick, strong, and tough material. It is cut into small rolls fully a foot long, which are burnished by means of stones, and are then fit for writing."

Y

Sir AUREL STEIN' reports that paper is still manufactured from mulberry-trees in Khotan. Also J. WIESNER,7 the meritorious investigator

1 Ibid., p. 20.

2 Min §i, Ch. 8i, p. i W).   n , -f f    t ij   t 7 -- g - `f   ri S).

The same text is found on a bill issued in 1375, reproduced and translated by W. VISSERING (On Chinese Currency, see plate at end of volume), the minister of finance being expressly ordered to use the fibres of the mulberry-tree in the composition of these bills.

3 Mémoires relatifs à l'Asie, Vol. I, p. 387.

4 This is repeated by ROCKHILL (Rubruck, p. 201). I do not deny, of course, that paper money was made from Broussonetia. The Chinese numismatists, in their description of the ancient paper notes, as far as I know, make no reference to the material (cf., for instance, Ts`üan pu run ci y Ig 11A ,Z., Ch. 5, p. 42; 6 A, p. 2;

6 B, p. 44). The Yüan Si (Ch. 97, p. 3) does not state, either, the character of the paper employed in the Mongol notes. My point is, that the Mongols, while they enlisted Broussonetia paper for this purpose, used mulberry-bark paper as well, and that the latter was exclusively utilized by the Ming.

5 A. WYLIE, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 64. The John Crerar Library of Chicago owns an old manuscript of this work, clearly written, in 4 vols. and chapters, illustrated by nine ink-sketches of types of Mohammedans and a map. The volumes are not paged.

8 Ancient Khotan, Vol. I, p. 134.

7 Mikroskopische Untersuchung alter ostturkestanischer Papiere, p. 9 (Vienna, 1902). I cannot pass over in silence a curious error of this scholar when he says (p. 8) that it is not proved that Cannabis sativa (called by him "genuine hemp ") is cultivated in China, and that the so-called Chinese hemp paper should be intended for China grass. Every tyro in things Chinese knows that hemp (Cannabis sativa)