IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
•
202 SING-IRANICA
some vaguely defined region of Central Asia. The fact, however, remains that there are a number of introduced, cultivated Hu plants coming from Iranian lands, but in each and every case it has been my endeavor to furnish proof for the fact that these actually represent Iranian cultivations. With the sole exception of the walnut, the history of which may tolerably well be traced, the records of these Hu plants are rather vague, and for none of them is there any specific account of the introduction. It is for botanical rather than historical reasons that the fact of the introduction becomes evident. It is this hazy character of the traditions which renders it impossible to connect these plants in any way with Can Kien. Moreover, it cannot be proved with certainty that any names of plants or products formed with the element hu existed under the Han. The sole exception would be hu ts`ai,' but its occurrence in the run su wen of the Han is not certain either; and this hu, according to Chinese tradition, refers to Mongolia, not to Iran. Another merely seeming exception is presented by hu t`ui -lei,2 but this is a wild, not a cultivated tree; and hu, in this case, has a geographical rather than an ethnographical significance. In the wooden documents discovered in Turkistan we have one good, datable instance of a Hu product; and this is hu t`ie ("iron of the Hu" and implements made of such iron) . These tablets belong to the Tsin period (A.D. 265-419),8 while in no wooden document of the Han has any compound with Hu as yet been traced. Again, all available evidence goes to show that these Hu plants were not introduced earlier than the Tsin dynasty, or, generally speaking, during what is known as the Leu 6`ao or six minor dynasties, covering the time from the downfall of the Han to the rise of the Tang dynasty. It is noteworthy that of none of these plants is an Iranian name on record.
The element hu, in a few cases,- serves also the purpose of a transcription: thus probably in the name of the coriander, hu-swi,4 and quite evidently in the name of the fenugreek, hu-lu-pa.5
Imported fruits and products have been named by many nations for the countries from which they hailed or from the people by whom they were first brought. The Greeks had their "Persian apple" (1 X ov
IIEpau(ôv, "peach"), their "Medic apple" (j 5Xov LK6v, "citron"),
their "Medic grass" (Mfômi 7r6a, "alfalfa"), and their "Armenian
1 Below, p. 381.
2 Below, p. 339.
= CHAVANNES, Documents chinois découverts par Aurel Stein, pp. 168, 169.
4 Below, p. 298.
Below, p. 446. It thus occurs also in geographical names, as in Hu-Z'a-la (Guzerat); see HIRTH and ROCKHILL, Chao Ju-kua, p. 92.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.