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
ALFALFA 217
According to the . u i ki A E, written by Zen Fan 11* in the beginning of the sixth century, "the mu-su (alfalfa) gardens of Can Kien are situated in what is now Lo-yan; mu-su was originally a vegetable in the land of the Hu, and Kien was the first to obtain it in the Western Countries." A work, Kiu C`i ki fit E,' says that east of the capital there were mu-su gardens, in which there were three pestles driven by water-power.
The Si kin tsa ki i5: tik R2 states, "In the Lo-yu gardens At (in the capital C`an-nan) there are rose-bushes A a la (Rosa rugosa), which grow spontaneously. At the foot of these, there is abundance
of mu-su, called also hwai fun tt (`embracing the wind'), sometimes
kwan fun t J (` brilliant wind') .3 The people of Mou-lin Î (R4 style
the plant lien-~i ts'ao a Ix (`herb with connected branche~sG')."5
The Lo yan k`ie lan ki la op E, a record of the Buddhist
monasteries in the capital Lo-yan, written by Yan Haan-6i 6* in
A.D. 547 or shortly afterwards, says that "Hüan-wu is situated
north-east of the Ta-hia Gate A P9; now it is called Kwan-fun
Garden
t , producing mu-su." Kwan fun, as shown by the Si kin
tsa ki, is a synonyme of mu-su.
K`ou Tsun-gi, in his Pen ts'ao yen i,6 written in A.D. 1116, notes that alfalfa is abundant in sen-si, being used for feeding cattle and horses, and is also consumed by the population, but it should not be eaten in large quantity. Under the Mongols, the cultivation of alfalfa was much encouraged, especially in order to avert the danger of famines;' and gardens were maintained to raise alfalfa for the feeding of horses.' According to Li Si-ben (latter part of the sixteenth century)," it was in his time a common, wild plant in the fields everywhere, but was cultivated in sen-si and Kan-su. He apparently means, however, Medicago denticulata, which is a wild species and a native of China. FORBES
' T'ai p`in yü lan, Ch. 824, P. 9.
2 That is, Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital (C tan-flan in sen-si),
written by Wu Kün it=J of the sixth century A.D.
3 The explanation given for these names is thus: the wind constantly whistles in these gardens, and the sunlight lends brilliancy to the flowers.
4 Ancient name for the present district of Hin-p`in 1. in the prefecture of
Si-han, sen-si.
b T'ai p`iti yü lan, Ch. 996, p. 4 b. 6 Ch. 19, p. 3 (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan). ' Yuan Si, Ch. 93, P. 5 b.
8 Ibid., Ch. 91, p. 6 b.
9 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 28, p. 3 b.
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