IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
THE PISTACHIO 251
G. A. STUART' has identified a-yüe hun-tse2 with Pistacia vera, and this is confirmed by Matsumura.
The Japanese name fusudasiu or fusudasu is doubtless connected with Persian pista, from Old Iranian *pistaka, Middle Persian *pistak,' from which is derived Greek ßLQr?u .ov,
,LT TQKLOV, ?rLQTILKLOV or I/iLUYÔKLOv, Latin psittacium, and our Pistacia or pistachio. It is not known to me, however, to what date the Japanese word goes back, or through what channels it was received. In all likelihood it is of modern origin, the introduction into Japan being due to Europeans.
In Chinese literature, the Persian word appears in the Geography of the Ming Dynasty,' in the transcription [ki-] pi-se-tan [M] g 41, stated to be a product of Samarkand, the leaves of the tree resembling
those of the an * , (Camellia oleifera), and its fruit that of the
yin hint (Salisburia adiantifolia).
The Persian word, further, occurs in the new edition of the Kwan yü ki, entitled Tsen tin kwan yü ki ithir lAt E. The original, the Kwan
yü ki, was written by Lu Yin-yan R4,5 and published during the
Wan-li period in i 600. The revised and enlarged edition was prepared by Tsai Fan-piniW A tl (hao Kiu-hia it n) in 1686; a reprint of this text was issued in 1744 by the publishing-house Se-mei tarn. Both this edition and the original are before me. The latter' mentions only three products under the heading "Samarkand"; namely, coral,
amber, and ornamented cloth (hwa pu t A TO). The new edition,
however, has fifteen additional items, the first of these being [ki-] pi-se-ran, written as above,7 stated to be a tree growing in the region of Samarkand. "The leaves of the tree," it is said, "resemble those of the an 'C'a (Camelia oleifera) ; the fruits have the appearance of the nut-like seeds of the yin hin (Salisburia adiantifolia), but are smaller." The word pi-se-ran doubtless represents the transcription of Persian
ferent plant,—Torreya nucifera. A revival on the part of the Chinese, of the good, old terms of their own language, would be very desirable, not only in this case, but likewise in many others.
1 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 334.
'- Wrongly transcribed by him o-yüeh-chün-tzû.
3 These reconstructions logically result from the phonetic history of Iranian, and are necessitated by the existence of the Greek loan-word. Cf., further, Byzantine pustux and fustox, Comanian pistac, and the forms given below (p. 252). Persian pista is identified with Pistacia vera by SCHLIMMER (Terminologie, p. 465).
4 Ta Min i l'un ci, Ch. 89, P. 23.
ß WYLIE, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 59. ° Ch. 24, p. 6 b.
7 The addition of ki surely rests on an error (SCHOTT also reads pi-se-ran, which he presumably found in his text; see the following note).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.