IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
314 SINO-IRANICA
ht and ma-su, are sufficient to raise serious doubts of the indigenous character of Curcuma; and for my part, I am strongly inclined to believe that at least two species of this genus were first introduced into Se-ètwan by way of Central Asia. This certainly would not exclude the possibility that other species of this genus, or even other varieties of the imported species, pre-existed in China long before that time; and this is even probable, in view of the fact that a fragrant plant yü , which was mixed with sacrificial wine, is mentioned in the ancient Cou li, the State Ceremonial of the Cou Dynasty, and in the Li ki. The commentators, with a few exceptions, agree on the point that this ancient yii was a yü-kin; that is, a Curcuma.'
In India, Curcuma longa is extensively cultivated all over the country, and probably so from ancient times. The plant (Sanskrit haridrâ) is already listed in the Bower Manuscript. From India the rhizome is exported to Tibet, where it is known as yun-ba or skyer-pa, the latter name originally applying to the barberry, the wood and root of which, like Curcuma, yield a yellow dye.
Ibn al-Baitar understands by kurkum the genus Curcuma, not Crocus, as is obvious from his definition that it is the great species of the tinctorial roots. These roots come from India, being styled hard in Persian; this is derived from Sanskrit haridrâ (Curcuma longa). Ibn Hassan, however, observes that the people of Basra bestow on hard the name kurkum, which is the designation of saffron, and to which it is assimilated; but then he goes on to confound saffron with the root of wars, which is a Memecylon (see below) .2 Turmeric is called in Persian zird-rüübe or darzard (" yellow wood"). According to GARCIA DA ORTA, it was much exported from India to Arabia and Persia; and there was unanimous opinion that it did not grow in Persia, Arabia, or Turkey, but that all comes from India.3
The name yü-kin, or with the addition hian (" aromatic "),4 is frequently referred in ancient documents to two different plants of Indian and Iranian countries,— Memecylon tinctorium and Crocus sativus, the
1 Cf. BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. II, No. 408.
2 LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. III, p. 167. •
3 C. MARKHAM, Colloquies, p. 163.
4 As a matter of principle, the term yü-kin hian strictly refers to saffron. It is this term which BRETSCHNEIDER (Bot. Sin., pt. II, No. 408) was unable to identify, and of which STUART (Chinese Materia Medica, p. 140) was compelled to admit, "The plant is not yet identified, but is probably not Curcuma." The latter remark is to the point. The descriptions we have of yü-kin'hian, and which are given below, exclude any idea of a Curcuma. The modern Japanese botanists apply the term yü-kin hian (Japanese ukkonkô) to Tulipa gesneriana, a flower of Japan (MATSUMURA,
No. 3193).
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