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0148 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 148 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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322   SING-IRANICA

the reproduction of a foreign k; but the character in transcriptions usually answers to *ut, ud. The whole theory, however, is exposed to much graver objections. The Chinese themselves do not admit that yü-kin represents a foreign word; nowhere do they say that yü-kin is Persian, Sanskrit, or anything of the sort; on the contrary, they regard it as an element of their own language. Moreover, if yü-kin should originally designate the saffron, how, then, did it happen that this alleged Persian word was transferred to the genus Curcuma, some species of which are even indigenous to China, and which, at any rate, has been acclimated there for a long period? The case, indeed, is not simple, and requires closer study. Let us see what the Chinese have to say concerning the word yü-kin. PELLIOT1 has already clearly, though briefly, outlined the general situation by calling attention to the fact that as early as the beginning of the second century, yü-kin is mentioned in the dictionary . wo wen as the name of an odoriferous plant, offered as tribute by the people of Yü, the present Yü-lin in Kwan-si Province; hence he inferred that the sense of the word should be "gold of Yü,"

in allusion to the yellow color of the product. We read in the Swi kin 71(   ' as follows: "The district Kwei-lin   4 a of the Ts`in

dynasty had its name changed into the Yü-lin district fig I a in the sixth year of the period Yilan-tin (iii B.c.) of the Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty. Wan Man made it into the Yü-p`in district St . Yin

Sao IS .05 [second century A.D.], in his work Ti li fun su ki   a

Wpb, says, `The Cou li speaks of the yü ientig A (`officials in charge of the plant yü'), who have charge of the jars serving for libations; whenever libations are necessary for sacrifices or for the reception of guests, they attend to the blending of the plant yü with the odoriferous wine c`an, pour it into the sacred vases, and arrange them in their place.i3 is a fragrant plant. Flowers of manifold plants are boiled and mixed with wine fermented by means of black millet as an offering to the spirits: this is regarded by some as what is now called yü-kin hian ff (Curcuma) ; while others contend that it was brought as tribute by the people of Yü, thus connecting the name of the plant with that of the clan and district of Yü." The latter is the explanation

1 Bull. de l'Ecole française, Vol. III, p. 27o.

2 This work is a commentary to the .3`wi kin, a canonical book on water-courses, supposed to have been written by San K`in under the Later Han dynasty, but it was elaborated rather in the third century. The commentary is due to Li Tao-yûan of the Hou Wei period, who died in A.D. 527 (his biography is in Wei §u, Ch. 89; Pei i, Ch. 27). Regarding the various editions of the work, see PELLIOT, Bull. de l'Ecole française, Vol. VI, p. 364, note 4.

3 Cf. BLOT, Le Tcheou-li, Vol. I, p. 465.