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
HENNA
19. It is well known that the leaves of Lawsonia alba or L. inermis, grown all over southern China, are extensively used by women and children as a finger-nail dye, and are therefore styled ci kia hwa
4E (" finger-nail flower ").1 This flower is mentioned in the San fu hwalt t`u,2 of unknown authorship and date, as having been transplanted from Nan Yüe (South China) into the Fu-li Palace at the time of the Han Emperor Wu (14o-87 B.c.). This is doubtless an anachronism or a subsequent interpolation in the text of that book. The earliest datable reference to this plant is again contained in the Nan fan tstao mu cwan by Ki Han,' by whom it is described as a tree from five to six feet in height, with tender and weak branches and leaves like those of the young elm-tree kg (Ulmus campestris), the flowers being snow-white like ye-si-min and mo-li, but different in odor. As stated above (p. 3 29), this work goes on to say that these three plants were introduced by Hu people from Ta Ts'in, and cultivated in Kwaii-tun.4 The question arises again whether this passage was embodied in the original edition. It is somewhat suspiciou$, chiefly for the reason that Ki Han adds the synonyme san-mo, which, as we have seen, in fact relates to jasmine.
The Pei hu lu,5 written about A.D. 875 by Twan Kun-lu, contains the following text under the heading ci kia hwa: "The finger-nail flower is fine and white and of intense fragrance. The barbarians â A now plant it. Its name has not yet been explained. There are, further, the jasmine and the white mo-li. All these were transplanted to China by
the Persians (Po-se). This is likewise the case with the p`i-. i-. a P
(or `gold coin') flower (Inula chinensis). Originally it was only produced abroad, but in the second year of the period Ta-t`un k IJ (A.D. 536 of the Liang dynasty) it came to China for the first time (gyp * 'f ±) ." In the Yu yan tsa tsu,6 written about fifteen years
earlier, we read, "The gold-coin flower 4, it is said, was originally
produced abroad. In the second year of the period Ta-t`un of the
1 Cf. Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. I, 1867, pp. 40-41. STUART,
Chinese Materia Medica, p. 232.
2 Ch. 3, p. 9 b (see above, p. 263).
3 Ch. B, p. 3 (ed. of Han Wei ts`un su).
4 Cf. also HIRTH, China and the Roman Orient, p. 268. 6 Ch. 3, p. 16 (see above, p. 268). 6 Ch. 19, p. io b.
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