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
442 sINO-IRANICA
fruit is inferior in taste to that of the north." He distinguishes sweet, insipid, and sour varieties.
In the T `ao hun kin cu '' it' it is stated that in Yun-kia
, çg (in the prefecture of Wen-6ou, Ci-li) there were han kwa (" cold melons ") of very large size, which could be preserved till the
coming spring, and which are regarded as identical with the water-
melon. Li Si-den justly objects to this interpretation, commenting that, if the water-melon was first introduced in the Wu-tai period, the name
si kwa could not have been known at that time. This objection must be upheld, chiefly for the reason that we have no other records from the fourth century or even the Tang period which mention the watermelon: it is evidently a post-T`ang introduction.'
Ye Tse-lei, in his Ts'ao mu tse i * 1- written in 1378, remarked that water-melons were first introduced under the Yüan, when the
Emperor Si-tsu (Kubilai) subjugated Central Asia. This view
was already rejected under the Ming in the Cen cu `wan` 4 ha by C`en Ki-zu ! 'ffi, who aptly referred to the discovery of the fruit by
Hu Kiao, and added that it is not mentioned in the Er ya, the various
older Pen ts`ao, the Ts`i min yao .u, and other books of a like character, it being well known that the fruit did not anciently exist in China. As
to this point, all Chinese writers on the subject appear to be agreed; and its history is so well determined, that it has not given rise to attempts of antedating or "changkienizing" the introduction.
The Chinese travellers during the Mongol period frequently allude to the large water-melons of Persia and Central Asia.' On the other hand, Ibn Batûta mentions the excellent water-melons of China, which are like those of Khwarezm and Ispahan.4
According to the Manchu officers Fusambô and Surde, who published an account of Turkistan about 1772,5 the water-melon of this
region, though identical with that of China, does not equal the latter
in taste; on the contrary, it is much inferior to it. Other species of melon belong to the principal products of Turkistan; some are called by the
Chinese "Mohammedan caps" and "Mohammedan eyes." The so-called "Hami melon," which is not a water-melon, and ten varieties of which are distinguished, enjoys a great reputation. Probably it is
1 Apparently a commentary to the works of Tao Hun-kin (A.D. 451-536).
s The alleged synonyme han kwa for the water-melon, adopted also by BRETSCHNEIDER (Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 223) and others, must therefore be weeded out.
3 Cf. BRETSCHNEIDER, Mediæval Researches, Vol. I, pp. 20, 31, 67, 89.
4 YULE, Cathay, new ed., Vol. IV, p. 109.
6 Hui k`ian ci, see above, p. 230; and below, p. 562.
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