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0336 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 336 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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510   SING-IRANICA

The Ko ku yao lun' has a notice of tse kin   ("purple gold")

as follows: "The ancients say that the pan-lian   I money' is tse

kin. The people of the present time make it by mixing copper with gold, but our contemporaries have not yet seen genuine tse kin." The same alloy is mentioned as a product of Ma-k`o-se-li in the Tao i i ho, written in 1349 by Wan Ta-yuan.3 I am not sure, of course, that this tse kin is identical with tse-mo kin.

In the same manner as the Chinese speak of foreign gold, they also offer a series of foreign silver. There are four kinds; namely, silver of Sin-ra (in Korea), silver of Po-se (Persia), silver of Lin-yi, and silver of Yün-nan. Both gold and silver are enumerated among the products of Sasanian Persia. The Hai yao pen ts`ao cites the Nan yüe of the fifth century to the effect that the country Po-se possesses a natural silver-dust Sc IN, employed as a remedy, and that remedies are tested by means of finger-rings.' Whether Persia is to be understood here seems doubtful to me. Gold-dust is especially credited to the country of the Arabs.'

82. Of Mc yen-la ("the green of salt," various compositions with copper-oxide) is mentioned as a product of Sasanian Persia' and of Ku6a.7 Su Kun of the Tang (seventh century) points it out as a product

of Karasar (Yen-bi   ), found in the water on the lower surface of
stones. Li Sün, who wrote in the second half of the eighth century, states that "it is produced in the country Po-se (Persia) adhering to stones, and that the kind imported on ships is called .§i-/ii f (`the green of the stone'); its color is resistant for a long time without changing; the imitation made in China from copper and vinegar must not be employed in the pharmacopoeia, nor does it retain its color long." Li Si-ben employs the term "green salt of Po-se."8 The substance was employed as a remedy in eye-diseases.

This is Persian zingdr (Arabic zinjar), described in the stone-book of Pseudo-Aristotle as a stone extracted from copper or brass by means

1 Ch. 6, p. 12 b.

2 See Beginnings of Porcelain, p. 83.

3 ROCKHILL, T`oung Pao, 1915, p. 622.

ealei pen ts'ao, Ch. 4, p. 23.   ;?ii

5 Ibid., Ch.4, P. 21 b.

6 Sui su, Ch. 83, p. 7 b.

7 COU su, Ch. 50, p. 5; Sui su, Ch. 83, p. 5 b.

8 Cf. also GEERTS, Produits, p. 634; F. DE MÉLY, Lapidaire chinois, pp. 134,

243. According to Geerts, the term is applied in Japan to acetate of copper, formerly imported, but now prepared in the country.