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0394 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 394 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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568   SING-IRANICA

The term pi-si has been the subject of brief discussions on the part of PELLIOT1 and myself.2 The Ko leu yao lun, as far as is known at present, appears to be the earliest work in which the expression occurs. Hitherto it had only been known as a modern colloquialism, and Pelliot urged tracing it in the texts. I am now in a position to comply with this demand. Tan Tsui ;= *, in his Tien hai yii hen 1i,3 published in 1799, gives an excellent account of Yûn-nan Province, its mineral resources, fauna, flora, and aboriginal population, and states that pi-hia-si

or pi-hia-pi aor pi-si   are all of the class of precious
stones which are produced in the Mon-mi t`u-se it A ± i of Yünnan.4 It is obvious that these words are merely transcriptions of a non-Chinese term; and, if we were positive that it took its starting-point from Yûn-nan, it would not be unreasonable to infer that it hails from one of the native Tai or Shan languages. Tan Ts`ui adds that the best pi-si are deep red in color; that those in which purple, yellow, and green are combined, and the white ones, take the second place; while those half white and half black are of the third grade. We are accordingly confronted with a certain class of precious stones which remain to be determined mineralogically.

32. The Persian name for China is Cin, Cinistan, or Cinastän. In Middle Persian we meet Säini in the Farvardin Yast and Sini in the Bündahisn,5 besides Cén and Cénastan.6 The form with initial palatal is confirmed, on the one hand, by Armenian Cen-k`, Cenastan, Cenbakur (" emperor of China "), ëenazneay (" originating from China "), lenik ("Chinese"), and, on the other hand, by Sogdian Cynstn (Cina-

to the Company that employes them. When the Horn was intire it was sent to Constantinople to be sold, where two thousand pounds sterling was offer'd for it: But the English Company, hoping to get a greater rate, sold it not at Constantinople, but sent it into Muscovy, where much about the same price was bidden for it, which, being refus'd, it was carry'd back into Turkey, and fell of its value, a much less sum being now proffer'd than before. Hereupon the Company conceiv'd that it would sell more easily in pieces then intire, because few could be found who would purchase it at so great a rate. Accordingly they broke it, and it was sold by pieces in sundry places; yet, for all this, the whole proceed amounted onely to about twelve hundred pounds sterling. And of these pieces they gave one to the Captain who found it, and this was it which he shew'd me."

1 T`oung Pao, 1913, p. 365.

2 Ibid., 1916, p. 375.

3 Ch. 1, p. 6 (ed. of Wen yin lou yü ti With su). Title and treatment of the subject are in imitation of the Kwei hai yü hen ti of Fan C'en-ta of the twelfth century.

ru-se are districts under the jurisdiction of a native chieftain, who himself is more or less subject to the authority of the Chinese.

Cf. J. J. MODI, References to China in the Ancient Books of the Parsees, reprinted in his Asiatic Papers, pp. 241 et seq.

6 HiiBSCHMANN, Armen. Gram., p. 49.