Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 558 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0558	Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1

on the Chêng-lei pên-ts'ao, the author of which was 唐慎微 T'ang Shên-wei. The T'u-ching
is certainly the T'u-ching pên-ts'ao, written after 1057 by 蘇頌 Su Sung (cf. BRETSCHNEIDER,
Bot. sin., 47). And the T'u-ching pên-ts'ao may have quoted Su Kung, the author of one of
the redactions of the T'ang pên-ts'ao, about the middle of the seventh century. I am not
certain where the quotation from Su Kung ends, nor even the one from Su Sung, since the last
sentences may have been added by Mao Chin himself.

Tzŭ-pei, « purple shell », is in fact an ancient term in Chinese, though it is not certain that,
from the beginning, it referred to the same shell as in works posterior to our era. From the
« Nine songs » (Chiu-ko) of the Elegies of Ch'u, we know that, as early as the third century B. C.,
the tzŭ-pei were used for decoration. In 179 B. C. the King of Nan-yüeh (= Canton), Chao
T'o, sent 500 tzŭ-pei to the Han Emperor (Ch'ien-Han shu, 95, 5 b). Although the term does
not occur in the Êrh-ya, Kuo P'o added it in his commentary on this work. In his commentary
on the Shan-hai ching (section Ta-huang nan ching) he gives it as a synonym of wên-pei (the
same « veined pei » which we have already seen in the Shu ching), although in the section Hsi-
shan ching he suggests that another shell is the wên-pei. Ch'in Shih-huang-ti's tomb is already
described in legendary fashion by Ssŭ-ma Ch'ien; it was a representation of the world, with
rivers of quicksilver (cf. CHAVANNES, Mém. historiques, II, 194). The Yüan-chien lei-han (364,
25 a) quotes a no less fantastic description from the lost 三輔故事 San-fu ku-shih : a spring
(ch'üan) of quicksilver had been arranged; the moon was made of a «brilliant pearl» (ming-chu);
and in the « water » (probably — shui-yin, « water silver », quicksilver), there were many « veined
shells » (wên-pei). Whatever the truth may be with regard to these earlier mentions, the certain
fact is that since the fourth or fifth century tzŭ-pei (sometimes ta-pei) has been the designation
of a well-defined shell, which is not the cowry but a bigger Cypræa, the Cypræa macula,
as indicated by TARANZANO, Vocabulaire, I, 372. TARANZANO adds, as alternative names, wên-
pei, which may go back to Kuo P'o's commentary on the Shan-hai ching, and 蚄螺 hsia-lo,
which is a mistake for 蚄螺 ya-lo, « polishing shell ». In the twelfth century there is an
excellent description of the ta-pei or tzŭ-pei in Chou Ch'ü-fei's Ling-wai tai-ta, 7, 9 b.

For the true cowry, Cypræa moneta, TARANZANO gives only one designation 貨貝 huo-pei,
« money shell », of which I know no literary example, but not 瑪瑙貝 ma-nao pei, « agate
shell », which is said by Kuo Mo-jo to be now the scientific name of the cowry. As a matter of
fact specific designations of the true cowry have been in use at least since the early fifth, and
perhaps since the fourth, century of our era. Fa-hsien, c. A. D. 400, mentions the use of 貝
齒 pei-ch'ih, « shell teeth », in India (cf. LEGGE, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, 43). The
T'ai-p'ing yü-lan (807, 14 b) has preserved the following passage of 劉欣期 Liu Hsin-ch'i's 交
州記 Chiao-chou chi : « The great pei (ta-pei) are produced in Jih-nan (Annam); they are like
wine-cups. The small pei (hsiao-pei) are the pei-ch'ih (« shell teeth »). They are effective
against poison; all (? i. e. both kinds) exist with purple colour ». The Chiao-chou chi cannot be
later than the first half of the fifth century; it is even believed to go back to the fourth
(cf. MASPERO, in BEFEO, XVIII, III, 22; the only difficulty for such a date is that a fragment,
occurring in the edition of the Ling-nan i-shu, 2, 1 b, mentions the « king of P-ssŭ », i. e.
Persia, and, if the fragment be genuine, would antedate by more than half a century the earliest

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books