35. The Chinese records of the date-palm (Phoenix dactyliferd)
contain two points that are of interest to science: first, a contribution
to the geographical distribution of the tree in ancient times; and,
second, a temporary attempt at acclimating it in China. The tree is
not indigenous there. It is for the first time in the T'ang period that
we receive some information about it; but it is mentioned at an earlier
date as a product of Sasanian Persia in both the Wei Su and Sui $u,
under the name ts'ien nien tsao T ^F 31 (" jujubes of thousand years,"
the jujube, Zizyphus vulgaris, being a native of China). 1 In the Yu yah
tsa tsu, 2 the date is styled Po-se tsao jft Sf 3R ("Persian jujube"), with
the observation that its habitat is in Po-se (Persia), or that it comes
from there. 3 The Persian name is then given in the form US I? k'u-man,
*k'ut(k'ur)-man, which would correspond to a Middle Persian *xurman
(*khurmang), Pazand and New Persian xurma, that was also adopted
by Osmanli and Neo-Greek, xovpjuas ("date") and Koup/zoSijA ("date-
palm"), Albanian korme* The T'ah $u 5 writes the same word l& ^
hu-man, *gu5(gur)-man, answering to a Middle-Persian form *gurman
or *kurman. The New-Persian word is rendered jS @ JK k'u-lu(ru)-ma
in the Pen ts'ao kah mu; & this is the style of the Yuan transcriptions, 7
1 This name was bestowed upon the tree, not, as erroneously asserted by HIRTH
(Chau Ju-kua, p. 210), "evidently on account of the stony hardness of the dates on
reaching China," but, as stated in the Pen ts'ao kan mu (Ch. 31, p. 8), owing to the
long-enduring character of the tree ^ tsj fe j$ ty\ -{&. The same explanation
holds good for the synonyme wan sui tsao ("jujube of ten thousand or numerous
years"). Indeed, this palm lives to a great age, and trees of from one to two hundred
years old continue to produce their annual crop.
2 Ch. 1 8, p. 10.
3 The same term, Po-se tsao, appears in a passage of the Pei hu lu (Ch. 2, p. 9 b),
where the trunk and leaves of the sago-palm (Sag o rumphii) are compared with those
of the date.
4 In Old Armenian of the fifth century we have the Iranian loan-word armav,
and hence it is inferred that the x of Persian was subsequently prefixed (HiiBSCH-
MANN, Persische Studien, p. 265; Armen. Gram., p. in). The date of the Chinese
transcriptions proves that the initial x existed in Pahlavi.
5 Ch. 221 B, p. 13.
6 Ch. 31, p. 21. It is interesting to note that Li Si-gen endeavors to make out
a distinction between k'u-man and k'u-lu-ma by saying that the former denotes the
tree, the latter the fruit; but both, in his opinion, are closely allied foreign words.
7 The T'ang transcription, of course, is not "probably a distorted transcription
of khurma," as asserted by BRETSCHNEIDER (Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 266), but, on
the contrary, is very exact.
385
386 SlNO-lRANICA
and first occurs in the Co ken lu $5 $ $fr, published in 1366. The Persian
word has also migrated into the modern Aryan languages of Iriia,
as well as into the Malayan group: Javanese kurma; Cam kuramo;
Malayan, Dayak, and Sunda korma; Bugi and Makassar koromma;
also into Khmer: romo, lomo, amo.
Following is the description of the tree given in the Yu yan tsa tsu:
"It is thirty to forty feet in height, 1 and has a circumference of from
five to six feet. The leaves resemble those of the f u fen dt Ji (a kind
of rattan), and remain ever green. It blooms in the second month.
The blossoms are shaped like those of the banana, and have a double
bottom. They open gradually; and in the fissure are formed more than
ten seed-cases, two inches long, yellow and white in color. When the
kernel ripens, the seeds are black. In their appearance they resemble
dried jujubes. They are good to eat and as sweet as candy."
Another foreign word for the date is handed down by C'en Ts'an-k'i
in his Pen ts*ao Si i, in the form 1$ Wt wu-lou, *bu-nu. He identifies
this term with the "Persian jujube," which he says grows in Persia,
and has the appearance of a jujube. Li Si-Sen annotates that the mean-
ing of this word is not yet explained. Neither Bretschneider nor any
one else has commented on this name. It is strikingly identical with
the old Egyptian designation of the date, bunnu. 2 It is known that
the Arabs have an infinite number of terms for the varieties of the date
and the fruit in its various stages of growth, and it may be that they
likewise adopted the Egyptian word and transmitted it to China. The
common Arabic names are nakhl and tamr (Hebrew tamar, Syriac
temar). On the other hand, the relation of wu-lou to the Egyptian word
may be accidental, if we assume that wu-lou was originally the designa-
tion of Cycas revoluta (see below), and was only subsequently trans-
ferred to the date-palm.
The Lin piao lu i 3 by Liu Sun contains the following interesting
account:
"In regard to the date ('Persian jujube'), this tree may be seen in
the suburbs of Kwaii-Sou (Canton). The trunk of the tree is entirely
without branches, is straight, and rises to a height of from thirty to
forty feet. The crown of the tree spreads in all directions, and forms
over ten branches. The leaves are like those of the 'sea coir-palm 1
1 It even grows to a height of sixty or eighty feet.
2 V. LORET, Flore pharaonique, p. 34. I concur with Loret in the opinion that
the Egyptian word is the foundation of Greek
turpflanzen, p. 273) and upheld by SCHRADER (ibid., p. 284), that the latter might
denote the Phoenician tree, does not seem to me correct.
a Ch. B, p. 4 (see above, p. 268).
THE DATE-PALM 387
(hai tsun $J $?, Chamaerops excelsa). 1 The trees planted in Kwan-Sou
bear fruit once in three or five years. The fruits resemble the green
jujube growing in the north, but are smaller. They turn from green
to yellow. When the leaves have come out, the fruit is formed in
clusters, each cluster generally bearing from three to twenty berries,
which require careful handling. The foreign as well as the domestic
kind is consumed in our country. In color it resembles that of granulated
sugar. Shell and meat are soft and bright. Baked into cakes or steamed
in water, they are savory. The kernel is widely different from that of
the jujube of the north. The two ends are not pointed [as in the jujube],
but doubly rolled up and round like a small piece of red kino 3?t 8K. 2
They must be carefully handled. When sown, no shoots sprout forth
for a long time, so that one might suppose they would never mature."
The date is clearly described in this text; and we learn from it that
the tree was cultivated in Kwaii-tun, and its fruit was also imported
during the T'ang period. As Liu Sun, author of that work, lived under
the Emperor Cao Tsun (A.D. 889-904), this notice refers to the end of
the ninth century. 3 A. DE CANDOLLE 4 states erroneously that the
Chinese received the tree from Persia in the third century of our era.
In his note on the date, headed by the term wu-lou tse, Li Si-en 5
has produced a confusion of terms, and accordingly brought together
1 In the text of this work, as cited in the Pen ts'ao kan mu, this clause is worded
as follows: "The leaves are like those of the tsun-lu |<| fl|J (Chamaerops excelsa),
and hence the people of that locality style the tree [the date] hai tsun ('sea,' that is,
'foreign coir-palm')." This would indeed appear more logical than the passage
above, rendered after the edition of Wu yin tien, which, however, must be regarded
as more authoritative. Not only in this extract, but also in several others, does the
Pen ts'ao kan mu exhibit many discrepancies from the Wu yin tien edition; this
subject should merit closer study. In the present case there is only one other point
worthy of special mention; and this is, that Li Si-gen, in his section of nomenclature,
gives the synonyme ^ jfj fan tsao ("foreign jujube") with reference to the Lin
piao lu i. This term, however, does not occur in the text of this work as trans-
mitted by him, or in the Wu yin tien edition. The latter has added a saying of the
Emperor Wen jjfc of the Wei dynasty, which has nothing to do with the date, and
in which is found the phrase jL jR fan tsao ("all jujubes"). In other editions, fan
("foreign") was perhaps substituted for this fan, so that the existence of the
synonyme established by Li and adopted by Bretschneider appears to be very
doubtful.
2 See below, p. 478.
* It is singular that Bretschneider, who has given a rather uncritical digest of
the subject from the Pen ts'ao, does not at all mention this transplantation of the
tree. To my mind, this is the most interesting point to be noted. Whether date-
palms are still grown in K wan- tun, I am not prepared to say; but, as foreign authors
do not mention the fact, I almost doubt it.
4 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 303.
5 Pen ts*ao kan mu, Ch. 31, p. 8.
388 SlNO-lRANICA
a number of heterogeneous texts. BRETSCHNEiDER 1 has accepted all this
in good faith and without criticism. It is hardly necessary to be a
botanist in order to see that the texts of the Nan fan ts'ao mu Iwan
and Co ken lu, alleged to refer to the date, bear no relation to this tree. 2
The hai tsao K 31 described in the former work 3 may very well refer
to Cycas rewluta* The text of the other book, which Bretschneider does
not quote by its title, and erroneously characterizes as "a writer of the
Ming," speaks of six "gold fruit" (kin kwo ^ :Jft) trees growing in
C'en-tu, capital of Se-c'wan, and, according to an oral tradition, planted
at the time of the Han. Then follows a description of the tree, the
foreign name of which is given as k'u-lu-ma (see above), and which,
according to Bretschneider, suits the date-palm quite well. It is hardly
credible, however, that this tree could ever thrive in the climate of
Se-6'wan, and Bretschneider himself admits that the fruit of Salisburia
adiantifolia now bears also the name kin kwo. Thus, despite the fact
that the Persian name for the date is added, the passage of the Co ken
lu is open to the suspicion of some misunderstanding.
Not only did the Chinese know that the date is a product of Persia,
but they knew also that it was utilized as food by certain tribes of the
1 Chinese Recorder, 1871, pp. 265-267.
2 Bretschneider, it should be understood, was personally acquainted with only
the flora of Peking and its environment; for the rest, his familiarity with Chinese
plants was mere book-knowledge, and botany as a science was almost foreign to
him. Research in the history of cultivated plants was in its very beginning in
his days; and his methods relating to such subjects were not very profound, and were
rather crude.
3 Ch. B, p. 4. Also Wu K'i-tsun, author of the Ci wu miii Si t'u k'ao (Ch. 17,
p. 21), has identified the term wu-lou-tse with hai tsao.
4 STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 140; but Stuart falls into the other ex-
treme by identifying with this species also the terms Po-se tsao, ts'ien nien tsao,
etc., which without any doubt relate to the date. In Bretschneider's translation
of the above text there is a curious misunderstanding. We read there, "In the year
285 A.D. Lin-yi offered to the Emperor Wu-ti a hundred trees of the hai tsao. The
prince Li-sha told the Emperor that in his travels by sea he saw fruits of this tree,
which were, without exaggeration, as large as a melon." The text reads, "In the
fifth year of the period T'ai-k'an (A.D. 284), Lin-yi presented to the Court a hundred
trees. Li Sao-kun ifi ty ;" (the well-known magician) said to the Emperor Wu
of the Han, ' During my sea- voyages I met Nan-k'i Sen $ $8 ^fe (the magician of
the Blest Islands), who ate jujubes of the size of a gourd, which is by no means an
exaggeration.' " The two events are not interrelated; the second refers to the second
century B.C. Neither, however, has anything to do with the date. The working of
Chinese logic is visibly manifest: the sea- travels of Li Sao-kun are combined with
his fabulous jujube into the sea- jujube (hai tsao), and this imaginary product is
associated with a real tree of that name. Li Si-Sen's example shows at what fancies
the Chinese finally arrive through their wrong associations of ideas; and Bret-
Schneider's example finally demonstrates that any Chinese data must first be taken
under our microscope before being accepted by science.
THE DATE-PALM 389
East-African coast. The early texts relating to Ta Ts'in do not mention
the palm; but at the end of the article Fu-lin (Syria), the Tan $u speaks
of two countries, HI $$> Mo-lin (*Mwa-lin, Mwa-rin) and ^ l# HI
Lao-p'o-sa (*Lav-bwi5-sar), as being situated 2000 li south-west of
Fu-lin, and sheltering a dark-complexioned population. The land is
barren, the people feed their horses on dried fish, and they themselves
subsist on dates. 1 BRETSCHNEiDER 2 was quite right in seeking this
locality in Africa, but it is impossible to accept his suggestion that
"perhaps the Chinese names Mo-lin and Lao-p'o-sa are intended to
express the country of the Moors (Mauritania) or Lybia." HIRTH S
did not discuss this weak theory, and, while locating the countries
in question along the west coast of the Red Sea, did not attempt to
identify the transcriptions. According to Ma Twan-lin, the country
Mo-lin is situated south-west of the country ?& US. H Yan-sa-lo, which
Hirth tentatively equated with Jerusalem. This is out of the question,
as Yan-sa-lo answers to an ancient An-sa5(sar)-la(ra). 4 Moreover, it
is on record in the T'ai p'in hwan yu ki 5 that Mo-lin is south-west of
fr HI H P'o-sa-lo (*BwiS-sa5-la), so that this name is clearly identical
with that of Ma Twan-lin and the transcription of the T'ang Annals.
In my opinion, the transcription *Mwa-lin is intended for the Malindi
of Edrisi or Mulanda of Yaqut, now Malindi, south of the Equator, in
Seyidieh Province of British East Africa. Edrisi describes this place
as a large city, the inhabitants of which live by hunting and fishing.
They salt sea-fish for trade, and also exploit iron-mines, iron being the
source of their wealth. 6 If this identification be correct, the geographical
definition of the T'ang Annals (2000 li south-west of Fu-lin) is, of course,
deficient; but we must not lose sight of the fact that these data rest
on a hearsay report hailing from Fu-lin, and that, generally speaking,
Chinese calculations of distances on sea-routes are not to be taken too
seriously. 7 Under the Ming, the same country appears as j$E W Ma-lin,
the king of which sent an embassy to China in 1415 with a gift of
1 In the transcription hu-man, as given above, followed by the explanation that
this is the "Persian jujube." The date is not a native of eastern Africa, nor does it
.thrive in the tropics, but it was doubtless introduced there by the Arabs (cf. F.
STORBECK, Mitt. Sem. Or. Spr., 1914, II, p. 158; A. ENGLER, Nutzpflanzen Ost-
Afrikas, p. 12).
2 Knowledge possessed by the Chinese of the Arabs, p. 25.
3 China and the Roman Orient, p. 204.
4 If Mo-lin was on the littoral of the Red Sea, it would certainly be an absurdity
to define its location as south-west of Jersualem.
6 Ch. 184, p. 3.
6 DOZY and DE GOEJE, Edrlsl's description de 1'Afrique, p. 56 (Leiden, 1866).
7 Cf. Chinese Clay Figures, pp. 80-81, note.
390 SlNO-lRANICA
giraffes. 1 It likewise appears in the list of countries visited by Cen Ho, 2
where Ma-lin and La-sa JJ $ft are named, the latter apparently being
identical with the older Lao-p'o-sa. 3
The Chinese knew, further, that the date thrives in the country of
the Arabs (Ta-i), 4 further, in Oman, Basra, and on the Coromandel
Coast. 5 It is pointed out, further, for Aden and Ormuz. 6
There is no doubt that the date-palm has existed in southern Persia
from ancient times, chiefly on the littoral of the Persian Gulf and in
Mekran, Baluchistan. It is mentioned in several passages of the
Bundahisn. 7 Its great antiquity in Babylonia also is uncontested
(Assyrian gi&mmaru) . 8 Strabo 9 reports how Alexander's army was
greatly distressed on its march through the barren Gedrosian desert.
The supplies had to come from a distance, and were scanty and un-
frequent, so much so that the army suffered greatly from hunger, the
beasts of burden dropped, and the baggage was abandoned. The army
was saved by the consumption of dates and the marrow of the palm-
tree. 10 Again he tells us that many persons were suffocated by eating
unripe dates. 11 Philostratus speaks of a eunuch who received Apollonius
of Tyana when he entered the Parthian kingdom, and offered him
dates of amber color and of exceptional size. 12 In the Province of Pars,
the date-palm is conspicuous almost everywhere. 13 In Babylon, Persian
and Aramaic date-palms were distinguished, the former being held in
greater esteem, as their meat perfectly detaches itself from the stone,
while it partially adheres in the Aramaic date. 14 The same distinction
1 Ta Min i t'un i, Ch. 90, p. 24.
a Min Si, Ch. 304.
I It is not Ma-lin-la-sa, the name of a single country, as made out by GROENE-
VELDT (Notes on the Malay Archipelago, p. 170).
4 T'ai p'in hwan yii ki, Ch. 186, p. 15 b.
6 HIRTH, Chau Ju-kua, pp. 133, 137, 96.
'RocKHiLL, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 609. The word to-$a-pu, not explained by
him, represents Arabic dusab ("date-wine"; see LECLERC, Traite" des simples,
Vol. II, p. 49). NOLDEKE (Persische Studien, II, p. 42) explains this word from
du$ ("honey") and Persian db ("water").
7 Above, p. 193.
8 Herodotus, i, 193; E. BONAVIA, Flora of the Assyrian Monuments, p. 3;
HANDCOCK, Mesopotamian Archaeology, pp. 12-13.
9 xv, 2, 7.
10 Cf. Theophrastus, Histor. plant., IV. iv, 13.
II Ibid., IV. iv, 5; and Pliny, xm, 9.
12 C. JORET, Plantes dans 1'antiquite", Vol. II, p. 93.
13 G. LE STRANGE, Description of the Province of Pars, pp. 31, 33, 35, 39, 40,
etc.
14 1. LOEW, Aramaeische Pflanzennamen, p. 112.
THE DATE-PALM 391
was made in the Sasanian empire: in the tax laws of Khosrau I (A.D.
531-578), four Persian date-palms were valued and taxed equally with
six common ones. 1 As already remarked, the Wei and Sm Annals
attribute the date to Sasanian Persia, and the date is mentioned in
Pahlavi literature (above, p. 193). At present dates thrive in the low
plains of Kerman and of the littoral of the Persian Gulf; but the crops
are insufficient, so that a considerable importation from Bagdad takes
place. 2
A. DE CANDOLLE 3 asserts, "No Sanskrit name is known, whence it
may be inferred that the plantations of the date-palm in western India
are not very ancient. The Indian climate does not suit the species."
There is the Sanskrit name kharjura for Phoenix sylvestris, that already
occurs in the Yajurveda. 4 This is the wild date or date-sugar palm,
which is indigenous in many parts of India, being most abundant in
Bengal, Bihar, on the Coromandel Coast, and in Gujarat. The edible
date (P. dactylifera) is cultivated and self-sown in Sind and the southern
Panjab, particularly near Multan, Muzaffargarh, the Sind Sagar Doab,
and in the Trans-Indus territory. It is also grown in the Deccan and
Gujarat. 5 Its Hindi name is khajura, Hindustani khajur, from Sanskrit
kharjura. It is also called sindhi, seindi, sendri, which names allude to
its origin from Sind. Possibly Sanskrit kharjura and Iranian khurma(n),
at least as far as the first element is concerned, are anciently related.
1 NOLDEKE, Tabari, p. 245.
2 SCHLIMMER, Terminologie, p. 175.
3 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 303.
4 MACDONELL and KEITH, Vedic Index, Vol. I, p. 215.
5 G. WATT, Commercial Products of India, pp. 883, 885.
THE SPINACH
36. In regard to the spinach (Spinacia oleracea), BRETSCHNEiDER 1
stated that "it is said to come from Persia. The botanists consider
western Asia as the native country of spinach, and derive the names
Spinacia, spinage, spinat, epinards, from the spinous seeds; but as the
Persian name is esfinadsh, our various names would seem more likely
to be of Persian origin." The problem is not quite so simple, however.
It is not stated straightforwardly in any Chinese source that the spinach
comes from Persia; and the name "Persian vegetable" (Po-se ts'ai) is
of recent origin, being first traceable in the Pen ts*ao kan mu, where
Li Si-Sen himself ascribes it to a certain Fan Si-yin ~i) it BL
Strangely enough, we get also in this case a taste of the Can-K'ien
myth. At least, H. L. JoLY 2 asserts, "The Chinese and Japanese Reposi-
tory says that Chang K'ien brought to China the spinach." The only
Chinese work in which I am able to find this tradition is the T'un li
38 ;S, 3 written by Ceri Tsiao JIB ffi of the Sung dynasty, who states in
cold blood that Can K'ien brought spinach over. Not even the Pen
ts'ao kan mu dares repeat this fantasy. It is plainly devoid of any
value, in view of the fact that spinach was unknown in the west as
far back as the second century B.C. Indeed, it was unfamiliar to the
Semites and to the ancients. It is a cultivation that comes to light
only in mediaeval times.
In perfect agreement with this state of affairs, spinach is not men-
tioned in China earlier than the T'ang period. As regards the literature
on agriculture, the vegetable makes its first appearance in the Cun su
$u fi & fir, written toward the end of the eighth century. ; Here it is
stated that the spinach, po-lin $ H (*pwa-lin), came from the country
Po-liii $k f|@ (*Pwa-lin, Palinga).
The first Pen ts'ao that speaks of the spinach is the Cen lei pen ts'ao
written by T'an Sen-wei in A.D. no8. 5 This Materia Medica describes
altogether 1746 articles, compared with 1118 which are treated in the
Kia yu pu u pen ts'ao (published in the period Kia-yu, A.D. 105664),
so that 628 new ones were added. These are expressly so designated in
1 Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 223.
2 Legend in Japanese Art, p. 35.
3 Ch. 75, p. 32 b.
4 BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. i, p. 79.
6 Ch. 29, p. 14 b (print of 1587).
392
