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SUGAR BEET AND LETTUCE

37. In the preceding notes we observed that the name for a species
of Beta was transferred to the spinach in India and still serves in China
as designation for this vegetable. We have also a Sino-Iranian name
for a Beta, - H, kun-fa, *gwun-d'ar, which belonged to the choice
vegetables of the country ^ flft Mo-lu, *Mar-luk, in Arabia. 1 The
Cen su wen H V& 3&C 2 says that it is now erroneously called ken ta ts'ai
fi Jt 3 or ta ken ts'ai, which is identical with tien ts'ai "$$ 3fc (" sweet
vegetable"). STUART"* gives the latter name together with jfl j| kiin-t*a,
identifying it with Beta vulgaris, the white sugar beet, which he says
grows in China. Stuart, however, is mistaken in saying that this plant
is not mentioned in the Pen ts'ao. It is noted both in the Cen lei pen
ts*ao* and the Pen ts'ao kan muf the latter giving also the term kun-t*a,
which is lacking in the former work. Li Si-Sen observes with reference
to this term that its meaning is unexplained, a comment which usually
betrays the foreign character of the word, but he fails to state the
source from which he derived it. There is no doubt that this kiln-fa
is merely a graphic variant of the above ||. The writing J? is as
early as the T'ang period, and occurs in the Yu yan tsa tsuf where the
leaves of the yu tien ts'ao V& Ifi ^ ("herb with oily spots") are com-
pared to those of the kun-t'a. 1 A description of the kiin-t'a is not con-
tained in that work, but from this incidental reference it must be
inferred that the plant was well known in the latter half of the ninth
century.

Beta vulgaris is called in New Persian tugundur or Zegonder, and
is mentioned by Abu Mansur. 8 The corresponding Arabic word is
silk* The Chinese transcription made in the T'ang period is apparently
based on a Middle-Persian form of the type *gundar or *gundur. Beta
vulgaris is a Mediterranean and West-Asiatic plant grown as far as the

1 T'ai p'in hwan yu ki, Ch. 186, p. 16 b.

2 Ch. 12, p. 3. This work was published in 1884 by Ho Yi-hin %$ f& ff .
1 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 68.

4 Ch. 28, p. 9.

5 Ch. 27, p. i b. Cf. also Yamato honzo, Ch. 5, p. 26.

6 Ch. 9, p. 9 b.

7 "On each leaf there are black spots opposite one another."

8 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 81.

9 LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. II, p. 274.

399



400 SlNO-lRANlCA

Caspian Sea and Persia. According to DE CANDOLLE/ its cultivation
does not date from more than three or four centuries before our era.
The Egyptian illustration brought forward by F. WoENiG 2 in favor of
the assumption of an early cultivation in Egypt is not convincing to
me.

It is therefore probable, although we have no record referring to the
introduction, that Beta vulgaris was introduced into China in the T'ang
period, perhaps by the Arabs, who themselves brought many Persian
words and products to China. For this reason Chinese records some-
times credit Persian words to the Ta-sl (Arabs); for instance, the
numbers on dice, which go as Ta-i, but in fact are Persian. 3

The real Chinese name of the plant is tien ts'ai i| , the first
character being explained in sound and meaning by ^ft tien ("sweet")-
Li Si-en identifies tien ts*ai with kiln-fa. The earliest description
of tien ts'ai comes from Su Kun of the T'ang, who compares its leaves to
those of Sen ma 51* ]tt (Actea spicata, a ranunculaceous plant), adding
that the southerners steam the sprouts and eat them, the dish being very
fragrant and fine. 4 It is not stated, however, that tien ts'ai is an im-
ported article.

38. Reference was made above to the memorable text of the Tan
hui yao, in which are enumerated the vegetable products of foreign
countries sent to the Emperor T'ai Tsun of the T'ang dynasty at his
special request in A.D. 647. After mentioning the spinach of Nepal,
the text continues thus:

"Further, there was the ts*o ts'ai B ?fS ('wine vegetable') with
broad and long leaves. 5 It has a taste like a good wine and k'u ts'ai
^ 3& ('bitter vegetable/ lettuce, Lactuca), and in its appearance is like
kil JJ , 6 but its leaves are longer and broader. Although it is somewhat
bitter of taste, eating it for a long time is beneficial. Hu k*in SB Jr

1 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 59; see also his Geographic botanique, p. 831

2 Pflanzen im alten Aegypten, p. 218.

3 See Toung Pao, Vol. I, 1890, p. 95.

4 A tien ts'ai mentioned by T'ao Hun-kin, as quoted in the Pen ts'ao kan mu,
and made into a condiment la fe^ for cooking-purposes, is apparently a different
vegetable.

6 The corresponding text of the Ts'e fu yuan kwei (Ch. 970, p. 12) has the
addition, "resembling the leaves of the Sen-hwo R ^C." The text of the Pei hu
lu (Ch. 2, p. 19 b) has, "resembling in its appearance the Sen-kwo, but with leaves
broader and longer." This tree, also called kin t'ien jjt ^ (see Yu yan tsa tsu,
Ch. 19, p. 6), is believed to protect houses from fire; it is identified with Sedum erythro-
stictum or Sempervivum tectorum (BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. Ill, No. 205;
STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 401).

6 A general term for plants like Lactuca, Cichorium, Sonchus.



SUGAR BEET AND LETTUCE 401

resembles in its appearance the k'in ?r ('celery,' Apium graveolens),
and has a fragrant flavor."

Judging from the description, the vegetable ts'o ts'ai appears to have
been a species of Lactuca, Cichorium, or Sonchus. These genera are
closely allied, belonging to the family Cichoraceae, and are confounded
by the Chinese under a large number of terms. A. DE CANDOLLE*
supposed that lettuce (Lactuca sativd) was hardly known in China at
an early date, as, according to Loureiro, Europeans had introduced it
into Macao. 2 With reference to this passage, BRETSCHNEIDER S thinks
that de Candolle "may be right, although the Pen ts*ao says nothing
about the introduction; the Sen ts'ai &. ?K (the common name of lettuce
at Peking) or pai-ku fi J? seems not to be mentioned earlier than by
writers of the T'ang (618-906)." Again, DE CANDOLLE seized on this
passage, and embodied it in his "Origin of Cultivated Plants" (p. 96).
The problem, however, is not so simple. Bretschneider must have
read the Pen ts*ao at that time rather superficially, for some species of
Lactuca is directly designated there as being of foreign origin. Again,
twenty-five years later, he wrote a notice on the same subject, 4 in which
not a word is said about foreign introduction, and from which, on the
contrary, it would appear that Lactuca, Cichorium, and Sonchus, have
been indigenous to China from ancient times, as the bitter vegetable
(k*u ts'ai) is already mentioned in the Pen kin and Pie lu. The terms
pai ku 6 J? and k'u ku i g are supposed to represent Cichorium
endima; and wo-ku jS H, Lactuca sativa. In explanation of the latter
name, Li Si-cen cites the Mo k'o hui si SI 3tr W JP by P'eii C'efi ^ Si,
who wrote in the first half of the eleventh century, as saying that wo
ts'ai 1$j ^ ("wo vegetable") came from the country f^i Kwa, and hence
received its name. 5 The Ts'in i lu W M ^, a work by T'ao Ku PU WL
of the Sung period, says that "envoys from the country Kwa came
to China, and at the request of the people distributed seeds of a vegetable;
they were so generously rewarded that it was called ts'ien kin ts'ai
^^56 ('vegetable of a thousand gold pieces'); now it is styled wo-



1 Geographic botanique, p. 843.

2 This certainly is a weak argument. The evidence, in fact, proves nothing.
Europeans also introduce their own sugar and many other products of which China
has a great plenty.

3 Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 223.

4 Bot. Sin., pt. Ill, No. 257.

5 1 do not know how STUART (p. 229) gets at the definition "in the time of the
Han dynasty." The same text is also contained in the Su po wu ci (Ch. 7, p. I b),
written by Li Si ^ ^ about the middle of the twelfth century.



402 SlNO-lRANICA

ku.' n These are vague and puerile anecdotes, without chronological
specification. There is no country Kwa, which is merely distilled from
the character j%, and no such tradition appears in any historical text. 2
The term wo-kil was well known under the T'ang, being mentioned in
the Pen ts*ao U i of C'en Ts'an-k'i, who distinguishes a white and a
purple variety, but is silent as to the point of introduction. 3 This
author, however, as can be shown by numerous instances, had a keen
sense of foreign plants and products, and never failed to indicate them
as such. There is no evidence for the supposition that Lactuca was
introduced into China from abroad. All there is to it amounts to this,
that, as shown by the above passage of the T'an hui yao, possibly supe-
rior varieties of the West were introduced.

In Persia, Lactuca sativa (Persian kahu) occurs both wild and culti-
vated. 4 Cichoreum is kasnl in Persian, hindubd in Arabic and Osmanli. 5

39. The hu k*in, mentioned in the above text of the T'an hui yao,
possibly represents the garden celery, Apium graveolens (Persian kerefs
or karqfs) (or possibly parsley, Apium petroselinum) of the west. 6 It
appears to be a different plant from the hu k'in mentioned above (p. 196).

Hu k'in is likewise mentioned among the best vegetables of the
country ~M jjft Mo-lu, *Mwat-luk, Mar-luk, in Arabia. 7

In order to conclude the series of vegetables enumerated in the
text of the T'an hui yao, the following may be added here.

In A.D. 647 the king of Gandhara (in north-western India) sent to
the Chinese Court a vegetable styled fu-t'u IS i & ("Buddha-land
vegetable")? each stem possessing five leaves, with red flowers, a yellow
pith, and purple stamens. 8

1 I have looked up the text of the Ts'in i lu, which is reprinted in the T'an Sufi
ts'un $u and Si yin huan ts'un Su. The passage in question is in Ch. 2, p. 7 b, and
printed in the same manner as in the Pen ts'ao kan mu, save that the country is called
Kao iilj, not Kwa jB5j. It is easy to see that these two characters could be con-
founded, and that only one of the two can be correct; but Kao does not help us any
more than Kwa. Either name is fictitious as that of a country.

2 We have had several other examples of alleged names of countries being
distilled out of botanical names.

3 K'ou Tsun-sl is likewise; see his Pen ts'ao yen i (Ch. 19, p. 2).
* SCHLIMMER, Terminologie, p. 337.

5 See ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 146; E. SEIDEL, Mechithar, p. 134; LECLERC,
Traite" des simples, Vol. II, p. 28.

6 Cf. ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, pp. no, 257. Celery is cultivated only in a few
gardens of Teheran, but it grows spontaneously and abundantly in the mountains
of the Bakhtiaris (SCHLIMMER, Terminologie, p. 43).

7 T'ai p'in hwan yu ki, Ch. 186, p. 16 b.

8 T'an hui yao, Ch. 200, p. 4 b; and T'an $u, Ch. 221 B, p. 7. The name of
Gandhara is abbreviated into *d'ar, but in the corresponding passage of the T'an
hui yao (Ch. 100, p. 3 b) and in the Ts'e fu yuan kwei (Ch. 970, p. 12) the name is
written completely $ jjj^ Kien-ta, *G'an-d'ar.