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THE SPINACH 393

the table of contents preceding each chapter, and spinach ranks among
these novelties. Judging from the description here given, it must have
been a favorite vegetable in the Sung period. It is said to be particularly
beneficial to the people in the north of China, who feed on meat and
flour (chiefly in the form of vermicelli), while the southerners, who
subsist on fish and turtles, cannot eat much of it, because their water
food makes them cold, and spinach brings about the same effect. 1
The Kia yu (or hwa) lu B M (or IS) $fr by Liu Yu-si t'J 3 fll (A.D.
772-842) is cited to the effect that "po-lin 3t || was originally in the
western countries, and that its seeds came thence to China 2 in the
same manner as alfalfa and grapes were brought over by Can K'ien.
Originally it was the country of Po-lin $tt i$, and an error arose in the
course of the transmission of the word, which is not known to many at
this time."

The first and only historical reference to the matter that we have
occurs in the T'an hui yao? where it is on record, "At the time of the
Emperor T'ai Tsun (A.D. 627-649), in the twenty-first year of the period
Cen-kwan (A.D. 647), Ni-p'o-lo (Nepal) sent to the Court the vegetable
po-lin 1$ IS, resembling the flower of the hun-lan H H (Carthamus
tinctorius), the fruit being like that of the tsi-li H H (Tribulus ter-
restris). Well cooked, it makes good eating, and is savory." 4

This text represents not only the earliest datable mention of the
vegetable in Chinese records, but in general the earliest reference to it
that we thus far possess. This document shows that the plant then was
a novelty not only to the Chinese, but presumably also to the people
of Nepal; otherwise they would not have thought it worthy of being
sent as a gift to China, which was made in response to a request of the

1 JOHN GERARDE (The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, p. 260, London,
1597) remarks, "Spinach is evidently colde and moist, almost in the second degree,
but rather moist. It is one of the potherbes whose substance is waterie."

2 According to another reading, a Buddhist monk (sen) is said to have brought
the seeds over, which sounds rather plausible. G. A. STUART remarks that the herb
is extensively used by the monks in their lenten fare.

3 Ch. 200, p. 14 b (also Ch. 100, p. 3 b). Cf. Ts'efu yuan kwei, Ch. 970, p. 12,
and Pei hu lu, Ch. 2, p. 19 b (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan).

4 The T'ai p'in yu Ian (Ch. 980, p. 7) attributes this text to the T'ang Annals.
It is not extant, however, in the account of Nepal inserted in the two Tan lu, nor
in the notice of Nepal in the T'an hui yao. Pen ts'ao kan mu, T'u su tsi e'en, and
Ci wu min si Vu k'ao (Ch. 5, p. 37) correctly cite the above text from the T'an hui
yao, with the only variant that the leaves of the po-lin resemble those of the hun-
lan. The Fun si wen kien ki (Ch. 7, p. i b) by Fun Yen of the ninth century
(above, p. 232), referring to the same introduction, offers a singular name for the
spinach in the form $fc H J |j| po-lo-pa-tsao, *pa-la-bat-tsaw, or, if tsao, denot-
ing several aquatic plants, does not form part of the transcription, *pa-la-bat(bar).



394 SlNO-lRANICA

Emperor T'ai Tsuh that all tributary nations should present their
choicest vegetable products. Yuan Wen A 3$C, an author of the Sung
period, in his work Wen yu kien p'in US f$ M Jrly states that the spinach
(po-lin) comes from (or is produced in) the country Ni-p'o-lo (Nepal)
in the Western Regions. 2 The Kia yu pen ts'ao, compiled in A.D. 1057,
is the first Materia Medica that introduced the spinach into the pharma-
copoeia. 3

The colloquial name is po ts'ai t^S ("po vegetable"), po being
abbreviated for po-lin. According to Wan Si-mou : 1iir (who died
in 1591), in his Kwa su su JR IS S, the current name in northern China
is Pi ken ts*ai ffi ffi 3S (" red-root vegetable"). The Kwan k'unfan p*u
uses also the term yin-wu ts*ai ("parrot vegetable"), named for the
root, which is red, and believed to resemble a parrot. Aside from the
term Po-se ts'ai, the Pen ts'ao kan mu &' i* gives the synonymes hun
ts'ai &C3K ("red vegetable") and yan ff ts'ai ("foreign vegetable").
Another designation is $an-hu ts'ai ("coral vegetable").

A rather bad joke is perpetrated by the Min $u ISJ S, a description
of Fu-kien Province written at the end of the sixteenth or beginning of
the seventeenth centttry, where the name po-lin is explained as Jfe It
po len ("waves and edges"), because the leaves are shaped like wave-
patterns and have edges. There is nothing, of course, that the Chinese
could not etymologize. 5

There is no account in the traditions of the T'ang and Sung periods
to the effect that the spinach was derived from Persia; and in view of
the recent origin of the term "Persian vegetable," which is not even
explained, we are tempted at the outset to dismiss the theory of
a Persian origin. STUART G even goes so far as to say that, "as the Chinese
have a tendency to attribute everything that comes from the south-
west to Persia, we are not surprised to find this called Po-se ts*ao, 'Per-

1 Ch. 4, p. ii b (ed. of Wu yin Hen, 1775).

2 ft 5ft ffi B % H ^ H H- This could be translated also, "in the
Western Regions and in the country Ni-p'o-lo."

3 Ci wu min Si /' k'ao, Ch. 4, p. 38 b.

4 Ch. 8, p. 87 b.

6 Of greater interest is the following fact recorded in the same book. The
spinach in the north of China is styled "bamboo (cu ft) po-lin," with long and
bitter stems; that of Fu-kien is termed "stone (Si ^J) po-lin," and has short and
sweet stems. The Min Su, in 154 chapters, was written by Ho K'iao-yuan $5 ^
JH from Tsin-kian in Fu-kien; he obtained the degree of tsin Si in 1586 (cf. Cat. of
the Imperial Library, Ch. 74, p. 19).

8 Chinese Materia Medica, p. 417.



THE SPINACH 395

sian vegetable.' ' n There is, however, another side to the case. In all
probability, as shown by A. DE CANDOLLE, Z it was Persia where the
spinach was first raised as a vegetable; but the date given by him,
"from the time of the Graeco-Roman civilization," is far too early. 3
A. de Candolle's statement that the Arabs did not carry the plant to Spain
has already been rectified by L. LECLERC; 4 as his work is usually not in
the hands of botanists or other students using de Candolle, this may
aptly be pointed out here.

According to a treatise on agriculture (Kitab el-faldha) written by
Ibn al-Awwam of Spain toward the end of the eleventh century, spinach
was cultivated in Spain at that time. 5 Ibn Haddjaj had then even
written a special treatise on the cultivation of the vegetable, saying that
it was sown at Sevilla in January. From Spain it spread to the rest of
Europe. Additional evidence is afforded by the very name of the
plant, which is of Persian origin, and was carried by the Arabs to Europe.
The Persian designation is aspanah, aspandj or asfindj; Arabic isfenah
or isbenah. Hence Mediaeval Latin spinachium or spinariumf Spanish

1 The outcry of WAITERS (Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 347) against the
looseness of the term Po-se, and his denunciation of the "Persian vegetable" as "an
example of the loose way in which the word is used," are entirely out of place. It
is utterly incorrect to say that "they have made it include, beside Persia itself, Syria,
Turkey, and the Roman Empire, and sometimes they seem to use it as a sort of
general designation for the abode of any barbarian people to the south-west of
the Middle Kingdom." Po-se is a gpod transcription of Parsa, the native designa-
tion of Persia, and strictly refers to Persia and to nought else. When F. P. Smith applied
the name po-ts*ai to Convolvulus reptans, this was one of the numerous confusions
and errors to which he fell victim. Likewise is it untrue, as asserted by Watters,
that the term has been applied even to beet and carrot and other vegetables not
indigenous in Persia. As on so many other points, Watters was badly informed on
this subject also.

2 Origin of Cultivated Plants, pp. 98-100.

3 This conclusion, again, is the immediate outcome of Bretschneider's Chang-
kienomania: for A. DE CANDOLLE says, " Bretschneider tells us that the Chinese
name signifies 'herb of Persia,' and that Western vegetables were commonly intro-
duced into China a century before the Christian era."

4 TraitS des simples, Vol. I, p. 61.

5 L. LECLERC, Histoire de la me"decine arabe, Vol. II, p. 112. The Arabic work
has been translated into French by CLEMENT-MULLET under the title Ibn al Awwam,
le livre de I'agriculture (2 vols., Paris, 1864-67). De Candolle's erroneous theory
that "the European cultivation must have come from the East about the fifteenth
century," unfortunately still holds sway, and is perpetuated, for instance, in the
last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

6 The earliest occurrence of this term quoted by Du CANGE refers to the year
1351, and is contained in the Transactio inter Abbatem et Monachos Crassenses.
Spinach served the Christian monks of Europe as well as the Buddhists of China.
O. SCHRADER (Reallexikon, p. 788) asserts that the vegetable is first mentioned by
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280) under the name spinachium, but he fails to give a



396 SlNO-lRANICA

espinaca, Portuguese espinafre or espinacio, Italian spinace or spinaccio,
Provencal espinarc, Old French espinoche or epinoche, French epinard. 1
The Persian word was further adopted into Armenian spanax or
asbanax, Turkish spandk or ispandk, Comanian yspanac, Middle
Greek spinakion, Neo-Greek spanaki(on) or spanakia (plural).
There are various spellings in older English, like spynnage,
spenege, spinnage, spinage, etc. In English literature it is not men-
tioned earlier than the sixteenth century. W. TURNER, in his
"Herball" of 1568, speaks of "spinage or spinech as an her be lately
found and not long in use."

However, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, spinach was
well known and generally eaten in England. D. REMBERT DoooENS 2
describes it as a perfectly known subject, and so does JOHN GERARDE, S
who does not even intimate that it came but recently into use. The
names employed by them are Spanachea, Spinachia, Spinacheum olus,
Hispanicum olus, English spinage and spinach. JOHN PARKINSON 4
likewise gives a full description and recipes for the preparation of the
vegetable.

The earliest Persian mention of the spinach, as far as I know, is
made in the pharmacopoeia of Abu Mansur. 5 The oldest source cited
by Ibn al-Baitar (i 197-1 248) 6 on the subject is the "Book of Nabathaean
Agriculture" (Falaha nabatiya), which pretends to be the Arabic trans-
lation of an ancient Nabathsean source, and is believed to be a forgery
of the tenth century. This book speaks of the spinach as a known
vegetable and as the most harmless of all vegetables; but the most
interesting remark is that there is a wild species resembling the culti-
vated one, save that it is more slender and thinner, that the leaves are

specific reference. It is a gratuitous theory of his that the spinach must have been
brought to Europe by the Crusaders; the Arabic importation into Spain has escaped
him entirely.

1 The former derivation of the word from "Spain" or from spina ("thorn"), in
allusion to the prickly seeds, moves on the same high level as the performance of the
Min $u. Littre* cites Me"nagier of the sixteenth century to the effect, "Les espinars
sont ainsi appelle"s a cause de leur graine qui est espineuse, bien qu'il y en ait de ronde
sans piqueron." In the Supplement, Littre* points out the oriental origin of the word,
as established by Devic.

2 A Niewe Herball, or Historic of Plants, translated by H. LYTE, p. 556 (Lon-
don, 1578).

8 The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, p. 260 (London, 1597).

4 Paradisus in sole paradisus terrestris, p. 496 (London, 1629).

6 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 6.

8 L. LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. I, p. 60.



THE SPINACH 397

more deeply divided, and that it rises less from the ground. 1 A. DE
CANDOLLE states that "spinach has not yet been found in a wild state,
unless it be a cultivated modification of Spinacia tetandra Steven, which
is wild to the south of the Caucasus, in Turkistan, in Persia, and in
Afghanistan, and which is used as a vegetable under the name of
Samum." The latter word is apparently a bad spelling or misreading
for Persian $omm or Sumin (Armenian zomin and Somin), another'
designation for the spinach.

The spinach is not known in India except as an introduction by the
English. The agriculturists of India classify spinach among the English
vegetables. 2 The species Spinacia tetrandra Roxb., for which Rox-
BURGH 3 gives the common Persian and Arabic name for the spinach,
and of which he says that it is much cultivated in Bengal and the
adjoining provinces, being a pot-herb held in considerable estimation
by the natives, may possibly have been introduced by the Moham-
medans. As a matter of fact, spinach is a vegetable of the temperate
zones and alien to tropical regions. A genuine Sanskrit word for the
spinach is unknown. 4 Nevertheless Chinese po-lin, *pwa-lin, must
represent the transcription of some Indian vernacular name. In Hin-
dustani we have palak as designation for the spinach, and palan or
palak as name for Beta vulgaris, Pustu pdlak, 5 apparently developed
from Sanskrit pdlanka, pdlankya, palakyu, pdlakyd, to which our
dictionaries attribute the meaning "a kind of vegetable, a kind of
beet-root, Beta bengalensis"; in Bengali palun* To render the coin-
cidence with the Chinese form complete, there is also Sanskrit Palakka

1 Perhaps related to A triplex L., the so-called wild spinach, chiefly cultivated
in France and eaten like spinach. The above description, of course, must
not be construed to mean that the cultivated spinach is derived from the
so-called wild spinach of the Nabathaeans. The two plants may not be in-
terrelated at all.

2 N. G. MUKERJI, Handbook of Indian Agriculture, 2d ed., p. 300 (Calcutta,
1907); but it is incorrect to state that spinach originally came from northern Asia.
A. DE CANDOLLE (op. cit., p. 99) has already observed, "Some popular works repeat
that spinach is a native of northern Asia, but there is nothing to confirm this sup-
position."

8 Flora Indica, p. 718.

4 A. BOROOAH, in his English-Sanskrit Dictionary, gives a word $akaprabheda
with this meaning, but this simply signifies "a kind of vegetable," and is accord-
ingly an explanation.

6 H. W. BELLE w, Report on the Yusufzais, p. 255 (Lahore, 1864).

6 Beta is much cultivated by the natives of Bengal, the leaves being consumed
in stews (W. ROXBURGH, Flora Indica, p. 260). Another species, Beta maritima, is
also known as "wild spinach." It should be remembered that the genus Beta belongs
to the same family (Chenopodiaceae) as Spinacia.



398 SlNO-lRANICA

or Palaka 1 as the name of a country, which has evidently resulted in
the assertion of Buddhist monks that the spinach must come from a
country Palinga. The Nepalese, accordingly, applied a word relative
to a native plant to the newly-introduced spinach, and, together with
the product, handed this word on to China. The Tibetans never became
acquainted with the plant; the word spo ts*od, given in the Polyglot
Dictionary, 2 is artificially modelled after the Chinese term, spo (pro-
nounced po) transcribing Chinese po, and ts*od meaning " vegetable."
Due regard being paid to all facts botanical and historical, we are
compelled to admit that the spinach was introduced into Nepal from
some Iranian region, and thence transmitted to China in A.D. 647.
It must further be admitted that the Chinese designation "Persian
vegetable," despite its comparatively recent date, cannot be wholly
fictitious, but has some foundation in fact. Either in the Yuan or in
the Ming period (more probably in the former) the Chinese seem to
have learned the fact that Persia is the land of the spinach. I trust that
a text to this effect will be discovered in the future. All available his-
torical data point to the conclusion that the Persian cultivation can
be but of comparatively recent origin, and is not older than the sixth
century or so. The Chinese notice referring it to the seventh century
is the oldest in existence. Then follow the Nabathaean Book of Agri-
culture of the tenth century and the Arabic introduction into Spain
during the eleventh.

1 The latter form is noted in the catalogue of the Mahamaytirl, edited by S.
Lvi (Journal asiatique, 1915, I, p. 42).
3 Ch. 27, p. 19 b.