28 The Diamond 



ts'ao kang mu, this name first occurs in the dictionary Shi ming, while 

 the usual mineralogical designation is kin kang shi ("metal-hard stone"). 

 Also Pseudo- Aristotle has the diamond "boring" all kinds of stones and 

 pearls, and Qazwlni styles it a "borer." Li Shi-cheri says that "by 

 means of diamond-sand jade can be perforated and porcelain repaired, 

 hence the name awl (tsuan)." 1 An interesting analogy to this con- 

 ception occurs in the Arabic stories of Sindbad the Sailor, dating in 

 the ninth century. Sindbad tells, "Walking along the valley I found 

 that its soil was of diamond, the stone wherewith they pierce jewels 

 and precious stones and porcelain and onyx, for that it is a hard dense 

 stone, whereon neither iron nor steel has effect, neither can we cut off 

 aught therefrom nor break it, save by means of the load-stone." We 

 shall now discuss one of the most interesting problems bearing on the 

 diamond, — the ancient employment of the diamond-point. 



The Diamond-Point. — In the book going under the name of the 

 alleged philosopher Lie-tse, which in the text now before us is hardly 

 earlier than the Han period, we read the following story: 2 "When King 

 Mu of the Chou Dynasty (1001-945 B.C.) was on an expedition against 

 the Western Jung, the latter presented him with a sword of kun-wu 

 ^tt-^%^^-^ and with fire-proof cloth (asbestos). The sword was one 

 foot and eight inches in length, was forged from steel, and had a red 

 blade; when handled, it would cut hard stone (jade) as though it were 

 merely clayish earth." The object of these notes is to discuss the nature 

 of the substance kun-wu. Asbestine stuffs were received by the Chinese 

 from the Roman Orient, and likewise the curious tales connected with 

 them. If asbestos came from that direction, our first impression in 

 the matter is that also the substance kun-wu appears to have been de- 

 rived from the same quarter; and this supposition will be proved correct 

 by a study of Chinese traditions. 



1 It is interesting that the Chinese, while they worked jade and porcelain, and, 

 as will be seen farther below, also pearls, by means of diamond-points, did not know 

 the fact that the latter can cut glass, — perhaps merely for the reason that they 

 never understood how to make plate-glass. The ancients did not cut glass, either, 

 with the diamond, and this practice does not seem to have originated before the 

 sixteenth century (compare Beckmann, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, 

 Vol. Ill, p. 543). In recent times, however, the Chinese applied the diamond also 

 to glass. Archdeacon Gray, in his interesting book Walks in the City of Canton 

 (p. 238, Hongkong, 1875), tells how the glaziers of Canton cut with a diamond the 

 designs traced with ink upon the surface of glass globes and readily effect this labor 

 by running the diamond along these ink-lines. 



2 Ch. 5, T'ang win, at the end (compare E. Faber, Naturalismus bei den alten 

 Chinesen, p. 132; L. Wieger, Peres du systeme taoiste, p. 149; A. Wylie, Chinese 

 Researches, pt. m, p. 142). The work of Lie-tse is first mentioned as a book in eight 

 chapters in Ts'ien Han shu (Ch. 30, p. 12 b). 



