3© The Diamond 



records relative to the Hellenistic Orient, refers to the Mediterranean; 

 and Liu-sha is well known as a geographical term of somewhat vague 

 definition, first used in the Annals of the Later Han Dynasty, and said 

 to be in the west of Ta Ts'in, the Chinese designation of the Roman 

 Orient. 1 Liu-sha, in my opinion, is the model of Liu chou, the Floating 

 Island being distilled from Floating Sand in favor of the Ten Islands 

 mechanically constructed in that fabulous book. Accordingly, we have 

 here a distinct tradition relegating the kun-wu stone to the Anterior 

 Orient; and Li Shi-ch&i's identification with the diamond appears 

 plausible to a high degree. His opinion is strongly corroborated by 

 another text cited by him. This is the Hilan chung ki by Kuo 2 of the 

 fifth century, who reports as follows: "The country of Ta Ts'in pro- 

 duces diamonds (kin-kang), termed also 'jade-cutting swords or knives.' 

 The largest reach a length of over a foot, the smallest are of the size of 

 a rice or millet grain. 3 Hard stone can be cut by means of it 

 all round, and on examination it turns out that it is the largest of 

 diamonds. This is what the Buddhist priests substitute for the tooth 

 of Buddha." 4 Chou Mi, quoted above regarding the legend of the Dia- 



1 Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 42, 292. F. de Mely (Lapidaires 

 chinois, p. 124) translates "River Liu sha," and omits the "Western Ocean." The 

 term Liu-sha existed in early antiquity and occurs for the first time in the Shu king, 

 chap. Yii kung (Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. Ill, pp. 132, 133, 150), denoting the 

 then known farthest west of the country, the desert extending west of the district 

 of Tun-huang in Kan-su. It is cited also in the elegy Li sao by Ku Yuan (xin, 89; 

 Legge, Journal R. As. Soc, 1895, pp. 595, 863), in the records of the Buddhist pil- 

 grims (Chavannes, Religieux eminents, p. 12), and in the memoirs of the mediaeval 

 travellers (Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 27; Vol. II, p. 144). 

 See also Pelliot, Journal asiatique, 19 14 (Mai-Juin), p. 505. 



2 His personal name is unknown. 



3 Pliny (xxxvii, 15, § 57) speaks of a kind of diamond as large as a grain of 

 millet (milii magnitudine) and called cenchros; that is, the Greek word for "millet." 



4 F. de Mely (Lapidaires'chinois, p. 124) incorrectly understands by this passage 

 that the bonzes of India adorn with diamonds the tooth of Buddha. In fact, a dia- 

 mond itself was passed off as Buddha's-tooth relic. A specific case to this effect is 

 on record: "In the peiiod Cheng-kuan (627-650) there was a Brahmanic priest 

 who asserted that he had obtained a tooth of Buddha which when struck resisted any 

 blow with unheard-of strength. Fu Yi heard of it, and said to his son, ' It is not 

 a tooth of Buddha; I have heard that the diamond (kin-kang shi) is the strongest of 

 all objects, that nothing can resist it, and that only an antelope-horn can break it; 

 you may proceed to make the experiment by knocking it, and it will crash and 

 break' " (P'ei win yiinfu, Ch. 100 A, p. 40 b). Fu Yi, who was a resolute opponent 

 of Buddhism and was raised to the office of grand historiographer by the founder of 

 the T'ang dynasty (he died in 639; see Memoir es concernant les Chinois, Vol. V, 

 pp. 122, 159; Legge, Journal Roy. As. Soc, 1893, p. 800), was certainly right. 

 Compare H. Dore, Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, Vol. VIII, p. 310. 

 Also Palladius (Chinese-Russian Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 203 a) is inexact in saying 

 that the Buddhists passed off the diamond as Buddha's tooth in China, where the 

 diamond was unknown. Regarding Buddha's-tooth relic, besides the various 



