34 The Diamond 



use of the diamond for ornamental purposes, and did not understand 

 how to work it. 1 



Not only have the Chinese stories about the diamond-point, but 

 there is also proof for the fact that this implement was among them a 

 living reality turned to practical use. Li Sim, the author of the Hai 

 yao pen ts'ao, — an account of the drugs of southern countries, written 

 in the second half of the eighth century, 2 — discusses the genuine pearl 

 found in the southern ocean, and observes that it can be perforated 

 only by the diamond-point (kin-kang tsuan). 3 The poet Yuan CMn 

 (779-831), his contemporary, says in a stanza, "The diamond-point 

 bores jade, the sword of finely tempered steel 4 severs the floating 

 down." 



The preceding accounts have conveyed the impression that the 

 diamond-points employed by the Chinese were plain implements of the 

 shape of an awl tipped with a diamond. A different instrument is 

 described in the Hiian chung ki, a work of the fifth century, which has 

 already been quoted from the Pin ts'ao kang mu. In the great cyclo- 

 paedia T'ai p'ing yii Ian 5 the passage of this book concerning the dia- 

 mond is handed down as follows: "The diamond comes from India and 

 the country of Ta Ts'in (the Roman Orient). It is styled also 'jade- 

 cutting knife,' as it cuts jade like an iron knife. The largest reach a 



1 The Nan chou i wu chi (Account of Remarkable Objects in the Southern 

 Provinces, by Wan Chen of the third century) states that the diamond is a stone, in 

 appearance resembling a pearl, hard, sharp, and matchless; and that foreigners are 

 fond of setting it in rings, which they wear in order to ward off evil influences and 

 poison {T'ai p'ing yii Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10). — The Polyglot Dictionary of K'ien-lung 

 (Ch. 22, p. 65) discriminates between kin-kang tsuan ("diamond-point") and kin- 

 kang shi ("diamond stone"). The former corresponds to Manchu paltari, Tibetan 

 p'a-lam, and Mongol ocir alama; the latter, to Manchu palta wehe (wehe, "stone"), 

 Tibetan rdo p'a-lam (rdo, "stone"), and Mongol alama cilagu (the latter likewise 

 means "stone"). The Manchu words are artificial formations based on the Tibetan 

 word. Mongol alama apparently goes back to Arabic almas (Russian almaz), Uigur 

 and other Turkish dialects almas (Osmanli elmas), ultimately traceable to Greek- 

 Latin adamas. Al-Akfanl writes the word al-mas, the initials of the stem being 

 mistaken by him for the native article al (Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, 

 p. 218). 



2 Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, p. 45. 



3 Pin ts'ao kang mu, Ch. 46, p. 3 b; Ching lei pin ts'ao, Ch. 20, fol. 12 b (edition 

 of 1523). Al-Akfanl says in the same manner that the pearl is perforated only by 

 means of the diamond (E. Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 221). 



4 Pin t'ie. Julien's opinion that the diamond is understood by this term is erro- 

 neous, and was justly antagonized by Mayers (China Review, Vol. IV, 1875, P- I 75)- 

 Regarding this steel imported into China by Persians and Arabs, see Bretschneider, 

 Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 146; Watters, Essays on the Chinese Language, 

 p. 434; Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua, p. 19. 



6 Ch. 813, p. 10 (edition of Juan Yuan, 1812). 



