Diamond and Gold 37 



Aristotle, in the introduction to his work, philosophizes on the forces of 

 nature attracting or avoiding one another. To these belongs gold that 

 comes as gold-dust from the mine. When the diamond encounters a 

 grain of it, it pounces on the gold, wherever it may be in its mine, till 

 the union is accomplished. 1 QazwinI speaks of an amicable relationship 

 between gold and the diamond, for if the diamond comes near gold, 

 it clings to the latter; also it is said that the diamond is found only 

 in gold-mines. 2 A commentary to the Shan hai king 3 has the following: 

 "The diamond which is produced abroad belongs to the class of stones, 

 but resembles gold (or metal) and has a brilliant splendor. It can cut 

 jade. The foreigners wear it in the belief that it wards off evil influ- 

 ences." It is therefore highly probable that the first element (kin) 

 in the Chinese compound kin-kang was really intended to convey the 

 meaning ' ' gold ' ' (not ' ' metal ' ' in general) , and that the term was framed 

 in consequence of that tradition reaching Tun-huang, and ultimately 

 traceable to classical antiquity. A further intimation as to the signifi- 

 cance of the newly-coined term we receive in the same period, that of the 

 Tsin dynasty, when the stone and its nature were perfectly known in 

 China. Indeed, it is several times alluded to in the official Annals of 

 the Tsin Dynasty (265-419). At that time "a saying was current 

 among the people of Liang, 4 that the principle of the diamond of the 

 Western countries is strength, and that for this reason the name kin- 

 kang was conferred upon it in Liang." 5 In combining this information 

 with the previous text of the Tsin k'i kit chu, we arrive at the conclusion 

 that the term kin-kang reflects two traditions, — the word kin referring 

 to the origin of the diamond in gold, the word kang alluding to its 



expressed the idea that the diamond accompanying these two metals in Brazil should 

 be discovered also in the Ural; under the guidance of this prognostic, the first dia- 

 monds were really found there in 1829 (Bauer, Edelsteinkunde, 2d ed., p. 292). 

 The diamonds of California have been found in association with gold-bearing gravels, 

 while washing for gold (Farrington, Gems and Gem Minerals, p. 87). The state- 

 ment of Pliny proves that he indeed speaks of the diamond. 



1 J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 129. 



1 Rusra, Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des al-QazwInl, p. 6. 



* Quoted in Yuan kien lei han, Ch. 26, p. 46. 



4 Liang is the name of one of the nine provinces (chou) into which China was 

 anciently divided by the culture-hero and semi-historical Emperor Yu, comprising 

 what is at present Sze-ch'uan and parts of Shen-si, Kan-su, and Hu-pei (regarding 

 the boundaries of Liang-chou, see particularly Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. Ill, 

 pp. 1 19-120). Liang-chou was one of the nineteen provinces into which China was 

 divided under the Tsin dynasty, with Wu-wei (in Kan-su) as capital (compare Piton, 

 China Review, Vol. XI, p. 299). 



6 Tsin shu, Ch. 14, p. 16. The Annals of the Tsin Dynasty were compiled by 

 Fang Huan-ling (578-648). 





