38 The Diamond 



extreme hardness, likewise emphasized by Pliny; kin-kang, accordingly, 

 means "the hard stone originating in gold." 1 



In our middle ages we meet the notion of adamantine gold which is 

 credited with the same properties as the diamond. In the famous letter, 

 purported to have been addressed by Prester John to the Byzantine 

 Emperor Manuel, and written about 1165, a floor in the bakery of the 

 alleged palace of the Royal Presbyter in India is described as being of 

 adamantine gold, the strength of which can be destroyed neither by 

 iron, nor fire, nor any other remedy, save buck's blood. 2 



The Term "Kun-wu." — It is difficult to decide the origin of the 

 word kun-wu. It would be tempting to regard it as a transcription of 

 the Greek or West- Asiatic word denoting the diamond-point; unfor- 

 tunately, however, the Greek designation for this implement is not 

 known. More probably the Chinese term may be derived from an idiom 

 spoken in Central Asia; at any rate, the word itself was employed 

 in China before the introduction of diamond-points from the West. In 

 a poem of Se-ma Siang-ju, who died in 117 B.C., we meet a precious 

 stone named kun-wu JtL J§- , as occurring in Sze-ch'uan, on the nature 

 of which the opinions of the commentators dissent. 3 The Han shu yin i 

 explains it as the name of a mountain which produces excellent gold. 

 Shi-tse or Shi Kiao (about 280 B.C.) explains it as "gold" or "metal of 

 Kun-wu" tc.-ja^'fw , which may mean that he takes the latter as 



1 In the study of Chinese texts some precaution is necessary in the handling of the 

 term kin kang, which does not always refer to the diamond, but sometimes presents 

 a complete sentence with the meaning "gold is hard." Three examples of this kind 

 are known to me. One occurs in Nan shi (biography of Chang T'ung; see Pien tse 

 lei pien, Ch. 71, p. lib): "Gold is hard, water is soft: this is the difference in their 

 natural properties." In Tsin shu (Ch. 95, p. 13 b; biography of Wang Kia) we meet 

 the sentence ^"ISl^fi.. This, of course, could mean "the diamond is conquered 

 by fire," — a sentence which, from the standpoint of our scientific experience, would 

 be perfectly correct; from a Chinese viewpoint, however, it would be sheer non- 

 sense, the Chinese as well as the ancients entertaining the belief that fire does not 

 affect the diamond (p. 23). The passage really signifies, "Gold is hard, yet is 

 overcome (melted) by fire." The correctness of this translation is confirmed by a 

 passage in a work Yi shi fing kio (quoted in Pien tse lei pien, I. c), where the same say- 

 ing occurs in parallelism with two preceding sentences: "Branches of trees fall and 

 return to their roots; water flows from the roots and returns to the branches; gold 

 is hard, yet is overcome by fire; every one returns to his native place." 



2 Pavimentum vero est de auro adamantino, fortitudo cuius neque ferro neque 

 igne neque alio medicamine potest confringi sine yrcino [hircino] sanguine (F. 

 Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes I, p. 93). Compare the analogous passage in the 

 same document, "Infra domum sunt duae magnae molae, op time ad molendum 

 dispositae, factae de adamante lapide, quem namque lapidem neque lapis neque 

 ignis neque ferrum potest confringere." Both these passages are not contained in 

 the original draught of the letter, but are interpolations from manuscripts of the 

 thirteenth century. 



*Shiki, Ch. 117, p. 2 b. 



