330 Sino-Iranica 



that at this early date we know nothing about an Arabic or Persian 

 language; and this rapprochement is wrong, even in view of the Chinese 

 work itself, which distinctly says that both ye-si-min and mo-li were 

 introduced from Ta Ts'in, the Hellenistic Orient. Pelliot 1 observes 

 that the authenticity of the Chinese book has never been called into 

 doubt, but expresses surprise at the fact that jasmine figures there 

 under its Arabic name. But Arabic is surely excluded from the languages 

 of Ta Ts'in. Moreover, thanks to the researches of L. Aurousseau, 2 

 we now know that the Nan fan ts'ao mu cwan is impaired by inter- 

 polations. The passage in question may therefore be a later addition, 

 and, at all events, cannot be enlisted to prove that prior to the year 300 

 there were people from western Asia in Canton. 3 Still less is it credible 

 that, as asserted in the Chinese work, the Nan yiie kin ki *M & ff IE 

 ascribed to Lu Kia ^ W, who lived in the third and second centuries 

 B.C., should have alluded to the two species of Jasminum. 4 In fact, 

 this author is made to say only that in the territory of Nan Yue the 

 five cereals have no taste and the flowers have no odor, and merely 

 that these flowers are particularly fragrant. Their names are not given, 

 and it is Ki Han who refers them to ye-si-min and mo-li. It is out of 

 the question that at the time of Lu Kia these two foreign plants should 

 have been introduced over the maritime route into southern China; 

 Lu Kia, if he has written this passage, may have as well had two other 

 flowers in mind. 



The fact must not be overlooked, either, that the alleged introduction 

 from Ta Ts'in is not contained in the historical texts relative to that 

 country, nor is it confirmed by any other coeval or subsequent source. 



The Pei hu lu 5 mentions the flower under the names ye-si-mi ^1$ ^ 5Jf 

 and white mo-li 6 3i ^'J ^6 as having been transplanted to China by 

 Persians, like the pH-H-Sa or gold-coiri flower. 6 The Yu yan tsa tsu 

 has furnished a brief description of the plant, 7 stating that its habitat 

 is in Fu-lin and in Po-se (Persia). The Pen ts'ao kan mu, Kwah k'iin 

 fan p l u, H and Hwa kin 9 state that the habitat of jasmine (mo-li) was 



1 Bull, de VEcolefranqaise, Vol. II, p. 146. 



2 See above, p. 263. 



3 Hirth, Chau Ju-kua, p. 6, note 1. 



* This point is discussed neither by Bretschneider nor by Hirth, who do not 

 at all mention this reference. 



5 Ch. 3, p. 16 (see above, p. 268). 



6 See below, p. 335. 



7 Translated by Hirth, Journal Am. Or. Soc, Vol. XXX, 1910, p. 22. 



8 Ch. 22, p. 8 b. 

 » Ch. 4, p. 9. 



