228 Sino-Iranica 



have applied a Persian word designating the cultivated grape to a 

 wild vine which is a native of their country, and which particularly 

 grows in the two Kian provinces of eastern China. The Gazetteer of 

 Su-cou 1 says expressly that the name for the wild grape, Ian p'u-t'aoy 

 in the Kian provinces, is yih-yti. Accordingly it may be an ancient 

 term of the language of Wu. The Pen ts'ao kan mu 2 has treated yin-yii 

 as a separate item, and Li Si-cen annotates that the meaning of the 

 term is unexplained. It seems to me that for the time being we have 

 to acquiesce in this verdict. Yen-yii %& J| and yih-le §§ f§" are added 

 by him as synonymes, after the Mao H ^ !Nf and the Kwan ya, while 

 ye p'u-Vao ("wild grape") is the common colloquial term (also fen 

 mih or mu lun HI & /fc ft). It is interesting to note that the earliest 

 notices of this plant come only from Su Kuii and C'en Ts'ah-k'i of the 

 T'ang dynasty. In other words, it was noted by the Chinese naturalists 

 more than seven centuries later than the introduction of the cultivated 

 grajpe, — sufficient evidence for the fact that the two are not in any way 

 interrelated. 



It must not be imagined that with Can K'ien's deed the introduction 

 of the vine into China was an accomplished fact; but introductions of 

 seeds were subsequently repeated, and new varieties were still imported 

 from Turkistan by K'an-hi. There are so many varieties of the grape 

 in China, that it is hardly credible that all these should have at once 

 been brought over by a single man. It is related in the Han Annals 

 that Li Kwan-li ^ M ffl, being General of Er-§i — U (*Ni-S'i), after 

 the subjugation of Ta-yuan, obtained grapes which he took along to 

 China. 



Three varieties of grape are indicated in the Kwan H* written 

 before a.d. 527, — yellow, black, and white. The same varieties are 

 enumerated in the Yu yan tsa tsu, while Li Si-cen speaks of four varie- 

 ties, — a round one, called ts'ao lun tu ^ tl & ("vegetable dragon- 

 pearls"); a long one, ma %u p'u-fao (see below); a white one, called 

 "crystal grapes" {Swi tsin p'u-t'ao); and a black one, called "purple 

 grapes" (tse ^ p'u-Vao), — and assigns to Se-c'wan a green ($&) grape, 

 to Yun-nan grapes of the size of a jujube. 4 Su Sun of the Sung mentions 

 a variety of seedless grapes. 



1 Su lou fu Si, Ch. 20, p. 7 b. 



2 Ch. 33, p. 4. 



8 T'ai p'in yii Ian, Ch. 972, p. 3. 



4 T'an Ts'ui fU ^ , in his valuable description of Yun-nan (Tien hat yu 

 hen Si, published in 1799, Ch. 10, p. 2, ed. of Wen yin lou yii ti ts'un Su), states that the 

 grapes of southern Yun-nan are excellent, but that they cannot be dried or sent to dis- 

 tant places. 



