258 Sino-Iranica 



kien, about the year 140-150 B.C." 1 In Hehn's "Kulturpnanzen" 2 

 we still read in a postscript from the hand of the botanist A. Engler, 

 "Whether the walnut occurs wild in North China may be doubted, as 

 according to Bretschneider it is said to have been imported there from 

 Tibet." As will be seen below, a wild-growing species of Juglans is 

 indeed indigenous to North China. As to the alleged feat of Can K'ien, 

 the above-mentioned Su Sufi, who lived during the Sung period in the 

 latter part of the eleventh century, represents the source of this purely 

 traditional opinion recorded by Bretschneider. Su Sun, after the above 

 statement, continues, "At the time of the Han, when Can K'ien was 

 sent on his mission into the Western Regions, he first obtained the 

 seeds of this fruit, which was then planted in Ts'in (Kan-su) ; at a later 

 date it gradually spread to the eastern parts of our country; hence it 

 was named hu Vao." z Su Sufi's information is principally based on the 

 Pen ts'ao of the Kia-yu period (1056-64) M tf& W t£ 4* W-; this work 

 was preceded by the Pen ts'ao of the K'ai-pao period (968-976) PD St 

 # ^; and in the latter we meet the assertion that Can K'ien should 

 have brought the walnut along from the Western Regions, but cautiously 

 preceded by an on dit (z*). 4 The oldest text to which I am able to trace 

 this tradition is the Po wu U fil tyi ;S of Can Hwa §6 W (a.d. 23 2-3 00). 6 

 The spurious character of this work is well known. The passage, at any 

 rate, existed, and was accepted in the Sung period, for it is reproduced 

 in the T'ai pHn yii Ian} We even find it quoted in the Buddhist dic- 

 tionary Yi tsHe kin yin t — ty) H£ if i§, 7 compiled by Yuan Yin jt JS8 

 about a.d. 649, so that this tradition must have been credited in the 



1 Besides Bretschneider's article in the Chinese Recorder, de Candolle refers to 

 a letter of his of Aug. 23, 1881, which shows that Bretschneider had not changed 

 his view during that decade. Needless to add, that Can K'ien never was in Tibet, 

 and that Tibet as a political unit did not exist in his time. Two distinct traditions 

 are welded together in Bretschneider's statement. 



' Eighth edition (191 1), p. 400. \ 



3 Cert lei pen ts'ao, Ch. 23, p. 45 (edition of 152 1). G. A. Stuart (Chinese 

 Materia Medica, p. 223) regards the "Tangut country about the Kukunor" as the 

 locality of the tree pointed out in the Pen ts'ao. 



* The text of the K'ai-pao pen ts'ao is not reproduced in the Pen ts'ao kan mu> 

 but will be found in the Ci wu min Si t'u k'ao, Ch. 17, p. 33. T'ah Sen-wei ^ ty| ftfc> 

 in his Cen lei pen ts'ao (Ch. 23, p. 44 b), has reproduced the same text in his own 

 name. 



6 §g H ^ 6 £ m. Jb (or jg) # M £ U (Ch. 6, p. 4, of the Wu-c'an 

 print). 



•Ch. 971, p. 8. 



7 Ch. 6, p. 8 b (ed. of Nanking). In this text the pomegranate and grape are 

 added to the walnut. In the same form, the text of the Po wu li is cited in the modern 

 editions of the Ts'i min yao Su (Ch. 10, p. 4). 



