The Walnut 259 



beginning of the T'ang dynasty. It is not impossible, however, that 

 this text was actually written by Can Hwa himself, or at least that the 

 tradition underlying it was formed during the fourth century; for, as 

 will be seen, it is at that time that the walnut is first placed on record. 

 Surely this legend is not older than that period, and this means that 

 it sprang into existence five centuries after Can K'ien's lifetime. It 

 should be called to mind that the Po wu li entertains rather fantastic 

 notions of this hero, and permits him to cross the Western Sea and even 

 to reach Ta Ts'in. 1 It is, moreover, the Po wu U which also credits to 

 Can K'ien the introduction of the pomegranate and of ta or hu swan 

 sfc (tfl ) i^ or hu $1 (Allium scorodoprasum) . 2 Neither is this tradition 

 contained in the texts of the Han period. The notion that Can K'ien 

 really introduced the walnut in the second century B.C. must be posi- 

 tively rejected as being merely based on a retrospective and unauthentic 

 account. 3 



The question now arises, Is there any truth in Su Sun's allegation 

 that the walnut was originally produced in the country of the K'iah? 

 Or, in other words, are we entitled to assume the co-existence of two 

 Chinese traditions, — first, that the walnut was introduced into China 

 from the regions of the Hu (Iranians) ; and, second, that another intro- 

 duction took place from the land of the K'ian, the forefathers of the 

 Tibetans?* There is indeed an ancient text of the Tsin period from the 

 first part of the fourth century, one of the earliest datable references 

 to the walnut, in which its origin from the K'ian is formally admitted. 

 This text is preserved in the T'ai pHh yii Ian as follows: — 



"The mother of Liu T'ao £>J i§, 5 in her reply to the letter of Yu 

 §1 , princess of the country of Wu ^| S3 , said, ' In the period Hien-ho 

 J& IP (a.d. 326-335, of the Tsin dynasty) I escaped from the rebellion 



»Ch. 1, p. 3 b. 

 1 See below, p. 302. 



* The Can-K'ien legend is also known in Korea (Korea Review, Vol. II, 1902, 

 P- 393). 



4 The term k'iah t'ao 7^ $|j for the walnut is given, for instance, in the Hwa 

 ki* ~%C H • "Mirror of Flowers" (Ch. 3, p. 49), written by C'en Hao-tse $£ /f| 

 J* in 1688. He gives as synonyme also wan swi tseffi Wl "?■ ("fruits of ten thousand 

 years"). The term k'ian t'ao is cited also in the P'ex wen lai kwan k'iin fan p'u 

 (Ch. 58, p. 24; regarding this work cf. Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, p. 70), and in 

 the P'an San li *}SL tfj *S (Ch.15, p. 2 b; published in 1755 by order of K'ien-lun). 



5 The T'u Su tsi I'en and Kwan k'iin fan p'u (Ch. 58, p. 25) write this name Niu 

 jjaft. The Ko li kin yuan (Ch. 76, p. 5), which ascribes this text to the Tsin Su, gives 

 it as ££. The Tan Sun pai k'un leu Vie M 5|c & ?L /\ OH (Ch. 99, p. 12) has, "The 

 mother of Liu T'ao of the Tsin dynasty said, in reply to a state document, 'walnuts 

 were originally grown in the country of the Western K'iah.'" 



