280 Sino-Iranica 



are the particular places where the pomegranate thrives. Su Sun of 

 the Sung period states that the pomegranate was originally grown in 

 the Western Countries (Si yii^^), and that it now occurs everywhere; 

 but neither he nor any other author makes a positive statement as to 

 the time and exact place of origin. The Yao sin lun, Pen ts'ao U i, 

 and Pen ts x ao yen i l give merely a botanical notice, but nothing of his- 

 torical interest. 



The pomegranate (U-liu) is mentioned in the "Poem on the Capital 

 of Wu" ^1 %$ i® by Tso Se & JB», who lived in the third century under 

 the Wu dynasty (a.d. 222-280). P'an Yo 1 S, a poet of the fourth 

 century a.d., says, "Pomegranates are the most singular trees of the 

 empire and famous fruits of the Nine Provinces. 2 A thousand seed- 

 cases are enclosed by the same membrane, and what looks like a single 

 seed in fact is ten." 



The Tsin Lun nan k'i kii lu If B§ :2c %. M 3: ("Annotations on 

 the Conditions of the period Lun-nan [a.d. 397-402] of the Tsin Dy- 

 nasty") contains the following note: 3 "The pomegranates (nan Si 

 liu) of the district Lin-yuan E$& ^7C in Wu-lin l£ §^ 4 are as large as cups; 

 they are not sour to the taste. Each branch bears six fruits." 



Lu Hui $&$M of the Tsin dynasty, in his Ye lun ki W$> ^tffi, 5 states 

 that in the park of Si Hu 15 ^ there were pomegranates with seeds as 

 large as cups, and they were not sour. Si Hu or Si Ki-lun ^ ^ ft ruled 

 from a.d. 335 to 349, under the appellation T'ai Tsu ^C IB of the Hou 

 Cao dynasty, as "regent celestial king" (kii-te Vien wan), and shifted 

 the capital to Ye ^, the present district of Lin-can W> W, in the pre- 

 fecture of Cah-te ^ IS in Ho-nan. 6 



The pomegranate is mentioned in the Ku kin lu ~& ^t 1&, 7 written 

 by Ts'ui Pao $L 15 during the middle of the fourth century, with 

 reference to the pumelo tti" (Citrus grandis), the fruit of which is com- 

 pared in shape with the pomegranate. The TsH min yao lu (I.e.) gives 

 rules for the planting of pomegranates. 



1 Ch. 18, p. 7 (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan); the other texts see in Cen lei pen ts'ao, I. c. 



2 JL 'M , the ancient division of China under the Emperor Yu. 



8 T'ai p'ih yil Ian, Ch. 970, p. 4 b. Regarding the department of records styled 

 k'i kii lu, see The Diamond, p. 35. In the Yuan kien lei han (Ch. 402, p. 2) the 

 same text is credited to the Sun Su. 



4 In Hu-nan Province. 



6 Ed. of Wu yin tien, p. 12. 



6 Regarding his history, see L. Wieger, Textes historiques, pp. 1095-1 100. 

 Bretschneider's (Bot. Sin., pt. 1, p. 211) note, that, besides the Ye Sun ki of Lu 

 Hui, there isjanother work of the same name by Si Hu, is erroneous; Si Hu is simply 

 the "hero" of the Ye lun ki. 



7 Ch. C, p. 1 (ed. of Han Wei ts'un Su or Ki fu ts'un Su). Cf. also below, p. 283. 



