The Pomegranate 281 



The Annals of the Liu Sung Dynasty, a.d. 420-477 (SunSu), contain 

 the following account: "At the close of the period Yiian-kia jt % 

 (a.d. 424-453), when T'ai Wu (a.d. 424-452) ^C i£ of the Wei dynasty 

 conquered the city Ku Wi m* he issued orders to search for sugar- 

 cane and pomegranates (nan H liu). Can C'ah 3fc !§ said that pome- 

 granates (H-liu) come from Ye." This is the same locality as mentioned 

 above. 



The Stan kwo ki H H HE 2 reports that in the district of Lun-kan 

 ft [33 M 3 there are good pomegranates (H liu). These various examples 

 illustrate that in the beginning the tree was considered as peculiar to 

 certain localities, and that accordingly a gradual dissemination must 

 have taken place. Apparently no ancient Chinese author is informed 

 as to the locality from which the tree originally came, nor as to the how 

 and when of the transplantation. 



The Kwan U & ;£, written by Kwo Yi-kun M ^ ^ prior to a.d. 

 527, as quoted in the Ts'i min yao $u, discriminates between two varie- 

 ties of pomegranate (nan H liu), a sweet and a sour one, in the same 

 manner as T'ao Hun-kin. 4 This distinction is already made by Theo- 

 phrastus. 6 As stated above, there was also a bitter variety. 6 



It is likewise a fact of great interest that we have an isolated instance 

 of the occurrence of a pomegranate-tree that reverted to the wild state. 

 The Lii San ki % \h Ifi 7 contains this notice: "On the summit of the 

 Hian-lu fun § m % Censer-Top ') there is a huge rock on which 

 several people can sit. There grows a wild pomegranate (San H-liu 

 tf] 3? Jf?) drooping from the rock. In the third month it produces blos- 

 soms. In color these resemble the [cultivated] pomegranate, but they 



1 Modern Cen-tin fu in Ci-li Province. 



2 Thus in T'ai p'in yii Ian, Ch. 970, p. 5 b; the Ts'i min yao Su (Ch. 4, p. 14) 

 ascribes the same text to the Kin k'ou ki 3^ P ft}. 



3 At present the district which forms the prefectural city of Sun-te in Ci-li 

 Province. 



4 Above, p. 279. 



6 Historia plantarum, II. n, 7. 



6 Pliny (XIII, 113) distinguishes five varieties, — dulcia, acria, mixta, acida, 

 vinosa. 



7 T'ai p'in yii Ian, Ch. 970, p. 5. The Lu Mountain is situated in Kiah-si Prov- 

 ince, twenty-five li south of Kiu-kian. A work under the title Lii San ki was written 

 by C'en Lin-ku ^ ^ ^L in the eleventh century (Wylie, Notes on Chinese Liter- 

 ature, p. 55); but, as the T'ai p'in yii Ian was published in a.d. 983, the question here 

 must be of an older work of the same title. In fact, there is a Lii San ki by Kin Si 

 Jr 5^ of the Hou Cou dynasty; and the Yuan kien lei han (Ch. 402, p. 2) ascribes 

 the same text to the Cou Kin Si Lii San ki. The John Crerar Library of Chicago 

 (No. 156) possesses a Lii San siao li in 24 chapters, written by Ts'ai Yin ^| ^ and 

 published in 1824. 



