466 Sino-Iranica 



product may be explained from the fact that to the south-west of 

 China, west of the Irawaddy, there was a city Nan-si :£: ®, mentioned 

 in the Itinerary of Kia Tan and in the Man £w of the T'ang period. 1 

 The exact location of this place is not ascertained. Perhaps this or 

 another locality of an identical name lent its name to the product; but 

 this remains for the present a mere hypothesis. The Tien hai yii hen Zi 2 

 states that nan-si is produced in the native district Pa-po ta-tien 

 A "S* 3*C &J ± H, formerly called A W #t *§ i&, of Yun-nan. 



The Yu yah tsa tsu 3 contains the following account: "The tree 

 furnishing the nan-si aromatic is produced in the country Po-se. 4 In 

 Po-se it is termed pH-sie %$ ffi tree ('tree warding off evil influences')- 5 

 The tree grows to a height of thirty feet, and has a bark of a yellow-black 

 color. The leaves are oblong, 6 and remain green throughout the winter. 

 It flowers in the second month. The blossoms are yellow. The heart 

 of the flower is somewhat greenish (or bluish). It does not form fruit. 

 On scraping the tree-bark, the gum appears like syrup, which is called 

 nan-si aromatic. In the sixth or seventh month, when this substance 

 hardens, it is fit for use as incense, which penetrates into the abode of 

 the spirits and dispels all evil." Although I am not a botanist, I hardly 

 believe that this description could be referred to Styrax benjoin. This 

 genus consists only of small trees, which never reach a height of thirty 

 feet; and its flowers are white, not yellow. Moreover, I am not con- 

 vinced that we face here any Persian plant, but I think that the Po-se 

 of the Yu yah tsa tsu, as in some other cases, hints at the Malayan 

 Po-se. 7 



text of the Pen ts'ao, occurs a curious misunderstanding. The sentence j^ jJl Uti 

 ft M< ^ $i !ltr i s rendered by him, "By burning the true an-si hiang incense 

 rats can be allured (?)." The interrogation-mark is his. In my opinion, this means, 

 "In burning it, that kind which attracts rodents is genuine." 



x Cf. Pelliot, Bull, de I'Ecole francaise, Vol. IV, pp. 178, 371. 



2 Ch. 3, p. 1 (see above, p. 228). 



3 Ch. 18, p. 8 b. 



4 Both Bretschneider (Bot. Sin., pt. Ill, p. 466) and Hirth (Chao Ju-kua, 

 p. 202) identify this Po-se with Persia, without endeavoring, however, to ascertain 

 what tree is meant; and Styrax benzoin does not occur in Persia. Garcia already 

 stated that benjuy (as he writes) is not found in Armenia, Syria, Africa, or Cyrene, 

 but only in Sumatra and Siam. 



5 PH-sie is not the transcription of a foreign word; the ancient form *bik-dza 

 would lead to neither a Persian nor a Malayan word. 



6 Bretschneider, who was a botanist, translates this clause (^ ^ $j), 

 "The leaves spread out into four corners (!)." Literally it means "the leaves have 

 four corners"; that is, they are rectangular or simply oblong. The phrase se len J5J 

 >§S? with reference to leaves signifies "four-pointed," the points being understood as 

 acute. 



7 See the following chapter on this subject. 



