The Malayan Po-Se and its Products 487 



It is thus obvious that the term Po-se in Chinese records demands 

 great caution, and must not be blindly translated "Persia." Whenever 

 it is used with reference to the Archipelago, the chances are that Persia 

 is not in question. The Malayan Po-se has become a fact of historical 

 significance. He who is intent on identifying this locality and people 

 must not lose sight of the plants and products attributed to it. I dis- 

 agree entirely with the conclusion of Hirth and Rockhill 1 that from 

 the end of the fourth to the beginning of the seventh centuries all the 

 products of Indo-China, Ceylon, India, and the east coast of Africa 

 were classed by the Chinese as "products of Persia (Po-se)," the coun- 

 try of the majority of the traders who brought these goods to China. 

 This is a rather grotesque generalization, inspired by a misconception 

 of the term Po-se and the Po-se texts of the Wei $u and Sui §u. The 

 latter, as already emphasized, do not speak at all of any importation of 

 Persian goods to China, but merely give a descriptive list of the arti- 

 cles to be found in Persia. Whenever the term Po-se is prefixed to the 

 name of a plant or a product, it means only one of two things, — Persia 

 or the Malayan Po-se, — but this attribute is never fictitious. Not a 

 single case is known to me where a specific product of Ceylon or India 

 is ever characterized by the addition Po-se. 



1 Chau Ju-kua, p. 7. 



