510 Sino-Iranica 



The Ko ku yao lun 1 has a notice of tse kin f& 4£ ("purple gold") 

 as follows: "The ancients say that the pan-lian *F M money 2 is tse 

 kin. The people of the present time make it by mixing copper with 

 gold, but our contemporaries have not yet seen genuine tse kin." 

 The same alloy is mentioned as a product of Ma-k'o-se-li in the 

 Tao i Si lio, written in 1349 by Wan Ta-yuan. 3 I am not sure, of 

 course, that this tse kin is identical with tse-mo kin. 



In the same manner as the Chinese speak of foreign gold, they also 

 offer a series of foreign silver. There are four kinds; namely, silver of 

 Sin-ra (in Korea), silver of Po-se (Persia), silver of Lin-yi, and silver 

 of Yiin-nan. Both gold and silver are enumerated among the products 

 of Sasanian Persia. The Hai yao pen ts'ao cites the Nan yiie li of the 

 fifth century to the effect that the country Po-se possesses a natural 

 silver-dust $& M , employed as a remedy, and that remedies are tested 

 by means of finger-rings.* Whether Persia is to be understood here 

 seems doubtful to me. Gold-dust is especially credited to the country 

 of the Arabs. 5 



82. 1ft $& yen-lii ("the green of salt," various compositions with 

 copper-oxide) is mentioned as a product of Sasanian Persia 6 and of 

 Kuca. 7 Su Kuh of the T'ang (seventh century) points it out as a product 

 of Karasar (Yen-£i M w), found in the water on the lower surface of 

 stones. Li Sun, who wrote in the second half of the eighth century, 

 states that "it is produced in the country Po-se (Persia) adhering to 

 stones, and that the kind imported on ships is called H-lii ^ $&('the 

 green of the stone ') ; its color is resistant for a long time without chang- 

 ing; the imitation made in China from copper and vinegar must not 

 be employed in the pharmacopoeia, nor does it retain its color long." 

 Li Si-cen employs the term "green salt of Po-se." 8 The substance was 

 employed as a remedy in eye-diseases. 



This is Persian zingar (Arabic zinjar), described in the stone-book 

 of Pseudo-Aristotle as a stone extracted from copper or brass by means 



1 Ch. 6, p. 12 b. 



2 See Beginnings of Porcelain, p. 83. 



8 Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 622. 

 * Cen lei pen ts'ao, Ch. 4, p. 23. 



5 Ibid., Ch. 4, p. 21 b. 



6 Sui Su, Ch. 83, p. 7 b. 



7 Cou Su, Ch. 50, p. 5; Sui Su, Ch. 83, p. 5 b. 



8 Cf. also Geerts, Produits, p. 634; F. de Mely, Lapidaire chinois, pp. 134, 

 243. According to Geerts, the term is applied in Japan to acetate of copper, formerly 

 imported, but now prepared in the country. 



