526 Sino-Iranica 



by Pelliot. 1 Pelliot, however, noticed well that what the Chinese 

 describe as p'o-so or mo-so m l£ is not bezoar, and that the tran- 

 scription is anomalous. 2 This being the case, it is preferable to reject 

 the identification, and there are other weighty reasons prompting us 

 to do so. There is no Chinese account that tells us that Persia had 

 bezoars or traded bezoars to China. The Chinese were (and are) well 

 acquainted with the bezoar 3 (I gathered several in China myself), and 

 bezoars are easy to determine. Now, if p'o-so or mo-so were to repre- 

 sent Persian pazakr and a Persian bezoar, the Chinese would not for 

 a moment fail to inform us that p'o-so is the Pose niu-hwah or Persian 

 bezoar; but they say nothing to this effect. On the contrary, the texts 

 cited under this heading in the Pen ts x ao kan mu^ do not make any 

 mention of Persia, but agree in pointing to the Malay Archipelago as 

 the provenience of the p'o-so stone. Ma Ci of the Sung assigns it to 

 the Southern Sea (Nan Hai). Li Si-cen points to the Ken sin yii ts'e 

 JfE ^r 3£ Wf, written about 1430, as saying that the stone comes from 

 San-fu-ts'i (Palembang on Sumatra). 6 F. de Mely designates it only 

 as a "pierre d'epreuve," and refers to an identification with aventurine, 

 proposed by Remusat. 6 Bezoar is a calculus concretion found in the 

 stomachs of a number of mammals, and Oriental literatures abound in 

 stories regarding such stones extracted from animals. Not only do the 

 Chinese not say that the p x o-so stone is of animal origin, but, on the con- 

 trary, they state explicitly that it is of mineral origin. The Ken sin yii ts % e 

 relates how mariners passing by a certain mountain on Sumatra break 

 this stone with axes out of the rock, and that the stone when burnt 

 emits a sulphurous odor. Ma Ci describes this stone as being green 

 in color and without speckles; those with gold stars, and when rubbed 

 yielding a milky juice, are the best. All this does not fit the bezoar. 

 Also the description in the Pen ts'ao yen i 7 refers only to a stone of 

 mineral origin. 



1 T'oung Pao, 1912, p. 438. 



2 The initial of the Persian word would require a labial surd in Chinese. Whether 

 the p'o-sa §| g|| of the Pei hu lu belongs here is doubtful to me; it is not explained 

 what this stone is. As admitted in the Pen ts'ao yen i (Ch. 4, p. 4 b), the form mo-so 

 is secondary. 



3 It is first mentioned in the ancient work Pie lu, then in the Wu H pen ts'ao 

 of the third century, and by T'ao Huh-kin. 



4 Ch. 10, p. 10 b. 



5 This text is cited in the same manner in the Tun si yan k'ao of 161 8 (Ch. 3, 

 p. 10). Cf. F. de Mely, Lapidaire chinois, p. 120. 



6 Ibid., pp. lxiv, 260. 



7 Ch. 4, p. 4 b (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan). 



