536 Sino-Iranica 



for staves, the smaller ones for tobacco-pipes. The shoots of this species 

 are prized above all other bamboo-shoots as an esculent. 



The Pet hu lu 1 has the following notice on staves of the square 

 bamboo: "C'eh cou §£ #H (in Kwah-si) produces the square bamboo. 

 Its trunk is as sharp as a knife, and is very strong. It can be made into 

 staves which will never break. These are the staves from the bamboo 

 of K'iuh 3%, mentioned by Can K'ien. Such are produced also in Yun 

 cou ra$ 'M, 2 the largest of these reaching several tens of feet in height. 

 According to the Ceh hh tsi jE M ft, there are in the southern ter- 

 ritory square bamboo staves on which the white cicadas chirp, and 

 which C'en Cen-tsie W> M tp has extolled. Moreover, Hai-yen 9$ H 3 

 produces rushes (lu M., Phragmites communis) capable of being made 

 into staves for support. P'an cou M ^H 4 produces thousand-years ferns 

 ^ He W. and walking-sticks which are small and resemble the palmyra 

 palm jt & (Borassus rflabelliformis) . There is, further, the su-tsie 

 bamboo J8l W 1T, from which staves are abundantly made for the 

 Buddhist and Taoist clergy, — all singular objects. According to the 

 Hut tsui H" Jt, the t'un M bamboo from the Cen River $£ JH is straight, 

 without knots in its upper parts, and hollow." 



The Ko ku yao lun 5 states that the square bamboo is produced in 

 western Se-c'wan, and also grows on the mountain Fei-lai-fuh 3$ 2fS Hr 

 on the West Lake in Ce-kiah; the knots of this bamboo are prickly, 

 hence it is styled in Se-6'wan tse lu JW 1T ("prickly bamboo"). 



According to the Min siao ki P5 /h IS, 6 written by Cou Lian-kun 

 ffl $& X in the latter part of the seventeenth century, square bamboo 

 and staves made from it are produced in the district of Yun-tih ^C % 

 in the prefecture of T'ih-Cou and in the district of T'ai-nih ^ ^ in the 

 prefecture of Sao-wu, both in Fu-kien Province. 7 



1 Ch. 3, p. 10 b (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan); see above, p. 268. 



2 In the prefecture of Liu-2ou, Kwan-si. 



3 Explained in the commentary as the name of a locality, but its situation is 

 not indicated and is unknown to me. 



4 The present Mou-mih hien, forming the pref ectural city of Kao-cou f u, Kwan-tun. 

 6 Ch. 8, p. 9 (ed. of Si yin Man ts'un Su). 



6 Ed. of Swo tin, p. 17. 



7 The San hai kin mentions the "narrow bamboo (hia cu $$£ 1T) growing in 

 abundance on the Tortoise Mountain"; and Kwo P'o (a.d. 276-324), in his com- 

 mentary to this work, identifies with it the bamboo of Kiuh. According to the 

 Kwan li, the Kiun bamboo occurred in the districts of Nan-kwan ff^J llf (at present 

 Nan-k'i f|| $£) and Kiuh-tu in Se-5*wan. The Memoirs of Mount Lo-fou (Lo-fou 

 San ki) in Kwan-tuh state that the Kiun bamboo was originally produced on Mount 

 Kiun, being identical with that noticed by Can K'ien in Ta-hia, and that village- 

 elders use it as a staff. A treatise on bamboo therefore calls it the "bamboo support- 

 ing the old" ffi ^g 'fj*. These texts are cited in the T'ai p'in yii Ian (Ch. 963, p. 3). 



