July, 1913." Notes on Turquois. 65 



Bretschneider ^ quotes Pumpelly (Geological Researches in 

 China, Mongolia, Japan, p. 118) as mentioning the existence of sung ur 

 shi, a mineral similar to turquois, in the province of Yiin-nan; but this 

 statement requires confirmation, as it is not found in other sources 

 relating to Yiin-nan (compare above p. 26, note 3).^ 



From one of the turquois dealers in Si-ngan fu the information was 

 given me that the turquoises traded there come from the prefecture of 

 Yiin-yang in Hu-pei Province, while another more especially pointed to 

 the district of Chu-shan, situated in the same prefecture, as the place 

 of production. The Imperial Geography (Ta TsHng i Vung chi, 

 Ch. 272),^ in the chapter dealing with Yun-yang fu, contains no allusion 

 to this fact, and mentions in an enumeration of the mountains of the 

 Chu-shan district only one producing stones, the Fan shi shan, deriving 

 its name from the /aw shi or alum formerly produced there. It should 

 be borne in mind that the Imperial Geography, as far as products are 

 involved, does not reflect the present conditions of China based on actual 

 research, but merely gives occasional quotations from older literature 

 going back as far as the T'ang dynasty, so that this feature of the 

 Geography is very incomplete and unsatisfactory. The products of 

 Yiin-yang fu, for instance, are all cited from the Geography of the Ming 

 DjTiasty (Ta Ming i t'ung chi). It is very probable that the turquois 

 production of Yiin-yang fu is of recent date, and presumably posterior 

 to the publication of the Geography; it seems to me that the exhaustion 

 of the turquois mines in Ho-nan may have given the impetus to a search 

 for a new locality in Hu-pei. It would be gratif3dng if these lines would 



1 Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 176. 



* The work of R. Pumpelly is published in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- 

 edge, Vol. XV, Article IV, Washington, 1867. I do not understand Pumpelly with 

 Bretschneider as saying that "a mineral similar to turquois" is actually found in 

 Yiin-nan. Pumpelly enumerates it in a series of eight other stones of which he says 

 that "they are carved, with great labor and patience, in very intricate forms." He 

 does not point out any locality in Yiin-nan, where turquois is obtained, but merely 

 intends to say that he has seen in Yiin-nan carvings made from this material 

 which, judging from the Chinese name given by him, doubtless was turquois. But 

 this turquois may have been imported into Yiin-nan as well. G. S0UL16 (La province 

 du Yiin-nan, p. 24, Hanoi, 1908) only states: "The south-western part of the prov- 

 ince furnishes a certain quantity of precious stones amassed in the beds of torrents 

 or rivers; the west and south-west of the province are renowned for their amethysts, 

 sapphires and rubies." 



' First printed in 1745, second edition 1764. The modem Shanghai photolitho- 

 graphic reprint is a poor production. The Palace editions of this work are now ex- 

 ceedingly scarce. When at Si-ngan fu in 1902, an official there informed me that the 

 late Empress Dowager, while living as an exile in that city in 1900, was anxious to 

 obtain a copy for personal reading and wired to all Governors General making a 

 requisition for it, but was unable to procure it. Eight years later fate treated me 

 more kindly than the Empress by permitting me to see the editio princeps in the hands 

 of a Peking bookseller, but lack of cash (the price demanded was 400 Mexican Dol- 

 lars) unfortunately barred me from the privilege of acquiring it. 



