32 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XIII. 



subjects, entitled Wei-lio} In Ch. 5, p. 3, he has gathered several notes 

 concerning se-se. He quotes the Huan yil ki ^ to the effect that se-se 

 are mined in Shan-chou ^ and P'ing-lu.* Neither of these locaHties is 

 known as having ever produced turquois. We shall see farther on that 

 turquois became known and was mined in China only under the Yiian 

 dxTiasty fpllowing the Sung, so that w« may justly conclude that the 

 Chinese of the Sung period were not yet acquainted with it. Besides, 

 there is the technical evidence that turquois, according to its natural 

 properties, could not have entered such objects as are reported to have 

 been made of scrse. The Wei lio furnishes us with additional evidence 

 on this point, which goes to show that, if these reports are trustworthy, 

 a substance se-se of Chinese production was utilized as early as the 

 T'ang period. It is related in regard to an official of that time, who 

 presided over the bureau of the salt and iron monopoly in the province 

 of Fu-kien, that he owned a pillow made of se-se placed on a golden 

 bedstead.^ Emperor Hien-tsung (806-820) tried to estimate its value, 

 but arrived at the conclusion that it was a priceless treasure, while 

 others said that this pillow was made from a beautiful stone, but not 

 from se-se. The author of the Wei lio adds: "What is circulating 

 among our contemporaries under the name se-se, I believe is made -from 

 molten stone." ® So it seems that at the Sung period the se-se may 

 have been, at least partially, artificial productions. It is self-evident 

 that the pillow referred to cannot have been made of turquois. The 

 rectangular shapes of Chinese pillows with convex surface are well 

 known, and it is impossible to carve turquois which is quarried in long 

 slabs ^ into such a form. 



' Reprinted in Shou shan ko ts'ung shu, Vol. 74. 



- A general, mainly geographical, description of China published by Yo Shi dur- 

 ing the period T'ai-p'ing hing-kuo (976-981) of the Sung dynasty. 



' In the province of Ho-nan (Playfair, Cities and Towns of China, No. 6157). 



■* District in Shan-si Province (Playfair, No. 5812). 



^ The Wei lio quotes this story from the Yen fan lu of Ch'^ng Ta-ch"ang, written 

 in 1 175. The P'ei wen yiin fu {I. c.) gives it after the biography of Lu Kien-tz'e in 

 the T'ang shu, so that there is no doubt that it relates to the period of the T'ang 

 dynasty. 



* There are different versions of .this story handed down, the details of which are 

 not of interest in this connection. According to the T'ang kuo shi p'u, containing 

 records from 723 to 821 by Li Chao of the T'ang period (as quoted in the T'u shu tsi 

 ch'eng), the said official was discharged on account of defraudations; the pillow which 

 was half the size of a peck was confiscated after a judicial trial and sent up to Emperor 

 Hien-tsung who called some shop-keepers as experts to determine its value. Their 

 opinions were divided, the one calling it a priceless treasure, the others a. beautiful 

 stone, but not a genuine si-se. 



~ Several such specimens showing turquois in the matrix, obtained in Si-ngan 

 fu, are in the Field Museum. 



