July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 21 



have overlooked its presence. F. v. Richthofen,^ who gives a fairly 

 complete summary of the commerce of Si-ngan fu does not mention it, 

 nor does he notice it in his enumeration of goods traded from China to 

 Tibet (p. 133). As far as I am aware, no handbook on mineralogy or 

 precious stones makes any reference to the Chinese turquois; it is not 

 noted either by F. de Mely in his otherwise very complete work "Les 

 lapidaires chinois." 



The present Chinese name for turquois is lu sung shi, that is, "green 

 fir-tree stone," or sung erh shi ^ (also sung-tse shi) that is, fir-cone stone. 

 This name must not be confounded with the designation sung shi, 

 "fir-tree stone," which is not a stone, but by which petrified pieces of 

 the fir-tree are understood; these are also called sung hua shi, "fir-tree 

 transmutation stones," but their very color description as being yellow 

 or purple shows sufficiently that they are entirely distinct from turquois. 

 It will, however, be useful to consider briefly what Chinese authors have 

 to say in regard to these petrefacts, because from these statements we 

 shall gain a clue to the understanding of their name for turquois. 



The earliest trustworthy mention of such petrefacts of vegetal 

 origin is made in the "Annals of the T'ang Dynasty" (618-906 a. d.; 

 T'ang shu, Ch. 217 b, p. 5) compiled from the records of the dynasty by 

 Ngou-yang Siu (1007-1072) and Simg K'i (998-1061) ^ and completed 

 in 1060. This notice embodied in the chapter on the Uigur (Hui-hu) 

 relates to Central Asia, more particularly to the region inhabited by the 

 tribe Bayirku (Pa-ye-ku),* and runs as follows: 



"The country is grassy and produces noble horses and fine iron. There is a river 

 called K'ang-kan. The people cut up fir-trees and throw the pieces into the water. 

 In the course of three years these alter into blue-colored stone, in which the marks of 



1 Letters, p. 108. 



* In the Cantonese dialect luk ts'ung shek and ts'ung i shek, respectively. The 

 words with this meaning will be found in the Chinese-English Dictionaries of Eitel 

 and Giles, and in the Chinese-Russian Dictionary of Palladius; Couvreur and 

 others do not give them. The translation by turquois is confirmed by the Great 

 Imperial Dictionary in Four Languages, which has the series: Chinese lii sung shi, 

 corresponding to Manchu uyu, Tibetan gyu, and Mongol ugyu, all of which refer to 

 the turquois. In a description of Tibet {Wei ts'ang t'u chi by Lu Hua-chu, published 

 in 1785) occurs also the expression sung jut (No. 5723) shi, "stone of fir-tree buds." 

 The German-Chinese Dictionary published by the Catholic Missionaries of South- 

 Shantung (p. 916, Yen-chou fu, 1906) gives for turquois the word la se shi, "green- 

 colored stone." G. Schlegel (Nederlandsch-chineesch woordenboek, Vol. IV, 

 p. 232, Leiden, 1890), besides the common sung irh shi, registers for "turkoois" the 

 word tsHng yii, that is, blue or green jade. This must be an artificial modem forma- 

 tion, or rather an error, as the Chinese have never ranged turquois among jade but 

 solely among ordinary stone, on which more will be said farther on. 



' Giles, Biographical Dictionary, pp. 606, 698. 



* Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux, p. 88 

 (St. Petersburg, 1903). 



