
GOLDFISH BREEDS 

“These memoirs were made in Pekin by a very able Chinaman, and 
have been sent to the Minister in France, who has allowed us to make 
use of them. 
“All the fishes, redrawn and colored in France, have come to us 
with these memoirs and we are safe in saying that the burin and colorings 
of M. Martinet have made the copies better than the original drawings. 
Only one species of goldfish is known in Europe; the Chinese recog- 
nize seven to which they have given the common name of Kin-Yu, and 
they distinguish each by a particular name. We have taken the precaution 
of adding to the Chinese names the French equivalents because it must be 
remembered that all the names in the Chinese language, as in the greater 
number of the Oriental languages, have a descriptive significance and ordi- 
narily take to themselves the principal qualities of the thing described.” 
“There are then seven species of goldfishes or Kr1n-Yv. 
1. The KIN-YU, properly so called; this is the most common of all, first known in 
China, towards the year 950, and in the 18th Century brought to Port de |’ Orient, to |’ Hotel 
de la Compagnie des Indes. 
The YA-TAN-YU, or Duck Eggs. 
The LONG-TSING-YU or Dragon Eyes. 
The CHOI-YU or Sleepers. 
The KIN-TEON-YU or Tumblers. 
The NIN-EUBK-YU or Nymphs. 
The QUEN-YU or Lettered Fishes.’’ 
NN Am SW WN 
“The habits of life, the development, the different changes, the manner 
of propagation and the increase of these fishes are no less marvelous than 
their external form and their brilliant colors.” 
“It is a noteworthy fact that they have been given the name of a sea 
fish, with which they appear to have nothing incommon. However, they 
may have originally come from the sea; indeed they were first known in 
the province of Tche-Kiang which extends as far as the sea on the Oriental 
coast. They may have ascended the rivers by which this province is 
watered, following the habit of the salmon, the shad, the sturgeon, the sole 
and many other species of fishes.” 
“We know how actively Chinese industry is awakened by cupidity, but 
is it able to influence the Works of Nature? Is it able to change, so to 
speak, their habitation? However, if man has been able to transplant 
plants and quadrupeds from the northern meridian and from the old to 
the new hemisphere, what law prevents him naturalizing in the rivers 
some of the inhabitants of the sea? Some of the provinces abound in salt 
waters of which fish ponds can be made; would it then be impossible to 
people them with sea fishes? These questions, more interesting because 
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