16 History of Luminescence 



China and Japan 



Where little ancient science writing exists, as in the Far East, it is 

 necessary to quote literature and poetry for recognition of and 

 opinion on luminescence. Probably the first written reference to a 

 luminous animal is to be found among the Thirteen Classics of 

 China. '° In one of these, the Shih Ching or Book of Odes, which 

 dates from around 1500-1000 b. c, the line " i-yao hsiao-hsing " 

 occurs. This has been translated "^ as, " The fitful light of the glow- 

 worms would be all about," and " Glowing intermittently are the 

 fireflies." " 



The firefly appears in another classic, the Li-Chi or Notes on 

 Ancient Rites {ca. 400-100 b. c.) in a verse of Book IV, the Yiieh 

 Ling (" The Orders of the Months ") , which deals with what hap- 

 pens in the third month of summer. This has been translated by 

 J. Legge -^ as " Gentle winds begin to blow. The cricket takes its 

 place in the walls. [Young] hawks learn to practice [the ways of their 

 parents.] Decaying giass becomes fire-flies." This belief concerning 

 the origin of fireflies from decaying grass has been current in China 

 for at least two thousand years, reminiscent of Aristotle's opinion 

 that fleas and mosquitoes arise from putrefying matter. 



The firefly is also included in the Erh-ya (ca. 400-100 b. c.) , a 

 classified glossary giving the correct use of many terms, including 

 names of animals and plants. In this book it is called the Ying-huo 

 or Chi-chao, names still used for firefly today. The insect had wings 

 and its abdomen produced fire. It appeared during the late summer 

 but in autumn flew away. 



Somewhat later there arose the story concerning the Chinese 

 scholar and government official, Ch'e Yin or Hsien Yin, who lived 

 in the Tsin Dynasty (a. d. 264-419) and died about a. d. 399. His 



^" I am indebted to Professor Lien-sheng Yang of Harvard University for calling my 

 attention to these references in Chinese literature, and to Dr. Hu Shih of Princeton 

 University for comments on them. 



^^ James Legge, The Chinese classics 4:237, 1893. The Odes of Pin, III, verse 2. 

 See also the comment of B. Karlgren, Glosses on the Kuo-Feng odes, in Bull. Museum 

 Far Eastern Antiquities 14:240-241, 1942. 



"'' Dr. Hu Shih informs me that the line " i-yao hsiao-hsing " has two interpreta- 

 tions. (A) Because hsiao means " night " and hsing means " moving " or " traveling," 

 one school regards i-yao (literally " glowing or shining intermittently ") as the glow- 

 worms. The line would then read: " The glowworms (i-yao) are moving about at 

 night." But this reading is contradicted by verse 4 of the same poem, wherein occur 

 the lines: " Ch'ang-keng yii fei i yao ch'i yii." (" The oriole is flying about. Its wings 

 ch'i yii are seen now here, now there.") Therefore the (B) interpretation makes hsiao- 

 hsing (" night-travelers ") stand for the ancient local name for the glowworm. The 

 line then reads: " Glowing intermittently are the fireflies." 



" James Legge, The sacred books of China; the Li Ki, in Sacred books of the East, 

 ed. by F. Max Muller, 27: 277, 1885. 



