Far Eastern and Classical Antiquity 17 



biography in the History of Tsin Dynasty (Tsin Shih, Chap. 83) 

 describes him as a poor but diligent student who could not afford to 

 buy oil, and, because of his poverty collected fireflies and used them 

 to pursue his studies in the evening. A painting -* of this quaint 

 scene has been made by the Japanese artist, Ka-no Tan-yu (1602- 

 1650) . 



In Japan firefly collecting very early became a popular pastime, 

 like the observation of autumn coloring. The firefly festival on the 

 Ugi River was an important event in the neighborhood of Kyoto. 

 Many references to fireflies are to be found in Japanese literature, 

 some of them with a Chinese origin like the various accounts of 

 mysterious lights, which arose in China and were later transferred 

 to Japanese writing. For example, in the W a-Kan-Sansai-Zue , an 

 encyclopedia of China and Japan, written in classical Chinese and 

 published in 1712 by the Japanese, Ryoan Terajima, it is stated 

 that the firefly belongs among the kasei-rui, insects transformed from 

 decaying grasses. The encyclopedia described several kinds of fire- 

 flies in Japan— the glowworm, arising from bamboo roots, the aquatic 

 glowworm, and large and small fireflies, some of them coming from 

 decayed miscanthus roots. Other luminous animals are not men- 

 tioned but a fungus which emits light is described. ^^ 



However, the author has been unable to find early Chinese 

 accounts of other luminous animals described as specific sources of 

 light, comparable to the luminous organisms of Pliny's Natural His- 

 tory. The phosphorescence of the sea was naturally noticed by the 

 Chinese and is referred to in oriental writings, but, without a micro- 

 scope, the true cause of the light could hardly have been understood. 



Professor Joseph Needham "^ has informed me that a phenomenon 

 called by the Chinese, " devil lights of the outer wilderness " {yeh 

 wai chih kuei lin) has been associated with old blood and might 

 be the result of luminous bacteria growing on human bodies left 

 unburied on a battlefield. In European history, the bacterial lumi- 

 nescence of meat from slaughterhouses and of luminous cadavers 

 has caused consternation on several occasions. 



Both in China and in Japan there are many ancient stories of 

 mysterious lights or fires seen over water, fields, or mountains, 

 ascribed to dragons or caused by the gods. Sacred trees often emitted 

 light. Usually it is only possible to guess at the cause of these ap- 



^* In Ko-Ji Ho-Ten. Dictionnaire a I' usage des amateurs et collectiontieurs d' objects 

 d'art japojiais et chinois, by V. F. Weber, 2 v., Paris. 1923. 



"^ From a translation of Wa-Kan-Sansai-Zue, kindly made by Dr. Yata Haneda. 



28 Private communication, based on material to appear in Vol. 4 of Science and 

 civilization in China, by J. Needham assisted by L. Wang, Cambridge Univ. 

 Press. 



