Far Eastern and Classical Antiquity 19 



lections found the reference in a work dated from the Six Dynasties, 

 (The above is a summary of the story in the Hsiang-shan yeh-lu.) 



In 1768 John Canton described a phosphor made from oyster 

 shells and it is possible (although improbable) that the Chinese 

 prepared a luminous paint from the pearl oyster. However, Dr. 

 Hu Shih, of the Gest Oriental Library at Princeton University, 

 informs me that nothing is known of any book left by the explorer 

 Chang Ch'ien and that Wen-ying, the author of the Hsiang-shan 

 yeh-lu, who lived in the eleventh century, was not noted for his 

 veracity. He was a poet and literary monk and his book contains so 

 many fantastic yarns that the story of the luminous cow should be 

 given little serious consideration. 



Although Chinese knowledge of phosphors is doubtful, almost all 

 the early historical sources of information mention the " night 

 shining jewel " or " yeh kuang pi," which seems to have particularly 

 appealed to the imagination of the Chinese,^^ possibly because of a 

 religious significance. The Buddhist sacred jewel, one of the seven 

 treasures, called " hashi-no-tama " in Japan, is alleged to be self- 

 luminous and to shed a brilliant light on its surroundings, a symbol 

 of the enlightenment of Buddha's teaching. W. H. Riddell ^^ has 

 suggested that Buddhist monks may have obtained the idea of a 

 shining jewel from a legend in Ceylon and India concerning the 

 cobra and brought it to China via Tibet and thence to Japan. This 

 belief in a luminous cobra-stone, used by the snake to attract fire- 

 flies, will be found in the section on India. On the other hand, 

 knowledge of luminous gems may have come to China by way of 

 Asia Minor in classic times. The possible interpretation of Greek 

 and Roman stories of luminous jewels will be found in a later sec- 

 tion, and an exhaustive study of phosphorescence of precious stones 

 in B. Laufer's The Diamond in Chinese and Hellenistic Folk-lore 

 (1915) .2* 



Like the stories from the Near East, the legends of China are 

 subject to difficulties of interpretation. We can only guess what 

 techniques were involved in magic painting but electrolumines- 

 cences were undoubtedly seen, on the body as well as in the sky. 

 The earliest true astronomical observations were made by the Chi- 

 nese, who naturally recorded the aurora borealis. It was described 

 in the encyclopedia of Ma-tuan-lin (fourteenth century) under 



^*See F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, 242, Leipsic and Munich, Shanghai 

 and Hong Kong, 1885; reprinted 1939; J. Needham, Science and civilization in China, 

 vol. 1: 199, Cambridge, 1954. 



3' W. H. Riddell, Hashi-no-Tama, Buddhist Sacred Jewel, Antiquity 20: 113-121, 1946. 



^* B. Laufer, Pub. No. 184, Field Museum Anthropological Series, Chicago, 15: 55-71, 

 1915. 



