CHINESE LITERATURE ON THE LYCHEE 17 



140-86, after he had conquered Nan Yueh ($f^) l and subjected 

 also a part of Annam, built the palace Fu Li (&!&) and in the 

 garden or arboretum appertaining thereto he introduced from the 

 south a hundred or more lychee trees, not one of which grew. This 

 he repeated for several years and finally succeeded in growing one 

 tree which seemed to flourish for a time but never fruited. The 

 Emperor greatly loved this tree but it died after a short period and 

 " several tens" of .husbandmen were accused of having neglected it 

 and were killed. 



There has been an attempt in Chinese literature to trace the 

 lychee as far back as B.C. 1766. Wu Ying K'uei (^BSJIf) 2 quotes 

 from a work Kuang Yii (jUlg) that I Yin (fp-jjfr) of the time of the 

 Emperor Ch'eng T'ang (^t^), B.C. 1766, of the Shang Dynasty 

 ($!$!)> spoke of a fruit called "feng wan" (JBL&) which some 

 people believed to be the lychee. 



The great wealth of Chinese literature concerning the lychee, 

 records of which appeared at the beginning of the Christian era and 

 continue to the present day, is a fair indication of the importance of 

 this fruit to the life of the Chinese people. Ts'ai Hsiang (HH) J 

 records, as translated by Mr. Michael J. Hagerty, " All seven pre- 

 fectures, such as Tung ching (^jift Tonking and Chia-chih 

 (^St) Cochin-China, sent a tribute of fresh lychee to China. In 

 carrying this tribute the couriers adopted the custom of relays, 

 stopping and leaving some of the fresh fruit at improvised depots, 

 some of which were ten "li" apart, while others were but four 

 "li" distant from each other. These couriers galloped quickly, 

 day and night. This enforced tribute oppressed these people like a 

 plague of poisonous insects and wild animals. At Lin-su (Ksj&) in 



1 Nan Yueh is the old Kingdom of Cochin-China which in A.D. 

 222 was divided into Chiao-Chou or Tonquin and what is now the area 

 covered by Kwangtung and Kwangsi. See Bretschneider, Bo fan '.con 

 Sinicum. Emil Vasilievich, Notes on Chinese Botany from Native and 

 Western Sources, London, 1882, page 23. 



2 WU YING K'UEI (^ggil) Ling Nan Li Chih />' ($&j33f) in 

 Ling Nan I Shu (&j&ft&), book 59 (3&-bH#), section 1 (^-^) 

 page 1 ($-H). 



3 TS'AI HSIANG (gg.), Li Chih Pu ($!) in Ku Chin Tu Shu 

 Chi Chen? (llMMig3ir), Po Wu Hui Pien (1TO|), 7V<w Muh Tien 

 section 273 (^-^^-\'^^, U Chih Pn \ <$-.), page 2 



