S3 6 SlNO-lRANICA 



for staves, the smaller ones for tobacco-pipes. The shoots of this species 

 are prized above all other bamboo-shoots as an esculent. 



The Pel hu lu l has the following notice on staves of the square 

 bamboo: "C'en cou $1 (in Kwan-si) produces the square bamboo. 

 Its trunk is as sharp as a knife, and is very strong. It can be made into 

 staves which will never break. These are the staves from the bamboo 

 of ICiun r, mentioned by Can K'ien. Such are produced also in Yuri 

 Sou & W, 2 the largest of these reaching several tens of feet in height. 

 According to the Cen $en tsi JE ^ 3ft, there are in the southern ter- 

 ritory square bamboo staves on which the white cicadas chirp, and 

 which C'en Cen-tsie K M 15 has extolled. Moreover, Hai-yen M H 3 

 produces rushes (lu JH, Phragmites communis) capable of being made 

 into staves for support. P'an 6ou M #I 4 produces thousand-years ferns 

 T ^ W, and walking-sticks which are small and resemble the palmyra 

 palm J| & (Borassus tftabelliformis') . There is, further, the su-tsie 

 bamboo J$ IB 1t, from which staves are abundantly made for the 

 Buddhist and Taoist clergy, all singular objects. According to the 

 Hui tsui if ft, the Vuh M bamboo from the Cen River K JI| is straight, 

 without knots in its upper parts, and hollow." 



The Ko ku yao lun 5 states that the square bamboo is produced in 

 western Se-S'wan, and also grows on the mountain Fei-lai-fun 3$ ^ ^ 

 on the West Lake in Ce-kian; the knots of this bamboo are prickly, 

 hence it is styled in Se-6'wan tse lu M 1t ("prickly bamboo"). 



According to the Min siao ki P3 /h IS, 6 written by Cou Liafi-kun 

 M J X in the latter part of the seventeenth century, square bamboo 

 and staves made from it are produced in the district of Yuri-tin ^C 3t 

 in the prefecture of T'in-c'ou and in the district of T'ai-niii ^ ^ in the 

 prefecture of Sao-wu, both in Fu-kien Province. 7 



1 Ch. 3, p. 10 b (ed. of Lu Sin-yuan) ; see above, p. 268. 



2 In the prefecture of Liu-ou, Kwan-si. 



3 Explained in the commentary as the name of a locality, but its situation is 

 not indicated and is unknown to me. 



4 The present Mou-min hi en, forming the pref ectural city of Kao-Sou f u, Kwan-tun. 

 6 Ch. 8, p. 9 (ed. of Si yin hilan ts'un Su). 



6 Ed. of $wo lin, p. 17. 



7 The San hai kin mentions the "narrow bamboo (hia lu ffi 1^) growing in 

 abundance on the Tortoise Mountain"; and Kwo P'o (A.D. 276-324), in his com- 

 mentary to this work, identifies with it the bamboo of Kiun. According to the 

 Kwan ci, the Kiun bamboo occurred in the districts of Nan-kwan [ff He (at present 

 Nan-k'i ffif j(f|) and Kiun-tu in Se-5'wan. The Memoirs of Mount Lo-fou (Lo-fou 

 San ki) in Kwan-tun state that the Kiun bamboo was originally produced on Mount 

 Kiun, being identical with that noticed by Can K'ien in Ta-hia, and that village- 

 elders use it as a staff. A treatise on bamboo therefore calls it the "bamboo support- 

 ing the old " ^ ^ Yf - These texts are cited in the T'ai p*in yu Ian (Ch. 963, p. 3). 



