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11,7-8 BEXZOIN. 20
it thus goes through many hands hefore reaching China, and when arriving here, it is not so very
fragrant.)) See Hirth, China and Koman Orient, 41, 47, 263—266.
D. Hanbury, Science Papers, 143, has conclusively shown that the drug now used in
China is imported into Bombay from Aden, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, being probably
5 brought thither from Alexandria. He has also established by comparison its identity with the
substance known as Liquid Storax, obtained from the Liquidambar orientalis, L., in Asia Minor.
Bretschneider, Botanicon Sinicum, III, 465.
The Hiang-p'u, a Treatise on perfumes of the eleventh century, makes the remark that su-
ho-yu is akind oitu-nau-hiang or dammar. Bretschneider, op. cit., 464. The Su-ch'bn-liang-fang
10 {Wk VJnj ^J ^^®° "^ ^^^ eleventh century, says (Ijis'): «The su-ho-hiang of the present
~/j)i
day is like hard wood, of a dark red colour. There is also su-ho-yu which is like birdlime.o This
su-ho-hiang may well have been the classical or solid storax.
Our author, in the first part of his work, mentions liquid storax as a product of Baghdad,
Asia Minor (Lu-mei, Rum) and of Ki-tz'i-ni (Ghazni). The Huan-yii-chii (-^ ^^ ^^ of the
15 tenth century) says that su-ho-yu was produced in An-nan and San-fo-ts'i. Bretschneider,
Bot. Sinic, III, 464. It is likely that this was the resin of the Liquidambar altingiana, Bl. of Java,
called in Malay rasamala. P6n-ts,'au, 34,54, gives the Sanskrit name of su-ho-yu as twushlca
(HiH *^ ^^ '^)> ""'^ich, according to Monier Williams, Sansk. Engl. Diet., is Indian olibanum-
See supra, p. 190, n. 1.
20 The expression ta-fong is actually used in the province of Fu-ki6n as a term for paralysis
of either the body or limbs.
8.
BENZOIN (^ J, #).
An-si-Mang comes from the country of San-fo-ts'i; it is the resin of a
25 tree. It resembles the edible part of a walnut in shape and colour, but it is
not fit to bum as incense; however, it brings out other scents, for which reason
there is a demand for it for mixing purposes.
The T'ung-tien (jg ^),
speaking of the Western Barbarians, says
that the country of An-si has sent tribute to China during the periods fien-lio
30 of the Chou (A. D. 566—572) and ta-ye of the Sui dynasty (A. D. 605—
617). It may be conjectured that the name is derived from this (country)
and that the article was imported by way of San-fo-ts'i.
Note.
Our author's doubts about the country of origin of this incense and his failure to explain its
35 name, are common to other Chinese writers. See Bretschneider, Ancient Chinese and Arabs,
19, note 2. Bot. Sinic, III, 465—467. An-si, which, in the second and third centuries of our era,
was the Chinese designation of Parthia, was transferred, after the overthrow of the Arsacides, to
the new Persian kingdom of the Sassanide dynasty. Hirth, China and Roman Orient, 198. During
the Ch6u and Sui dynasties (A. D. 557-618) An-si may therefore be held to be identical with
40 Persia. Sui-shu, 83,i6 says that «the kingdom of Ts'au (j^), which was the same as theKi-pin
°^ ^^^ ^^^ dynasty, had (whether as a product or brought there from other countries
is not clear) an-si-hiang, ts'ing-mu (putchuck, our author's mu-hiang) and other aromatic substances.))
The same work, in the section on K'iu-tz'i (^ ^ Kuchar in Chinese Turkestan),
(Hi W)
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