Flowers in T'ang Poetry: Pomegranate, Sea Pomegranate, and Mountain Pomegranate

Abstract

FLOWERS ATTRACTED THE ADMIRATION of poets of the T'ang period as never before in Chinese poetry.' The beauties of their coloration and form, as well as their habitats and seasonal habits, were meticulously recorded. Among the reasons for the attention poets lavished on flowers, we may cite the remarkable innovations in floriculture during the T'ang. Rare specimens of flowering plants transplanted from the wild were cultivated in the gardens of temples, noble residences, and private homes. Several poets were noted floriculturists. In this setting, flowers were not simply perceived as one element among many in the grand harmony of nature, but rather became imbued with qualities unique to each flower. T'ang visions of flowers were crystallized by its poets. Their words are the keys by which we gain access to the T'ang imagination and its fascination with flowers. Although the title of the present article might suggest that I am writing about three varieties of pomegranate, it is a deception. There were several names for the in T'ang times. The subject of my investigation is the name an-shih liu VEV (commonly abbreviated to shih liu) and the names of two other flowering plants derived from it. The is a native of Iran, and it was brought to China from someplace in western Asia. The name an-shih liu is composed of a transliteration of the foreign place with which the Chinese associated the (Anshih) and a syllable representing a foreign word for (liu). The name occurs in a newly discovered manuscript from Ma-wang-tui ,% T: it tomb three in Ch'ang-sha :k jil, Hunan (burial dated 168 B.C.). The manuscript shows that the was already in China by the early second century B.C. and that its original Chinese name was an-shih liu.2 The plant name I have rendered as sea pomegranate is hai shih liu tVEffl (or simply hai liu); and mountain pomegranate is shan shih liu tO jJU (or shan liu). Even following the T'ang, later generations of Chinese have recognized shan shih Iiu as a name for the azalea. The name occurred in Six Dynasties literature, and resulted from the perceived similarity between azalea flowers when first observed in the wild and the pomegranate's blooms. The name hai shih liu also occurred in Six Dynasties literature. It continued to appear in T'ang literature. But from Sung times on, the word and its botanical referent became obsolete. Upon encountering the word in T'ang poetry, many commentators identified hai shih liu as a synonym of anshih liu, and thus the flower so named became a in the minds of these post-T'ang readers. In T'ang usage, however, the hai shih liu was the third member of a floral triad that was linguistically bound by the common root (shih) liu. Like shan shih liu, the name hai shih liu was a hybrid word derived from a The scholarship of Edward H. Schafer has illumined all aspects of T'ang culture and artistic expression. In taking up the subject of flowers in poetry I am indebted to Professor Schafer, for he has defined the characteristics of nature appreciation in the T'ang and written extensively about flowers. There is, in addition, a more personal indebtedness. It was as Professor Schafer's student that I learned the discipline and pleasure of reading classical Chinese literature. I am happy to be able to contribute to the issue of the Journal honoring him. ' This article was written during my tenure as a Mellon fellow in the Department of Asian Languages, Stanford University, for whose support I am grateful. E. H. Schafer has examined the T'ang view of nature in many books and articles. In connection with gardens and flowers, I would mention especially: Tu Wan's Stone Catalogue of Cloudy Forest (Berkeley, 1961); The Golden Peaches of Samarkand (Berkeley, 1963), 117-32 (on plants); The Vermilion Bird (Berkeley, 1967), 198-205 (on beautiful plants); and Li Te-yu and the Azalea, Asiatische Studien 18-19 (1965), 105-14. ' The history of the (Punica granatum) in China has been studied by B. Laufer, Sino-Iranica (Chicago, 1919), 276-87. Laufer's theories regarding the date the was first brought to China and the identification of An-shih need to be revised, especially in light of the new Ma-wang-tui manuscript evidence. These matters will be discussed below.