Berthold Laufer

The Diamond: a Study in Chinese and Hellenistic Folk-lore Berthold Laufer

Study inC hinese and Hellenistic Folk-L ore I ntroductory. Of all the wonders and treasures of the HellenisticR oman Orient, it was the large variety of beautiful precious stones that created the most profound and lasting impression on the minds of the Chinese. During the time of their early antiquity the number of gems known to them was exceedingly limited, and mainly restricted to certain tmtransparent, colored stones fit for carving; while the transparent jewel with its qualities of lustre, cut, polished, and set ready for wearing, was a matter wholly unknown to them. Only contact with Hellenistic civilization and with India opened their e3es to this new world, and together with the new commodities a stream ofO ccidental folk-lore potired into the valleys of China. That a chapter from a series of discussions devoted to Chinese-H ellenistic relations is taken up by a detailed study of the history of the diamond, is chiefly because this very subject affords a most instructive example of the diffusion of classical ideas to the Farthest East. The mind of the Chinese offered a complete blank in this respect, being tmacquainted with the diamond, and was therefore easily susceptible to the reception of foreign notions along this line. India was the distributing-centre of diamonds to western A sia, Hellas andR ome, on the one hand, and to south-eastern Two other contributions along this line have thus far been published: The Story of the Pinna and theS yrian Lamb (J ournal of American Folk-L ore, Vol. XXVIII, 1915, pp. 103-138) and Asbestos andS alamander (T oung Pao, 1915, pp. 297-371). Gebrts (L es produits de la nature japonaise et cbinoise, p. 301) stated in 1878 that the diamond had not yet been found inC hina or Japan. Diamonds have been discovered inS han-tung Province only dtiring recent years (compare A. A. Pauvbl Les diamants chinois, Comptes-rendus Soc
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