Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea: The Natural World and Material Culture of Twelfth-Century China (China Program Book) Paperback – Import, 1 June 2011

This work, dating from around 1175, resulted from the brilliant and original writer Fan Chengda's posting as governor of southeast China, based in Guilin. He was inspired to produce a fascinating miscellany on the natural history and ethnography of the area. The most interesting material is his long, detailed ethnographic record of the Lao, Li, Vietnamese, Yao, and other peoples of the area. (They were not "minorities" then. The Han Chinese were a tiny minority in a sea of multifarious ethnic groups.) James Hargett has done an excellent translation with extremely detailed notes; he also provides the Chinese text and an extensive bibliography. He shows competence in natural history by, for instance, not translating "mei" as "plum" (he properly leaves it as mei--a word the English language sorely needs for this apricot species).His identifications of animals and plants are generally good, but I can add a bit, having messed with Chinese ethnobiology a little. As to animals, the wufeng bird is clearly the greater racket-tailed drongo (as one scholar proposed; the name may include the lesser one, too). The scientific name is _Dicrurus paradisaeus_, not "Cuculus." Mammals: It's interesting that Fan correctly noted that male gibbons are blackish, females yellowish. "Wind cats," which sleep all day and fly at night, are clearly flying squirrels (as suggested).There is more to say about fruits, since Dr. Hargett missed Shiu-ying Hu's great work FOOD PLANTS OF CHINA. Dr. Hu has a career of more than 70 years as THE expert on Chinese economic botany; she is still active at well over 100. From her work: "Earthworm fruit" (p. 110 of Fan; Hu translates it as "ground silkworm" is _Stachys adulterina_, a species of Chinese artichoke (which is actually a mint with edible tubers--it is miscalled "artichoke" because its tubers look like those of Jerusalem artichoke, which actually is related to artichokes though not from Jerusalem). Gumi (p. 113) is a standard name for wild rice (_Zizania caduciflora_, not a true rice) and that seems to be the referent here, though the description is a bit confused. Yang-shi-zi (goat dropping fruit), p. 114, seems the same as yang-shi-shu, goat dropping tree, _Allospondias lakonensis_. Some cited identifications proposed by a Chinese scholar are impossible: peanut, guava, and genipa were all introduced by the Spanish and/or Portuguese well after 1500 (probably after 1600), and were totally unknown in China before that. I hope this helps with the project of understanding Song Dynasty biology.Interestingly, cockatoos were evidently well known in south China at the time. Fan has a clear, detailed description. They would have been imported from faraway parts of what is now Indonesia. The fanatical love of exotic parrots, so well treated in Roderich Ptak's recent work on Qing times, was evidently already established!

Great to have this classic Chinese book, one day I hope to find time to read it before too long