Pomegranates

[Travellers | Cities | Routes | Trade Goods | Themes]

by Sally K Church

In the context of Faxian's Travels:

Anshiliu 安石留, also written 安石榴, and also called shiliu 石榴, which, according to legend, Zhang Qian brought back to China during his journeys to the Western Regions. Anshi 安石 is probably Anxi 安息 (which is present-day Iran, where the fruit was produced).

- Zhang Xun 章巽, Faxian zhuan jiaozhu 法顯傳校注
(Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1985), p. 24, n. 29.

In the context of Yelü Chucai's Xi you lu 西遊錄:

Pomegranates were produced in Khodjend (present-day Tajikistan) during the Mongol period. Yelu Chucai mentions them in his travel account, ca. 1218-1222. Yelü Chucai commented on them as follows:

K'u djan abounds in pomegranates. They are as large as two fists and of a sour-sweet taste. People take from three to five of this fruit, and press out the juice into a vessel. That makes a delicious beverage for slaking thirst.

- Emil Bretschneider, "Si Yu Lu", in Medieval Researches, vol. 1, p. 20.