The Walnut in China
A Translation from the Gujin tushu jicheng (1726–1728)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20355087 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Joseph Hagerty, Hartmut Walravens (0000-0002-7418-6966) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 135-167 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Monumenta Serica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0254-9948 • E-ISSN: 2057-1690 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02549948.2024.2335817 |
| OpenAlex | W4399308644 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
The present contribution provides an annotated translation of the description of the walnut (Juglans regia) in Category IV, Section XX, juan 284 of the Gujin tushu jicheng (Imperial Encyclopaedia) which became available to Western scholarship only through the two reprints at the end of the 19th century. The outstanding Orientalist Berthold Laufer had already summarized this chapter for his groundbreaking Sino-Iranica in 1919; thus this full and annotated presentation serves as a documentation to underpin Laufer’s views and also proves the careful work of the editors at the Imperial court. The translation was already completed in 1923 but not published probably because of the difficult situation after WW I. The translator, Michael Hagerty (1876–1951), worked for the US Department of Agriculture under the botanist Walter T. Swingle (1871–1952); the achievements of both scholars in the field of East Asiatic botany have so far not been fully appreciated. The translation was revised and edited for this presentation. This is the first translation of the walnut chapter into a Western language; it shows the benefits of the walnut as a food item, as a crop and a medicine from the Chinese point of view, based on more than thousand years of experience. It also serves as an example of the plant descriptions in the Gujin tushu jicheng and hints at a widely untapped resource of Western historical botany
Archaeology · Biology · Botany · China · Juglans · Lexicography · Library science · Linguistics · Orientalism · Political science · Scholarship · Classics · Computer Science · History · Horticultural and Viticultural Research · Law · Nuts composition and effects · Philosophy · Plant and Fungal Interactions Research
| Highly cited | No |
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