Thehuoshu[1] orhuo shu (火鼠), meaningfire rat orfire mouse is a fantastical beast inChinese tradition.[2][1]
It is said to dwell inside fire within incombustible trees growing in mountains in the south of China. Its hair whenwoven into cloth was said to turn into cloth that became clean when burnt, and thus equated with merchandise known ashuo huan bu (火浣布) or "fire-laundered cloth",[a] though such cloth in reality is considered to have been a type ofasbestos cloth, not animal hair orplant fiber textile as claimed in ancient tracts.
According to theShenyi Jing (神異經, "Book of Gods and Strange Things") purported from the Han period,[b] of which there are different redactions, the "Fire Mountain[s]" in the south measure 40li in length, where there grows "unincineratable trees" (bu jin mu不燼木 , cf.§ Ashless wood below). These keep burning day and night, yet the fire will not wax when windy nor extinguish in rain. Within such fire dwells a mouse. It weighs 100jin/catties (var. 1000 catties[5]).[c], and has hairs 2chi long,[d], fine white hair, like silk. It dies if water is poured on it, and by weaving its hair into cloth, any filth or grime on it will be cleaned when burnt by fire.[7][10][12]
The "Fire Mountain[s]" in the foregoing tract has been identified with the "Mountain of Flame" (炎火之山) of mythicKunlun according to theSoushen ji (捜神記, "In Search of the Supernatural"). According to this work, the mountain's beast are the source of hair for making the "fire-laundered cloth".[13][14]
There is also thehuo guang shou (火光獸) or literally "fire light beast" according to theShizhou ji [zh] (十洲記; "Records of the Ten Islands Within the Sea"), which lists it as fauna of Yan zhou (炎洲, one of legendary ten island-provinces),[15] describing it as rat-like and rat-sized, with hairs 3 or 4cun long.[e][16] This is also assumed to be another description of whatever animal that supposedly yielded fireproof cloth.[14]
Another attestation occurs inGe Hong'sBaopuzi (抱朴子) which places in Nanhai (South China Sea?) the (volcanic) "Xiao Hill" (蕭丘)[18] measured 1000li square, igniting in spring and extinguishing in autumn. Here grew plants and the white rat (白鼠) weighing several catties, with hair 3cun long, immune to burning. The mountain's flowers, bark, and rodent hair yielded 3 types of fireproof cloth (huo huan bu ).[f][20][21][5][17]
The fire rat resided in theRinan commandery in present-day Vietnam, according to theWu li (呉録 "Record of Wu").[g] but belonged to the Chinese kingdom of Wu in the past.[13][14]
The number figures given in these treatises may be rhetorical (hyperbolic). In one account above, the so-called rat weighed a massive 1000 catties (anciently 250 kilograms (550 lb)[6][22]), as much a large mammal.[23] At the modest end, it was said to weigh several catties.[5]
According toSui shu xiyu chuan (隋書西域傳; "Accounts on the Western Regions in theBook of Sui"), during the reign ofEmperor Yang of Sui, fire rat fur was brought back by envoys returning from theSogdian city-state Shi Guo (史国)) or Kesh, the present-dayShahrisabz, Uzbekistan.[1][24]
WhereasLi Shizhen, the compiler of the pharmaceuticalBencao Gangmu wrote[h] that the beast occurred in the Western Region as well as "Fire Province" of the "Southern Seas" or Nanhai Houzhou, i.e., volcanic islands in a corridor ofSoutheast Asia.[25] It is possible to parse the passage to read so that "Fire Province" of the Western Region is meant here as well, which is identifiable asUyghur state ofQocho, nearTurfan in modern-dayXinjiang Autonomous Region.[i][26] Note this coincides with Henry Yule's identification of Chingintalas as Qocho, being the locale where Marco Polo witnessed the asbestos mine.[27]
Li Shizen was the opinion that in these locals, where wildfires lasted spring to summer, it was not only the fur of the fire rat here, but also barks and skins of trees and grasses/forbs that could be woven into "cloths washed with fire".[2] (cf.§ Fire-laundered cloth). But Li also categorized the "ashless wood" (bu hui mu不灰木) to be a mineral (asbestos), and discussed it under the stones section, and though Li did not list its use as cloth, the "ashless wood" has elsewhere been equated with the "unincineratable wood" relating to the "fire-laundered cloth".[28] (cf.§ Ashless wood).
The creature, pronouncedkaso,hinezumi orhi no nezumi in Japanese, is of particular interest in classical Japanese literary studies since its pelt-robe is demanded by the Princess Kaguya inThe Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, and also mentioned in theGenji Monogatari.
TheWamyō Ruijushō (mid 10th cent.)[j] gives the Japanese pronunciation ashinezumi (比禰須三; lit. 'fire rat'), and quotes from theShenyi jing.[11][29]
InThe Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, the historical personageAbe no Miushi [ja] appears as one of the suitors of Princess Kaguya, and he is assigned the task of bringing thehinezumi no kawagoromo (火鼠の裘) orkawaginu (皮衣).[30] InTanaka Ōhide's commentary, this is equated with the "fire-laundered cloth" of Chinese literature, quoting from theShenyi jing as well as theWei zhi (魏志), of theRecords of the Three Kingdoms) andShui Jing Zhu ("Commentary on the Water Classic").[31]
In theGenji monogatari, the 17th chapter "E-awase" features a picture scroll with painted scenes from the "fire rat's pelt robe" episode of the Bamboo Cutter's Tale. There have been numerous past commentaries of the classic novel subsequently written, and one of them, theKakaishō (河海抄) dating to theMuromachi period is an early instance where the "fire rat" is commented on citing references to the "fire-laundered cloth" in classical Chinese sources such as theShenyi jing and theShizhou ji.[32]
It has been noted that the item in the Japanese tale is a piece of fur, distinguishable from the woven cloth in Chinese accounts.[30] Also, the fur Abe managed to obtain, though fake, was of golden-blue color or golden-shining,[k] whereas the "fire-laundered cloth" is supposed to be white according to Chinese sources.[30]
It has been argued that the Chinese "fire rat" has its parallel in the European fire-spritesalamander. whose lore dates to Greco-Roman times.[34] Although asbestos was known to Romans,Pliny the Elder (d. 79AD) wrote it was a type of linen or plant,[35] and did not consider it as animal hair or fur. Eventually, there did develop the notion in the West that salamander yielded asbestos, but this was much later, for example, in a 13th-century alchemical work.[36][l]
InBerthold Laufer's formulation, the salamander and asbestos cloth was tied already in antiquity by the Greeks and Romans; he thus theorized asbestos must have been something introduced by the West to China around the Han period or later.[34]Joseph Needham reviewed this premise, and was unconvinced.[40][m]
While the Greeks and Romans conceived of salamander as a lizard-like small creature, when the lore transmitted to the Middle East, the Arab and Persian writers treated thesamandal (الـسـمـنـدل) as aphoenix bird, or a rate, etc.Zakariya al-Qazwini (d. 1283) wrote of it as a type of rat that entered fire.Al-Damiri (d. 1405) in hisLife of Animals took it to mean the phoenix. The woven cloth from this bird or its feathers had the property of being cleaned when plunged in fire. Similar description is given of the rat.[34][41] And these pieces of Arab learning were (reimported back) and transmitted to medieval Europe, argued Laufer.[34]
Whether or not that was the correct route of transmission, it is true the German polymathAlbertus Magnus (d. 1280) wrote in his works that the incombustible cloth was salamander feather (Latin:pluma salamandri).[39]Marco Polo after him recorded in hisTravels his observation of the "salamander" being mined, fully recognizing it to be mineral, and refuting the notion asbestos came from animal hair.[42][43]
The "fire-laundered cloth" after being tossed in fire and shaken drops off all its dirt and turns snow-white. according to the aforementionedShizhou ji and like sources.[16] Later sources such as theBiyan lu (碧巌錄, "Blue Cliff Record") quotingYunji Qiqian (雲笈七籤, "Seven Slips of the Cloud Satchel") speak of the cloth being snow-white after being fire-laundered.[44][45]
The "fire-laundered cloth" was in fact cloth woven from fibrous asbestos (aka amiantus)[n][46]
TheZhao shu ("Book of Zhou") andLie Yukou, there is given an account thatKing Mu of Zhou was given tributes from theXirong western barbarians, consisting of the jade-cutting-sword and fire-launderd cloth. Laufer consider these as spurious (later fabrications).[47] and argued prior knowledge in the West before China.[48] Needham was not willing to concede China had been ignorant before Rome, and discussed the accounts set in the Zhou dynasty period as possibly containing a germ of ancient writings, and worth considering as evidence.[49]
Theophrastus wrote of an ignitable mineral which resembled "rotten wood", which was arguably asbestos, though this is disputed.[53] As far as Needham was concerned, back in the 4th century BC, this disciple of Aristotle's disciple did not yet know of asbestos, nor did his learned Chinese contemporary who was vassal to KingGoujian ofYueh.[55]
Thus, in Needham's reckoning, knowledge of asbestos in the West dates to Roman writers fromStrabo (d. 24 BC) to Pliny.[o] Pliny's notion was that the fire-proof cloth was woven plant fibers from India. It can be laundered by tossing in fire, more cleanly than washing in water. It may be red normally, but burning turn it pearl colored, etc.[p][35]
Ignoring the claims dating to Zhou, the oldest attestation in China of fire-laundering cloth occurs inYu Huan [zh]'sWeilüe (魏略, 3rd cent.), according to Laufer, which described the fire-laundered cloth as the specialty product ofDaqin (大秦) which he takes to mean the Roman Orient.[q][47] However, In the Wei Records of theRecords of the Three Kingdoms, it is stated that during the time of Wei's third emperorCao Fang (also styled Qi wang斉王), in the yearJingchu [zh] 3 (237 AD), there arrived from the "Western territories" a tribute of "fire-cloth" (火布, considered to mean "fire-laundered cloth"),[57] It is not clear what the "Western Territories" mean exactly,[58] and modern scholars appear to favor "Central Asia".[59] The first Emperor Wen of Wei (Cao Pi) had questioned the authenticity of such cloth, as set down in his own authored workDianlun [zh] ("Canonical Essays" or "Authoritative Discourses"), the essays were set in stone by the second emperor, but after foreigners brought such cloth, this particular "essay/discourse" had to be scraped off.[60][59][r]
TheJin shu (晋書 "Book of Jin") of records that EmperorFujian (d. 385) of Former Han received a gift of the fire-laundered cloth fromTianzhu (India)polity, then under the reign ofChandragupta II.[62][63]
According to theLiu Song dynastyBook of Song, during theDaming [zh] era (657–664), the Sute (粟特, namelySogdiana) sent envoys who brought gifts of "live lion, fire-laundered cloth, and sweats blood horse (cf.Ferghana horse)".[64][65]
Regarding thebu jin mu (不尽木・不燼木・不烬木) or "unincinerable wood" connected with "fire-laundered cloth", the "bu hui mu" (不灰木) or "ashless wood" is considered synonymous according to a mythographer's dictionary.[28]
The topic ofbu hui mu is broached in theBencao Gangmu, Book 9, under the Part on Stones; however, its uses described there do not include use as fabric.[66][67][4] In the explanation taken fromSu Song, it is a type of stone that occurs inShangdang Commandery, now found widely found in the mountains ofLu [zh] andZe [zh] provinces.[s] The stone is white and looks like rotting wood, but burning it produces no ash, hence the name.[66][67][68]
The compiler Li Shizhen registers his own opinion (similar toBaopuzi above) that there is actually a stone type and tree type. The stone type is harder and heavier, and when steeped innaphtha/petroleum (石腦油) and wrapped in paper, it serves as a lamp which can be lit the whole night long without burning down into ashes.[67]
The tree type of ashless wood, according to Fu Chen'sQi di ji (伏深『齊地記』), was known by the name "wood that conquers fire" (shenghuo mu;勝火木) and occurred in Dongwucheng/city (東武城, or Dong Wu Cheng county).[t] And the tree type according to theTaiping Huanyu Ji (太平寰宇記) occurred inJiao zhou [zh], and was metal-rod like,[u] though it had lobes likecattail leaves, and when bunched up into torches, were so long lasting they became known as "torches for a myriad years" (万年火把).[67][68][4] Li Shizhen himself bought such a torch, and claims it had burned down by only one or twocun after a whole night.[67][68]
不灰木:即不烬木也。参见"火浣布"
神異経曰南方有大山長卅里昼夜火風雨不滅火中有鼠重百斤毛長三尺可為布若不净火燒之即浄号火浣布也十洲記曰大林有大獸如鼠毛長三四寸取之以為布名火浣布有垢汚唯以火燒布而良久出振之白如雪
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