THE PEARL FISHERIES OF CHINA, JAPAN, SIBERIA, ETC.
Do churls Know the worth of Orient pearls? Give the gem which dims the moon To the noblest or to none.
Emerson, Friendship.
It appears
from ancient Chinese literature, noted in the first chapter of this
book, that pearl fisheries have existed in the rivers of China for
several thousand years. The Chinese also derived pearls from the sea,
and especially from the coast of the province of Che-kiang. Little is
known of the early fisheries, but the fragmentary literature contains
so many allusions to pearls as to lead us to believe that they were of
considerable extent and importance.
It is related that about 200 b.c., a
pearl dealer at Shao-hing, an ancient city between Hang-chau and
Ning-po, on the shore of Hang-chau Bay, furnished to the empress a
pearl one inch in diameter, for which he received five hundred pieces
of silver; and to an envious princess the same dealer sold a "four-inch
pearl." A hundred years later, the reigning emperor sent an agent to
the coast to purchase "moon pearls," the largest of which were two
thirds of an inch in diameter.
In the tenth century a.D., Mingti,
one of the most extravagant of the early monarchs, used so many
pearls—not only in his personal decoration but on his equipage and
retinue,—that after a formal procession the way would be rich in the
jewels which dropped from the gorgeous cortège. About 1000 a.D., an
embassy to the emperor brought as tribute an ornament composed of
strings of pearls, and also 105 liang (8% lbs.) of the same gems
unmounted.
An
interesting story is told of "pearl-scattering" by an embassy to the
Chinese court from a Malayan state about 1060. Following the customs of
their country, the ambassadors knelt at the threshold of the audience
chamber, and then advanced toward the throne, bearing a golden goblet
filled with choice pearls and water-lilies wrought of gold. These they
scattered upon the floor at the feet of the emperor; and the courtiers,
hastening to pick them up, secured ten liang (15 oz.) of pearls.1
The
Keh Chi King Yuen, a Chinese encyclopedia, describes a pearl fishery in
the southern part of Kwang-tung province, in the depart-
1 Von Hessling, "Die Perlenmuscheln," Leipzig, 1859, p. 6. 10
