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Langgan
Langgan (Chinese: 琅玕; pinyin: lánggān) is the ancient Chinese name of a gemstone which remains an enigma in the history of mineralogy; it has been identified, variously, as blue-green malachite, blue coral, white coral, whitish chalcedony, red spinel, and red jade. It is also the name of a mythological langgan tree of immortality found in the western paradise of Kunlun Mountain, and the name of the classic waidan alchemical elixir of immortality 琅玕華丹; langgan huadan; "Elixir Efflorescence of Langgan".
The Chinese characters 琅 and 玕 used to write the gemstone name lánggān are classified as radical-phonetic characters that combine the semantically significant "jade radical" 玉 or 王 (commonly used to write names of jades or gemstones) and phonetic elements hinting at pronunciation. 琅; Láng combines the "jade radical" with 良; liáng; "good; fine" (interpreted to denote "fine jade") and 玕; gān combines it with the phonetic 干; gān; "stem; trunk". The Chinese word 玉; yù is usually translated as "jade" but in some contexts translates as "fine ornamental stone; gemstone; precious stone", and can refer to a variety of rocks that carve and polish well, including jadeite, nephrite, agalmatolite, bowenite, and serpentine.
Modern written Chinese 琅; láng and 玕; gān have variant Chinese characters. 琅; Láng is occasionally transcribed as 瑯; láng (with 郞; láng; "gentleman") or 瓓; lán (闌; lán; "railing"); and 玕; gān is rarely written as 玵; gān (with a 甘; gān; "sweet" phonetic). Guwen "ancient script" variants were 𤨜; láng or 𤦴 and 𤥚; gān.
Berthold Laufer proposed that langgan was an onomatopoetic word "descriptive of the sound yielded by the sonorous stone when struck". Lang occurs in several imitative words meaning "tinkling of jade pendants/ornaments": 琅琅; lángláng; "tinkling/jingling sound", 玲琅; língláng; "tinkling/jangling of jade", 琳琅; línláng; "beautiful jade; sound of jade", and 琅璫; lángdāng; "tinkling sound". Laufer further suggests this etymology would explain the transference of the name langgan from a stone to a coral; Du Wan's 杜綰 c. 1125 Yunlin shipu (雲林石譜; "Stone Catalogue of the Cloudy Forest") (below) expressly states that the coral langgan "when struck develops resonant properties".
The name langgan has undergone remarkable semantic change. The first references to langgan are found in Chinese classics from the Warring States period (475-221 BCE) and Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), which describe it as a valuable gemstone and mineral drug, as well as the mythological fruit of the langgan tree of immortality on Kunlun Mountain. Texts from the turbulent Six Dynasties period (220-589) and Sui dynasty (581-618) used langgan gemstone as a literary metaphor, and an ingredient in alchemical elixirs of immortality, many of which were poisonous. During the Tang dynasty (618-907), langgan was reinterpreted as a type of coral.
Several early texts (including the Shujing, Guanzi, and Erya below) recorded langgan in context with the obscure gemstone(s) 璆琳; qiúlín. In Classical Chinese syntax, 璆琳 can be parsed as two qiu and lin types of jade or as one qiulin type. A recent dictionary of Classical Chinese says 璆 (qiú; "fine jade, jade lithophone") is cognate with 球 (qiú; "precious gem, fine jade; jade chime or lithophone (which later came to mean "ball; sphere")"), and 琳 (lín; "blue-gem; sapphire").
In what may be the earliest record, the c. 5th-3rd centuries BCE Yu Gong "Tribute of Yu the Great" chapter of the Shujing "Classic of Documents" says the tributary products from Yong Province (located in the Wei River plain, one of the ancient Nine Provinces) included qiulin and langgan jade-like gemstones: "Its articles of tribute were the k'ew and lin gem-stones, and the lang-kan precious stones". Legge quotes Kong Anguo's commentary that langgan is "a stone, but like a pearl", and suggests it was possibly lazulite or lapis lazuli, which Laufer calls "purely conjectural".
The c. 4th-3rd centuries BCE Guanzi encyclopedic text, named for and attributed to the 7th century BCE philosopher Guan Zhong, who served as Prime Minister to Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685-643 BCE), uses 璧 (bi; "a flat jade disc with a hole in the center"), 璆琳 (qiulin; "lapis lazuli"), and 琅玕 (langgan) as examples of how establishing diverse local commodities as fiat currencies will encourage foreign economic cooperation. When Duke Huan asks Guanzi about how to politically control the "Four Yi" (meaning "all foreigners" on China's borders), he replies:
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Langgan
Langgan (Chinese: 琅玕; pinyin: lánggān) is the ancient Chinese name of a gemstone which remains an enigma in the history of mineralogy; it has been identified, variously, as blue-green malachite, blue coral, white coral, whitish chalcedony, red spinel, and red jade. It is also the name of a mythological langgan tree of immortality found in the western paradise of Kunlun Mountain, and the name of the classic waidan alchemical elixir of immortality 琅玕華丹; langgan huadan; "Elixir Efflorescence of Langgan".
The Chinese characters 琅 and 玕 used to write the gemstone name lánggān are classified as radical-phonetic characters that combine the semantically significant "jade radical" 玉 or 王 (commonly used to write names of jades or gemstones) and phonetic elements hinting at pronunciation. 琅; Láng combines the "jade radical" with 良; liáng; "good; fine" (interpreted to denote "fine jade") and 玕; gān combines it with the phonetic 干; gān; "stem; trunk". The Chinese word 玉; yù is usually translated as "jade" but in some contexts translates as "fine ornamental stone; gemstone; precious stone", and can refer to a variety of rocks that carve and polish well, including jadeite, nephrite, agalmatolite, bowenite, and serpentine.
Modern written Chinese 琅; láng and 玕; gān have variant Chinese characters. 琅; Láng is occasionally transcribed as 瑯; láng (with 郞; láng; "gentleman") or 瓓; lán (闌; lán; "railing"); and 玕; gān is rarely written as 玵; gān (with a 甘; gān; "sweet" phonetic). Guwen "ancient script" variants were 𤨜; láng or 𤦴 and 𤥚; gān.
Berthold Laufer proposed that langgan was an onomatopoetic word "descriptive of the sound yielded by the sonorous stone when struck". Lang occurs in several imitative words meaning "tinkling of jade pendants/ornaments": 琅琅; lángláng; "tinkling/jingling sound", 玲琅; língláng; "tinkling/jangling of jade", 琳琅; línláng; "beautiful jade; sound of jade", and 琅璫; lángdāng; "tinkling sound". Laufer further suggests this etymology would explain the transference of the name langgan from a stone to a coral; Du Wan's 杜綰 c. 1125 Yunlin shipu (雲林石譜; "Stone Catalogue of the Cloudy Forest") (below) expressly states that the coral langgan "when struck develops resonant properties".
The name langgan has undergone remarkable semantic change. The first references to langgan are found in Chinese classics from the Warring States period (475-221 BCE) and Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), which describe it as a valuable gemstone and mineral drug, as well as the mythological fruit of the langgan tree of immortality on Kunlun Mountain. Texts from the turbulent Six Dynasties period (220-589) and Sui dynasty (581-618) used langgan gemstone as a literary metaphor, and an ingredient in alchemical elixirs of immortality, many of which were poisonous. During the Tang dynasty (618-907), langgan was reinterpreted as a type of coral.
Several early texts (including the Shujing, Guanzi, and Erya below) recorded langgan in context with the obscure gemstone(s) 璆琳; qiúlín. In Classical Chinese syntax, 璆琳 can be parsed as two qiu and lin types of jade or as one qiulin type. A recent dictionary of Classical Chinese says 璆 (qiú; "fine jade, jade lithophone") is cognate with 球 (qiú; "precious gem, fine jade; jade chime or lithophone (which later came to mean "ball; sphere")"), and 琳 (lín; "blue-gem; sapphire").
In what may be the earliest record, the c. 5th-3rd centuries BCE Yu Gong "Tribute of Yu the Great" chapter of the Shujing "Classic of Documents" says the tributary products from Yong Province (located in the Wei River plain, one of the ancient Nine Provinces) included qiulin and langgan jade-like gemstones: "Its articles of tribute were the k'ew and lin gem-stones, and the lang-kan precious stones". Legge quotes Kong Anguo's commentary that langgan is "a stone, but like a pearl", and suggests it was possibly lazulite or lapis lazuli, which Laufer calls "purely conjectural".
The c. 4th-3rd centuries BCE Guanzi encyclopedic text, named for and attributed to the 7th century BCE philosopher Guan Zhong, who served as Prime Minister to Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685-643 BCE), uses 璧 (bi; "a flat jade disc with a hole in the center"), 璆琳 (qiulin; "lapis lazuli"), and 琅玕 (langgan) as examples of how establishing diverse local commodities as fiat currencies will encourage foreign economic cooperation. When Duke Huan asks Guanzi about how to politically control the "Four Yi" (meaning "all foreigners" on China's borders), he replies: