Huoshu

The ''huoshu'' or ''huo shu'' (), meaning fire rat or fire mouse is a fantastical beast in Chinese tradition.

It is said to dwell inside fire within incombustible trees growing in mountains in the south of China. Its hair when woven into cloth was said to turn into cloth that became clean when burnt, and thus equated with merchandise known as ''huo huan bu'' () or "fire-laundered cloth", though such cloth in reality is considered to have been a type of asbestos cloth, not animal hair or plant fiber textile as claimed in ancient tracts.

Attestations

According to the '' Shenyi Jing'' (, "Book of Gods and Strange Things") purported from the Han period, of which there are different redactions, the "Fire Mountain in the south measure 40 '' li'' in length, where there grows "unincineratable trees" (''bu jin mu'' , cf. 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 100 ''jin''/ catties (var. 1000 catties)., and has hairs 2 ''chi'' long,, 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.

The "Fire Mountain in the foregoing tract has been identified with the "Mountain of Flame" () of mythic Kunlun according to the ''Soushen ji'' (, " In Search of the Supernatural"). According to this work, the mountain's beast are the source of hair for making the "fire-laundered cloth".

There is also the ''huo guang shou'' () or literally "fire light beast" according to the (; "Records of the Ten Islands Within the Sea"), which lists it as fauna of Yan zhou (, one of legendary ten island-provinces), describing it as rat-like and rat-sized, with hairs 3 or 4 '' cun'' long. This is also assumed to be another description of whatever animal that supposedly yielded fireproof cloth.

Another attestation occurs in Ge Hong's ''Baopuzi'' () which places in Nanhai (South China Sea?) the (volcanic) "Xiao Hill" ()} measured 1000 ''li'' square, igniting in spring and extinguishing in autumn. Here grew plants and the white rat () weighing several catties, with hair 3 ''cun'' long, immune to burning. The mountain's flowers, bark, and rodent hair yielded 3 types of fireproof cloth (''huo huan bu'' ).

The fire rat resided in the Rinan commandery in present-day Vietnam, according to the ''Wu li'' ( "Record of Wu"). but belonged to the Chinese kingdom of Wu in the past.

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 ), as much a large mammal. At the modest end, it was said to weigh several catties.

According to ''Sui shu xiyu chuan'' (; "Accounts on the Western Regions in the Book of Sui"), during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui, fire rat fur was brought back by envoys returning from the Sogdian city-state Shi Guo () or Kesh, the present-day Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan.

Early modern era

Whereas Li Shizhen, the compiler of the pharmaceutical ''Bencao Gangmu'' wrote 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 of Southeast Asia. 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 as Uyghur state of Qocho, near Turfan in modern-day Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Note this coincides with Henry Yule's identification of Chingintalas as Qocho, being the locale where Marco Polo witnessed the asbestos mine., : "Karakhoja.. near Turfan.. it is here that I would seek for Chingintalas".

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". (cf. ). But Li also categorized the "ashless wood" ( ''bu hui mu'' ) 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".　(cf. ).

Early Japanese literature

The creature, pronounced ''kaso'', ''hinezumi'' or ''hi no nezumi'' in Japanese, is of particular interest in classical Japanese litearary studies since its pelt-robe is demanded by the Princess Kaguya in ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'', and also mentioned in the ''Genji Monogatari''.

The ''Wamyō Ruijushō'' (mid 10th cent.) gives the Japanese pronunciation as , and quotes from the ''Shenyi jing''.

In ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'', the historical personage appears as one of the suitors of Princess Kaguya, and he is assigned the task of bringing the or . In Tanaka Ōhide's commentary, this is equated with the "fire-laundered cloth" of Chinese literature, quoting from the ''Shenyi jing'' as well as the ''Wei zhi'' (), of the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'') and ''Shui Jing Zhu'' ("Commentary on the Water Classic").

In the ''Genji 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, the ''Kakaishō'' ( 河海抄) dating to the Muromachi 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 the ''Shenyi jing'' and the ''Shizhou ji''.

It has been noted that the item in the Japanese tale is a piece of fur, distinguishable from the woven cloth in Chinese accounts. Also, the fur Abe managed to obtain, though fake, was of golden-blue color or golden-shining, whereas the "fire-laundered cloth" is supposed to be white according to Chinese sources.

Salamander parallel

It has been argued that the Chinese "fire rat" has its parallel in the European fire-sprite salamander. whose lore dates to Greco-Roman times.Berthold Laufer ''apud'' Although asbestos was known to Romans, Pliny the Elder (d. 79AD) wrote it was a type of linen or plant, 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.

In Berthold 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. Joseph Needham reviewed this premise, and was unconvinced.

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 the ( ) as a phoenix 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 his ''Life 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. And these pieces of Arab learning were (reimported back) and transmitted to medieval Europe, argued Laufer.

Whether or not that was the correct route of transmission, it is true the German polymath Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) wrote in his works that the incombustible cloth was salamander feather (). Marco Polo after him recorded in his '' Travels'' his observation of the "salamander" being mined, fully recognizing it to be mineral, and refuting the notion asbestos came from animal hair.

Fire-laundered cloth

The "fire-laundered cloth" after being tossed in fire and shaken drops off all its dirt and turns snow-white. according to the aforementioned ''Shizhou ji'' and like sources. Later sources such as the ''Biyan lu'' (, "Blue Cliff Record") quoting ''Yunji Qiqian'' (, "Seven Slips of the Cloud Satchel") speak of the cloth being snow-white after being fire-laundered.

The "fire-laundered cloth" was in fact cloth woven from fibrous asbestos (aka amiantus)

The ''Zhao shu'' ("Book of Zhou") and Lie Yukou, there is given an account that King Mu of Zhou was given tributes from the Xirong western barbarians, consisting of the jade-cutting-sword and fire-launderd cloth. Laufer consider these as spurious (later fabrications).Berthold Laufer ''apud'' and argued prior knowledge in the West before China. 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.

Theophrastus wrote of an ignitable mineral which resembled "rotten wood", which was arguably asbestos, though this is disputed. 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 King Goujian of Yueh.

Thus, in Needham's reckoning, knowledge of asbestos in the West dates to Roman writers from Strabo (d. 24 BC) to Pliny. 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.

Ignoring the claims dating to Zhou, the oldest attestation in China of fire-laundering cloth occurs in 's ''Weilüe'' (, 3rd cent.), according to Laufer, which described the fire-laundered cloth as the specialty product of Daqin () which he takes to mean the Roman Orient. However, In the Wei Records of the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'', it is stated that during the time of Wei's third emperor Cao Fang (also styled Qi wang ), in the year 3 (237 AD), there arrived from the "Western territories" a tribute of "fire-cloth" (, considered to mean "fire-laundered cloth"), It is not clear what the "Western Territories" mean exactly, and modern scholars appear to favor "Central Asia". The first Emperor Wen of Wei (Cao Pi) had questioned the authenticity of such cloth, as set down in his own authored work ("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.

The ''Jin shu'' ( "Book of Jin") of records that Emperor Fujian (d. 385) of Former Han received a gift of the fire-laundered cloth from Tianzhu (India) polity, then under the reign of Chandragupta II.

According to the Liu Song dynasty ''Book of Song'', during the era (657–664), the Sute (, namely Sogdiana) sent envoys who brought gifts of "live lion, fire-laundered cloth, and sweats blood horse (cf. Ferghana horse)".

Ashless wood

Regarding the ''bu jin mu'' () or "unincinerable wood" connected with "fire-laundered cloth", the "bu hui mu'' () or "ashless wood" is considered synonymous according to a mythographer's dictionary.

The topic of ''bu hui mu'' is broached in the ''Bencao Gangmu'', Book 9, under the Part on Stones; however, its uses described there do not include use as fabric. In the explanation taken from Su Song, it is a type of stone that occurs in Shangdang Commandery, now found widely found in the mountains of and provinces. The stone is white and looks like rotting wood, but burning it produces no ash, hence the name.

The compiler Li Shizhen registers his own opinion (similar to ''Baopuzi'' above) that there is actually a stone type and tree type. The stone type is harder and heavier, and when steeped in naphtha/petroleum () and wrapped in paper, it servede323 as a lamp which can be lit the whole night long without burning down into ashes.

The tree type of ashless wood, according to Fu Chen's ''Qi di ji'' (), was known by the name "wood that conquers fire" (''shenghuo mu''; ) and occurred in Dongwu ''cheng''/city (, or Dong Wu Cheng county). And the tree type according to the ''Taiping Huanyu Ji'' () occurred in , and was metal-rod like, though it had lobes like cattail leaves, and when bunched up into torches, were so long lasting they became known as "torches for a myriad years" (). Li Shizhen himself bought such a torch, and claims it had burned down by only one or two ''cun'' after a whole night.

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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** Okutsu, Haruo, in ''Tokushima Bunri Daigaku bungaku ronsō'' 徳島文理大学文学論叢』9 March 1992 (original publication)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:huoshu
Legendary mammals
Mythological rodents
Yaoguai