一切經音義 15.188

15.188

火浣布（桓管反。俗字也。正作澣。考聲云浣濯也。以足曰澣以手曰漱。劉兆注公羊傳云濯生練曰漱去舊垢曰澣。經文有從皃作𣴟非也。謹案山海經括地志十洲記神異經博物志抱朴子等皆說南方炎洲有火林山生不燼之木。其山晝夜大火常然猛風不盛㬥雨不滅。其木皮花皆堪為布。而皮布麤花布細又有火浣獸其形似鼠可重百斤。毛長三四寸色白細如絲。常居火中烔赤如火。時時出外。夷人以水逐而沃之得水即𣦸取其毛績以為布。彼夷人皆衣其衣。經有垢污若以灰水洗終日仍舊不能淨。若置於火中燒之與火同赤經二食須出而振之塵去潔白如新因名火浣。抱朴子曰火浣布凡有三種木皮與花及以獸毛燼音祥盡反也）。

Asbestos cloth (火浣布: [浣 is] hu[án]-guǎn [fǎn], a vulgar character; the standard form is 澣. The Kaosheng says: "浣 means to wash; washing with the feet is called 澣, and washing with the hands is called shù (漱)." Liu Zhao's commentary on the Gongyang zhuan says: "Washing raw raw silk is called shù; removing old grime is called 澣." Sūtra texts written with mào (皃) as 𣴟 are incorrect. We note that the Shanhai jing, Kuodi zhi, Shizhou ji, Shenyi jing, Bowu zhi, Baopuzi, and other works all state: On Mount Huolin in Yanzhou in the south, there grows unburnable wood. Large fires constantly burn on that mountain day and night, not intensified by fierce winds nor extinguished by torrential rains. The bark and flowers of its trees can both be made into cloth; cloth made from the bark is coarse, while cloth made from the flowers is fine. There is also a fire-cleansed beast whose form resembles a rat, weighing perhaps a hundred catties. Its hair is three to four inches long, white, and fine as silk. It constantly lives in fire, glowing bright red like flame. At times it comes outside; the barbarians chase and douse it with water, and once doused, it dies. They take its hair and spin it into cloth. Those barbarians all wear clothes made of it. When it becomes soiled, washing it with ash-water all day long leaves it still soiled and cannot clean it; but if placed in fire and burned until red-hot like the fire, it needs only be taken out after the time of two meals and shaken, whereupon the dirt falls away and it is as pure and white as new; hence it is named 'fire-cleansed'. The Baopuzi says: "There are three kinds of fire-cleansed cloth in all: tree bark, flowers, and animal fur." Jìn (燼) is pronounced xi[áng]-jìn [fǎn]).