Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.50

v1.c6.50

developed technology for making sugar. India’s famous medical classic, *Śuśruta-samhita* (*Sha wen ben ji*) and the definitive treatise on government, *Artha-sastra* (*Li lun*) refer to the existence of five types of sugar named according to different colours and purities. In Buddhist Vinaya literature translated into Chinese, various varieties of ancient Indian sugar and its application in daily life are recorded. The term cane sugar (‘gan su’ 甘蔗) is written in several ways in Chinese literature, eg 'gan zhe竿蔗’, 'shu zhe 薯蔗’, 'zhu zhe诸蔗’, 'zhu zhe诸柘’, 'zhu zhe竹蔗’, 'du zhe杜蔗’ and 'du zhe 都蔗’ etc. These transliterated words explain its origin in foreign countries. Chinese sugar probably appeared in an era between the Three Kingdoms and the Tang Dynasty or the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Volume IV entitled ‘Legend of Xuanzang’ in Dao Xuan’s book, *Xu gao ceng zhuan* (*Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks*) written in the early Tang Dynasty, refers to Tang Emperor Taizong’s dispatch of Wang Xuance to India as an envoy who “recruited monks of Bodhi Temple as sugar craftsmen. Two craftsmen and eight monks