Morphometric approaches to Cannabis evolution and differentiation from archaeological sites: interpreting the archaeobotanical evidence from bronze age Haimenkou, Yunnan
Written records on the antiquity and use of Cannabis in China
In early Chinese written texts, cannabis is referred to as má 麻 and most often translated as hemp, implying its use as a fibre plant. The earliest written accounts of cannabis cultivation and use date to the 1st millennium bc. It must be noted however that má also became a generic term for a bast fibre or other oil plants, with other kinds of má specified, such as zhùmá 苎麻 for ramie (Boehmeria nivea (L.) Guadich), xúnmá 荨麻 for nettles (Urtica spp.), or zhīmá 芝麻 for sesame (Sesamum indicum L.).
Nevertheless, early occurrences of má as cannabis include poems in the Shī Jīng (Book of Odes), where there is a description of how and when to plant cannabis, while descriptions of hemp cloths are recorded in the Shàng Shū (Book of Historical Documents), and the Lǚshì Chūnqiū (Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals).
In the Lĭ Jì (Book of Rites), hemp headbands are prescribed to be worn to honor the dead during mourning activities. In the Zhōu Lĭ (the Rites of Zhou), cannabis is grouped with other cereals, including rice, millets, wheat/barley and soybean, attesting to its dual use as fibre and food grain.
That cannabis is often described in this and the other works as being cultivated with other cereals, such as millet and wheat, has been interpreted as clear indication of its culinary use. The inferred use of cannabis as food grain is also supported by definitions given in several Běncăo (Chinese traditional Materia Medica), written from the early Eastern Han Dynasty onward in the early first millennium ad (ca. ad 1–200, Brand and Zhao 2017). Within the Běncăo, cannabis is classified as a gŭ, “grain” food crop, together with rice, millets, wheat, and others (Li 2005).
The first written evidence relating to a medicinal use of cannabis is found in the Shénnóng Běncăo Jīng, Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica, traditionally dated to the Western Han Dynasty (first to second centuries ad; Li 1974; Touw 1981). According to this wealth of written evidence, we know that cannabis was known and widely employed in early Chinese societies from at least the first millennium bc, and that the versatile nature of the plant was also understood.
Finally, the first clear written reference to male and female cannabis plants is found in the Ĕr Yă zhù, a commentary by Guō Pú (ad 276–324; see Gao 1996; Clarke and Merlin 2013), based and expanded upon the earlier Ĕr Yă dictionary (itself dated to the Han Dynasty, ca. 206 bc-ad 220; see ESM 1 Table S1).).
This commentary refers to cannabis by indicating whether the plant produces seeds, calling it mámù 麻母, or if it does not produce seeds calling it xĭ枲. Later scholars have interpreted xĭ as male cannabis (for hemp production) and mámu as female cannabis (for other uses). This differentiation in male and female plants is seen as indication of an understanding of the dioecious nature of the plant possibly tied with different specific uses (Li 1974; Huang 2000; Clarke and Merlin 2013, p. 203).
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