2017苜蓿筆記6

6. 書中第47頁引用一張苜蓿的插圖，說明如下：

Walter Harte studies farming methods on the continent while accompanying a young pupil on his Grand Tour of Europe. In the second of his Essays on Husbandry (1764) he addressed the “culture of Lucerne by Transplantation.” He was a keen advocate of this handsomest of all the grasses which are (improperly) called artificial.

這本書(Essays on Husbandry (1764))已有線上免費電子文本 Essays on Husbandry (1764)：https://archive.org/details/essaysonhusband00hartgoog

十八世紀文本資料庫有有收藏此書。其中插圖在第190頁後，可惜電子文本的影像不是很清楚。所以我從書中的插圖翻拍照片一張(如下)，這張圖的最大特色是畫出苜蓿長一星期和五星期的對照圖。

Husbandry的解釋：

1.

a. The act or practice of cultivating crops and breeding and raising livestock; agriculture.

b. The application of scientific principles to agriculture, especially to animal breeding.

2. Careful management or conservation of resources; economy.

Walter Harte (1709–1774) was an English poet and historian. He was a friend of Alexander Pope, and a noted writer on husbandry.

2017苜蓿筆記5

5. 苜蓿可當綠肥：

Alfalfa was not only a useful crop which could be cut and stored, as a legume it also improved soil quality and could feed the subsequent crop planted in a rotation system. Its benefits seem to have been forgotten in Europe before returning through Spain, perhaps with the Muslims. The Italians referred to its Spanish and Hungarian origins during the Renaissance.

古代歐洲本來已運用苜蓿的綠肥功能，但是中間很長一段時間歐洲人似乎忘記苜蓿的好處，直到文藝復興時期，西班牙和匈牙利人開始再利用苜蓿綠肥，有一說法可能是透過穆斯林再度引進苜蓿綠肥。

2017苜蓿筆記4

4. 下面的文字簡介苜蓿東傳中國的歷史：

Interest came from the East too. The 2nd-century BC Han emperor Wu, keen to consolidate his territorial gains, sought the famed horses of the Ferghana valley (eastern Uzbekistan), and their food. The route from the Han capital Xi’an through Ferghana led on to the Black Sea and became the northernmost of the Silk Roads.

這段文字介紹的就是《史記》與《漢書》等文獻記載的漢武帝引進汗血馬與苜蓿的歷史，英文提到漢武帝引進苜蓿與汗血馬的動機：強化與鞏固開拓的疆土 (to consolidate his territorial gains)，是軍事動機、也是政治考量。此外，汗血馬源自Ferghana，今日烏茲別克東部，是「絲綢之路」的中間點。

2017苜蓿筆記3

3. 下面這一小節點出更多苜蓿的歷史典故：

The Anatolian Hittites, acclaimed early charioteers, recorded on clay tablets overwintering their horses on alfalfa. The idea spread along trade routes and with invading armies. Darius I of Persia fed his camels and livestock with it, and exposed the Greeks to this fodder crop. Alfalfa became part of the Roman war machine.

首先，文中提到早期的The Anatolian Hittites是最早期騎馬車的人，考古的石板塊上有馬靠吃苜蓿寒冬的圖像(待查證)。基本上，古代的The Anatolian Hittite在今日土耳其地區，也就是荷馬史詩特洛伊城的可能位置；所以，這間接說明，荷馬史詩中提到Achilles的馬滯留特洛伊城外時啃苜蓿，可信度極高。

        第二點，文中提到波斯王大流士一世(Darius I of Persia)餵馬和牲畜吃苜蓿，被希臘人瞧見，意思就是希臘人偷學起來。這裡的描述十分生動，只是，應該不是大流士一世親自餵馬吃苜蓿吧！另外，如果苜蓿是「餵」給馬吃，表示馬不是吃重在野地，極可能是曬乾後的苜蓿草。

        文中第三點時代已經推到西元一世紀，羅馬帝國時期，「苜蓿」成為重要的戰爭武器 (war machine)。文章沒有引用史料佐證，但是也以推論，因為戰馬吃苜蓿的原因吧?

註解1: The Anatolian Hittites

以下說明出處: http://www.ancient.eu/hittite/

The Hittites occupied the region of Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey) prior to 1700 BCE, developed a culture apparently from the indigenous Hatti (and possibly the Hurrian) people, and expanded their territories into an empire which rivaled, and threatened, the established nation of Egypt. They are repeatedly mentioned throughout the Hebrew Tanakh (also known as the Christian Old Testament) as the adversaries of the Israelites and their god. According to Genesis 10, they were the descendants of Heth, son of Canaan, who was the son of Ham, born of Noah (Genesis 10: 1-6). The name they are known by today, therefore, comes from the Bible and from the Amarna Letters of Egypt which reference a "Kingdom of Kheta" identified today as the `Kingdom of Hatti' (the designation the land of the Hittites was known by) but their own documents refer to them as Nesili, as do others of the time.  Their control of the region is divided by modern-day scholars into two periods: The Old Kingdom (1700-1500 BCE), and the New Kingdom, also known as the Hittite Empire (1400-1200 BCE). There is an interregnum between these two which, to those who accept that version of history, is known as the Middle Kingdom. The discrepancy between those scholars who recognize a Middle Kingdom and those who do not arises from the fact that there was no discontinuity between the Old Kingdom and the New, merely a `dark age’ of less than 100 years about which little is known.  The Hittite Empire reached its peak between under the reign of King Suppiluliuma I (c.1344-1322 BCE) and his son Mursilli II (c.1321-1295 BCE) after which it declined and, after repeated attacks by the Sea Peoples and the Kaska tribe, fell to the Assyrians.

2017苜蓿筆記2

2. 作者這章節的介紹開始於「養馴的動物」：

Domesticated animals are a great boon for many purposes, but they, too, must eat. The earliest named fodder crop is alfalfa or lucerne (Medicago sativa). This small-seeded clover-type legume was part of the same steppe biome of western Eurasia that also brought the domesticated horse. Horses of the nomadic tribes could graze on naturally growing alfalfa, and it became the preferred cultivated fodder crop of those who adopted the horse for trade and warfare.

苜蓿 (Medicago sativa) 的出處主要是歐亞大陸板塊的西部，也就是古代波斯地區的大草原生物區。這兒遊牧民族的馬高大強壯，主要啃的就是大草原上的苜蓿。歷史的轉變重要因子是貿易與戰爭，這兩者都需要馬，所以漸漸各個民族重視畜養馬，而馬的糧食也隨之引進和栽種。中國的典型例子是汗血馬和苜蓿園，希臘也引進苜蓿。

        至於，人類甚麼時候開始也吃苜蓿？我寫的論文引用中國文學作品中的例子，通常是窮困之際或是「裝窮」時候，才會吃馬吃的苜蓿。但是，今天大家吃的「苜蓿芽」，被視作營養價值極高的食物，我尚未考證是誰發明吃苜蓿芽，雖然我常常吃苜蓿芽。

圖片出處: https://sites.google.com/site/steppebiome/map

This is a map showing where the steppe biome or "grasslands" are found all over the world. The steppe Biome can be found  everywhere but Australia and Antarctica. It can be found in the USA, Mongolia, Siberia, Tibet, China, and many other countries.

苜蓿，2017筆記之1

ἀνδρῶν αὖ μέγ᾽ ἄριστος ἔην Τελαμώνιος Αἴας
ὄφρ᾽ Ἀχιλεὺς μήνιενž ὃ γὰρ πολὺ φέρτατος ἦεν,
ἵπποι θ᾽ οἳ φορέεσκον ἀμύμονα Πηλεΐωνα.
ἀλλ᾽ ὃ μὲν ἐν νήεσσι κορωνίσι ποντοπόροισι
κεῖτ᾽ ἀπομηνίσας Ἀγαμέμνονι ποιμένι λαῶν
Ἀτρεΐδῃž λαοὶ δὲ παρὰ ῥηγμῖνι θαλάσσης
δίσκοισιν τέρποντο καὶ αἰγανέῃσιν ἱέντες
τόξοισίν θ᾽ž ἵπποι δὲ παρ᾽ ἅρμασιν οἷσιν ἕκαστος
λωτὸν ἐρεπτόμενοι ἐλεόθρεπτόν τε σέλινον
ἕστασανž                               Iliad 2. 768-77

最英勇的戰士是特拉蒙王之子埃阿斯，

阿基琉斯卻還在生氣，他本是最強大，

為佩琉斯的無暇兒子拉戰車的兩匹馬也最強。

可是他待在他的渡海的彎船之間，

對阿特柔斯的兒子、士兵的牧者生氣，

他的兵士在岸上消遣，投擲鐵餅、

標槍，拉弓射箭，他們的馬在車旁

吃沼澤裡的苜蓿和芫荽，戰車存在

他們的主上的營帳裡，用布覆蓋嚴密。

《伊利亞特》第二卷768-77行

因為在王煥生翻譯的《伊利亞特》第二卷讀到Achilles的馬吃苜蓿，覺得十分有趣，花了兩三年找尋苜蓿的各種歷史、文學、圖片等各種資料，種苜蓿芽、吃苜蓿、參加研討會，也發表論文...，我的「苜蓿人生」還蠻有趣的。只是我與苜蓿結下的緣分仍未盡，最近隨意翻一本書，又發現新的資料，但這些資訊不足以寫論文，所以我想寫些筆記，整理新資料與想法。

        這本書是: Bynum, Helen and William Bynum. Remarkable Plants That Shape Our World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2014. 介紹苜蓿的部分是第46-47頁。重點如下：

1. 作者引用Pliny的一段文字：

Lucerne is by nature an exotic to Greece... it having been first introduced into that country from Media, at the time of the Persian wars with King Darius; still it deserves to be mentioned among the very first of these productions. So superior are its qualities.

如我之前的觀察，苜蓿從波斯傳到希臘，並非希臘本土植物。只是，這裡強調一件事，苜蓿優於其它馬糧。中國文獻中記載為了養出好馬，從漢代起不少皇帝請專職人員種苜蓿，也是因為苜蓿被認為比其它糧草好。