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by Dr. Rohan H. Wickramasinghe
Institute for Tropical Environmental Studies
Goldfish – or more precisely the ornamental goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) kept in aquaria and ponds – are (at least in the final steps of their creation) the handiwork of man. They have been developed from carp, which have been cultivated for food (and, to a lesser extent, for mosquito control) by the Chinese for thousands of years. The original goldfish ancestors (Prussian Carp) found in the wild are normally grey, silver or olive green in colour, in order to blend into the surroundings and reduce the likelihood of being noticed by predators such as otters and herons.
The Chinese first recorded red, orange or yellow mutations in carp in the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.). The development of ornamental varieties proceeded from then on and today specimens showing orange, red, brown, yellow, white and black colours are seen. At least 300 breeds are recognised; these include the Black Moor, Bubble Eye, Comet, Fantail, Veiltail and Lion Head. (Two other species, the Koi Carp and Crucian Carp are somewhat different and will not be considered here.)
The Tang Dynasty (608-907 A.D.) was the first Golden Age of the Classical Garden in China and saw carp being raised in ornamental ponds and water gardens. (Sometimes, a few individuals were transferred into small containers and brought indoors temporarily for the delight of guests on special occasions.) This writer has had the good fortune to visit (on a trip hosted by the Chinese Peoples’ Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, CPAFFC) the Yuyuan Gardens (created in 1559) in Shanghai and see ponds with large numbers of goldfish, which had been trained to respond to the sound of the clapping of hands to come to be fed.
The purpose of this essay is to propose that the stocking with goldfish of a pond in the Great Royal Park, Ranmasu Uyana (Goldfish Park), was probably made possible by a direct importation of this livestock from Imperial China. Ranmasu Uyana (9th to 10th Century A.D.) is a piece of land of about 15 hectares below the bund of the Tissawewa in Anuradhapura and, according to legend, is the locality where Prince Saliya, son of Dutthagamani, encountered Asokamala many centuries before. Once declared a royal park, the Ranmasu Uyana was strictly reserved for members of the royal family.
By the 9th/10th Century, many voyages had taken place between Lanka and China; officials, Buddhist clergy, those engaged in cultural activities and merchants in particular. Any of these groups may have been entranced by these pretty fish and thought of bringing some back home. However, it is probably most likely that the Imperial Court in China made a gift to a king in Anuradhapura as a gesture of friendship and as a partial return for the generous ‘tributes’ of pearls, muslin etc sent with delegations from Lanka to China. Additional support to this possibility is that the goldfish were accommodated in the royal park, Ranmasu Uyana, while it has been recorded that in China persons outside the imperial family were not permitted to keep goldfish of the yellow (gold) variety, since yellow was considered the imperial colour. We probably will never know what colour variety of goldfish was brought from China to stock the Ranmasu Uyana.
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The likelihood of goldfish developed during the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 A.D.) or before accords well chronologically with their being received in the Ranmasu Uyana, which is believed to have been established by the 9th/10th Century. Interestingly, there are conflicting reports that goldfish were first imported into Japan in 1502 or 1603. They were imported in 1611 into Portugal, whence they made their way into other European countries and North America (around 1850). It is possible that, as in the case of tea plants and seeds, there was a ban on the export of goldfish from China for many centuries. Such a ban would not, of course, apply to the gifting for non-commercial purposes from the Emperor of China to the King of Anuradhapura for the Royal Park. (It is interesting to speculate whether the ‘Ranmasu Uyana’ was created specifically to accommodate this gift from the Emperor of China.)Finally, mention may be made of the diagram, called the ‘Sakvala Chakra inscription’, engraved in one of the four caves at the Ranmasu Uyana site. There has been speculation as to the meaning of this diagram. While there are those who would describe some of the theories as being rather fanciful, a more down-to-earth view of Professor Senake Bandaranayake is that this may be a world map. Such a world map may indeed be relevant to a hypothesis that the goldfish of the Ranmasu Uyana were brought directly from China.
(The writer is a member of the Executive Committee of the Sri Lanka China Society)
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