74 Chinese Clay Figures 



the ingenious translator of the Chou li, has expressed his opinion in these 

 words: "I translate by buffalo the character si, and by rhinoceros the 

 character se. These two characters x denote in the Shi king a rhinoceros 

 or a wild buffalo, without the possibility of distinguishing between them. 

 The skin of the rhinoceros being very thick, it seems difficult to believe 

 that it could have been sliced, and that the pieces were sewed together, 

 in order to make cuirasses. In this case the two characters of the text 2 

 would designate here two species of buffalo." 3 Palladius, in his 

 Chinese-Russian Dictionary, treats the matter in the opposite way, and 

 renders se by (i) "an animal resembling a wild ox," (2) "Malayan rhi- 

 noceros," and si by "rhinoceros." Couvreur credits the word se first 

 with the latter meaning, secondly with that of bceuf sauvage. 4, 



Chavannes 6 has clearly and sensibly expressed the opinion that 



1 It should properly read, "words." 



2 Referring to the passage of the Chou li where the hide cuirasses are mentioned. 



3 In his essay on the Manners of the Ancient Chinese (in Legge, Chinese Classics, 

 Vol. IV, Prolegomena, p. 148), Biot says that "they hunted also herds of deer, of 

 boars, of wild oxen," on which Legge annotates, "These wild oxen would seem to be 

 rhinoceroses." But in his original article {Journal asiatique, 1843, p. 321), Biot has 

 added the following comment: "Le caractere si est traduit ordinairement par rhino- 

 ceros, et c'est, en effet, son sens actuel. Lacharme a traduit, tantdt bos sylvestris, 

 tant6t rhinoceros. II me semble que les grandes chasses devaient Stre dirig£es surtout 

 contre des troupeaux de bceufs sauvages ou buffles." The objections raised by Biot 

 in the above passage are not valid; it is certainly possible to slice rhinoceros-hide, and 

 to sew the pieces together. Cuirasses and shields have been made from it, as may be 

 seen from many specimens in the collections of our museums. A shield of rhinoceros- 

 hide is illustrated in Plate XXVII. In accordance with the above definition, Biot, 

 likewise in his translation of the Annals of the Bamboo Books (Extrait du Journal 

 asiatique 1841 and 1842, pp. 41, 46), rendered se by "rhinoceros" and si by "bceuf- 

 si (rhinoceros)," while Legge (Chinese Classics, Vol. Ill, Prolegomena, pp. 149, 153) 

 in both cases has "rhinoceros." It will be seen in the course of this investigation 

 how Biot's error was caused, and that his opinion is untenable. W. R. Gingell (The 

 Ceremonial Usages of the Chinese, p. 81, London, 1852) treated the two words in 

 a way opposite to that of Biot, translating in the passage of Chou li the term si kia 

 by "rhinoceros-hide armor" and se kia by "wild buffalo 's-hide armor." No one of 

 those who from purely philological points of view proposed the rendering "wild 

 buffalo" has ever taken the trouble to raise the question whether anything like wild 

 buffalo exists in China, anciently or in modern times. Bushell (The Stone Drums 

 of the Chou Dynasty, Journal China Branch R. As. Soc, Vol. VIII, 1874, P- l 5A) was 

 of the opinion that the ancient Chinese hunted the rhinoceros in the low swamps. 



4 The passage in Lun yu (xvi, 7) is translated by Couvreur (Les quatre livres, 

 p. 250), "Si un tigre ou un bceuf sauvage s'^chappe de sa cage." Nevertheless in the 

 glossary (p. 664) the;,word se is rendered by "rhinoceros." Legge (Chinese Classics, 

 Vol. I, p. 307) translates here "rhinoceros," despite Chu Hi's (undoubtedly wrong) 

 interpretation of se being a ye niu (" wild bull ") . In his first edition of Lun yu (which 

 is not accessible to me, but this may be gleaned from Plath, Die Beschaftigungen der 

 alten Chinesen, p. 56), Legge translated se by "wild ox." In the text of Ming-tse 

 (III, 2, ix, 6), Legge (Classics, Vol. II, p. 281) and Couvreur (/. c, p. 452) are in 

 mutual accord in translating the word si by "rhinoceros," and this is likewise the case 

 with reference to the word se in Li ki, II, 1, in, 40 (Legge in Sacred Books of the 

 East, Vol. XXVII, p. 158; Couvreur, Li ki, Vol. I, p. 181). In Tso chuan,\n, 2, 

 Legge (Classics, Vol. V, p. 289) renders si se by "rhinoceroses and wild bulls." 



6 Les M6moires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. Ill, p. 502. 



