History of the Rhinoceros gr 



In the other passage, the definition of Kuo P'o (276—324), the editor of 

 the dictionary Erh ya, is quoted. 



The following definitions of the words se and si are given in the an- 

 cient dictionary Shuo wen (about 100 a.d.), and are here reproduced 

 from an edition of this work printed in 1598, which is an exact facsimile 

 reproduction of the Sung edition of the year 986. In all probability, 

 this one faithfully mirrors the text of the original issue. The definition 

 of se consists of only five words : " It is like a wild ox and dark-colored." 1 

 The character is then explained as a pictorial symbol (compare the re- 

 production of the Chinese text on p. 92). 



It is doubtless on this enigmatic and incomplete definition that the 

 explanations of Palladius and Couvreur (above, p. 74) are based. In 

 order to reach a satisfactory result, however, it is always necessary to 

 consult all records relating to a case; and it will always be unsafe to rely 

 upon a single statement, which, after all, may have been curtailed, or in- 

 correctly handed down. Let us note at the outset that the Shuo wen by 

 no means says that the animal in question is a wild ox, but only that it is 

 like one; a comparison with a wild ox is not yet proof of identity with it. 

 Hing Ping (932—1010), the commentator of Shuo wen, annotates on the 

 above passage as follows, — " Its skin is so strong and thick that armor can 

 be made from it," — and quotes the Kiao chou ki 2 to the effect that " the 

 horn is over three feet long and shaped like the handle of a horse- whip." 3 

 The fact that this author means to speak of a single horn becomes 

 evident from the statement of Kuo P'o to be cited presently. 4 The 



and Burnell (Hobson-Jobson, p. 1), wrote in 1592, "Now this Abath [abada, bada 

 = rhinoceros] is a beast that hath one home only in her forehead, and is thought to 

 be the female Unicorne, and is highly esteemed of all the Moores in those parts as a 

 most soveraigne remedie against poyson." 



1 K'ang-hi's Dictionary quotes the Shuo win as saying that "the animal se has 

 the shape or body of a wild ox and is dark-colored." 



2 Records of Annam, of the fourth or fifth century, by Liu Hin-k'i (Bretschnei- 

 der, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, p. 159). 



3 In a somewhat different way, the Shuo win is cited in Yen kien lei han (Ch. 430, 

 p. 16 b), where original text and commentary are blended together: "The animal se 

 resembles a wild ox and has a dark-colored skin which is so strong and thick that it 

 can be worked up into armor. Among the animals on the mountain Po-chung, there 

 is a large number of se." The latter name, according to Palladius, is an ancient 

 designation for a mountain in the west of Shan-si. The fact that the rhinoceros should 

 have occurred there in ancient times is not at all surprising (see the notes below on 

 the distribution of the animal in ancient times). It is noteworthy that we meet here 

 the reading, "it resembles a wild ox," in agreement with the wording of the Erh ya, 

 whence it follows that the se was not straightway looked upon as a wild ox, but as 

 something else; it was merely likened to it — a phraseology which is echoed in Baby- 

 lonia and in the classical authors. This simile seems to account for the erroneous at- 

 tempt of later commentators, like Chu Hi, to interpret se as identical with a wild ox. 



4 The Kiao chou ki is credited in the Yen kien lei han with the words, "The se 

 has a single horn which is over two feet long and shaped like the handle of a horse- 

 whip." 



