History of the Rhinoceros 



125 



It was the great general and explorer Chang K'ien, the first modern 

 Chinese, who during his peregrinations to the west, among many other 

 novel things, discovered also the ostrich for his compatriots. After he 

 had negotiated his treaties with the countries of the west, the King of 

 Parthia (An-si) sent an embassy to the Chinese Court and presented 

 large bird's eggs, 1 which most probably were ostrich eggs. A live 



Fig. 15. 

 Ostrich sculptured in Stone, T'ang Period (Sketch after Chavannes, Mission, No. 472). 



specimen (or specimens) of the "large bird of T'iao-chi" was despatched 

 as tribute from the same country in 101 a.d., and termed in China 

 "Parthian bird." 2 



They are not made after any western artistic models, but constitute invincible proof 

 for the fact that the Chinese artists in the T'ang era observed and studied nature, and 

 worked after natural models. This case may be recommended for due considera- 

 tion to the adherents of the preconceived dogma that all Chinese art is copied from 

 that of the west, and that no art is possible outside of the sanctum of classical art. 



1 Shi ki, Ch. 123, p. 6; Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, p. 169. Forke 

 (Mitteilungen des Seminars, Vol. VII, 1904, p. 139) wrongly says that the Shi ki 

 mentions "large birds (ostriches) with eggs as large as earthen pots as a peculiar 

 feature of T'iao-chi;" this is not in the text of the Shi ki, which speaks only of large 

 bird's eggs, but it is found in Ts'ien Han shu (Ch. 96 A, p. 6 a). The trade in ostrich 

 eggs in the west is of very ancient date (O. Keller, /. c, p. 168). 



2 Hou Han shu, Ch. 118, p. 9; Chavannes, T'oung Pao, 1907, p. 178. M. Cha- 

 vannes advances the theory that the Chinese erroneously applied to the ostrich the 



