132 



Chinese Clay Figures 



animal is well grasped in the Chinese sketch, and the shape of 

 the horn is correctly outlined. For the sake of comparison, and in 

 order to show that the primitive Chinese man knew very well how to 

 discriminate between a rhinoceros and an ox, the contemporaneous 

 symbol for the sacrificial bull (hi niu) , and designs of recumbent oxen 

 (explained as such in the Po ku t'u lu) on the lid of a bronze vessel, are 

 here added (Figs. 21 and 22). We arrive at the result, which will 



be corroborated by 

 other evidence, that 

 in the earliest stage 

 of Chinese culture 

 the animal se was 

 the single-horned 

 rhinoceros. 1 



Before plunging 

 into the Chinese 

 sources relative to 

 the rhinoceros, it 

 will be well to re- 

 member that all 

 living species of 

 rhinoceros are by 

 most naturalists referred to a single genus, which is found living in 

 Africa and south-eastern Asia, while formerly it was widely distributed 

 over the entire Old World (with the exception of Australasia) , ranging 

 as far north as Siberia. 2 Three species exist in Asia, — Rhinoceros 

 unicornis, the great one-horned rhinoceros, at the present day almost 

 entirely restricted to the Assam plain, but formerly extensively dis- 

 tributed over India; 3 Rhinoceros sundaicus, called also the Javan rhino- 

 ceros, the smaller one-horned rhinoceros, found in parts of eastern 

 Bengal (the Bengal Sunderbans near Calcutta), in Assam, throughout 

 Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo; and Rhino- 

 ceros (or Dicer orhinus) sumatrensis, the Asiatic two-horned rhinoceros, 

 rare in Assam, ranging from there to Burma, Siam,the Malay Peninsula, 



1 The later developments of the early forms of the symbol se may be viewed by 

 those who are debarred from Chinese sources in F. H. Chalfant, Early Chinese 

 Writing, Plate II, No. 17 (Memoirs Carnegie Museum, Vol. IV, No. 1, Pittsburgh, 

 1906). According to a communication of the late Mr. Chalfant (Dec. 18, 1913), 

 the ancient bone inscriptions twice reveal a character which may be identified with 

 the word se, while the character for si has not yet been traced in them. 



2 Hornless species formerly occurred in North America, where the group has 

 existed since the latter part of the Eocene period. 



3 Chiefly after W. T. Blanford, The Fauna of British India; Mammalia, 

 pp. 471-477- 



Fig. 22. 



Lid of Bronze Kettle attributed to Shang Period, with Designs of 

 Recumbent Oxen (from Po ku t'u lu). 



