140 Chinese Clay Figures 



scriptions, but is not such an efficient remedy as the horn of the male 

 rhinoceros." 1 



Ch'£n Ts'ang-k'i, who lived in the first half of the eighth century, 

 states in his work Pen ts'ao ski i ("Omissions in Previous Works on 

 Materia Medica") as follows: "There are not two kinds of the rhinoce- 

 ros, called the land and water animal. This distinction merely refers 

 to finer and coarser qualities of horns. 2 As to the rhinoceros 'com- 

 municating with the sky,' the horn on its skull elongates into a point 

 after a thousand years. It is then adorned, from one end to the other, 

 with white stars, and can exhale a vapor penetrating the sky; in this 

 manner it can communicate with the spirits, 3 break the water, and 

 frighten fowl. Hence the epithet 'communicating with the sky' is 

 bestowed on it. Pao-p'u-tse 4 says, 'When such a rhinoceros-horn is 

 carved into the shape of a fish, and one holding this in his mouth de- 

 scends into water, a passage three feet wide will open in the water.' " 8 



Su Sung, author of the T'u king pen ts'ao, published by imperial 

 order in the age of the Sung dynasty, has the following: "Of rhinoceros- 

 horn, that coming from the regions of the Southern Sea (Nan hai) takes 

 the first place; that from K'ien and Shu 6 ranks next. The rhinoceros 

 resembles the water-buffalo, has the head of a pig, a big paunch, short 

 legs, the feet being similar to those of the elephant and having three 

 toes. It is black in color, and has prickles on its tongue. It is fond of 

 eating thorny brambles. 7 Three hairs grow from each pore in its skin, 



1 Li Shi-chen's text exactly agrees with that given in the Cheng lei pen ts'ao. It 

 is an interesting coincidence that the horn of the female rhinoceros (tse si kio) is men- 

 tioned in the Annals of the T'ang Dynasty {T'ang shu, Ch. 40, p. 6 b) as the tribute 

 sent from the district of Si-p'ing in Shen chou, the present territory of Si-ning in 

 Kan-su. The Annals therefore confirm the statement of the contemporaneous Pen 

 ts'ao. 



2 It will be seen below that Li Shi-chen does not share this opinion. 



3 The same paragraph is found in Li Shi, the author of the Sti po wu chi (Ch. 10, 

 p. 8 b; ed. of Pai hai), ascribed by tradition to the T'ang period, but in fact coming 

 down from the Sung. He interprets the expression t'ung t'ien by the words, "It is 

 capable of communicating with the spirits" (ning t'ung shin). According to him, 

 "the horn communicating with the sky" is a thousand years old, long and pointed, 

 overstrewn with white stars, the tip emitting a vapor. 



4 Surname of Ko Hung, a famous Taoist writer, who died at the age of eighty-one 

 about 330 a.d. (see p. 138). 



6 The text in the Cheng lei pin ts'ao is somewhat fuller. It opens by saying that 

 the flesh of the rhinoceros cures all poisons, especially poisoning caused by the bites 

 of snakes and mammals. On Java bits of the horn are considered as an infallible 

 antidote against snake-bites (P. J. Veth, Java, Vol. Ill, p. 289). At the close of 

 Ch'en Ts'ang-k'i's text it is added that the horn is called also nu kio (literally, "slave 

 horn ') and shi kio ("the horn, with which the animal feeds"); the word nu seems to 

 be the transcription of a word from a non-Chinese language. 



6 Ancient designations for the present territory of the provinces of Kuei-chou and 

 Sze-ch'uan. 



7 The entire definition, except the "prickles on the tongue," is derived from Kuo 

 P'o (see p. 93). Marco Polo (ed. of Yule and Cordier, Vol. II, p. 285), speaking of 



