History of the Rhinoceros 151 



called 'horn shining at night' (ye ming si): 1 hence it can communicate 

 with the spirits, and open a way through the water. Birds and mammals 

 are frightened at seeing it. The Shan hai king speaks of white rhino- 

 ceroses. 2 



1 This idea may have been borrowed from the precious stones believed to shine 

 at night (Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 242-244; Chavannes, Les pays 

 d'occident d'apres le Heou Han Chou, T'oung Pao, 1907, p. 181). Jade disks shining 

 at night (ye kuang pi) are mentioned in Shi ki (Ch. 87, p. 2 b). The note of Li Shi- 

 chen is doubtless suggested by the following passage of the Tu yang tsa pien, written 

 by Su Ngo in the latter part of the ninth century (Wylie, Notes on Chin. Lit., 

 p. 194; ed. of Pai hai, Ch. B, p. 9, or P'eiwin yiinfu, Ch. 8, p. 87b): "In the first year 

 of the period Pao-li (825 a.d.) of the Emperor King-tsung of the T'ang dynasty, the 

 country of Nan-ch'ang [in Kiang-si; Playfair, No. 4562] offered to the Court a rhi- 

 noceros-horn shining at night (ye ming si). In shape it was like the 'horn com- 

 municating with the sky.' At night it emitted light, so that a space of a hundred 

 paces was illuminated. Manifold silk wrappers laid around it could not hide its 

 luminous power. The Emperor ordered it to be cut into slices, and worked up into 

 a girdle; and whenever he went out on a hunting-expedition, he saved candle-light 

 at night." We even hear of a luminous pillow (ye ming chin) lighting an entire room 

 at night ( Yiin sien tsa shi, Ch. 6, p. 3 b, in T'ang Sung ts'ung shu, which quotes from 

 K'ai-yuan T'ien-pao i shi). The story of Tu yang tsa pien may be connected with the 

 curious tradition regarding Wen K'iao (Tsin shu, Ch. 67, p. 5), who by the alleged 

 light emitted from a rhinoceros-horn beheld the supernatural monsters in the water 

 (see Petillon, Allusions littgraires, p. 227; S. Lockhart, A Manual of Chinese 

 Quotations, p. 280; and Giles, Dictionary, p. 794 b, — who translate 'to light a rhi- 

 noceros-horn, ' which is not possible, as in this case the horn would burn down ; the horn 

 was shining through its alleged own light). An illustration of this scene by Ting Yun- 

 p'eng is published in Ch'eng shi mo yuan and Fang shi mo p'u. The notion that the 

 rhinoceros-horn is luminous at night, and is therefore styled "shining or bright horn" 

 (ming si, or kuang ming si), and also "shadow horn" (ying si), is found in Tung ming ki 

 (Wu-ch'ang print, Ch. 2, p. 2), embodied in a fabulous report on a country Fei-lo, said 

 to be nine thousand li from Ch'ang-ngan in Indo-China (Ji-nan). This work relating 

 to the time of the Han Emperor Wu, though purported to have been written by Kuo 

 Hien of the Han, is one of the many spurious productions of the Leu-ch'ao period 

 (fourth or fifth century), and teeming with anachronisms and gross inventions; some 

 accounts in it are interesting, but devoid of historical value (see Wylie, Notes, 

 p. 191). The assertion there'made,that the inhabitants of Fei-lo drive in carriages drawn 

 by rhinoceros and elephant, is very suspicious ; but the report that the horns sent from 

 there were plaited into a mat, the designs of which had the appearance of reticulated 

 silk brocade, is probably not fictitious; for this is confirmed by a passage of the 

 T'ang Annals (Chapter wu king chi, quoted in T'u shu tsi ch'Sng), according to which 

 a certain Chang Yi-chi had a mat made for his mother from rhinoceros-horn. Since 

 the latter (the designation "horn," from a scientific standpoint, is a misnomer) is 

 composed of agglutinated hair or bristles, it is possible to dissolve a horn into thread- 

 like fibres; and the possibility of a technique employing these for the plaiting of mats 

 must be admitted. 



2 According to the more precise wording of the passage, as quoted in P'ei win 

 yiin fu (Ch. 8, p. 88 a), the white rhinoceros occurs in the mountains of Kin-ku, 

 inhabited by large numbers of other wild animals, also hogs and deer. The Shan hai 

 king is an apocryphal work teeming with fables, and has little value for scientific 

 purposes. The P'ei win yiin fu, further, quotes the Tung kuan Han ki (completed 

 about 170 a.d.; Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, No. 990) to the effect that in the 

 first year of the period Yiian-ho (84 a.d.) of the Emperor Chang of the Han dynasty 

 the country Ji-nan (Tonking) offered to the Court a white pheasant and a white rhi- 

 noceros. But this text, unreservedly accepted by Hirth (Das weisse Rhinoceros, T'oung 

 Pao, Vol. V, 1894, p. 392), must be taken with some caution, as it is identical with, 

 and apparently derived from, the passage in Hou Han shu (Ch. 1 16, p. 3 b), according 

 to which, in the first year of the period Yiian-ho (84 a.d.), the Man I beyond the 

 boundary of Ji-nan offered to the Court a live rhinoceros and a white pheasant. The 



