History of the Rhinoceros 159 



former is identical with the present Rhinoceros indicus unicornis (as 

 proved above all by the linguistic relationship of the word se with 

 Tibetan bse and Lepcha sa), and the latter with the present Rhinoceros 

 sumatrensis} 



We may now attempt something like a reconstructive history of the 

 rhinoceros in the historical era. At the time of the Shi king, the rhinoce- 

 ros was known to the Chinese as a game-animal. In a song celebrating 

 a hunting-expedition by King Siian, it is said, "We have bent our bows: 

 we have our arrows on the string. Here is a small boar transfixed; 

 there is a large rhinoceros (se) killed." 2 As a metaphor, the name of the 

 animal is employed in another song, in which soldiers constantly occupied 

 on the war-path complain of cruel treatment, and say, "We are not 

 rhinoceroses, we are not tigers, to be kept in these desolate wilds." 3 

 Also cups carved from rhinoceros-horn (se kung) 4 make their debut in 

 the Shi king; and from the passages where it is mentioned, an apparent 

 symbolism is connected with it. In the region of Pin it was customary 

 for the people in the tenth month to visit the palace of their prince with 

 offerings of wine, and "to raise the cup of rhinoceros-horn with wishes 

 for numberless years without end." 5 In another song, a woman yearn- 

 ing for her absent husband takes a cup of wine poured out of a rhinoce- 

 ros-horn, in the hope that her grief will not last forever. 6 The idea of 

 the healing property of the horn is possibly here involved. 



In the Shu king, embodying the most ancient historical records of 

 the nation, the rhinoceros is not directly mentioned, but one of the two 

 principal products yielded by it is alluded to. At least, this is the opin- 

 ion of the Chinese commentators. In the chapter entitled Tribute of 

 Yu (Yil kung), "teeth" and "hide" are stated to have been the produce 

 of the two provinces Yang-chou and King-chou, — the former covering the 

 littoral territories south and north of the Yang-tse delta; the latter, the 

 present area of Hu-nan and Hu-pei. The term "teeth" is interpreted 



1 It would now be appropriate to introduce for the two extinct Chinese species 

 the names Rhinoceros unicornis var. sinensis (Chinese se), and Rhinoceros bicornis 

 var. sinensis (Chinese si). 



2 Shi king, ed. Legge, p. 292. 



3 Ibid., p. 424. 



4 Nos. 6393 and 6398. The two characters are read kung (according to T'atig 

 yiin) and kuang (according to Shuo win). 



5 Ibid., p. 233. The rhinoceros belongs to the long-lived animals. "Individuals 

 have lived for over twenty years in the London Zoological Gardens, and it is stated 

 that others have been kept in confinement for fully fifty years. Consequently there 

 is no doubt that the animal is long-lived, and it has been suggested that its term of 

 life may reach as much as a century" (R. Lydekker, The Game Animals of India, 

 P- 3i). 



6 Ibid., p. 9. 



