1 62 Chinese Clay Figures 



Se-ma Ts'ien, the father of Chinese history, who was born in B.C. 

 145, and died between b.c. 86 and 74, and who in his Historical Memoirs 

 repeatedly mentions the two species, doubtless was personally familiar 

 with them; for he locates them in Sze-ch'uan, 1 and we know that he, a 

 great traveller and observer, accompanied the military expedition of the 

 Emperor Wu sent in B.C. 11 1 into Sze-ch'uan and Yun-nan. 2 Again 

 and again, Chinese authors in the beginning of our era point to that ter- 

 ritory as the stronghold of the rhinoceros. We noticed that Kuo P'o 

 of the third century alludes to Mount Liang in Sze-ch'uan as its habitat 

 (p. 94) ; and we may add to this the weighty testimony of Ch'ang K'ii 



style, sometimes designate the buffalo "the water-rhinoceros" (shut se). In the pre- 

 Christian era the word se invariably applied to the single-horned rhinoceros, — a fact 

 confirmed by the concordance of the word with Tibetan (b)se (p. 116). In times 

 following the ultimate extermination of this species on Chinese soil, this word natu- 

 rally fell into disuse and became open to other functions ; while si is still retained as 

 the general word for rhinoceros, whether single or two horned. The word se was 

 transferred to the buffalo, because to a naive and primitive mind the two animals, 

 as has been demonstrated by the world-wide propagation of this notion, bear a 

 striking similarity to each other. The attribute "water" fits both with their fond- 

 ness for lying embedded for hours in mud and water. A sequel of this transfer in 

 meaning, then, was the impression of recent Chinese authors that the word se had 

 denoted also the wild buffalo or ox in the times of antiquity. This, of course, is a 

 phantom. The most instructive passage where the words si and shut se are used to- 

 gether in close succession occurs in Sung shi (Ch. 489, p. 1), where it is said, in the 

 chapter on Champa (Chan-ch'eng), that "the country abounds in peacocks and rhi- 

 noceros (si niu), that the people keep yellow oxen and buffalo (shui niu), and that 

 those engaged in the capture of rhinoceros and elephant (si siang) pay a tax on them 

 to the king; they eat the flesh of wild goats and buffalo (shui se)." In Siam, permis- 

 sion to capture wild elephants must still be obtained from the Government, and for 

 each animal caught a royalty of $150 is paid (C. C. Hansen, Daily Consular and 

 Trade Reports, 191 1, p. 751). In mediasval times when the rhinoceros became grad- 

 ually scarcer on Chinese soil, and the supply of its skin no longer satisfied the de- 

 mand for it, buffalo-hide was substituted for it. Chinese authors, with fair accuracy, 

 indicate the time when this change went into effect. A book Ts'e lin hai ts'o, quoted 

 in the cyclopaedia Yen kien lei han (Ch. 228, p. 4), states in substance that what is 

 designated rhinoceros-hide armor in the T'ang History is at present made from buffalo 

 hide, but continues under the general name "rhinoceros" (si). The Chinese, accord- 

 ingly, were perfectly aware of the fact that the ancient cuirasses were wrought from 

 rhinoceros-hide, and that buffalo-hide was a later substitute. Ch'eng Ta-ch'ang, who 

 wrote in the latter part of the twelfth century, says in a discourse on defensive armor 

 (inserted in Wu pei chi, published in 1621 by Mao Yuan-i, Ch. 105, p. 4) that the 

 skin of a domesticated animal like the ox is always handy, while the two rhinoceroses 

 si and se cannot be reared, and their skins are not always obtainable; and that in his 

 time armor was produced from buffalo-hide. In T'ang shu (Ch. 41, p. 1) the tribute 

 sent by the district of Kuang-ling in Yang-chou (circuit of Huai-nan) is stated to 

 have consisted of armor made from buffalo-hide (shui se kia). The rhinoceros is 

 here out of the question, as it did not occur in that region; and the geographical 

 chapters of the T'ang Annals give us the best clew to the tracing of the geographical 

 distribution of the rhinoceros in the China of that period. It is worthy of note that 

 the term shui si(" water rhinoceros") is still employed with reference to the rhinoceros 

 only, not the buffalo. Chung Kia-fu writing in 1845 (Ch'un ts'ao t'ang chi, Ch. 30, 

 p. 13) makes the remark that "the cups and dishes carved from rhinoceros-horn 

 (si kio) in his time are not from the genuine rhinoceros (shui si), but from the horn 

 of a wild ox (ye niu) in the countries of the foreign barbarians. ' ' 



1 Shi ki, Ch. 117, p. 3 b. 



* Chavannes, Les M6moires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. I, p. xxxi. 



