History of the Rhinoceros 163 



of the period of the Tsin dynasty (265-419), who in his interesting work 

 Hua yang kuo chi ascribes colossal rhinoceroses to the country of Pa, 

 the ancient designation for the eastern part of Sze-ch'uan, and further 

 places the animal in the district of Hui-wu, the present Hui-li in the 

 prefecture of Ning-yiian, province of Sze-ch'uan. 1 However doubtful 

 the exact date of the work Pie lu may be, the fact remains that it plainly 

 indicates south-western China in its whole range as the geographical 

 area of the rhinoceros (p. 135). 



With their victorious advance toward the south-east in the third and 

 second centuries B.C., the horizon of the Chinese people widened; and 

 they encountered the two-horned rhinoceros also in Tonking. 2 The 

 tributes of live rhinoceroses sent to the Chinese Court from that region 

 have been mentioned (p. 80). Liu Hin-k'i, author of the Records of 

 Kiao-chou, of the fourth or fifth century, gives a perfectly correct 

 description of the two-horned Annamese rhinoceros (p. 93). T'ao 

 Hung-king, the universal genius of the fifth and sixth centuries, logically 

 combines the ancient information relative to the south-west with the 

 additional experience coming from the conquered south-east: Hu-nan, 

 Yun-nan, and Kiao-chou in Tonking, according to him, represent the 

 home of the rhinoceros (p. 136). This alliance of the two geographical 

 zones is a fact of the greatest interest, for this observation of T'ao Hung- 

 king incontrovertibly proves that the word si can but signify the 

 rhinoceros, and particularly the two-horned species. When the Chinese 

 first struck the rhinoceros of Annam, the matter is not reported as a 

 novel experience; but they merely renewed an old experience which they 

 had long before made in their own country, and applied the same familiar 

 word to it. If the si of Tonking is the rhinoceros (and there is not an 

 atom of doubt about it) , 3 the si formerly recorded in Sze-ch'uan, Yun-nan, 



1 Playfair, No. 2480 (2d ed., No. 2341). The passages referred to are in Hua 

 yang kuo chi, Ch. 1, p. 2 b; Ch. 3, p. 23 (ed. of Han Wei ts'ung shu). 



2 Ts'ien Han shu, Ch. 28 b, p. 17. Thus the pseudo-embassy of the Emperor 

 Marc Aurel, presenting in 166 a.d. the Annamese products ivory, rhinoceros-horn 

 and tortoise-shell, and mentioned in the Annals of the Later Han Dynasty (Hirth, 

 China and the Roman Orient, pp. 42, 176), was not the first to make the rhinoceros- 

 horn of Annam known to the Chinese, who were acquainted with it at least two cen- 

 turies earlier. 



3 The fact is still evidenced by present-day conditions and the continuous trade 

 carried on at all times in rhinoceros-horn from Annam to China. Compare G. 

 Deveria, Histoire des relations de la Chine avec l'Annam, pp. 41, 88 (Paris, 1880); 

 S. W. Williams (The Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 94) states that the best sort of 

 rhinoceros-horn comes from Siam and Cochinchina, selling at times for $300 apiece, 

 while that from India, Sumatra, and southern Africa, represents an inferior sort, and 

 sells for $30 and upwards apiece. For the middle ages we have the testimony of 

 Chao Ju-kua (Hirth's and Rockhill's translation, p. 46). As has been pointed 

 out, the word se gradually sank into oblivion in the post-Christian era, and was 

 superseded by the exclusive use of the word si, which was then applied also to the 



