DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



that his brain seems to have increased in size, undergoing 

 much the same experience as that of man himself."* 



The position as regards domestication of the dog in China 

 is well summed up by Bertold Laufer : f " We do not 

 possess any historical records of any literature regarding the 

 early domestication of animals, and therefore we should not 

 expect to find such in China. The ' six domesticated 

 animals ' of the Chinese horse, ox, pig, sheep, dog, and fowl 

 existed in and with the nation when it appeared on the stage 

 of history. They were there, and later historians could not 

 explain their origin. They took them as one of the facts 

 which cannot be accounted for, and as altogether too plain and 

 natural to require discussion. In short, what has become a 

 problem to our modern science was not a problem at all to 

 them. Huang Ti is credited with the taming of bears, 

 leopards, panthers, lynxes, and tigers, which he employed 

 in battle against his adversaries ; but the simple question of 

 training dogs remained untouched even by legend. The 

 dog has doubtless been a constituent of Chinese culture 

 since most ancient times, which is all that we are able to 

 state with safety. The question as to who were the 

 domesticators of the dog in Eastern Asia must naturally 

 remain unanswered, at least from the standpoint of history." 



Laufer describes and figures J a bronze " tazza " of the 

 Chou dynasty, upon which are engraved animals to the 

 number of one hundred, including dogs. This is believed 

 to be the oldest representation extant of dogs in China. 

 Unfortunately the " tazza " is small in dimensions, and the 

 drawings, though of artistic value, are imaginative and prob- 

 ably defective as accurate representations of the dogs of the 

 period. The dogs figured appear to be of two or, perhaps, 



* " Prehistoric Man and his Story," C. F. Scott Elliot, p. 197. 



f " Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty," Laufer, p. 251. 



+ P. 150. From an engraving in the " Hsi ch'ing ku chien," Book 29, p. 26. 



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