DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



on foreign things as precious, foreigners will come to him ; 

 when that which is precious to him is worth, his own people 

 near at hand will enjoy repose." * 



Nothing is known of the situation of the Leu country, 

 and the dogs are not described by any reliable Chinese 

 authority. Other Chinese commentators state that these 

 dogs were " Four feet (ancient feet, that is) high," but the 

 authority of such commentators, who wrote in some cases 

 hundreds of years after destruction of the original text, is 

 doubtful. Laufer considers that the Leu were one of the 

 numerous branches of the Turkish tribes. 



German writers f have gone so far as to base upon this 

 record a totally unjustified statement that the dogs of Leu 

 were Thibetan mastiffs, and on this slender testimony have 

 built up an elaborate theory to the effect that the Chinese dog 

 is of Thibetan origin, and that the canine race in China is 

 derived from Western countries. These German writers 

 have omitted to take into consideration the fact that up to the 

 seventh century A.D. there was no such country as Thibet, and 

 the people who occupied the region at present called by that 

 name consisted of unknown nomad tribes, having no recorded 

 history, for the foundation of civilized monarchy in Thibet 

 was laid only in A.D. 652. They were steeped in barbarism, 

 and devoid of any written language. 



Chavannes, quoting from the " Annals of Ssu-ma Ch'ien," 

 states that the Emperor Chou Hsin (1154-1123 B.C.) of the 

 Yin dynasty, in ill repute on account of his extravagance and 

 debauchery, maintained a great number of dogs, horses, and 

 rare objects, and filled his palaces with them.J 



* Legge's " Chinese Classics," vol. iii, Part V, Book V. 



t Oscar Albrecht, " Zur Altesten Geschichte des Hundes," Munschen, 1903, p. 58 ; 

 C. Keller, " Die Abstammung des Altesten Hausthiere," Zurich, 1902, p. 74 ; Max 

 Sieber, " Der Thibethund," Winterthur, 1897. 



J Chavannes, " Les memoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien," vol. i, p. 200. 



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