EASTERN DOGS IN EARLY TIMES 



Reverting to the dog or dogs ao of Leu, whose arrival 

 caused the enunciation of a foreign policy which has had an 

 important bearing upon the development of the whole Chinese 

 race, we find that numerous fanciful pictures of it have been 

 produced by painters of the Sung (A.D. 960) and Ming (A.D. 

 1368) dynasties. It is the most famous dog in Chinese history. 

 The incident was frequently quoted to emphasize the necessity 

 of study of statecraft upon later emperors, and to discourage 

 over-affection for the four luxuries in whose possession these 

 primitive rustic potentates were apt to take the greatest pride 

 namely, gold, jade, dogs, and horses. So addicted to the 

 pleasure of the chase were these early " sporting " emperors, 

 that all references to it had to be severely banned at the 

 Imperial Audiences : "At Audiences let no reference be 

 made to matters pertaining to the dog and the horse." * 

 The learned Commentator adds " the dog and the horse are of 

 minor importance, and not subjects worthy of discussion at 

 Audiences." It is to be feared that in certain cases an emperor 

 was somewhat inclined to hold the affairs of state merely " some- 

 thing better than his dog, and a little dearer than his horse." 



His views may be compared to those of Julius Caesar : 

 ' One day in Rome, Caesar, seeing some rich foreigners 

 nursing and petting young lapdogs and monkeys, inquired 

 whether in their parts of the world women bore no children ; 

 a truly imperial reproof to those who waste on animals the 

 affection which they ought to bestow on mankind." f 



The paucity of detail in reference to dogs down to the period 

 of the Emperor Chin Shih may be in part ascribed to the 

 destruction of much valuable material in his holocaust of 

 Chinese literature (255 B.C.), which, no doubt, accounts in 



* " Book of Rites," vol. i (written about the seventh century B.C.), vide " Com- 

 mentaries of the Sung Dynasty." 



f Plutarch's " Life of Pericles," A.D. 40 ; " Toy Dogs," by the Hon. Mrs. Neville 

 Lytton, p. 268. 



15 



