DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



evolved many species which have constant colour charac- 

 teristics, each with its special highly imaginative Chinese 

 name, and each favoured by particular fanciers. 



Hard times and the overthrow of the Manchus have, 

 however, done much to extinguish Chinese interest in breed- 

 ing dogs. Had the Peking breed remained as fashionable as 

 it was in the early days of the nineteenth century, it seems 

 probable that the Chinese would have succeeded in per- 

 petuating several varieties, each with characteristic markings, 

 instead of the one race now produced in Europe and America, 

 which is an amalgamation of the characteristics of several, 

 bred irrespective of markings. To the Chinese, saturated 

 with superstition, folk-lore and literary myths, every colour 

 has a value, and every marking serves to crystallize some 

 imaginative thought which can convey little to the foreigner 

 ignorant of Chinese underlying thought. 



" Should a man breed a white dog with tiger markings," 

 remarks one of the old geomantic books, " he shall shortly 

 become an official entrusted with 10,000 piculs (roughly 

 600 tons) of rice, from the Government." * 



The ancient " Book of the Five Elements," rather more 

 exacting in its requirements, proves that dogs of various 

 colours existed in early times in China, as in Assyria : f 

 " Should a man breed : 



" A black dog with white ears, he shall become rich and 



noble. 



" A white dog with a yellow head, his family will become 



prosperous. 



"A yellow dog with white tail, his family shall have 



officials in it in every generation. 



* " Ke Chih Ching Yuan " (Clear spring of ancient knowledge). 



f The Assyrians and Babylonians " were acquainted with dogs of various colours, 

 for they derived omens from piebald dogs, yellow dogs, black dogs, white dogs and 

 the rest." " Mesopotamian Archaeology," by Percy S. P. Handcock, Macmillan, 1912 

 p. 19. 



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