DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



the second in Chinese history of the five periods of peace 

 which allowed literature and art to flourish. For half a 

 century the country was torn by internal strife, which resulted 

 in the establishment of five successive dynasties, each lasting 

 for not more than ten years, and each ready, if occasion 

 offered, to change its capital city from Hsianfu, the T'ang 

 metropolis. In 969 these warring dynasties gave place to 

 the great Sung Dynasty, which, for nearly two hundred 

 years, ruled in peace in both North and South China, 

 and still continued to rule for another hundred years, at 

 its Hangchow capital in South China, while desperately 

 fighting in the North with the Mongols, who finally over- 

 threw it. 



" About the year A.D. 990 an official in Ssuchuan gave the 

 Emperor T'ai Tsung of the Sung Dynasty a Lo-chiang dog 

 named T'ao Hua (peach flower) from Ho-chow (about fifty 

 miles north of Chungking). It was extremely small and very 

 intelligent. It followed the Emperor everywhere. When 

 there was an audience the dog preceded him, and by its bark 

 announced its Imperial master's arrival. When the Emperor 

 T'ai Tsung was ill it refused to eat. When the Emperor died 

 the dog manifested its sorrow with tears and whining. The 

 palace eunuchs endeavoured to train the dog to precede the 

 new Emperor, but without success. The Emperor caused to 

 be made an iron cage with white cushions in sign of mourning, 

 and this, containing the dog, was carried in the Imperial 

 chair to his master's tomb. There the dog died, and the 

 Emperor Chen Tsung (a faithful disciple true to the Con- 

 fucian doctrine) issued a decree ordering it to be wrapped in 

 the cloth of an Imperial umbrella and buried alongside of its 

 master." * 



The historical record from which this reference is taken 



* " Yuan Chien Lei Han," vol. cxxxvi. 

 132 



