DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



reigning at Chengtu during the period of the five dynasties 

 907-960.* 



During the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1333), the Mongol Em- 

 perors, following the example set them by Assyrian monarchs 

 two thousand years previously, prided themselves on their 

 menageries, and Marco Polo records that lions roamed the 

 courts of the Peking palace. 



" It was the custom of the Emperors on the days when 

 they give feasts in honour of the Princes and High Officials 

 to take out at the Ten Thousand Years' Hill (the Coal Hill) 

 all the beasts tigers, leopards, bears, elephants parading 

 them one by one before the guests. After these were brought 

 the lions. These beasts are small and short in body. They 

 are astonishingly like the ' golden-coated, nimble dogs ' 

 which are commonly bred by people themselves in their own 

 homes. All animals, when they see the lions, are terrified. 

 Their anger is more fearsome than that of all other beasts." f 



It is just possible that some of these " golden-coated 

 nimble dogs " were introduced into Europe during this 

 period, for, during the latter part of the Yuan Dynasty, 

 Chinese princes were received by the papal court at Rome, 

 and Franciscan missionaries had established some forty 

 bishoprics in the Celestial Kingdom. Marco Polo visited 

 China, saw Hangchow, and left us the one account of 

 mediaeval China that is at all trustworthy. Christianity had 

 probably penetrated China at a much earlier period. Nes- 

 torian bishops are known to have been appointed in the first 

 quarter of the eighth century .J 



A further reference to a " golden-coated " dog probably 

 belongs to this period. A Chinese chronicler says : ' There 



* " Pei Wai Chai Shu Hua P'u," vols. xcv-c. 



t " Jih Hsia Chiu Wen K'ao," Chuo Keng Lu. 



j " Cathay and the Way Thither," Yule, vol. i, p. 103, 



134 



