CHAPTER VIII 



EVOLUTION OF THE PEKINGESE TYPE 



FANCIERS of the Pekingese breed of dogs, a breed 

 which, to the eye of the present-day European, 

 bears a closer resemblance than do the Chinese 

 and the European lion-dog to the King of Beasts, will ask 

 themselves such questions as : " How far back can the Pek- 

 ingese type be traced ? What is the origin of the breed and 

 of its distinctive points ? When was it first remarked as a 

 distinct type by the Chinese ? What is the date of its first 

 importation into Europe ? ' 



Knowledge of the existence of " short " and " square " 

 dogs a thousand or more years B.C. is scarcely evidence 

 definite enough to justify a positive statement that small dogs 

 existed in China at quite so remote a period. Use of the name 

 " pai " for a " short-legged " and " short-headed " type of dog 

 " which belongs under the table," at the end of the first 

 century A.D. is, however, evidence which speaks for itself. 

 That this type of dog was outdone by the dogs imported 

 from " Fulin " or " Folin," in both superior intelligence and 

 minuteness of size, appears perfectly clear from the en- 

 thusiasm with which the arrival of these dogs, which were 

 not unlikely of the then current Maltese breed, was welcomed. 

 As regards the points of these dogs, Chinese writers of the 

 T'ang Dynasty would probably have likened them to lions 

 had there been a striking resemblance or if any of them had 

 been particularly shaggy-coated, but they did not. No clear 



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