456 CHINESE FISHING 
500 B.c. took the place of our modern float: the moment the 
Angler “ saw it sink, he knew a fish was on.” ! 
In the first century before and after the Christian era the 
germ of Imperial ostentation and extravagance in tackle raged 
virulently. Spreading, if not from China to Peru, at any rate 
like silk 2 from China to Rome, it claimed among its victims 
the Emperor Nero and the Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, 
The bacillus found the better host in Nero, who 3 fished with 
golden nets drawn by purple ropes, while his brother of Asia 
confined himself to angling from a boat with a hook of pure 
gold, a line of white silk, and red carp for a lure. 
But the commonality of one State, at any rate, ran no bad 
second to the Imperial pair. ‘‘ The people of Lu,’’ we read, 
“were fond of fishing: they used cinnamon bark for bait, 
forged gold for hooks, which were variegated with silver or 
green colours, while their fishing line was ornamented with 
the feathers of the turquoise kingfisher.’’5 Here perhaps, as 
the bird lives on fish, we can detect a conscious or unconscious 
touch of homceopathic magic. 
Lures such as the natural or artificial fly obtain no record : 
even now the Chinese and Japanese try most things before an 
artificial fly. The baits consisted of worms, grain, fish, meat, 
and cassia. The latter aromatic herb recalls the anglers of 
Oppian and Pliny, who believed in the attraction of fish by 
the sense of smell.¢ 
In their unusual baits our authors suggest their confréres 
of Greece and Rome. Thus in size of prey, and similarity of 
bait, the author of the K’ung ts’ung iz and Herodotus 
1 Apud Werner, op. cit., 277. 
2 In 325 B.c. Chinese silks were sold in Greek markets (Werner, op. cit., 
Table III.), while by the first century B.c. there was a brisk trade in them with 
Rome, through Parthia. Cf. Pliny, N. H., XXIV. 8, and XXXIV. 41 ; Virgil, 
Georg., II. 121 ; Horace, Epod, VIII. 15; Mela, III.7 “. . . pretiosis vestibus 
in omnes terre partes mittere solebant,” and Seneca’s protest Ep. 90, “ posse 
nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serico. Pliny, XII. 41, estimates that for 
luxuries from China, India, and Arabia, Rome was paying annually over 
100,000,000 sesterces. 
3 Eutropius, VII. 14. 
4 Han Wu Ku Shih, apud Werner, op. cit., p.278. Imperial hunting and 
fishing expeditions are described on the stone drums of the Chou Dynasty 
v. 750 B.C, nowat Peking. See Journal N.-C., R.B.A.S., N.S., VIII. 146-152. 
5 CWiieh Tat, abud Werner, p. 276. 
6 Antea, p. 238. 
