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Ch. 4: Elephants Historical

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138 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
King-chóu consisted of vermilion (cinnabar), ivory, and skins. The word used here for ivory, ch'i, literally means "a front tooth"; the commentaries, however, give it the sense of "elephant's tooth." That elephants existed in this part of China in ancient times is vouched for by many local traditions, one of which tells of an elephant seen here as late as the seventh century A. D., but these animals have long been extinct in this region.* Probably the earliest Chinese notice of ivory is in an ode attributed to the twelfth century B. C. and contained in the Shi-King, or "Book of Poetry," considered by sinologists the most ancient literary authority as to the ancient civilizations of China. Here ivory is said to have been used for decorating the bows of the chiefs. In this instance the word siang, elephant, is used to denote ivory; combs made of ivory are also mentioned. We are not told whence this ivory was derived, but in view of the proba­ble existence of elephants in the south of China, it need not necessarily have been brought from without, although one of the earliest Tonkinese embassies to the Court of China is said to have brought an elephant's tusk as tribute to the Emperor Ch'öng-wang (1115-1059 Β. C.).f
A Buddhist legend states that aeons ago Bodhisattva was incarnated as the Chhadanta, or six-tusked elephant, and was once pursued by a wily hunter, who had assumed the dis­guise of a religious ascetic. Such was Bodhisattva's rever­ence for the sacred robe that, although he was well aware of the deception, he still broke off his tusks and gave them to the hunter 4 The earliest sculptured figures of the elephant in India are said to be in the cave of Lomas Rishi in Behar, and are believed to date from 250 B. C, the time of King
*Friedrich Hirth, "The Ancient History of China to the end of the Chou Dynasty," New York, 1908, pp. 181, 214; Hu-nan-fang-wu-chi, Ch. viii, p. 9.
fHirth, op cit.
{Andrews, "The Elephant in Art and Industry," in the Journal of Indian Art and In­dustry. Vol. X, p. 63.
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