RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 60 CAROLE MORGAN Other ceremonies involving dogs are mentioned in the Chou Li, the Chou Book of Rites (a utopian picture of Chou society compiled from late Chou, Chin and Han sources in the 1st Century B.C.). In the nu (（）) sacrifice to drive away pestilence, a dog was dismembered and his remains buried in front of the main gates of the capital.10 The ba (*) sacrifice to ward off evil required the participation of the Emperor himself. Riding in a jade chariot it was his duty to crush a dog under the wheels of his carriage. An analysis of the character ba clearly shows what took place in the ceremony. The term ba is written with the radical for cart and a phonetic element (（）) which originally meant an animal whose legs had been bound. It was the duty of a specially appointed official to supply a dog of one colour and without blemishes for the sacrifice.12 According to one author, Schindler, the origin of using dogs as sacrificial animals dates back to a primitive cult in honour of a dog-shaped god of vegetation whose worship later became amalgamated with that of Shang Ti, god of agricultural production and reigning deity of the Shang pantheon.13 The fact that alone among domestic animals dogs and horses were buried (dogs being wrapped in reed mats and horses in sheets) gives some support to this theory.14 In Chou times, horses too were used as sacrificial victims. In the ma (（）) ceremony horses were used as chthonic sacrifices to the Earth Goddess;15 and Ssu Ma Ch'ien tells us that Duke Hsiang of Ch'in (776-766 B.C.) sacrificed a red colt to the White Emperor of the West.16 In such cases the horse to be sacrificed was first shot with an arrow and then buried.17 But as horses became more valuable the practice of using them as sacrificial victims gradually died out. By 103 B.C. Ssu-Ma Ch'ien informs us all live horses had been replaced by wooden statuettes except in cases such as the chiao (*) sacrifice, celebrated by the Emperor himself, during which he informed his ancestors that he was about to undertake a punitive expedition.18 Horses, however, were not only used as sacrificial animals, they were also entitled to a cult of their own. According to the Chou Li it was the duty of an official, the Hsiao Jen, to sacrifice in Spring to the ma tsu (（马祖）), the ancestors of horses. It was the duty of the same official to honour the "tamer ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 DOGS AND HORSES IN ANCIENT CHINA 61 of horses" in Summer, sacrifice to the ma she (1) or earth god of horses in Autumn and the ma bu (✈) in Winter.19 (According to K'ang Ch'eng, a commentator of the Chou Li, the ma she was a spirit who sat in judgement on horses.) The Chou Li also tells us that other officials were entrusted with the care of horses. It was, for instance, the duty of the mu shih (**) or Herdsman to supervise the imperial horse pastures and see to it that they were annually improved by burning off the top grass.20 The Herdsman was also required to perform a curious task which consisted of clamping bamboo pins on the ears of any restless two-year-old fillies, a treatment guaranteed to soothe the most restive animal.21 To treat sick horses there was not only a veterinarian but also a horse sorcerer or wu ma (4) to assist him. It was the sorcerer's task to diagnose a sick animal's ailment by studying its gait, after which the veterinarian bathed the horse in a herbal decoction (which may have had mildly analgesic properties) before undertaking any other course of treatment.22 The sorcerer also had to be conversant with the sick horse's pedigree in order to sacrifice to its ancestors. If, despite these ministrations, the animal died, one of the two merchants attached to the sorcerer's office had to sell the carcass and return the money to the officer in charge of the corral.23 That horses were used both as sacrificial victims and as cult objects may be due to the fact that traces of two completely different cultures survived into Chou times. According to Schindler horses were used as chthonic sacrifices because the Earth Goddess had originally been horse-shaped.24 The author bases his argument on a passage from the I Ching (Hexagram 1 and 2) which states that "Earth is a mare." (This passage may have been responsible for a taboo, current in Han times, against riding mares.25) But in the Shuo Gua section of the I Ching we find a statement to the effect that "Heaven is a horse and Earth is an ox." Obviously this is a relic from a different culture which identified horses with the virile qualities of heaven,26 Dogs and Horses as Sources of Food In ancient China it was customary to use as sacrificial victims only animals whose flesh was habitually eaten. Thus, the custom of eating both dogs and horses goes back to very ancient times. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 DOGS AND HORSES IN ANCIENT CHINA 65 On the other hand the large number of terms such as “hsing” ( ) “han” (*) “wei” (*) “nao” (闹) “hsiao” (咲) and “fei” (吠)52 to denote a dog's bark are apparently attempts to reproduce phonetically the barking sounds of various breeds of dogs.53 Possibly the first reference to a dog in Chinese literature is to the Ao (獒) a dog supposedly sent as tribute to Chou Hsun (1154-1122 B.C.) by a tribe called the Western Liu of whom nothing else is known.54 This was a very large dog which could “know a man's mind”. The size of the Ao always intrigued Chinese authors and one commentator, Kuo Po (502-556 A.D.) claimed that the Ao was a red dog as large as a donkey.55 A statement which may possibly have been known to Marco Polo and caused him to write when speaking of Tibet: "The people of Tibet are an ill-conditioned race. They have mastiffs as big as donkeys." This short paper has attempted to show some pre-Han attitudes towards dogs and horses, but it cannot be concluded without referring to another point. It was not until Buddhism had become firmly implanted in China that we find stories celebrating canine loyalty and devotion to man. Until then, classical literature usually qualified dogs as hui (狡), treacherous, chiao (狡) crafty and ssu (思) restless. 1 Anderson, p. 102. 2 Erkes(1), pp. 186-187. 3 Anderson, pp. 120-121. 4 Erkes(2), pp. 27-28. 5 Anderson, p. 29; Yetts, p. 237. 6 Creel, p. 210. 7 Cheng, Vol. 11, p. 55. 8 Cheng, Vol. 11, p. 90. 9 Schindler(2), pp. 631-632. NOTES 10 Couvreur, Vol. 1, pp. 352, 405, 406. 11 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 259; Chou Li, 8/22b. 12 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 364; Chou Li, 9/30b. 13 Schindler(1), pp. 356, 359, 364. 14 Creel, p. 142/43; Couvreur I, 235. 15 Erkes(2), p. 59. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 66 CAROLE MORGAN 16 Chavannes, Vol. 111, p. 420; Ssu-Ma Ch'ien, 28/4a-5b. 17 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 261; Chou Li, 8/23a. 18 Schindler(1), p. 625. 19 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 256; Chou Li, 8/21a. 20 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 261/62; Chou Li, 8/23a. 21 Erkes(2), p. 45. 22 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 259/60; Chou Li, 8/22b. 23 Biot, Vol. 11, p. 259-260; Chou Li, 8/22b. 24 Schindler(1), p. 314. 23 Dubs, Vol. 111, p. 402, note 10. 26 Erkes(2), pp. 59-60. 27 Biot, Vol. 1, p. 80; Chou Li, 1/33a. 28 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 646. 29 Mu Tien Tzu Chuan, 2,2a., 3,3b., 4,24. 30 Erkes(1), p. 206; Couvreur 11, p. 17. 31 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 659. 32 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 640. 33 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 642. 34 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 644. 35 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 101. 36 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 374. 37 Burkhardt, Vol. 111, p. 91. 38 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 735 note. 39 Couvreur, Vol. 11, p. 16. 40 Couvreur, Vol. 11, p. 17. 41 Couvreur, Vol. 1, p. 104. A Cheng, Vol. 11, p. 55; B Chang, p. 138. 42 Chavannes, Vol. 5, p. 69; Ssu Ma Ch'ien, 43, 8b/9b. 43 Dubs, Vol. 11, pp. 133-135. 44 Schafer, p. 60. 45 Dubs, Vol. 11, pp. 133-135. 46 Schafer, p. 60. 47 Erkes(1), p. 207. 48 Laufer, pp. 267, 277. 49 Schafer, p. 77. 50 Laufer, p. 266. 51 Cheng, Vol. 111, p. 235. 52 Karlgren series 251. 53 Erkes(1), pp. 120, 121. 54 Laufer, p. 255. 55 Laufer, p. 260. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 DOGS AND HORSES IN ANCIENT CHINA BIBLIOGRAPHY 67 Primary Sources Chou Li, Ssu-pu Ts'ung K'an, ts'e 9-14, Commercial Press, Shanghai, 1920-1922. Mu Tien Tzu Chuan, Ssu-pu pei-yao, ts'e 1129, Chung-hua shu-chu, Shanghai, 1927-1935. Ssu Ma Ch'ien, Shi Chi; Er. Shih-Ssu pen, Wu Chou Tung, Wen Shu Chu, Shanghai, 1903. Secondary Sources ANDERSSON, J. G. Children of the Yellow Earth, Kegan Paul, London 1934. BIOT, Edouard Le Tcheou Li, Wen Tien Ko, Peking 1929, (reprinted 1939). BURKHARDT, V. R. Chinese Creeds and Customs, South China Morning Post press, Hong Kong 1955 and 1958. CHANG Kwang-chih The Archeology of Ancient China, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1963. CHAVANNES, Edouard Les Memoires Historiques de Se Ma Ts'ien, Brill, Leiden (reprinted 1939). CHENG Te-K'un Archeology in China, Vols. I, II, III, Heffer, Cambridge 1960. COUVREUR, S. Le Li Ki, Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique, Ho Kien Fu 1913. CREEL, Herrlee G. Studies in Early Chinese History, Kegan Paul, London 1938. DUBS, Homer The History of the Former Han by Pan Ku, Waverly Press, Baltimore 1955. ERKES, Eduard (1) "Der Hund im Alten China" in T'oung Pao, Vol. 37 (1944) 186-225. (2) "Das Pferd im Alten China" in T'oung Pao, Vol. 36 (1940-42) 27-36. KARLGREN Grammata Serica, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Bulletin No. 12, Stockholm, 1940. LAUFER, Berthold Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty, Brill, Leiden 1909. SCHAFER, Edward The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963. SCHINDLER, Bruno (1) "The Development of the Chinese Conception of Supreme Being" in Hirth Anniversary Vol., 298-366. (2) "On Travel, Wayside and Wind Offerings" in Asia Major, Vol. 45 (1924) 624-656. YETTS, Perceval "The Horse; A factor in Early Chinese History" in Eurasia Septentrionalis Antique, Vol. 9 (1934) 231-235. ================================================================================