War Elephants in Ancient and Medieval China
1957; Brill; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/1579643
ISSN1877-8372
Autores Tópico(s)Eurasian Exchange Networks
ResumoThe Asiatic (Elephas maximus), taken, tamed, and trained for civil and military purposes in India and Indochina since antiquity, was once widespread in China, and occasionally employed in battle there. Archeological and literary remains attest to its presence in the valley of the Yellow River in Shang times, but none seem to have survived in the dominions of the kings of Chou. Indeed tradition credited the heroic founders of that dynasty with driving these behemoths from the realm of the Sons of Heaven (see Meng tzu, Hao-pien, and Lii-shih ch'un-ch'iu, Ku-yiieh p'ien). During the Han dynasty they were regarded as characteristic animals of Southern Yiieh, that is, of modern Lingnan (Shuo wen). Nonetheless many individual beasts and sometimes even herds are reported from central as well as southern China during the first ten centuries of the Christian era. Groups of elephants were seen in Honan and Hupeh in the fifth century (Sung shu 3I.I515b; Nan Ch'i shu I8.I70Ib; K'ai-ming edition), while large herds still roamed the forests of northern Kwangtung (Wang Shao-chih, Shih-hsing chi, quoted in T'ai-p'ing yii-lan 89o.8a). In the sixth century, several hundreds ravaged the crops in Huai-nan (Nan shih 8.2567d), a small group appeared at Chien-k'ang (Liang shu 2.I769b), and, astonished by the appearance of a solitary straggler in central Honan, the Toba overlords declared a new era, named Primal Elephant (Yian hsiang; Wei shu II2b.2186b). Elephants were still abundant in the mountainous parts of Kwangtung in the ninth century (Liu Hsiin, Ling-piao lu-i i.8a), and we are not surprised to read of herds in coastal Lingnan in the tenth (Sung shih 287.5264b. See also the inscription of the Chen-hsiang Pagoda i S : in Wu Lan-hsiu ~ i fr, Nan Han chin-shih chih P A& 5A z i .r 2.2I, edition of Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng). Less expected are individuals seen in northern and southern Honan, Hupeh, and Hunan in the same age (Sung shih I.4498a; Wen-hsien t'ung-k'ao 3II.7a).
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