Similarly, we find the twelve symbolical animals, representing the twelve branches of the Horary characters (dating, see Williams’ Dictionary, from B.C. 2637), to be the rat, the ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, boar, where the dragon is the only one about whose existence a question can be raised. From this latter we learn that there was no confusion of meaning then between dragons and serpents; the distinction of the two creatures was clearly recognized, just as it was many centuries afterwards by Mencius (4th century B.C.), who, in writing of these early periods, says, “In the time of Yaou, the waters, flowing out of their channels, inundated the Middle Kingdom. Snakes and dragons occupied it, and the people had no place where they could settle themselves”; and again, “Yu dug open their obstructed channels, and conducted them to the sea. He drove away the snakes and dragons,[236] and forced them into the grassy marshes.”
The “’Rh Ya.”
The ’Rh Ya or Urh Ya,[237] also transliterated Eul Ya and Œl Ya, a dictionary of terms used in the Chinese classics, but more especially of those in the Shi King, or “Book of Odes,” a collection of ancient ballads compiled and arranged by Confucius.
There is a tradition that it was commenced by the Duke of Chow 1100 B.C., and completed or enlarged by Tsz Hia, a disciple of Confucius.
Dr. Bretschneider suggests that each heading or phrase in the original book merely represents the book names and the popular names of the plants and animals.
The bulk of the work at present extant consists of the commentary by Kwoh P‘oh (about A.D. 300) and, in some editions, of additional commentaries by other authors.
The illustrations selected from it for the present volume are reduced from those in a very fine folio copy, for the loan of which I am indebted to Mr. Thomas Kingsmill, of Shanghai.
Fig. 41.—The Banner called Tsing K’i.
(From the ’Rh Ya.)
These profess to date back so far as the Sung dynasty (A.D. 960 to A.D. 1127), and it is interesting to observe that the representations of tools of husbandry then in use (Fig. 50, [p. 232]), and of the methods of hawking (Fig. 46, [p. 225]), fishing (Fig. 47, [p. 227]), and the like, are such as might be taken without alteration from those of the present day.