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- Elephants in China
In China, the elephant is the symbol of strength, sagacity and prudence and the motif of an elephant carrying a vase on its back symbolizes hope for peace. It is one of the four animals, along with the tiger, leopard and lion that represent power or energy. As one of the Seven Treasures of Buddhism, the elephant is the holiest beast of Buddhism and it is believed that Buddha entered the right side of his immaculate mother Maya in the form of a white Elephant.
There is an ancient quote from the Zuozhuan (The Tradition of Zuo) of 548 BCE, which states, ��the elephant has tusks which lead to the destruction of its body because they are used as gifts.� The existence of elephants on Chinese soil has been authenticated by linguistic, pictorial, historical and archaeological evidence. Several different forms for the Chinese character for elephant can be found on Shang oracle bones and on the inscriptions of Shang and Zhou bronze vessels. Excavations have yielded Shang bronzes and jades in the shape of elephants or with motifs of elephants. Elephant bones have been excavated from sacrificial pits at the ancient Shang capital of Anyang. The 1986 excavation at Guanghan Sanxingdui in Sichuan province unearthed elephant remains together with masses of burnt animal bones, bronze figures, and gold, jade, stone and pottery artifacts. In Pit 2 alone, over sixty elephant tusks were strewn over the artifacts on the top layer. It is not certain what the purpose of the tusks were, but they may have been sacrificial offerings and were probably from the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. By about the sixth centuiy BCE the lavish use of ivory, in all probability, led to the extermination of the elephant from much of China�s northern and central territory. According to ancient chronicles, even Confucius (551-477 BCE) owned a large ivory ring 12 to 13 cm. wide.
Since ancient times, Chinese records have mentioned that ivory was admired for its beauty, strength and permanence, and was used for ritual and ceremonial purposes as well as decorative items for the emperors. Captive elephants and ivory were always a welcome form of tribute as gifts to the Chinese court from border areas. In ancient times emperors kept elephants in their parks as zoological curiosities or animals of state. As a royal beast kept on the palace grounds, the elephant was not worked and was usually looked after by foreign attendants.
It is recorded that Han Emperor Wu received a tame elephant as tribute from Nan Yue in 121 BCE. Nan Yue or Southern Yue was a small kingdom adjacent to Han China stretching from Guangzhou (Canton) to North Vietnam. Chinese texts record that a white elephant was sent from Gandhara, India to the Chinese court at Luoyang in Henan province in 509 and in 1105 a white elephant was sent from Burma to the court of Song Emperor Huizong. Song dynasty records of 963 and 964 mention elephants were seen in the Yangzi Valley in Central China. These may have strayed from the south. The elephants were killed near Nanyang, Henan province and their tusks and skins were sent as gifts to the throne. Records also tell us that up to the tenth century, elephants were used in Guangzhou to put criminals to death.
Kublai Khan (1214-94), the great Mongol emperor of China, was noted for having a large stable of elephants. Some were captured in a battle with the Burmese in 1277. In Marco Polo�s writings, he mentions that the Great Khan had as many as five thousand elephants, covered with beautiful saddle blankets, which were exhibited in a grand procession at the New Year Celebrations. The Manchus who ruled China under the Qing
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