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- dynasty (1644-1911) were also aware of the attraction of richly caparisoned elephants for the purposes of state pageantry. E. Ysbrants Ides, an envoy of the Russian czar to the Emperor Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) reported the Chinese emperor had fourteen large elephants with long tusks in his stables sent by the King of Siam as way of tribute. The elephants either carried wooden castle shaped howdahs or pulled two-wheeled carts. The Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-95) had sixty elephants and would use them on various state occasions and records during Qianlong�s reign state, �on the evening before the winter solstice, the emperor proceeded to the Altar of Heaven to offer sacrifice at dead of night, and he mounted a carriage drawn by an elephant.� The annual bathing of the elephants in the imperial stables was also a noteworthy event. Lord Macartney, Ambassador of Great Britain to the Emperor Qianlong, wrote of seeing elephants in the palace grounds in 1792. But, by the turn of the twentieth century, no elephants were left at the imperial court.
Elephants are represented on either side of the spirit avenues of stone figures leading to the imperial tombs of the Song, Ming and Qing emperors. According to ancient records, there were also stone elephants at an Eastern Han emperor�s tomb. A stone elephant is still located outside the White Horse Temple in Luoyang and could well be related to the Han imperial necropolis. At an even earlier site, the tomb of the Western Han general, Huo Qubing (died 117 BCE), there is an elephant-like stone figure.
In the imperial tomb alleys from the Tang through to the Ming periods are stone civil officials that hold a �Tzu� tablet. According to the Liji (Books of Rites) of the second century BCE, the actual tablets were made of ivory. The "hu�, were long, thin, curved slices of ivory, and were used by men of the first to fifth ranks as writing boards while in the presence of the emperor. They were also considered an essential item of formal court attire. The official would write down what he wished to communicate and what he was ordered to do. Another purpose of the hu was to prevent the official from looking directly at the emperor and mask their breath so as not to offend the emperor. It was also believed that the custom of holding a hu might have originated with the emperor�s fear of assassination. If the official�s hands were occupied and in view, he could not quickly draw a concealed weapon.
During the Ming dynasty, a single character was engraved on the smooth undecorated surface of the hu to signify the category of the official concerned. The hu allowed the carrier access to restricted areas. They were handed out and collected at the door of the palace by special doorkeepers. The Manchu Qing court discontinued the use of the "hu", but because they were a popular antiquarian curiosity as a symbol of rank, their manufacture was continued. Although abolished under the Manchus, the hu was also used at the Korean royal court until the early twentieth century. From the use of stone elephants and the hu tablet at the imperial tombs, it is obvious the Chinese emperors and nobility had a great appreciation for elephants and ivory and held them in high esteem.
Elephants were a popular art-motive in China. However, as the general public, artists and craftsmen did not often see them for real, they have not always captured the correct natural features and proportions of the elephant and have sometimes produced rather comical renderings, based on oral or written descriptions.
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