. Chinese clay figures. Sculpture -- China; Arms and armor, Chinese; China -- Antiquities. 168 Chinese Clay Figures As stated by a great number of commentaries,1 the se kung were carved from wood if rhinoceros-horn were lacking. Certainly, there could have never been any want of bovine horns; and it is inconceivable that an ox-horn should have been ever reproduced in wood. Fan Ch'eng-ta, in his Kui hai yii heng chi,2 has a note to the effect that "the people on the seacoast make cups from ox-horn (niu kio pei) by splitting the horn. va> m Fig. 23. Bronze Rhyton attributed to Han Period
. Chinese clay figures. Sculpture -- China; Arms and armor, Chinese; China -- Antiquities. 168 Chinese Clay Figures As stated by a great number of commentaries,1 the se kung were carved from wood if rhinoceros-horn were lacking. Certainly, there could have never been any want of bovine horns; and it is inconceivable that an ox-horn should have been ever reproduced in wood. Fan Ch'eng-ta, in his Kui hai yii heng chi,2 has a note to the effect that "the people on the seacoast make cups from ox-horn (niu kio pei) by splitting the horn. va> m Fig. 23. Bronze Rhyton attributed to Han Period (from Po ku t'u lu). in two and smoothing the edges to enable them to drink wine from them, which appears as a survival of the ancient rhinoceros-horn ; They did not carve their cups from ox-horn, however: they merely split the latter, as the author advisedly 1 See T'u shu tsi ch'eng, K'ao kung tien, sect. 197, kung pu. "- Edition of Chi pu tsu chat ts'ung shu, p. 14 b. 3 It may be stated positively that a confusion of rhinoceros and ox horns (or any other horns) is absolutely impossible, the two being entirely distinct organic substances of different origin and structure; and we are quite willing to believe Chang Shi-nan, the author of Yu huan ki wtn early in the thirteenth century, that an artisan of Shuang-liu hien in Ch'eng-tu fu, who chanced upon the idea of making ox-horn into rhinoceros-horn, was not very successful in passing off his ware, because it did not exhibit any of the properties of rhinoceros-horn. The latter is indeed a unique product. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Laufer, Berthold, 1874-1934. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherchica, bookyear1914
