Elephants in ancient China

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bronze wine vessel in the form of an elephant

The existence of elephants in ancient

bronzeware script glyphs for elephant are pictographic depictions of an animal with a long trunk. Their modern descendant is the regular script
character 象 (Standard Modern Chinese, xiàng).

In December 2011, a study by a team of scientists from China reported that the elephant living in China in ancient times (

P. namadicus were distributed across Asia, but it is unclear if the mysterious elephants of northern China were remnants of P. namadicus or a unique species of their own. This conclusion was reached after studying remains of Chinese elephant molars and tusks from the Holocene epoch, as well as examining ritual bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which all depicted elephants with two 'fingers' on the tip of their trunk (whereas the Indian elephant only has one 'finger').[4] Fossil elephant experts Victoria Herridge and Adrian Lister disagree with the assignment, stating that the claimed diagnostic dental features are actually contrast artifacts, created due to the low resolution of the figures in the scientific paper, and are not evident in better quality photographs.[5]

Elephants still survived in the southwestern provinces of China after the extinction of the Chinese elephant, but they are of a different subspecies, the

Xishuangbanna, Yunnan
Province.

Warfare

Emperor Zhezong of Song
's tomb

Elephants were used for warfare in China by a small handful of southern dynasties. The state of Chu used elephants in 506 BC against Wu by tying torches to their tails and sending them into the ranks of the enemy soldiers, but the attempt failed. In December 554 AD, the Liang dynasty used armoured war elephants, carrying towers, against Western Wei. They were defeated by a volley of arrows. The Southern Han dynasty is the only state in Chinese history to have kept a permanent corps of war elephants. These elephants were able to carry a tower with some 10 people on their backs. They were used successfully during the Han invasion of Ma Chu in 948. In 970, the Song dynasty invaded Southern Han and their crossbowmen readily routed the Han elephants on 23 January 971, during the taking of Shao. That was the last time elephants were used in Chinese warfare.[6]

Chinese armies also faced off against war elephants in Southeast Asia, such as during the Linyi-Champa Campaign (602–605) and Ming–Mong Mao War from 1366 – 1388. In 605, Champa used elephants against the invading army of the Sui dynasty. The Sui army dug pits and lured the elephants into them and shot them with crossbows. The elephants turned back and trampled their own army. During the Mong Mao campaign, the elephants were routed by an assortment of gunpowder projectiles.[7]

In popular culture

Four round pieces: a red one labeled with 相, a red one with an elephant head, a black one labeled with 象 and a black one with an elephant head.
The elephants

The elephant is one of the pieces of the chess-like Chinese board game xiangqi.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7524-7530-1
    .
  2. ISBN 7-101-01219-1
    .
  3. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.10.039
    .
  4. ^ Warwicker, Michelle (19 December 2012). "Extinct elephant 'survived late' in North China". BBC Nature. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  5. National Geographic. Archived from the original
    on January 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-16.
  6. ^ Peers, C. J. (2006). Soldiers of the Dragon: Chinese Armies 1500 BC - AD 1840. Osprey Publishing. p. 122.
  7. ISBN 978-0-691-13597-7
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elephants in Chinese art.
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