continental south asia and the islands 95Lin-yi 20
Chen-la^191 15
Champa 8
Chen-li-fu 3
Chan-po 1
Lo-hu 1
Northern and southern Vietnam were the chief providers. Chiao-
chih in the north shows the highest number with 74. Lin-yi and its
successor state Champa in the south come second with a combined
total of 28. Chiao-chih was closest to China and had a land border
with it. The elephants could therefore have been brought by land,
although sea transport to the Yangtze is not out of the question. The
animals from all other states must have ben brought by sea, which
was no mean shipping achievement.
It can be seen that the T’ang and even more so the Sung courts
were awash with elephants. Some attempts were made to reduce
their numbers. When Emperor Te-tsung of T’ang had ascended the
throne on June 12, 779, he set free precious birds and rare beasts.
32 elephants from the imperial parks were released on the north side
of the Ching Mountain (Chiu T’ang shu 11:19a-19b; Wen-hsien t’ung-
k’ao 332:14a). This was probably in the wild area between the lower
Han River and the Yangtze. The lifetime of an elephant is from 45
to 60 years, and according to the above table no 32 gift elephants
existed in China in 779. Either the texts omit the presentation of
some elephants, or, more probably, the elephants reproduced in the
imperial parks. It has been seen that in 970, and surely at other times
as well, female elephants had been among those offered. In 1034,
two elephants from Chiao-chih were rejected by the Sung. In 1182,
a Southern Sung edict stated that the elephants presented by Annam
(Chiao-chih) were useless and a trouble for the people. They should
no longer be accepted (Sung shih 488:18a;Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao 330:6b).
However, they kept coming.
For the T’ang, the sources do not record the number of elephant
tusks offered. For the Sung, they more often do so than not. Where
figures are given, they add up to 1,182 tusks, which is, of course, well
below the real number. The offering countries in numerical sequence
(^191) Chen-la (1), Dry Chen-la (11), Wet Chen-la (1) and the Khmer Kingdom
(2).