96 continental south asia and the islands
were:
Champa 742
Chiao-chih 187
Chu-lien 160
Chou-mei-liu 61
Khmer Kingdom 20
She-p’o 10
Chen-li-fu 2
Northern and southern Vietnam were again the chief providers. But
this time, Champa is well ahead of Chiao-chih. Because of the longer
distance, it preferred to ship ivory rather than live elephants, while
Chiao-chih took the opposite approach.
The total figure of 1,182 tusks does not necessarily mean that 591
elephants were killed for the Chinese market, since the tusks could be
sawed off from live animals.
The rhinoceros was then as now a rarer animal than the elephant,
and apparently highly appeciated by the Chinese. Of the 11 animals
offered during T’ang and Sung, only one was released in 1009, and
that was not out of pity but because of its bad temper. The countries
presenting live rhinoceroses were in numerical sequence:
Lin-yi 4
Chiao-chih 3
Champa 2
Chan-po 1
K’o-ling 1
Chiao-chih in northern Vietnam and Lin-yi and its successor state
Champa in southern Vietnam provided nine. One was brought alive
from K’o-ling in probably far-away Java.
Rhinoceros horns were in great demand for Chinese medicine
because they were believed to be aphrodisiacs and also a cure for ill-
nesses. Where figures are given, they add up to 497 horns presented
to the T’ang and Sung, which again is below the real number. The
countries offering them were in numerical sequence:
Champa 327
Chiao-chih 100
Khmer Kingdom 50
Lin-yi 10
Chen-li-fu 10