continental south asia and the islands 97Champa and Chiao-chih in Vietnam are once more the chief pro-
viders. To obtain the horns, the animals had to be killed, which adds
up to a sizable population of rhinoceroses destroyed for a supersti-
tion.
During T’ang, China received 22 elephants before the rebellion
of An Lu-shan in 755 and 11 thereafter. The figures for Northern
and Southern Sung are 50 and 38 respectively. 6 rhinoceroses were
offered to the T’ang, 3 before and 3 after the rebellion of An Lu-shan.
All 5 rhinoceroses presented to China thereafter were brought during
Northern Sung.
Rare birds were rated higly by the Chinese courts. During the Six
Dynasties, red and white cockatoos had been presented by Lin-yi to
the Eastern Chin in 417, by the Indian Chia-p’i-li State to the Liu
Sung in 428, by Ho-lo-tan to the Liu Sung in 430, by P’o-huang to
the Liu Sung in 459, and by P’o-li to the Liang in 522.^192 More than
24 were brought to China from 631 to 1029.
As to the other items listed above, some were luxuries or curiosities
intended to please the emperor and his court, or medicines to cure ills.
But most were commercial goods pure and simple, and not necessarily
from the countries presenting them. In most cases, it is useless to add
up the numbers and weights, as these are not systematically given.
It can be seen, however, that they would have come to respectable
figures. For instance, the noted weight of frankincense, recorded for
6 deliveries out of 10 is 5,140 catties = 3,067.6 kilograms or 6,748.3
pounds. If the price of frankincense at that time was anywhere near
its present level, that amount represented a fortune.
The Chinese paid for these goods chiefly with gold, silver, silver
coins, copper cash, silk, brocade, garments, caps, belts ornamented
with gold, silver or jade, gold and silver vessels and objects, copper
vessels, porcelain vessels, lacquered vessels, horses, horse trappings,
tea, armour, precious swords, lances, bows, arrows and other military
implements, banners, and Buddhist and Taoist texts.
Sung shih 186:19b lists goods exchanged between Sung China and
the Arabs, Champa, “rivijaya, She-p’o, Po-ni, Mo-yi etc. These are
gold, silver, copper cash, lead, tin, piece goods of various colours, por-
(^192) See my Six Dynasties, vol.II, pp.83-84.