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[[underlined]] APPENDIX [[overwritten]] A [[/overwritten]] ^[[II]]. [[/underlined]]          14.

its affluents in fleets of great war-canoes. [[superscript]] (39) [[/superscript]] A somewhat obscure passage in the [[underlined]] Tso chuan [[/underlined]] suggests that the two states belonged to different culture-areas; for it seems to point to the use by Ch'u, in common with the Chinese proper and many peoples of central and northern Asia, of hide armor (comparable to our own medieval buff-coats); but by Wu, on the other hand, of the wooden slat armor, fastened together with thongs or cords, employed in such of maritime eastern Asia and the Oceanic area under aboriginal conditions. [[superscript]] (40)  [[/superscript]]
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 (39)
     The contemporary Chinese term for these fleets was [[underlined]] chou-shih [[underlined]] 舟師, lit. "boat-armies". See, [[underlined]] e.g., [[/underlined]] the [[underlined]] Tso chuan [[/underlined]], IX, xxiv, 6: "During the summer the viscount [[underlined]] (tzu) [[/underlined]] of Ch'u attacked Wu with a fleet of war-boats".
     For some account of the war-boats, ancient and recent, of south-eastern Asia, see my paper, "Long-Houses and Dragon-Boats", published in [[underlined]] Antiquity [[/underlined]] for Dec., 1938; pp. 411-424.
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  (40)
     [[underlined]] Tso chuan [[/underlined]] XI, iv, 14. In the commentary of Wei Yueh 韋曜 (3rd century A.D) on the [[underlined]] Kuo yü [[/underlined]] ("Narratives of the States"), that writer explains that in Ch'u "the hide of the [[underlined]] ssŭ [[/underlined]] was used for making scaly armor and helmets". For bringing this citation to my notice I am indebted to Dr. A. W. Hummel, of the Library of Congress.
      On the probable identity of the of the [[underlined]] ssŭ [[/underlined]], see my paper, "Rhinoceros and Wild Ox in Ancient China" (published in the [[underlined]] China Journal [[/underlined]]), mentioned in note 18, [[underlined]] ad fin.[[/underlined]] (page 32 of the text).
     The nature of slat armor is familiar to most of us through its survival in Japan down to quite recent times. 
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     In the course of these wars between Ch'u and Wu, the latter state, late in the 6th century B.C., took and temporarily occupied the former's capital, Ying (regarding this town see [[underlined]] supra [[/underlined]], page 12/ [[insertion]] of this Appendix [[/insertion]] and note 36, same page), and forced the king of Ch'u into flight. It is in connection with this episode that we come upon one of the very few references to the keeping of elephants in captivity in ancient China. While the Wu forces, after turning a river against Ying's walls and thus breaching them, were engaged in storming the town, its defenders, we are told, vainly tried to repel their assailants by urging elephants (their number unspecified) against them with the aid of fire.  [[superscript]] (41) [[/superscript]]

   

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