Chapter Four - Monkeys: Gods Elsewhere, Pets Here

Summary

THERE ARE VARIOUS simian species known colloquially as“monkeys” that often get confused with each other.In this study, the monkey is used practically andsimply as a group name, but mainly referring to thegibbon and macaque, which were often the subjects ofliterary writing during the third century.

By the third century, both gibbon and macaque wereexotic imports. The earliest historical record ongibbon or yuanmentions that this monkey was from Xinhui 新會, whichbelongs to the ancient kingdom Nanyue 南越. Xinhui islocated in modern Guangdong, where gibbons onceexisted; in modern China gibbons only reside insouthern Yunnan or on Hainan Island, due tolong-term deforestation of tropical and monsoonforests.

Macaques might have come to the Central Regions fromthree directions: west, south, and east. Han shu offers the firstrecord on the macaque's origins, stating that “Jibin罽賓 produces muhou 沐猴.”Jibin (kiat–pien) is atranscription of Kophen, an ancient name for Kabul,and refers to the area of Gandhāra, the middle andlower reaches of the Kabul River, includingPuṣkalāvatī and Taxila in modern Pakistan.Wei shu 魏書 recordsthat Woguo 倭國, modern Japan, produced mihou 獼猴. Archaeologistshave discovered the figure of macaques from as earlyas the second century bce in Nanyue, modern Guangxi,Guangdong, and parts of Vietnam, as evidenced by ajade figure of a dancing macaque (see Fig. 2).

Language reflects a similar history. The macaque is nowcalled houzi 猴子, andthe gibbon is called yuanhou 猿猴. Surprisingly, the often usedwords yuan and hou do not appear in pre-Qinexcavated texts, which include bronze inscriptions,bamboo and wooden slips, and silk documents. Insteadthey both only appear in pre-Qin transmittedmanuscripts: Houappears twice in Zhuangzi 莊子; and yuan is mentioned five times in Zhuangzi, seven times inShanhai jing, twicein Wenzi 文子, once inZhanguo ce 戰國 策, andtwice in Chuci 楚辭.

Gibbon, or yuan, was alsowritten as 猨. Han-Wei scholars believed that duringpre- Qin times the nao猱 most resembled the yuan. Erya爾雅 explains that “Nao,similar to yuan, isgood at climbing” 猱蝯善援.