The Cultural History of the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in Early China

Abstract

Since the 1970s scholars in China have identifiedmo貘 as the ancient name for the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). I concur with this identification and I trace the source of the modern misidentification ofmoas the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) to the article by Jean Pierre Abel-Rémusat published in 1824. Abel-Rémusat based his identification on woodblock drawings of themodepicted as the quadripartite animal first described by Bo Juyi in the ninth century: elephant trunk, rhinoceros eyes, cow tail, tiger paws. Xu Shen (ca. 55–ca. 149) in theShuowen jiezicomparedmoto the bear, as did all descriptions ofmobefore Bo Juyi. Bo Juyi's description reflects new ideas aboutmoin medieval culture, and cannot be used as evidence of the animal namedmoin early China. As a consequence of Abel-Rémusat's mistaken identification – which was immediately accepted in Western zoology – the wordmolost its original meaning and became the word for tapir in modern Chinese and Japanese. Examination of textual and zooarchaeological evidence confirms the giant panda as the original referent ofmo. Although the tapir inhabited the region of China in prehistory there is no evidence of the tapir in China in historical times.