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Chiang T'ing-his: T'u-shu chi-ch'eng
(Compendium of pictures and writings) edited by Ch'en Meng-lei
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Taken from Teobaldo Filesi; China and Africa in the Middle Ages.
Duyvendak; T'oung Pao 1938
Note: this giant encyclopedia got published in 1726, we mention however the part relating to the voyages of Cheng Ho, as the records of that voyage got destroyed. So extracts of them in later books are the only source of information left.
chapter 56, section on ch'i-lin p 27b-31b
In the division and classification of birds and reptiles (ch 56)one reads:
By Hsia Yuan-chi
In the autumn of the 12th year of Yung-lo the country of Bengal came to court and presented a ch'i-lin. In the autumn of the same year the country of Melinda (Malindi) came again to present a Ch'i-lin. In the autumn of this year once more the country of Melinda has come to present a ch'i-lin. Its shape and color are in no way different from those recorded in the old accounts and the one that has previously been presented....
By Wang Chih:
....On the 8th day of the 9th month of the 12th year of Yung-lo (October 10th 1415) a scholar from the country of Melinda came once more to present a ch'i-lin, traveling several tens of thousands of li to the Palace-gate...
