Ning Xian Wang (Zhu Quan) ; I Yu Thu Chih (1430)
(The Illustrated Record of Strange Countries)
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The book has 132 illustrations in appendix including a fu-lu = Zebra fol2r; ch'i-lin = giraffe fol2v; Hsi niu = rhinoceros fol 4r; African elephants; and lions.
Note : I Yu Thu Chih (The Illustrated Record of Strange Countries) a compilation of the people and places known to the Chinese in 1430. Most probably written by the Ming prince Ning Xian Wang (Zhu Quan) in 1430. (The only known copy of the book is in Cambridge)
The drawings are called:
(a) A zebra (fu lu)
(b) An inhabitant of the country of Black-clothed People.
The description says : They hide their faces from Chinese visitors, and anyone who sees them is killed. Bargainers in trade are separated by a curtain, but one has to be careful for if the native merchants are dissatisfied with the deal one is likely to be pursued and slain.
Note: On the internet several times a wrong text is accompanying these pictures saying : The gift of a zebra fu-lu is brought to a waiting Ming official.
Taken from: J.R.A.S., I925, pp. 247-6I Some Foreign Birds and Beasts in Chinese Books By Arthur Christopher AC Moule
Pi-p'a-lo (Berbera).
The land produces lo-t'o ho six or seven tens of feet long. They have wings and can fly. They eat various things, and men even heat copper or iron red-hot and give it them to eat. They lay eggs like cocoa-nuts. If you break them they are like earthenware vessels with a musical ring. The men of the country are fond of hunting and daily shoot and eat wild animals.
fol;5b Contains an illustration of a leopard which is called golden lined leopard.
fol;6a illustration of; ma-ha-shou (oryx mentioned in Fei Shin)
(Somewhere else the book also says under the heading Ta-shih; Arabs:) The kingdom of Hua has such things as yellow lions, white sable robes, two-footed camels (ostriches?), and wild asses with horns.
The drawing of the Giraffe is taken from : I Yu Thu Chih; Moule AC Toung pao ; 1930 27, 179
