The Origin and Early History of the Pug

The short-faced common ancestors of the Pug dog--the Pekingese and the Lion dog-developed in the Orient. During the Shang dynasty (1751 to III I B.C.), the first dog judge, a dog feeder--or chancien- appeared, his official post dating back to 11 15 B.C. He judged breed type, quality and characteristics of different dogs, and it was during this period that Pugs were considered hunting dogs rather than Toys. (Later, in the Chou dynasty [800 B.C.], The Book of Rites divided dogs into three classes: hunting dogs, water dogs-and edible dogs!)

We first hear of the short-mouthed dogs in 600 B.C.--and they were pampered right away. The emperor's servants designed specially built carriages for the Pugs. They rode comfortably to the hunting place while the other dogs would walk behind the carriages. The purpose of the carriage was to save the Pugs' energy and conceal them from the popular before arriving at the hunting place.

Though his dynasty lasted only a short while (255 to 205 S.C.), Emperor Chin Shib managed in that time to destroy all the scrolls, records, an and materials pertaining to the Pug. These works, which provided important historical information, can never be replaced.

The Major Han dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 220) was marked by trade in silk, spices, Pugs and Pekingese to Western countries. The small dogs, now considered sporting dogs, were bred by the eunuchs and court officials for the emperor and other high officials. All were carefully guarded and had servants to care for their needs.

In the Tang dynasty, during the period of Tien Wu Ti (A.D. 673 to 686) and Ch'ih 'rung Ti (A.D. 690 to 696), Pugs, called Sichuan Pay (pronounced bai) dogs were frequently sent as presents, first to Korea and then on to Japan. Records show that Tien Ping of Shen Wu Ti (A.N. 732), the prince of the eastern Hsim Lo state, sent his envoy Chin Chang Hsun with forty attendants to Japan for an audience. They brought with them as a tribute one parrot, one thrush, one ass, two mules, one hunting dog and one Sichuan Pay dog. The Pay dog appears to have remained in fashion and became very famous. There is no doubt that the small dogs of Japan were procured from China.

In the reign of Hsi Tsoong, still during the Tang dynasty, a member of the Council of State named Wang To owned a short-legged Pay dog named Hua-Ya, meaning flowery duck. One night an assassin broke into the house through the roof but, upon being discovered by the Pug, was frustrated in his mission.

One of the most famous references to small, short-faced dogs in Chinese history concerns Emperor Ming of the Tang dynasty and his favorite wife, Yang Kwei Fei, whose beauty is widely acknowledged. One day the emperor was playing chess with a certain prince. Emperor Ming was losing. His wife, who was an interested spectator, dropped her pet Pug upon the board so that the pieces were upset and the game ruined, to the great delight of the emperor. This dog, white in color and named Wo (pronounced Waugh), came from the Kang country, one of nine kingdoms founded by Emperor Wen in the Pamirs. The famous poet Yuan Wei Ch'ih of this period was referring to this Pug when he wrote in Kang Hsi's dictionary:

- How fierce is proud Wo,
- Though still in his slumbers

Emperor Kang Hsi's dictionary refers to the character wo and states that this name was applied to a race of small dogs. The name was used toward the close of the Tang dynasty. The famous dictionary compiled under Emperor Kang Hsi quotes two old encyclopedias as considering the word pay to refer to: (1) a dog with short legs (quoted from Shu Wen: Han Dynasty); (2) a dog with a short head (quoted from Kwang Yun: Sung Dynasty. This authority states that the above character was also pronounced pia-pie in English); or (3) an under-table dog (quoted from Kwang Yun: Sung Dynasty).

The most important town in the province of Sichuan is Lo-Chafing. The Sichuan Pay dog from A.D. 950 was called Lc)-Chafing-See, Lo-Chafing or Lo-See. At that time existed the epoch of the five dynasties (Posterior Liang, Posterior Tang, Posterior Tsein, Posterior Han and Posterior Chou), the emperors of which were heavily involved in cultivating the true blood and brood type of the Lo-See dog.

History records that Emperor Kang Hsi's study at Peking was ornamented by three pictures cataloged as "Rocks, Cat and Dog," "Dogs in Play" and "Cat and Dogs." They represented small pet dogs of the Lo-Chafing breed. The captions on these paintings, "Yuan Chien Lei Han," cannot be accurately translated. They were painted by a native of Sichuan for the emperor reigning at Changtu during Ws period.

Also during this period, so careful was the breeding of the palace dogs that eight distinct primary species of the small, short-legged dog evolved, their differences appearing to be a matter of color and length of coat. The Yellow City was the home of thousands of dogs. Four thousand eunuchs, living in forty-eight sections of the palace, competed in producing remarkable specimens.

The number of Lo-See increased incredibly during the period of the Great Sung dynasties (A.D. 960 to 1279).

One of the most famous Lo-See dogs was named Tao Hua, or Peach Flower. Emperor T'ai Tsung received Tao Hua as a gift from a Sichuan official from Ho-Chow, which is about fifty miles north of Chungking.

Peach Flower, regarded by the emperor with the utmost esteem, followed him everywhere. This intelligent little Pug informed everyone of the emperor's arrival by his bark. When Emperor rai Tsung passed away, the heart-broken Peach Flower would not accept the new emperor, Chin Tsung. As a sign of mourning, the emperor commanded that an iron cage with soft, white cushions be made for Peach Flower. This cage, containing Peach Flower and the imperial chair, was carried to Emperor 'rai Tsung's tomb. There Peach Flower died. Emperor Chin Tsung, firmly adhering to the doctrine of Confucianism, issued a decree. It was ordered that Peach Flower be wrapped in the cloth of an imperial umbrella and buried beside Emperor Tai Tsung.

From this period onward numerous emperors showed a deep interest in the Pekingese, Japanese Spaniel and the Pug. Emperor Lung-Tu had such a tender regard for his Lo-See dog that he presented him with the official hat and belt of the literary Hosien grade--considered the highest literary honor of all time.

This emperor, in fact, raised quite a few Pugs. Male Pug dogs were given the rank of Kai-Fu (vireroy; ruling in the name of the king or queen with regal authority). The bitches equaled the ranks of the wives of high officials.

After the end of the great Sung dynasty, Pugs, Pekingese and other breeds became all but a memory. The Tartar dynasties from A.D. 916 to 1125 did not have much interest in dogs.

In the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368 to 1644) cat breeding flourished, some of the Chinese emperors carrying their enthusiasm for cats to remarkable excess. The eunuch Liu Jou Yu said that there were three or four men, body servants of the emperor, whose special business was the feeding of those cats that had official rank or fame. Cats appear to have continued to be the favorite pets of the Chinese court ladies until the end of the Ming period, when they were replaced by small breeds of dogs.

It was during the Ming period that modern European traders first entered into trade relations with the Chinese empire. The Portuguese began trading in Canton in the year 1516, Spain opened trading in 1575, the Dutch in 1604 and England in 1634. The Spanish permitted the Chinese to trade with them at Manila, and the Dutch and English traded fint at Amoy and then in Forinosa.

From as early as the Sung dynasty, direct foreign trade with the Chinese capitals had been slight. Merchant caravans from the western frontier of China were allowed through, under the pretense of being ambassadors offering bribes to the Chinese emperors. They brought jade, diamonds and suitable merchandise for such an overland trip. In exchange they received lavish entertainment and presents far exceeding the value of their own. The Pug brought to Europe during this time became the root of European Pugs.

By the start of the sixteenth century, references to dogs in Chinese serous and literature were becoming frequent. Simultaneously, Japanese Spaniels and Pugs, which appeared in Italian paintings, were in big demand.

The printing of The First Imperial Dog Book was completed at the end of the seventeenth century. This book, and the others that followed, were intended to set the standards for all breeds of dogs. The illustrations, however, done by Chinese court artists, are not realistic, so we cannot regard them as authoritative records of exact breed type.

During this period, breeding small Pugs became the fashion and breeders were guided by "sleeve dog specifications." The dogs of the Royal Palace of the Forbidden City in Peking were never allowed to be seen by the people of China. But because the emperors and their ladies still wanted a tiny dog to pamper, play with and pet, dogs were carefully bred to such a size that they could be carried inside the wide sleeves of the robes of the ladies and the highest officials. This is how the term "sleeve dog" came about.

The average measurements of the Pug at this time, as converted from the Chinese, were: body, 7.8 inches; height of body, 1.8 or 3.5 inches; length of leg, 1.6 or 1.8 inches; tail, about 3 inches. The only dog described as a sleeve dog in some of the imperial dog books was a short-coated Pia dog of very small size.

The late Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi, who was known as Old Buddha, objected to artificial dwarfing of such small dogs. The empress, being an artist, was chiefly interested in breeding for color and in developing symmetrical markings on her dogs. Strongly deploring the development of abnormalities such as bowed legs or a protruding tongue, she bred for the white spot on the forehead and the saddlemark on the dogs' backs. Until her death in 1911, the empress was a brilliant breeder who was faithful in maintaining pure breed type throughout her whole kennel, and that kennel consisted of over a hundred dogs. She favored the Pekingese breed.

In 1860 British soldiers attacked the Imperial Palace, and during the occupation of the city many dogs were forcibly taken from their owners. In Peking, Pugs and Pekingese were sought after by dog fanciers from the west but not many of the palace specimens were imported to England until after the death of the empress dowager.

The imperial breeding of dogs had been made the sport of Chinese fashion. The Chinese occasionally crossed the breeds of the three races of dogs: the Lion, the Pug and the Pekingese. The lines varied because of the importation of new blood from various parts of the vast Chinese empire. For several generations breeders would find throwbacks, to a long-haired type or a short- haired Pug ancestor. Some of the dogs presented to emperors by officials and eunuchs in the palace were obtained by erm-breeding. At the end of the Manchu dynasty there were hundreds of dogs in the palace. Only a few were under the eye of their imperial masters; the rest were bred by eunuchs. The eunuchs bought or sold many among themselves, and they occasionally sold their best specimens to Chinese officials.

Collier, who wrote the great book Dogs in China and Japan, obtained important information from keeper of dogs Wang Hou Chun, who had seventy-five years experience in the palace of Wu Yeh. This is his opinion of the difference between the Pug and the Pekingese:

One of the most important characteristics of the Chinese Lo-See dog is, in addition to universal shortness of coat, elasticity of skin existing in far better degree than with the Pekingese. The point much sought after by the Chinese breeders was the Prince Mark formed by three wrinkles on the forehead with vertical bar in imitation of the Chinese character for Prince. This same character is distinguished by the Chinese in the stripes on the forehead of the Tiger, which, in consequence, is the object of superstitious veneration among the ignorant. The button, or white bl= on the forehead, was also encouraged in the L4o@See dog but was not of the same importance as the wrinkles. Other points, such as compactness of body, flatness of face, squareness of jaw and soundness of bone, are similar to those of the Pekingese, except as regards to the ears, which were small and likened to a @ffied half apricot, set with the outer face an the side of the head and pointing slightly backwards. The Chiao-tzu, or Hom-car, is also admissible. The legs are slightly bent at the elbow. The tail is docked by the Chinese, with a view to symmetrical form. The curly tail, however, is known to have existed See Kuo chu-erh and the double curl was also known.

The most admired and rarest of the breed was the Loong Chua Lo-See (Dragon-Claw Pug), which was short-coated except for the ears, the toes, behind the legs and the chrysanthemum flower tail, 0 of which were very well feathered. This appears to have been a rare that became extinct about fifty years ago. This Pug occurred in many colors and was bred as small as possible.

The Buddhist monasteries in Tibet are said to have favored the Pug as pets. This raises many unanswered questions that I am still trying to resolve. In the past few years I have received information from a source formerly of Taiwan concerning a secretly guarded Pug colony stolen out of China during the time of the Ming dynasty. This colony, which is still being raised after all these years, is thought to be located in Taiwan. They are supposed to be original fines and are still called Pia dogs. It is said that the pure lines have never been crossed, not even with the new blood introduced into Taiwan in the last few years.

I have also heard that some of the early writings on the Pia dog still remain in China and cannot be translated. These writings go back to the Hsia dynasty (2183 to 1752 B.C.). Many of these dialects are unknown to us and to the Chinese and cannot be accurately transcribed, since the same word can have many meanings. Some subsequent material was also found in Tibet and is in safekeeping with the Pug colony. My source claims and believes that the Pia dog was sent from the monasteries in Tibet to Lo Chaing and Japan.

To date, the Pia dog remains small and varied in color. The Pia dogs with the white "prince mark" on the forehead are still the most valuable and are greatly prized.