爬行纲动物的研究简史

THE HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE STUDIES OF REPTILES

我国最古文字是公元前一千七百多年殷商时代刻留在龟甲与牛胛骨上的象形或指事的甲骨文(郭沫若,1972)它们主要都是依照实物形状描绘下来,尤其是动物形象更为显著明白,大体上可以“比类相从”而识别出所指示的实物来。依据《甲骨文编》等纪录,可以辨认出来有关爬行动物的九个字,也就是代表那个时代我国人民所熟知的本纲动物是:单龙,虫(huí),蜀,蚰(?)(kūn今昆字)它(今蛇字),龟,(?)(tuó),(?)(合文) (裘镯圭,1972)。 龙是并不曾存在过的虚拟动物,其来源是图腾。原始社会用某种敬畏的事物绘作族徽,代表其氏族或即认为其氏族的祖源而所作的标帜,称为图腾。

The historical sketch of the studies of reptiles was divided into 2 sections. The first deals with that of Chinese studies, the second for that of the westerners works. First section begins with the Chinese inscriptions on the scapulars of the oxen ortortoises shells of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th century B.C). There were nine words related to reptiles which include"dragons, "alligator, snakes, turtles & tortoises known by Chinese at that time. Along with the successive development of Chinese scripts, the author describes it as an indication of the successive development of Chinese cilvilization. It then turns to the scripts on the bronzes & stones of Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-256B. C. ) & Chun Qui Period (770-486B.C.)with 17 words related to Chinese reptiles, referring to 4 more species than the fore-going ages, having records of lizards & sea turtles. Then it comes to Qin (221-207 B.C.)and Han (206 B.C-A.D.220) Dynasities. The author relates "The book of Poems (Songs)", Er-Ya, Shou-Wen-Jie-Zi (the first dictionary of Chinese characters) of Xu Shen (c A.D.58-147) and denotes the first time to mention the Dermochelys, Caretta, Pelochelys, Gecko, Takydromus, Eumeces, Pythen, Amyda, & true crocodiles: Vipers besides the salamenders. These animals were classified into several more or less natural groups according to constiution of the characters. Derived from Er-Ya, there was a series of works of Ya-school (school for explaining the meanings of the words). Among them, the famous ones were Guan-Ya (Er-Ya’s Expansion) of Zhang Yi in Dong Jin Dynasty (317-420), Bi-Ya & Er-Ya-Xin-Yi (Supplement to Er-Ya, & New Explication of Er-Ya) of Lu Dian, Er-Ya-Yi (Auxiliary of Er Ya) of Luo Yuan in North Song Dynasity (960-1127), Tong-Zhi (General Assignments) & Cao-Mu-Chong-Yu-Lue (Brief Notes on Plants & Animals) of Zheng Qiao in South Song Dynasty (1127-1279), and down to Tong-Ya (Commentary of Er-Ya) of Fang Yi-Zhi in the early Qing Dynasty (c 1650-1670). All these works were written by bookworms who compiled their works by quatoring together the paragraghs of ancient literature, not to be confirmed to the natural things. But the pharmacologists, being obliged to rectify their works with the clinical effect, the Chinese books of Materia Medica were more conformable to nature than those of Ya-school.The first Chinese book on herbal medicine was Shen-Nong-Pcn-Cao-Jing (Book on Herberia medica of Emperor Shen-Nong), appeared in Tong Han Dynasity (c 120A.D.) In this book only three items of reptiles have been mentioned, "dragons" ossicles (skeletal fragments of any vertebrate), shells of tortoises & shells of turtles.Revised editions of this work have been many times made through Tong, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties.It was thoroughly revised and summarized by Li Shi-Zhen in his brilliant Pen-Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica) at the late period of Ming Dynasty (1578, compiled about 30 years) . Li had classified all natural things into 16 Bu, termed as Gang (s) (classes) and further divided into 60 Mu (s), termed as Lei (orders). Reptiles were classifed in 2 Bu(classes): Lin & Jie(scaly & shield) .Class Lin was subdivided inio 4 Lei (s) : "Dragons", Snakes, Fishes and Scaleless Fishes. "Dragons" contained the fabulous dragons and actually existent alligators and lizards such as Ophiosaurus, Eumeces, Iygosoma, Takydromus, Gekko gecko, & other Gekkoes and was somewhat similar to the genus Lacerta of Linnaeous 1758. In Lei (order) Snakes, Li had mentioned Eryx, Pythons, Agkistrodon acutus, Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus, Tr. stejnegeri, Typhlops, Enhydris, Hydrophis, Coluber, Elaphe, Dinodon, Vipers, Calamaria & c. The class Jie (shield animals) was subdivided into 2 parts.The first dealt with the Chelonia, in which he mentioned 17 spedies. From his descriptions, one could recognize. Chinemys, Testudo, Clemmys, Cuora, Ocadia, Dermochelys, Caretta, Eretm-ochelys, Trionyx, pelochelys & Platysternon, but he has erroneously confused crabs & King-crabs of the Crustacea with them in regarding these animals as shield vertebrates.