I really like that poem. For what it’s worth, I think a number of older texts from China, India, and elsewhere have things that range from depictions of care towards animals to more directly philosophical writing on how to treat animals (sometimes as part of teaching yourself to be a better person).
Some links:
This short paper that I’ve skimmed, “Kindness to Animals in Ancient Tamil Nadu” (I haven’t checked any of the quotes, and I think this is around 5th or 6th century CE)
“The King saw a peacock shivering in the rain. Being compassionate, he immediately removed his gold laced silk robe and wrapped it around the peacock”
And, from the beginning: “One day, Chibi—a Chola king—sat in the garden of his palace. Suddenly, a wounded dove fell on his lap. He handed over the dove to his servants and ordered them to give it proper treatment. A few minutes later, a hunter appeared on the scene searching for the dove which he had shot. He realized that the King was in possession of the dove. He requested the King to hand over the dove. But the king did not want to give up the dove. The hunter then told the King that the meat of the dove was his only food for that day. However, the King being compassionate wanted to save the life of the dove. He was also desirous of dissuading the hunter from his policy of hunting animals...” [content warning if you read on: kindness but also a disturbing action towards oneself on behalf of a human]
Mencius/Mengzi has a passage where a king takes pity on an ox (and this is seen as a good thing). From SEP:
“In a much–discussed example (1A7), Mencius draws a ruler’s attention to the fact that he had shown compassion for an ox being led to slaughter by sparing it. [...] an individual’s sprout of compassion is manifested in cognition, emotion, and behavior. (In 1A7, C1 is the ox being led to slaughter. The king perceives that the ox is suffering, feels compassion for its suffering, and acts to spare it.)”
Humans helping animals and being rewarded for it is a whole motif in folklore, I think (apparently e.g. this index has it as “grateful animals”), from a bunch of different cultures/societies. E.g. of a link listing some examples.
I really like that poem. For what it’s worth, I think a number of older texts from China, India, and elsewhere have things that range from depictions of care towards animals to more directly philosophical writing on how to treat animals (sometimes as part of teaching yourself to be a better person).
Some links:
This short paper that I’ve skimmed, “Kindness to Animals in Ancient Tamil Nadu” (I haven’t checked any of the quotes, and I think this is around 5th or 6th century CE)
“The King saw a peacock shivering in the rain. Being compassionate, he immediately removed his gold laced silk robe and wrapped it around the peacock”
And, from the beginning: “One day, Chibi—a Chola king—sat in the garden of his palace. Suddenly, a wounded dove fell on his lap. He handed over the dove to his servants and ordered them to give it proper treatment. A few minutes later, a hunter appeared on the scene searching for the dove which he had shot. He realized that the King was in possession of the dove. He requested the King to hand over the dove. But the king did not want to give up the dove. The hunter then told the King that the meat of the dove was his only food for that day. However, the King being compassionate wanted to save the life of the dove. He was also desirous of dissuading the hunter from his policy of hunting animals...” [content warning if you read on: kindness but also a disturbing action towards oneself on behalf of a human]
Mencius/Mengzi has a passage where a king takes pity on an ox (and this is seen as a good thing). From SEP:
“In a much–discussed example (1A7), Mencius draws a ruler’s attention to the fact that he had shown compassion for an ox being led to slaughter by sparing it. [...] an individual’s sprout of compassion is manifested in cognition, emotion, and behavior. (In 1A7, C1 is the ox being led to slaughter. The king perceives that the ox is suffering, feels compassion for its suffering, and acts to spare it.)”
Humans helping animals and being rewarded for it is a whole motif in folklore, I think (apparently e.g. this index has it as “grateful animals”), from a bunch of different cultures/societies. E.g. of a link listing some examples.