Another 'ding' dish with identical design is illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1972, pl. 101a, where the author notes that at the beginning of the Song dynasty, two different conceptions of the rhinoceros were developed, one realistic, and one mythical. The realistic rhinoceros does not appear as a design on Song ceramics and the one we see depicted here is clearly used as a mythical motif where it took its inspiration from literary sources (pp. 196-197).  Berthold Laufer in his essay on the history of the rhinoceros in China published in Chinese Clay Figures, Chicago, 1914, pp. 73-173, notes that authors in the eighth century often discuss the rhinoceros being associated with water, and in later representations it is often seen surrounded by waves as exemplified in the design on the present dish.