Tom in China

Celestial Horses and Chinese Civilization

By LIN YING Chinatoday

Editor’s Note: Ms Lin Ying compiled and published a lengthy academic work entitled Celestial Horses in the Year of the Horse. Charles Willemen, a well-known Orientalist and member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, commented that this is a well-documented and original study about the relationship between horses and Chinese civilization. The book has selected certain masterpieces showing images of celestial horses of special significance. The history of celestial horses is, of course, put in the general framework of Chinese civilization, and these horses also reflect the Chinese people’s sorrows, happiness and hopes over thousands of years. Following are some excerpts.

Jasper Horse-Dragon, Hongshan Culture.

THE ancestor of horses is called Tiansi, identified with the constellation Fang, namely the fourth constellation of the seven of the eastern quarter, commonly called Azure Dragon. The constellation Fang is said to be composed of four horses, (i.e. four stars in the head of Scorpio). Hence the constellation is also called Tiansi, a celestial team of four horses. Later generations added to these early beginnings, and the image of the horse became associated with that of the dragon.

During the Western Han Dynasty the great Chinese political explorer Zhang Qian (died 114 B.C.) traveled through Central Asia and went deep into the Western Regions. There, in Dayuan (now commonly identified with the Ferghana Basin) he found out about “blood-sweating” horses, said to be the finest in the world. Zhang Qian reported this to Emperor Wudi (157-87 B.C.), who immediately saw the strategic use of such horses. Emperor Wudi overran Dayuan, obtained the horse, which could travel 1,000 leagues a day (qianli ma), and wrote an ode to the Celestial Horse of the Remote West. By calling horses celestial, the Chinese endowed them with the qualities of heaven (e.g. consciousness and feelings, and omnipotence). The horse had divine power and spirit and was represented as such by the artistic world throughout history, up to the present day.

Chinese painting and writing share the same origins, because primitive pictographs are taken from painted images of nature. On the tortoise shell oracle inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th centuries B.C.) the character ?í (horse) and 3μ (chariot) can be found. There is still a kind of clan insignia in the texts inscribed on ancient Chinese bronze ware, which is around the time of the Zhou Dynasty (11th-3rd centuries B.C.) featuring a man leading two horses with his hands and a pig underneath his widespread legs. This figure is possibly the origin of the Chinese character ?ò jia (family, home). No matter what the tortoise shell inscriptions of this kind of clan insignia may mean, they hint at the domestication of wild horses.

Painted bronze chariot and horses, Qin Dynasty.

The original form of a dragon may have been a snake, used as a totem by a powerful clan. This clan continuously conquered weaker clans whose totems were deer, tigers or even fish. The dragon, which bore many features of these other creatures, eventually emerged as a frequently used symbol in China.

One example is a dragon relic of the finest jade that was made on the upper reaches of the Xiliao River, about 5,000 years ago. The anterior of the dragon’s head has the features of a horse, with long, up-slanting eyes, a long protruding mouth, but whose upturned lips are like those of a pig, and its mane flaring out, resembles that of a galloping horse. No wonder it is also called Jade Horse-Dragon. Perhaps a “Dragon” clan conquered one of that weaker clan whose totem had been “Horse” in early times!

It is evident that ancestors of the northern nomads enhanced the divinity of the horse by merging its image with that of the magic dragon. “The curling body hints ascent and its attitude of ease exudes a sense of vigor. It embodies in its magnificence a miraculous power that is all encompassing and omnipotent.” This ancient concept was superseded over later generations, until a language of dreams sprang up, associating the images of the horse and the dragon.

The horse, with its connotations of yang vitality and associations with the sun and the sun-horse, has made it a mythical funerary animal — an entity believed to have the power to resurrect life from the grave.

Tri-colored pottery horse, Tang Dynasty.

Zhouyuan, which is as famous as the Yin Ruins in Anyang, used to be the capital of the Zhou people before they overthrew the Shang Dynasty and established their own Zhou Dynasty. It was, therefore, a place where ancestral tombs and shrines were concentrated. Among the eight horse-and-chariot pits already excavated, the largest and the deepest one is at the center. It is about 2,900 years old. The overall length of this pit is 7.3 meters and 5.15 meters to 5.3 meters in width; and it is 12.6 meters below ground. The way the horses were buried here has been seldom witnessed. A group of live male horses was driven into the pit, and while they reared and struggled, earth was speedily dumped into the pit, burying them alive. Archaeologists have seen traces of the angry neighing horses and of fractures in their legs as a result of struggling. There were 95 horses in all. Such a mass immolation of horses is proof of man’s domination and cruelty to this animal. In those primitive days, when even people were killed as funeral offerings, how could horses be spared?

The importance of the horse to humankind was not felt until the Chinese Bronze Age (c. 2000-500 B.C.), an age when states came into being — an age of culture and war. The way of human civilization was full of hardship and constraint. The human nature and that of the horse blended together.

Immortal Rides on a Celestial Horse, white jade sculpture, Western Han Dynasty.

According to Shiji (Records of the Historian), King Xian of Qin, in the first year of his reign (384 B.C.), ordered the practice of immolation of living funeral objects to be stopped. This was a brilliant milestone in the history of Chinese civilization, and marked the beginning of using figurines to replace human beings and animals as funerary objects. This practice, which had hitherto been regarded as “proper,” was now considered “improper.” A hundred or so years later, the terracotta warriors and war-horses in the tomb of Qinshihuang (the First Emperor of China) became a phenomenon unprecedented in the history of sculpture. There are thousands of pottery horses among the majestic army of terracotta warriors. All this is an expression of this great change in funeral rituals. Owing to the progress of humanity and human civilization, and to the involvement of unknown slave craftsmen and artisans, the horse eventually emerged onto the artistic stage.

In the 1970s, during the excavation of the three pits containing Qinshihuang’s Buried Legion, large quantities of terracotta war-horses were unearthed — an estimated 1,000. Both the terracotta warriors and the war-horses are life-size. Thousands of horses and soldiers have been combined to depict a magnificent and impressive scene from a real battlefield. This is in keeping with Qinshihuang’s flair for strategy and success as a conqueror, which enabled him to stage full-scale wars through which he unified the whole country. No other ancient civilization has created a world in which the deceased were represented on such a life-size scale, and the war-horses are an important aspect of this tribute.

Liu Bang (?-195 B.C.) eventually emerged victorious and accepted the title of First Emperor of the Han Dynasty with the reign name Gaozu in 206 B.C. The feudalistic, centralized regime was consolidated until Liu Che (157-87 B.C.), Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty, died. It was a time of prosperity and aspirations.

A mural in Cave 249 of Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, depicting a hunting scene, Northern Dynasties.

It was in this general historical context that Zhang Qian (?-114 B.C.) embarked on his westward diplomatic expeditions. As a result, this route, better known as The Silk Road, became an important route that facilitated exchanges between the Han people and the nomadic tribes. It was not until Zhang Qian, the great Chinese political explorer, and his entourage went deep into the Western Regions, that in Dayuan (Ferghana) he discovered the “blood-sweating” horses, and recognized them as the finest horses in the world at that time. Upon his return to China, Zhang Qian reported this to Emperor Wudi. It kindled the emperor’s desire for fine horses. According to the prediction of the Zhouyi (Book of Changes), “The divine horse would come from the Northwest.” So Wudi wanted to possess this fabled “blood-sweating” horse from Dayuan at all costs.

Wudi loved horses because he believed that fine horses were a vital factor in deciding the outcome of a war. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the cavalry of the semi-nomadic tribes known to the Han as the Xiongnu (Huns) rose to power in the north. At that time, these Xiongnu in the north kept harassing the borders. They rode on strong horses and moved quickly from one place to another, posing a threat to the Han Dynasty. Rulers of the Western Han Dynasty learned an important lesson from this, and realized the importance of horse breeding and the cavalry. After an unsuccessful expedition, in 104 B.C. Emperor Wudi sent a punitive expedition against Dayuan, which was 12,550 li (6,275 km) from the capital Chang’an. After four years, the troops returned with a selection of superior horses, which were named “Celestial Horses.”

Five Steeds (Section 5), ink outline drawing on a hand scroll by Li Gonglin, Northern Song Dynasty.

The Celestial Horse, as the term suggests, means Horse of Heaven. For the people in the Han Dynasty, heaven was omnipotent, omniscient and possessed human consciousness and feelings. When Wudi named the newly acquired Dayuan (Ferghana) horses “Celestial Horses,” he was actually endowing his horses with the will and personality of heaven. The high-sounding name took on the divine power and spirit of exploration of the Celestial Horse God. Moreover, the celestial horse was to become an aesthetic theme in Chinese art.

Cave 249, among the Northern Dynasties caves, is noted for the mural “Hunting.” Hunting is a frequently depicted subject in figure-and-horse paintings, where green, blue, brownish red, and black shades are painted on a white background. Lines and color converge to bring out the images of hunters, horses, mountains, trees and animals. It is romantically conceived and the whole picture is permeated with vitality and vividness.

The Tang Dynasty is acknowledged as the most creative era and also one in which horse painting approached its climax of glory and splendor in Chinese fine arts history. Before the Tang, horse painting was not a school of art, but since the Tang, painters have exalted and revived the Tang style.

Galloping Horses by Xu Beihong in 1942.

There are many stories about how Li Gonglin, a literati painter of the Song Dynasty, painted horses. In “Five Divine Horses,” all these five steeds are displayed directly before the eyes of the viewer. They stand in a peaceful and leisurely posture. Their heads have no particular significance, but are presented as component parts in harmony with the whole of the horse’s body and limbs. All five horses simply stand there, magnificent and relaxed. When looking at the horsemen standing by the horses, it is apparent that each is different from the other, indicating different nationalities, characters and social status. Their faces are by no means impressive, having no piercing looks, excessive emotions, ambitions or desires. Rather, they seem to be enjoying a peaceful and easy mood.

The versatile Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) loved the musical and painting skills of Western Jesuits. In fact, he prized them so highly that he summoned them to serve the Qing court, and even promoted them to the rank of master of music or master painter. Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), better known in China as Lang Shining, an Italian Jesuit of Neapolitan origin, a painter and architect, arrived in Beijing in 1715, during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. He was the one most appreciated by Emperor Kangxi, and was summoned to the Qing court as a court painter. Until the year 1766 when he passed away in Beijing, his career spanned 51 years.

The classic piece among the earliest works of Castiglione, completed in China, is the scroll entitled A Hundred Horses. This painting was executed in 1728 when Castiglione was 40 years of age. It can be interpreted as a free world in which the horse nature fully emerges, and also as a Chinese pastoral poem idealized by an Italian priest.

Following the Western way of painting, Castiglione made a sketch of “A Hundred Horses” on paper before completing it. On silk Castiglione devoted all his attention to the rendering of the scientific perspective of landscape, which gives this picture a spacious and far-reaching sense. The proportions of the human figures and horses in the meadow are very accurately reproduced. The posture of all the horses differentiates one from another. Each of them is in a characteristic attitude seen from different angles: full face, three-quarter face or in profile. Some are drinking water, some are crossing the river, others are either standing still, frolicking two by two in the fresh air, grazing, or gamboling and rolling on the ground. Most of them are either in groups or alone. They all look free and relaxed. All this precisely observed detail in nature demonstrates the searching and exacting drawing skills of Castiglione. Finally, he transferred the sketched images onto a silk scroll. He also revealed his acquaintance with Chinese tastes by the utilization of the traditional Chinese gongbi (meticulous realism with bright colors), technical formulas, and deliberately rendered light and shadow effects. Consequently, the highlight on the coat of horses makes them look three-dimensional, and his way of drawing retains all its original freshness. His was an unprecedented approach with its accurate and meticulous truthfulness, something that had never been done by the Chinese.

Xu Beihong, the most famous horse painter in China of the 20th century, once studied fine arts in Japan and France. He painted horses not because it catered to the needs of politics, but because he had loved to paint them since childhood. Fine horses were the theme of his whole life. The galloping horses drawn by Xu Beihong all look animated, but their refined and elegant characteristics go beyond those of real horses. In Chinese eyes “these galloping horses are not wild horses. They have both a dragon and a human nature. They are running and stampeding, free of all restraints. They are an image of imagination. It is a synthetic characteristic symbol, a symbol of freedom, a symbol of rising, a symbol of the Chinese nation on the point of lifting its head.”

The history of Chinese horse painting is the history of Chinese civilization, a history that tells us that the Chinese are friendly as well as hostile to nature, their fellow human beings and horses. The spirit of horse painting also reflects all the sorrows, happiness and hopes of the Chinese nation over the last millennia.