eLibrary: Heavenly Horses

Horses hold a distinguished place in Chinese culture, symbolizing power, speed, and celestial favour. Known as “heavenly” for their to the association with divine realms, these animals became emblems of status and strength. From the Han to the Yuan dynasty, they inspired art that celebrated their majestic grace, often representing imperial authority and military might. The Heavenly Horses exhibition explores this profound influence, showcasing masterful depictions that trace horses' evolving roles across Chinese history.

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Articles

Cang, M., Zhou, W. and Zhang, H 2016.Documentation research and digital semantic reproduction of archaeological achievements-A Study of Six Steeds in the Zhaoling of the Tang Dynasty

Cheng, X.I.N.G., 2021, June. The Comparative Study on the Cavalry of the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. In 2nd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2021) (pp. 364-374). Atlantis Press.

Deupi, Jill J., Ive Covaci, and Leopold Swergold. “Immortality of the Spirit: Chinese Funerary Art from the Han and Tang Dynasties Exhibition Catalogue.” (2012).

Dudley, Sandra H. “„Encountering a Chinese horse”.” Museum objects: Experiencing the properties of things (2012): 1-14.

Ebrey, Patricia. “Taking Out the Grand Carriage: Imperial Spectacle and the Visual Culture of Northern Song Kaifeng.” Asia Major (1999): 33-65.

Fang, Yuan. “The Favorite Animal: The Horse as Mingqi in Han Tombs.” MA Thesis, Cornell University, 2017).

Gao, L. and Su, D., 2021, December. The legal system for horse protection in ancient China. In Derecho Animal. Forum of Animal Law Studies (Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 28-42).

Garachon, Isabelle, and Lucien Van Valen. “The matter of tang tomb figures: a new perspective on a group of terracotta animals and riders.” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 62, no. 3 (2014): 218-239.

Jiang, Y., 2022, December. The horse in Han dynasty. In 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022) (pp. 561-566). Atlantis Press.

Hay, Jonathan. “Khubilai's groom.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 17, no. 1 (1989): 117-139.

Hang, L., 2020. Empress Dowagers on Horseback: Yingtian and Chengtian of the Khitan Liao (907–1125). Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 73(4), pp.585-602.

Hung, W., 1998. Where are they going? Where did they come from?: Hearse and'soul-carriage'in Han dynasty tomb art (Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 22-31). Orientations.

Jiang, Y. 2022. The Horse in the Han dynasty Proceedings of the 2022 5th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2022)

Jones, Robert Allan. “The conceptual compression of space and time as intimated in the depiction of the horse in China, circa 1250 BCE-CE 400.” (2023).

Li, Yue, Chengrui Zhang, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Liang Chen, Rowan K. Flad, Nicole Boivin, Huan Liu et al. “Early evidence for mounted horseback riding in northwest China.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 47 (2020): 29569-29576.

Liu, Y., 2020. The Han Empire and the Hellenistic world: prestige gold and the exotic horse. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 20(3), pp.175-175.

Ma, Xiaolin. “A Study of Chao Meng-Fu's Saddle Horse Painting from the Perspective of Ethnic Integration.” Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences 5 (2022): 163-171.

Nomoto, K., 2022. Dressing as horsemen: the universalisation of steppe dress in the first half of Tang dynasty China (618-755) (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford).

Rawson, J., Huan, L. and Taylor, W.T.T., 2021. Journal of World Prehistory, 34(4), pp.489-530.

Shea, Eiren L. “Riders in the Tomb: Women Equestrians in North Chinese Funerary Art (10th–14th Centuries).” In Arts, vol. 12, no. 5, p. 201. MDPI, 2023.

Sinor, Denis. “Horse and pasture in Inner Asian history.” Oriens extremus 19, no. 1/2 (1972): 171-183.

Spring, M.K., 1988. Fabulous horses and worthy scholars in ninth-century China. T'oung Pao, pp.173-210.

Tao, Jonathan. “Heavenly Horses of Bactria: The Creation of the Silk Road.” The Silk Road 5, no. 1 (2007): 5.

Wei, H., 2010. Large-sized stone-sculptured animals of the Eastern Han Period in Sichuan and the Southern Silk Road. Chinese Archaeology, 10(1), pp.172-176.

Wan, X., 2013. The Horse in Pre-Imperial China (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania).

Whitfield, Susan. “Alfalfa, Pasture and the Horse in China: A Review.” Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei 12 (2020).

Wu, Xiaoli. “Painting Aesthetics and Educational Enlightenment of Ren Renfa in Yuan Dynasty.” In 2017 7th International Conference on Social science and Education Research (SSER2017), pp. 44-47. Atlantis Press, 2018.

Xu, Zhexin. “The perceptions of horses in Thirteenth-and Fourteenth-Century China.” Unpublished MA thesis, Central European University, Budapest (2015).

Zhang, Bosen. “On the change of the female status in the Tang dynasty from the horse-riding tomb figurine.” In 2018 International Workshop on Education Reform and Social Sciences (ERSS 2018), pp. 589-594. Atlantis Press, 2019.

Zhang, BS, Wei JY. Prevailing Custom of Horse Riding among Women in the Tang Dynasty Reflected by Horse Riding Figurines.

Zhou, Emperor Taizong and his Six Horses, 40-46

Zhong, Y. 2023 ‘Consider How Horses Play a Role in Leading the Silk Road and the Development in Eurasian History Between Han to Song Dynasty, Communications in Humanities research, 4, 1, 75-79