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CHINESE HORSEMANSHIP
The Mongolian pony is the best-known Chinese breed, though a distinct race exists in Szechuan. Foreigners are more familiar with the former as they were exclusively used for racing in the Treaty Ports. The Mongol dealers were very jealous of their monopoly and would never part with a mare unless proved to be barren, so the competition was practically confined to geldings. Until the first Great War handicapping presented no difficulties but after the Kolchak campaign in Siberia the Mongol ponies in the Hailar district were interbred with Russian stock, which produced a larger and faster animal. Some marvellous misinformation as to the history and uses of the horse is recorded in the Pen Ts’ao, or Chinese Materia Medica of 1596. The most useful kind to the doctor are the pure white, but those found in the south and east of the country are small and weak. If a horse is fed on rice he will become heavy footed, and rat’s dung will make him herring-gutted. He can be prevented from eating or put off his feed by rubbing the teeth with dead silkworms, or black plums, and the same effect is produced by hanging a rat or wolf skin in his manger. He will contract disease if fed from the pig’s trough, but if he has a monkey as stable companion he can be kept in good health. The ‘chestnuts’ above the knees, generally considered as the rudimentary thumb, are the horse’s night eyes, which enable him to travel in the dark, a belief also current in Finland. Medicinally, they are useful for toothache. If a man suffers from insomnia and it is desirable to administer a sleeping draught, the ashes of a horse’s skull mingled with water should be given to him, and he should have a skull as a pillow. The points of a horse are given in the Ma Ching written early in the 17th Century which informs its students that the eye should be spherical like a banner bell, with a bean shaped pupil with white streaks, and the iris of five colours. If the nose bears marks like the characters Kung and Huo he will live to see forty springs. The ears should be shaped lie a willow leaf, the neck like a phoenix or crowing cock. His tongue should resemble a two-edged sword, and, if his gums are not black he should enjoy a long life. He should be well boned but lean in flesh, not shying at sight or sound. The breast and shoulders should be broad, projecting slightly forward. Incidentally this characteristic make China ponies very heavy in the forehand, and inclined to stumble, and as they are very short in the reign, the rider not infrequently finds himself on his head. The head should be inclined and the neck arched with three small protrusions on the crown. The bones of the leg small, terminating in light hooves. The Mongolian pony, living under practically natural conditions on a plateau 6,000 feet above sea level, with a scalding wind and winter temperature well below zero, must be constitutionally extremely hardy. The breeders allege that it looses its speed when stall-fed and transported to the plains. Wolves are a menace, but the ponies adopt a regular formation to minimize their attacks. The mares make a ring, heel out, around the foals, and the stallion’s cruise about outside to break up the pack by offensive tactics. In Chinese art the Horse is the symbol of speed and perseverance, and a nimble-witted boy earns the nickname of a ‘thousand li colt’. Tourists are always attracted by the Eight Horses, which are carved in various materials. The set must be complete, or it has no value in Chinese eyes. They commemorate the eight chargers of Mu Wang 1001-746 B.C. the fifth ruler of the Chou dynasty. The Emperor was extremely attached to his team, and made all his royal progresses throughout his realm behind them in a chariot driven by his henchman Tsao Fu. The animals, each of which had his distinctive name, were finally pensioned off for faithful service, and turned out to graze. One of the set is always shown rolling on his back to indicate his liberation form harness. They are produced in porcelain, crystal, jade, or ivory, embroidery and painting and are sometimes cast in bronze. The God of Horses celebrates his birthday on the 23rd of the Sixth Moon, and is worshipped particularly in the North, where the animal supplies the chief means of transportation. His image is furnished with three eyes and four hands holding various offensive weapons. Originally he had a triple incarnation as the Ancestor of the species to whom the spring sacrifices were offered. In summer he was honoured as the First Breeder, and in winter propitiated as the Celestial Horse-breaker, who also dispensed or withheld the diseases, which afflict the equine race. A relic of these attributes is to be found in the pictures of the divinity, which represent him with three faces, though on the sacred posters he is often shown as an enthroned king with a retinue of three attendants, to whom he presumably delegates his seasonal functions. Sometimes he appears as the Celestial charger, the mount of the Dragon, or star Kang a group of stars in the feet of the constellation Virgo. The worship of the Horse God was part of the Imperial ritual and was celebrated in the stables by spreading a table of offerings between the hours of eight and ten in the morning. The example was followed in every farmyard, where a paper image was burned to ensure the prosperity of the equine members of the establishment. In Peking, during the reign of the Mings, a temple called Ma Shen Miao or Horse Spirit shrine, stood within the precincts of the Royal stables, on the site now occupied by the National University. As the Chinese intensely conservative in nomenclature the seat of learning is still referred to by its equine association. |
The
Manchus won all their victories with their cavalry, and such was their respect
for the animal, which contributed to their conquests, that they perpetuated its
memory in the dress of their officials. The sleeves of the administrators’
robes ended in a cuff shaped like a horse’s hoof, which completely concealed
the hands, and the queue, which they imposed on the conquered races, is said by
some to be derived from the tail. At the Revolution, the first sign of an emancipated
Cantonese was its abolition, in spite of the unsightly effect of the hair
standing up straight on the previously shaven forehead. In Peking, however,
tonsorial order was more honoured in the breach than in the observance, and
police action was required to enforce it. The Mongols still adhered to the
custom at any rate up to the Japanese invasion, as did old ‘Jumbo’, sacristan
of the British Embassy chapel in Peking, to the day of his death.