The Dancing Horses of T'ang

The Dancing Horses of T'ang
Author(s): Paul W. Kroll

Source: T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 67, Livr. 3/5 (1981), pp. 240-268
Published by: BRILL
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T'oung Pao, Vol. LXVII, 3-5
(I98I)
THE DANCING HORSES OF T'ANG

BY
PAUL W. KROLL
Sometime during the late summer or early autumn of A.D. 729,
Chang Yuteh Tg-k (667-73I) submitted to the throne, under his
name and that of his fellow statesman Sung Ching *W, (663-737),
a memorial requesting that the imperial birthday-the fifth day
of the eighth lunar month-be declared a national holiday 1). The
Abbreviations Used in Notes:
BSS
ChTS
CTS
CTW
HTS
SSCCS
TCTC
THY
TTTS
WH
Basic Sinological Series (Kuo-hsileh chi-pen ts'ung-shu F

A)
Chiu T'ang shu A *I (Peking, I975).
Ch'iuan T'ang shih i 1AS (Peking, I960).
Ch'iuan T'ang wen - h ; (Taipei, I 979).
Hsin T'ang shu VT
JjJ9 (Peking, I 975).
Shih-san-ching chu-shu + _.E it AE (I87I ed.).
Tzu-chih t'ung-chien i i . (Hong Kong, I 976).
T'ang hui-yao 23 2 (Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ed.).
(i8o6 ed.).
T'ang-tai ts'ung-shu ;
Wen hsiian ;
(Hong Kong, I936; BSS ed.).
1) For the text of this document ("Ch'ing pa-yiieh wu-jih wei ch'ien-ch'iu
chieh piao"), see CTW, 223.IIa-12a. TCTC, 2I3.6786, is mistaken-as the
text of the memorial itself clearly shows-in saying that the document was
presented by Chang and Yuan Ch'ien-yao i, 4z > ( ?-73I). It is necessary to
sort out here some bureaucratic shifts of office that took place in 729. Early
in this year Chang Yueh was restored to the post of Right Adjuvant Minister
in
of the Magistery of Writing (shang-shu yu ch'eng-hsiang f 1 t t7,f,
functional terms Under-Secretary of State), the very office that had been his
when he was forced in 727 to resign from government service. At the time of
Chang's return to office in 729, Yuan Ch'ien-yao held the post of Left Adjuvant
functionally Secretary
:@ t7T,
Minister (shang-shu tso ch'eng-hsiang MP
of State) and was thus nominally Chang's superior. But a few months
later Yuan was "kicked upstairs" to the higher-ranking but less influential
post of Junior Preceptor to the Grand Heir (t'ai-tzu shao-fu k f {P1?,
functionally Under-Tutor to the Heir-Apparent); Chang then replaced him as
tso ch'eng-hsiang, with Sung Ching being appointed yu ch'eng-hsiang. The
three men received their promotions on the same day, and we have a royal
poem composed in their honor by the emperor himself at a banquet laid to
celebrate the occasion-"Tso ch'eng-hsiang Yiieh, yu ch'eng-hsiang Ching,

24I
memorial goes into some detail regardingvarious suggested activities thought suitable to the occasion, and one has the unmistakable impression that Chang Yiieh's proposal is founded firmly on
what he knew to be the monarch's own desires in this matter. To
be designated the "Thousand-Autumn Holiday" (ch'ien-ch'iu
chieh {Fk o, thus proclaiming in the very name a wish for the
sovereign's longevity), the festival was to provide throughout the
T'ang empire three days of leisure and rest from normal routines of
work, during which time appropriate ceremonies honoring the emperor should be carried out at every village shrine and congratulatory gifts should be offered him by his contented subjects 2).
Li Lung-chi 1 F &, posthumously known as Hsiian Tsung t
(reg. 7I2-56), the sublime ruler to whom this homage was to be
paid, approved the request of his ministers and ordered that the
inaugural Thousand-Autumncelebration take place that fall 3). In
t'ai-tzu shao-fu Ch'ien-yao t'ung-jih shang kuan, ming yen Tung-t'ang,
hsi shih," CTS, 3.38.
It should be noted that Chang's biography in ChTS, 97.3056, along with
the entry in Hsiian Tsung's annals at ChTS, 8.I93, is in error in stating that
Chang's post upon being recalled to office in 729 was that of tso ch'eng-hsiang
(the biography in fact follows this statement immediately with the information that Chang was then soon promoted to tso ch'eng-hsiang, a redundancy
that points up the obvious mistake). The correct sequence of events is given
in Chang's biography in HTS, I25.4409.
See also the pertinent information
in Sung Ching's biographies, ChTS, 96.3035 and HTS, I24.4393,
and Yuan
Ch'ien-yao's biography in ChTS, 98.3072, as well as the emperor's poem
mentioned earlier.
Finally, for A.D. 73i-instead of 730, given in most reference works-as
the correct date of Chang Yiieh's death, see Paul W. Kroll, "On the Date of
Chang Yiieh's Death," Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 2.2
(July I980), 264-65.
2) Chang's memorial even specifies the kinds of offerings proper to different classes of society: from the ranks of courtiers, highest-quality wines;
from the imperial relations, woven strap-sashes to be attached to the backs
of metallic mirrors. The lesser gentry and commoners were to exchange
among themselves dew-catching pouches fashioned of silk. CTW, 223.I2a.
The emperor in turn bestowed on his courtiers metal-backed mirrors. Two
poems by His Highness, one a lii-shtih, one a quatrain, on the subject of the
mirrors distributed on one occasion to his vassals are to be found in CTS, 3.32
and 3.4I; both poems are titled "Ch'ien-ch'iu chieh, hsi ch'iin-ch'en ching."
3) In his proclamation mandating the new holiday ("Ta pai-liao ch'ing i
pa-yiieh wu-jih wei ch'ien-ch'iu chieh shou-chao," CTW, 30.5b-6a), the
emperor notes that such a festival would also be appropriate as a seasonal
thanksgiving, for it would take place at the time when "clear autumn is
high and uplifted, and the hundred grains are just maturing." Indeed, the

242
PAUL W. KROLL
so doinghe establisheda practicethat wouldbe continuedfornearly

two centuriesby his successorsto the throneof T'ang,all but oneof
whomlikewisedeclaredtheir respectivebirthdaysto be occasions
of nationaljubilation4).
When Hsuan Tsung was resident in the western capital at
Ch'ang-anfor this annualevent (ashe was for all but fouryearsfrom 729 to the end of his reign5), the officialfestivities at court
took placewithin the environsof the Palaceof AscendantFelicity
(Hsing-ch'ingkung92).
This "palace"was not partof the great
"palacecity" at the extremenorth of Ch'ang-anbut a separate
complexof halls and habitationsmaking up the walled ward or
"quarter"ffang
it) directlynortheastof the metropolis'sEastern
Market(tungshih A.W).HsuanTsunghad lived here from70I till
7I2 6), whenhe assumedthe throneand havingformallydesignated
the place one of his palacescontinuedthereafterto hold certain
imperial ceremonies usually those of a relatively personalnature 7) in this precinctthat was for himso full of fondmemoriesof
earlieryears. In the southwestcornerof the compoundwere two
multi-storiedstructures)calledthe Loft of ZealousAdministration
(Chin-chenglou FdRX)8) and the Loft of Blossom and Calyx
Department of Rites (Li pu 1eg) petitioned the throne successfully the
following year to incorporatewith the birthday celebrationthe traditional
agrarian festival known as ch'iu she F t2;, in which thank-offeringswere
made to the local tellurian deities for their aid in bringing to fullness the
year's crops. See the note appended to Hsuan Tsung's poem "Ch'ien-ch'iu
chieh yen," CTS, 3.38, and, especially, Ts'e-fuyvan-kuei ifflg7r,Z, (Taipei,
I972),
2.7b
4) The lone exception was Li Kua ,
posthumously Te Tsung '
(reg. 780-805),who was satisfied merely with a toast of long life offered by
his assembled courtiers HTS, 22.477.
5) In the eighth month of 732, 734, 735, and 736 the emperorwas holding
court in the eastern capital at Lo-yang.
6) ChTS, 8.I65;
see also THY, 30.558.
7) Like, for instance, the rites dedicated to the marvelous Five Dragons,
which had a particularfascinationfor Hsuan Tsung and which he instituted
in 7I4. See Robert des Rotours, "Le culte des cinq dragonssous la dynastie
des T'ang (6I 8-907)," in M#langes de sinologie offerts a Monsieur Paul
DemiGville(Paris, I966), I, 264-65.
8) The formal but rarely used name of this building was Loft of
Zealous Administrationin Attention to Fundamentals (Chin-chengwu-pen
lou R&*&).
It had been built upon imperial command in 720. See
Hsu Sung 5ffi;
8 (I78I-I848),
T'ang liang-ching ch'eng-fang k'ao j>
ta,,
I.25 (Ts'ung-sh chi-ch'enged.).

THE DANCINGHORSES OF T ANG
243
(Hua-olou tE44) 9), and it was on theirgroundsthat the spectacular entertainmentpageants,which were the most notableevents
of the capital celebrationof the Thousand-Antumn
festival-and
which were open to public view 10) were annuallyheld.
These extravaganzaslasted nearly all night and includedpresentationsof both courtlyand secularmusicby variousorchestras,
processionsof militaryordersand regalia,dancesand songs from
court-sponsored
ensembles.But the most remarkableperformances
were the animal diversions-dancing (or at least shuffling)elephantsand rhinoceroses
11)and a troupeof one hundreddancing
horses12). The synchronizedcaperings of this last group, the
dancinghorses,wereundeniablythe most enchantingand memorable event of all. Thesemarveloussteeds excited the imaginations
and the pens of many contemporarywriters,who saw in them
9) Its full name was Loft of Blossom and Calyx in Mutual Resplendence
(Hua-o hsiang-hui lou tt%:4:),
so called because from it the emperor
could see the abodesof his princelybrothers(whostill residedin this quarter)
strung in sequence close by, like the leaves of the calyx round a flower.
Ibid. In 736 Hsuan Tsung had this building and its groundsexpanded into
the northeast section of the Eastern Market and the northwest section of
the Tao-cheng A R quarter (directly south of the Hsing-ch'ing kung),
necessitating a rather large-scaledemolition and restructuringof the walls
of the three wards. THY, 30.559; see also ibid. For detailed drawingsof the
layout of the entire Hsing-ch'ing kung, see Hiraoka Takeo + 1R1
t ,
Choanto Rakgyo 9
& 1 b (Kyoto, I956), maps 23 and 24.
lO)K'ai-T'ien ch'gan-hsin chi M io /4 fn nF3,comp. Cheng Ch'i ) t
( ?-899), 2b-3a (TTTS); also T'ang y?,i-lin;St,
comp. Wang Tang i
(fl I I I O) 9 (Taipei, I 979), I *I 6
11) For more on these talented behemoths, whose story is beyond the
scope of this paper, see Edward H. Schafer, The GoldenPeachesof Samarkand: A Stxdy of T'ang Exotics (Berkeley, I963), 82-83.
12) HTS, 22.477. The descriptionof the holiday entertainmentsgiven in
the official history derives ultimately from that in the mid-ninth century
Ming Huang tsa-lg, I3a/b (TTTS) (see below for commentson this work and
its author). The Ming Huang tsa-l? account purportsto describethe general
programof amusementsfor all imperialfetes, not only that of the ThousandAutllnln holiday. Although the text is slightlygarbled,it mentionsin addition
to the sports noted above severalother amusements, suchas a paradeof floats
and displays of acrobaticsand swordplay.The descriptionof Hsuan Tsung's
fetes in TCTC,2I8.6993-94,
iS also based on this text. An especiallyastounding balancing act performedat the Thousand-AutumnFestival is described
in Ming H"ang tsa-lu, I4alb. A good survey of all the entertainmentsis to
be found in HaradaShukujin 1 EEit A>,"Senshusetsuenrakuko"+ tt t;Tt
t 4, in Shiratorihakgshikatreki kinen: Toyoshironso G g tg + s 1 t i,
A 7 t.
t
(Tokyo, I925), 833-43, with four plates

244
PAUL W. KROLL
something more than the corporalsubstance of mere trained beasts.

But to begin to appreciate properly what these horses actually
represented, romantically and symbolically, to the men of T'ang,
we must examine the literary works, particularly those of poets,
written in praise of them, and inquire also into their mythical and
historical precursors. It is to this task that the present study, a
modest exercise in cultural reanimation, is devoted.
Certainly the best-known, and the fullest, notice of the dancing
horses is that contained in the mid-ninth century Ming Huang
tsa-lu wM t X, an interesting miscellany of tidbits relating to
Hsuian Tsung's glorious era, compiled by Cheng Ch'u-hui #3
(chin-shih 834). Cheng's Chin T'ang shn biography remarks that
this work was compiled by him during a turn as collator (chiaosh/ulang , I P) in the imperial library, presumably from official
documents that were at that time open to his scrutiny 13). The
entry on the dancing horses is familiar to English readers, owing
to Arthur Waley's translation published three decades ago 14).
But, for our present purposes, it deserves a more precise rendering.
The following version, though rather less lyrical than Waley's, is
perhaps truer to the diction of the original text.
HsiuanTsung once decreed that four hundred hooves be trained
to dance. [These hundred horses] were divided into companies of
the Left and of the Right, and styled "So-and-soFavorite" or "Suchand-such Pride of the Household." Occasionally there were also
included excellent steeds that had been sent as tribute from beyond
the border. His Highness had them taught and trained, and there
was none but did not devote himself utterly to this wonderwork.
Thence, it was decreed that the horses be caparisoned with patterned embroidery, haltered with gold and silver, and their manes
and forelocks dressedout with assorted pearls and jades. Their tune,
which was called "Musicfor the Upturned Cup" (t fi#) had several
tens of choruses, to which they shook their heads and drummed
13) ChTS, 158.4I69.
While the Szu-k'u editors point out one or two minor
discrepancies in the Ming Huang tsa-lu, they are emphatic in approving
its general reliability. Ho-yin szu-k'u ch'iian-shu tsung-mu t'i-yao chi szu-k'u
- It
wei-shou shu-mu chin-hui shu-mu eP
2 X
a
F1 X
H
(Taipei, I97I), III, 2888-89. In any event, for the entry on the
dancing horses quoted below there is ample corroboration, as we shall see,
from contemporary (i.e., early to mid-eighth century) sources for all items.
14) Waley, The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces (London, I952),
I8I-83.
rnv

245
THE DANCING HORSES OF T ANG
their tails, moving this way and that in response to the rhythm.
Then wood-plank platforms of three tiers were displayed. The
horses were driven to the top of these, where they turned and
twirled round as if in flight. Sometimes it was ordered that a
doughty fellow lift one of the scaffolds, and the horse would [continue to] dance atop it 15). There were a number of musicians who
stood to the left and right, before and behind; all were clothed in
tunics of pale yellow, with patterned-jade belts, and all must be
youths chosen for their handsome appearanceand refined bearing.
At every Thousand-AutumnFestival, beneath the Loft of Zealous
Administration [the horses] danced by decree.
Subsequentlv, when His Highness graced Shu with his presence16),
the dancing horses were for their part dispersedto the human world.
[An] Lu-shan, having often witnessed their dancing, coveted them
at heart; because of this he had several sold [to himf 17) in
Fan-yang 18). Subsequently, they were in turn acquired by T'ien
Ch'eng-szu ffl*IN 19).He was ignorant of them (i.e., of their special
talent). Confusing them with steeds of battle, he installed them
in the outer stables. Unexpectedly one day, when the soldiers of
his army were enjoying a sacrificial feast and music was struck up,
the horses, unable to stop themselves, began to dance. The servants
and lackeys considered them bewitched and took brooms in
hand to strike them. The horses thought that their dancing was out
of step with the rhythm and, stooping and rearing, nodding and
15) This conflicts with the statement in the HTS, 22.477 description (which
otherwise tallies with that in the Ming Huang tsa-lu and indeed seems to be
based on it) that the horses "did not move" when their platforms were heaved
up. The two accounts may be reconciled, though, if we imagine that the
horses stood still when the scaffolds were lifted and then began their dance
again.
16) I.e., when he fled the capital to escape the advancing rebel forces of
An Lu-shan.
17) The text as quoted in T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi 7k
, (Taipei, I976),
i;
435.gI6c-d, instead reads that An Lu-shan had several of the horses "[re]settled" N in Fan-yang. This is the only variant in the T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi
version.
18) Fan-yang A W was part of Yu-chou +1)t, the northeastern province
(corresponding roughly to present-day Hopei) that was An's original base
of military operations.
19) T'ien Ch'eng-szu
(704-78)
was one of An Lu-shan's
most
powerful
lieutenants and continued to cause problems for the central government even
after the great rebellion had been quelled. For his biographies, see ChTS,
I4I.3837-40
and HTS, 210.5923-26.

246
PAUL W. KROLL
straining, they yet [tried to] realize their former choreography.

The stablemaster hurried to report this grotesquerie, and Ch'engszu ordered that the horses be flayed. The more fiercely this was
done, the more precise became the horses' dancing. But the whipping and flogging ever increased, till finally they fell dead in their
stalls. On this occasion there were in fact some persons who knew
these were the [emperor's] dancing horses but, fearful of [Ch'engszu's] wrath, they never ventured to speak 20).
Besides providing us with a vivid description of the horses'
apparel and performance, and a perhaps too vivid account of
their pathetic end, this report also indicates the degree of the emperor's own interest in the animals. It was he who ordered the
troupe to be formed, he who determined their livery, and he who
commanded their appearance at his birthday gala each year. They
were indeed His Highness's hoofers and no one else's.
In a rhapsody by Ch'ien Ch'i 0
(chin-shih 75I) eulogizing the
dancing horses, the emperor is portrayed at the height of the birthday celebrations, bidding their performance:
Spake the Thearch:
Let the Gerent Equerries set dancing my mottled-grays
and
whitefoots 21),
That they may display and spread wide august jubilation,
That they may disclose and bring forth glad exultation.
In the space of an instant
Golden drums make the proposal, jade pipes carry the message,
And suddenly, oh,
Startled from dragon's crouch into swan's flutterAs dipping tassels make lightning fall on their vermilion manes,
Prancing polls make stars flow on their white foreheads! 22)
The final two lines of this excerpt provide us with images of exceptional sparkle-the
shaken tassels strung on the horses' halters
Ming Huang tsa-lu, 8a-ga (TTTS).
"My mottled-grays and whitefoots" @, 14 calls up the line from
Shih ching #128: "Yoked be my mottled-grays and whitefoots" %. M W
On the word ch'i JV, see Bernhard Karlgren, "Glosses on the Kuo Feng
Odes," BMFEA I4 (I942), p. 230, gl. 364. Chu *w specifically refers to a
'Lf.
horse whose left rear foot only is white. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chu R t
20)
21)
(Taipei, I970),
22)
IoA.5b.
"Ch'ien-ch'iu chieh Chin-cheng lou hsia kuan wu-ma fu," CTW,

247
flashing like lightning against their manes and the tossing of

their heads causing their forehead blazes to remind one, in their
movement, of the streaking of meteors.
The tune to which these talented steeds performed-"The
Upturned Cup"-was an old air of foreign origin. It had been
composed near the end of the Chen-kuan -a
(627-50) period
by one P'ei Shen-fu * *X,T a p'i-p'a virtuoso from Kashgar A-e
then in the service of the T'ang court 23). Although originally
written for lute, the tune was readily transposed to other instruments: it is, for instance, listed among the airs for the popular
"wether drum" (chiesh-ku A _) so favored by Hsuian Tsung 24)
and was also converted later for the reed-pipe (lu-kuan AW) by
Li Ch'en 't (pht. Hsuan Tsung E , reg. 847-60) 25). "The
Upturned Cup" was in the shang ff mode and hence well suited
to performance at an autumn-time festival, since the note shang
of the pentatonic scale corresponded, in the traditional system of
wu-hsing -Ee~ correspondences, with the season of autumn 26). From
23) THY, 33.6IO.
See also Hsiang Ta [1h], T'ang-tai Ch'ang-an yiu hsi-yiu
wen-ming J O{IA
(Peking, I933; Yenching hsfieh-pao chuan9;JA
57-58. HTS, 21.47, records that Changhao chih erh
X
sun Wu-chi k 3,2
(?-659), one of the high ministers of Li Shih-min
e ttt,
(pht. T'ai Tsung ik,
reg. 627-50), was commanded by that
emperor to compose the ch'ing-pei ch'ii t~ T A. This statement can be
reconciled with the emphatic attribution to P'ei Shen-fu in THY (which
is the earlier of the two texts) if we understand that Chang-sun Wu-chi was
composing lyrics to the tune. However, it would not be surprising to find
that, while the tune was actually composed by the foreign musician, it
was credited by a xenophobic scribe to the influential Chang-sun Wu-chi who
was known to have a personal interest in music, having directed the compilaj of the Sui shu
tion of the "Monograph on Music" Iff
).
24) Chieh-khlu X
, comp. Nan Cho g (mid-gth c.), ioa (TTTS).
In addition to providing a catalogue, arranged by mode, of the I28 tunes
in the repertoire of this little Kuchean drum, this text also provides much
useful information on the instrument's history at the T'ang court. Both
Hsiian Tsung and his musically-oriented brother Li Hsien a X (Prince
Ning + f) were especially proficient performers on it.
,
25) Yiieh-fu tsa-lu
comp. Tuan An-chieh J I,ZV (late gth c.),
i8a (TTTS). E. D. Edwards, Chinese Prose Literature of the T'ang Period,
A.D. 6I8-906 (London, I937), 1, 40, mistakenly gives the credit for this to
Li Ch'en's more famous ancestor Li Lung-chi, apparently being confused
by the identical Mandarin pronunciations of their posthumous titles.
26) The tune survives, though probably not in its pristine form, in the
present gagaku 9
repertoire in Japan. There it is still predominantly in
the shang mode but modulates at two points into the chiieh A mode. L. E. R.
Picken, "T'ang Music and Musical Instruments," TP 55(I969),8I.

Tsung
28) As
toKishibe
amend
Shigeo
the lyrics
X t ;?t of
hasthe
convincingly
stately demonstrated,
ya-yixeh while
the sigthe
248
PAUL W. KROLL
the texts at our disposal,it is clearthat the ensemblethat played

this tune while the horses danced emphasizeddrums and, to a
lesserextent,flutes27), But the tune wasnot partof the greatsuites
of music the shWh-p?s
chi +gA and erh-p?schi _g{t 28)-that
containedthe standardpiecesfor "official"court concerts;it was
rather a separatedivertissement.The dancinghorses were quite
clearly an act in themselves.
ChangYueh, whosememorialinstigatedthe Thousand-Autumn
Festival, has left us a set of six "Lyrics for Dancing Horses"
(t,%S) which seem to be the wordsfor as many chorusesof the
horses'tune, "The UpturnedCup." Changwas an old hand at
writinglyricsfor courtmusic:in 725he hadbeenorderedby Hsuan
sovereignhimselfrevisedthe music29), and in the same year was
responsiblefor arrangingthe sacrificialmusic and dances (and,
indeed,nearlyeverythingelse)forthe grandfeng-shanM1 sacrifice
carriedout with high pompby the emperorat holy MountT'ai 30).
27) See +2 of Chang Yueh's series of three poems in praise of the horses,
of his series of six lyrics to their tune, and the excerpt from Ch'ien
Ch'i's fg, all quoted herein. Drums and flutes were the dominant instruments in the Central Asian music that enjoyed such popularity at Hsuan
Tsung's court. It appears that the lithophone common to classical Chinese
music also had a part in the horses' accompaniment. See the fifth of Chang
Yueh's six "Lyrics for Dancing Horses," in which mention is made of 'fthe
striking of the stones" and "the percussing of metal." "Wu-ma tz'u," +5,
CTS, 890.I0050. Three of these lyrics are quoted below.
fI
nificance of these two terms has been badly misunderstood by most historians. They do not refer to distinct divisions or radically different kinds of
court music, but rather to multi-parts suites of music, performed in fixed sequence by groups of varying size and instrumentation. For detailed explication, see Kishibe, Todai ongakuno rekishitekikenky?4t
E3 R M9.t
R t
(Tokyo, I 96I ), II, I 84-437 . Kishibe's magnificent study is crucial
to a proper understanding of T'ang music, music schools and establishments, performers, and court entertainments (virtually all of which required
music) in general.
29) THY, 32.595. The term used to refer to the lyrics of this dignified
music is yueh-changa $, in contrast to tz'u gI which denotes the lyrics
of secular tunes. The songs Chang Yueh composed pursuant to this order
may be found in CTS,85.920-23.
30) THY,32.595. For Chang's songs on this occasion, see CTS,85.9I8-20.
Chang's rather overbearing attitude during the imperial progress to Mount
T'ai and encampment there created much resentment among lesser officials,
particularly of the military, and helped to hasten his fall from power over
the following year and a half. ChTS, 97.3054; HTS, I25.4408; also TCTC,
2 I 2. 6766-67 .

THE DANCING HORSES OF T ANG
249
Since Chang died early in February of 73I, we can date his lyrics
for the dancing horses to either their first or second ThousandAutumn performance, that is, either 729 or 730. I shall quote
the first, third, and fourth of the set, as it is these three verses that
speak of the steeds in most detail. All the lyrics are quatrains,
in lines of six words.
#i.
The "myriad jewels" pay court at the levee of the phoenix

screen;
"Thousand-guilders"guide and lead the Dragon's Mediators.
In promenade prancing, vigor concentrated, [the steeds]
glance aside at the drums,
Pace to and fro in sportive shadows, paying heed to the
song 31).
In line one, the "myriad jewels" (wan yii A I) are the multitude
of brilliant courtiers, the "phoenix screen" (feng i So@) the
embroidered screen that stood near the imperial throne. The
"thousand-guilders" (ch'ien chin f ) of the second line are the
young scions of the well-to-do elite; the "Dragon's Mediators"
(lung mei *M
W4)they lead into the arena are the dancing horses
themselves, here called by a name that was attached long ago to
the Heavenly Horses of Ferghana sent to the Han court in IOI B.C.
I shall have more to say presently about the symbolic identification
of Hsuian Tsung's steeds with these earlier equines. The closing
couplet of the poem above describes the beginning of the horses'
dance, which is seen more closely in the two quatrains to follow.
#3. With colorful tail-pennants the eight dancing rows form up
into columns;
The five hues of the temporal dragons are adapted to the
directions.
Bending their knees, they clench winecups in mouth, attending
to the rhythm;
Inclining their hearts, they offer up longevity never ending 32).
The eight rows (pa i A ff) in which the gaudily arrayed horses are
here drawn up are conciously reminiscent of the eight rows of

ceremonialdancerstraditionally regardedas the express prerogative
31)
32)
"Wu-ma tz'u,"
"Wu-ma tz'u,"
CTS,
890.I0050.
#3, CTS,
890.I0050.
#i,

250
PAUL W. KROLL
of the Chou kings 33): these testify to the ordained virtue of the
T'ang ruler just as those did for the sovereigns of old. The "temporal dragons" (shihlung HJ,-) appear in Pan Ku's it[ (32-92)
"Rhapsody on the Eastern Metropolis" as dragon-horses whose
coloringis matched with the symbolic hues of the five directions 34);
we understand thus that the dancing steeds are caparisoned in
complementary colors. As to the winecups clenched in the horses'
mouths, this is no poetic fancy of Chang Yuiehbut a well-verified
part of the performance. It was in fact the most' notable aspect
of the dance, mentioned often in other poems celebrating these
steeds. A fine pictorial representationof this very scene has recently
been recovered: a prancinghorse, with winecup in mouth, is figured
in gold relief on the side of a silver wine-flask dating to Hsuian
Tsung's reign, unearthed during excavations in I970 at the site
of the Prince of Piti's 3 E (?-74I) dwelling in Ch'ang-an35).
(A photograph of it is reproducedas Plate I.) The horses are thus
quite literally acting out "The Upturned Cup"!
#4. The dragon colts of the imperial fold are well-grouped, wellcomposed;
The thoroughbred foals from the astral corral are unwonted
and uncommon.
In easy expanse of gambade and prance, they answer to the
rhythm,
Full of high spirits, treading each other's prints, and never
wavering 36).
These are no trotting hacks, no ordinary caballine canterers, they
are "dragon colts" (ft9j) that abide in the "astral corral" (-)
-both metaphors emphasize the transcendent nature of the animals. And, if we are reading with our ears as well as our eyes, we
shall note that the dynamic, visual harmony of the dancing horses
is neatly echoed in both the sense and the sound of the rhyming
and alliterative binoms, respectively, with which the poet predicates
his first two lines-i g5I M.C. p'aai-aai, "well-grouped, well33)
34)
35)
wu "
See Lun-yil, 3.'.

, WH, I.i8.
"Tung tu fu "
"Hsi-an nan-chiao Ho-chia-ts'un fa-hsien T'ang-tai chiao-ts'ang wen9- 7$ Z H * X X a 1t ft w . 3t 4t,
and color plate 3.

36) "Wu-ma tz'u," #4, CTS,
Wen-wu
3; PA, I 972.
890.I0050.

1,
p. 31
41),
arid the legendary dragon-horse of the Yellow River
25
composed,"and ; X, M.C.gywen-gie, "unwontedanduncommon."

Both of these phraseshad earlierlives in classicalliterature:the
first was used infg by both Szu-maHsiang-juX,%%a (I79-II7
B.C.)andChangHeng* (A.D.78-I39) to describethe dragons37)
or dragon-steeds
38) that drew the Son of Heaven'scarriage,the
secondin a Han sacrificialsong of II3 B.C. to laud a {'Heavenly
Horse" capturedin Kansu and presentedto the court39). This
symbolic identificationof Hsuan Tsung's dancing horses with
supernaturalor draconicsteeds is furtheremphasizedin the remainingpair of ChangYueh's quatrains,wherethey are seen as
modern avatars of Purple Swallow M>^40), Glaucous Dragon
whosesignificantlyspottedbacksuggestedto the sage Fu Hsi SRX
the idea of the I chixg'seight fundamentaltrigrams42).
It was commonin this way for T'angwritersto see in the performanceof the dancinghorsesshadowsof equineparagonscelebrated in earlierdays: the horses recalledto their audiencean
inevitable cluster of historical arld legendary associations.In
order fully to appreciatethe literary works written in praise of
these wonderfulcreatures,it is importantfor us now to become
acquaintedwith some of their kindredantecedentsand with some
items of what might be calledculturalhippology.
The "HeavenlyHorses"of Han, twice melltionedabove, are
perhapsthe best-knownhistoricalprototypesof all horsesextra37)
I972),
In Hsiang-ju's "Ta-jenfu" 7tAR, quoted in Shih
chi tE,
(Peking,
I I7-3057-
In Chang Heng's "Tung ching fu" ,>,

WH, 3.59.
Han shu t :t: (Peking, I975), 22. I060. The date noted here, viz.
7Gt-$
(correspondingto I20 B.C.) should be corrected, following the
annals of Wu Ti at Han shu, 6.I84
which give a detailed account of the
horse's capture to 7: W 1E$ (I I 3 B.C.).
40) "Wu-matz'u," W5,CTS, 890.I0050.
For "PurpleSwallow,"a superior
horse of legend, see especially Yen Yen-chihXsMX;t (384-456) "Che-pai
ma fu" k t3 ,%, WH, I4.288; also Shen Yueh's ,;tt1 (44I-5I2) "San-yueh
san-jih shuai-erh ch'eng p'ien -,0E -gSg,
WH, 30.675.
41) "Wu-ma tz'u," +5,
CTS, 890.I0050. For "Glaucous Dragon," the
horse deemed ritually correct to pull the sovereign'scarriagein springtime,
see Li chi chu-shu Et,
I4.I3a/b
(SSCCS).
42) "Wu-ma tz'u," W6, CTS, 890.I0050.
On the dragon-horseof the Ho,
see, among many other classica] references,Shang shu chu-shu 91@1tt,
I7.23b (SSCCS) and Li chi chu-shu,22.27a-28b.
38)
39)

HanSan-kuoChinNan-pei-ch'aoshih
&.- g
ffi
jL gg
(Taipei,
I968).
PAUL W. RROLL
252
ordtnaireenjoyedby Chineseemperors.Thesewell-studiedsteeds43)
includeequallythose sent from Ferghanaas tribute in IOI B.C.
(forthe acquisitionof whomHan Wu Ti had been so avid) and a
rare water-spawnedhorse entrappedat the Wo-wa jg,;QRiver
(near Tun-huang)twelve years previously.Two songs extolling
these beasts were fashionedfor use in Han Wu Tiss "suburban
sacrifices"(aSg2,)
44). The descriptionsof the Heavenly Horses
contained in these songs were plunderedrepeatedly by later
writers to characterizesubsequent but comparablymarvelous
steeds. We have already noted in Chang Yueh's lyrics for the
dancinghorses of Hsuan Tsung the phrase "unwontedand uncommon"45) and his designationof them as "the Dragon'sMediators"46), drawinghis dictionin both cases from these Han songs.
Special attention should be paid to the latter expression.The
Heavenly Horses were regardedin the sacred songs of Han as
draconicagnates-they are sky-treadersand "mediators"or, in
anotherverse,"friends"(yg t) of the divinedragonitself. (Indeed,
the horseborn of the Wo-waRiverwas patently a dragon-horse.)
Thefundamentalaffinityof dragonandhorsewaswellestablished
in ancient and medievalChina.It is very clearlyillustrated,for
instance, in the account in the Lieh-hsienchgan aIJ4i of the
legendaryMa-shihHuang ,%g (Horse-Master
Illustrious).This
worthy was so celebratedan hippiatrist,invariably curing the
steeds he treated, that ailing dragonslikewisedescendedto avail
themselvesof his skill47); obviouslythey recognizedthat a capable
43) See Homer H. Dubs, "The Blood-Sweating Horses of Ferghana,"
in his The History of the FormerHan Dynasty, Vol. 2 (Baltimore, I944),
I32-35;
Richard Edwards' neglected but stimulating article "The Cave
Reliefs at Ma Hao," ArtibusAsiae I7 (I954), esp. I3-25; and Arthur Waley,
"The Heavenly Horses of Ferghana: A New View," History Today 5.2
(I955),
44)
95-I03.
For the texts of the songs, written in three-word lines, see Han shu,
22.I060-6I.
Together they counted as the tenth in the group of nineteen
sacrificial songs. See also Ch'uanHan shih 1%,
I.7a
(p. 57), in Ch'ixan
The songs have been translated by both Edwards and Waley, more literally
by the former.
45) From a couplet in the first song which pictures the horses as "Able
and careless of will;/Unwonted, uncommon in essence." +>it,
310if.
46) From the second of the Han songs.
47) Lieh-hsien chuan, in Cheng-t'ungtao tsang SE^e.g
(Peking, I977),
HY 294, p. 2a. Ma-shih Huang eventually left this lower world, borne
away by a grateful dragon patient.

THE DANCING HORSESOF T ANG
253
horse-doctorwas also qualifiedto practiceon the divinecongeners

of terrestrialsteeds.Fordragonandhorsesimplyroamedin different
mediums;each in his own spherewas supreme.As Ma Yuan ,%R
(I4 B.C.-A.D.49), the great generaland horsemanof Han times,
put it: "Formovingthroughthe heavens,nothingcompareswith
the dragon;for moving over the earth, nothing compareswith
the horse"48). It is no wonder,then, that exceptionalsteeds like
the dancinghorses of T'ang should invariablybe endowedby
their panegyristswith the sublime attributesof dragonnature.
And fromhere it was an easy step to considerthem, symbolically
if not verily, dragon-horses.
The earliest recordeddragon-horsewas llot the Wo-wa River
prodigyof Han times but ratherthe one that emerged,bearing
its spotted dorsal"chart,"fromthe great Ho in fabledantiquity.
But all dragon-horses
were deemed"humane"(jen t) creatures,
appearingonly in erasof rareuniversalconcord.Hereis an account
of the discoveryof one duringthe goldendays of Hsuan Tsung's
reignin the T'ang:
In the region between the sea and Tai t; (i.e., Mount T'ai) there came
forth stones dusky and yellow. Some said, "If one consumesthese, he may
protract his life." The illustrious thearch Hsuan Tsung decreed that the
LGrandj\Varden ([t'ai-]sho>) of Lin-tzu l@;igshould gather them each year
and send them [to the court] as tribute.
In the twenty-seventh year of "OpenedPrime" (i.e., 739), Li Yung > ,
(678-747)of Chiang-hsiawas serving as Wardenof Lin-tzu. In the autumn
of this year he duly went into the mountainsto gatherthe dusky and yellow
stones, when suddenly he happened upon an old gaffer. Quite wonderfulin
appearance,the old man's robust lineaments were hale and clear, and his
moustachesand beard were exceptionally sleek. Of hodden were the clothes
he wore. Emerging from off to the left of the road, he stayed Li Yung's
horse and declared,"Surely you, my lord, are personallygathering medicaments that will serve to extend the years of our sagely ruler?" "It is so,"
said Yung. "It were meet," said the gaffer, "if our sagely ruler procureda
dragon-horse.In that case, he would for a myriad years enjoy the state
and that without the trouble of gathering medicaments." "And where,"
said Yung, 'smight a dragon-horsebe found ?" "One may be expected
on the moors of Ch'i and Lu," replied the gaffer; "if it be procured,that
would be a very talisman of Greatest Tranquility. Even unicorn, phoenix,
tortoise, or dragon are not worthy to be paired with such a token." Yung
48) Hou Han shu ffi l*
(Peking, I974), 24.840, in a memorial offering
up to his sovereigna bronze effigy of a horse, cast by his artisans in Chiaochih 2 k (modernHanoi) from a bronze drum that came into Ma's possession duringhis conquest of what is now northernVietnam.

254
PAUL W. KROLL
then ordered [the old man] to mount and ride behind him, but all at once
the fellow vanished from sight.
Yung marveled greatly at it. Turning around, he addressed his attendant
followers, "Have we not encountered a divine person ?" And he forthwith
ordered his bailiff, one Wang Ch'ien-chen IC A., to seek for the dragonhorse in Ch'i and Lu.
When the fifth month, in summer, of the twenty-ninth year of "Opened
Prime" (74I) arrived, Ch'ien-chen actually obtained the steed at the household of Ma Hui-en F, *, L of Pei-hai County IL j4 1 (modern I-tu district,
in central Shantung). Its coloring was a mixed blue-black and white; its
two flanks had fish-scale plating; its mane and tail were like the tufted
bristles of a dragon; its whinnying call had truly the tone of a hollow flute;
and in one day it could gallop three hundred Ii. When Ch'ien-chen inquired
from whence it had come, Hui-en said, "I had but a solitary mare. Upon
bathing in the waters of the Tzu i, she conceived and delivered. Accordingly, I called this horse by the name 'Dragonling' " [since it must have been
sired by the resident dragon of the Tzu River].
Ch'ien-chen reported this immediately to Yung, who, quite delighted,
memorialized the matter and presented the horse [to the sovereign]. His
Highness was greatly pleased. He proclaimed that the Inner Stable should
take especial care with the beast's food and fodder. And he commanded
painters to depict its form, to be published and revealed both within [the
court] and without 49).
Although the preceding narrative comes to us from a ninth-century

text, Li Yung's own memorial (mentioned in the story) is still
extant to verify the acquisition of the dragon-horse and its presentation to the emperor 50). We must note here that dragon-horses
did not always resemble in appearance the T'ang exemplar described above. In the monograph on "Talismans and Auspicious
Tokens" (X X ) in the Sung shu z I, written near the beginning
of the sixth century, the dragon-horse, identified as "the quintessence of river water," is portrayed as follows: "Eight feet, five
inches tall, it is long-necked and possesses wings, with dangling
hair on its flanks" 51). But we may assume that individual specimens might properly exhibit slightly differing features from one
another, if only to accord with ontogenetic necessity.
__
chih
49) Hsiian-slih
ira-2a (TTTS); also quoted in T'ai-p'ing
kuang-chi, 435.9I5b. As noted by Edwards, Chinese Prose Literature, I, I13,
the attribution of this work to Chang Wei q N (chin-shih 743) should be
corrected to read Chang Tu 3KM (fl. 86o). A more complete edition of the
Hsiian-shih chih than that included in TTTS has been reprinted in Pi-chi
k
hsiao-shuo ta-kuan g
(Taipei, I960), I, I-33.
50) Li Yung, "Chin wen-ma piao," CTW, 26i.17b-i8a.
The presentation
of this animal is also reported, briefly, in HTS, 36.953.
51) Sung shu (Peking, I974),
28.802.

255
When the mind of a T'ang dynasty writer, dazzled by the performance of Hsuian Tsung's dancing horses, sought comparisons
with similarly superlative steeds recorded in earlier literature,
it would commonly recollect not only the Heavenly Horses of
Han and the unpredictably recurrentdragon-horse,but would also
summon up a veritable stableful of legendary and somewhat less
familiar equines, such as Purple Swallow and Glaucous Dragon
(whom we have already encountered). Chief among these other
equine literary eidola that materialize most often in works on the
dancing horses are three-by name Battened White, Flying
Yellow, and Benign Patrician. Battened White (Tzu-pai 1 n) was
reputed to have been sent as tribute in elder days to the Chou from
the country of I-ch'ui & M in Chinese Turkestan; Li Shan Wi
(?-689), the T'ang scholiast of the Wen hsilan, quotes an ancient
text which says that "The one called Battened White resembles a
horse, has serratedteeth, andfeeds on tigers and leopards"52). Flying
Yellow (Fei-huang RAI) was a marvelous horse, come-like most
of his kind-from the Northwest, slightly vulpine in appearance
and with a horn protrudingfrom his back; the Huai-nan tzu ?aX
notes that, in epochs of ideal government, he is "submissive in
the fold," and it was said that any cavalier lucky enough to gain
a ride on him was assured a thousand years of life 53). Benign
Patrician (Chi-liang r i ) was reported to be a white-bodied,
vermilion-maned steed, with eyes of yellow gold; bred in boreal
lands, he too invested his jockey with a millennium of existence 54).
(467-93), "San-yueh
52) See Li Shan's commentary to Wang Jung Z
san-jih ch'ii-shui shih hsii i-shou," WH, 46.IOI6. Li Shan is quoting from the
Chi-chung Chou shu &. J @, a pre-Ch'in text purportedly discovered
along with numerous other early manuscripts ca. A.D. 280 in a grave-mound
in Chi county, Honan. Wang Jung names "Battened White" in his composition in a long list of rare objects that fill the treasuries, stables, and parks of
his emperor, Ch'i Wu Ti.
53) Huai-nan tzu chu M j F J (Taipei, 1962), 6.95. Flying Yellow is
also identified as "Mounting Yellow" (Ch'eng-huang A j), as remarked
in the annotation of Kao Yu r ; see also Shan-hai ching chien-shu [11Xi #
(Taipei, n.d.), 7.308. There is some disagreement about whether a
;tX
ride on this beast conferred a mere millennium of life; some texts say two
thousand or even three thousand years. It was believed by some that this
was the animal that the Yellow Thearch mounted, bearing him away from
this world when he transcended on high.
His name is also given some54) Shan-hai ching chien-shu, I2.360-6I.
times as Benign Measure (Chi-liang ' ) or Benign Yellow (Chi-huang

256
PAUL W. KROLL
It was a naturalmatter for men of T'ang to filiate the dancing

horseswith such fantasticsteeds of the past as these55). Thereis
no suggestion,however, that these earlier wonders of equinity
knew how to dance; in this, the T'ang representativessurpassed
them all.
We are,indeed,accustomedto thinkof the T'angdancinghorses
as uniquein the annalsof Chinesecourtamusements.It may therefore come as somethingof a suipriseto learn that they had had
predecessorsat varioustimes in prior centuries.One could cite,
for example, as our poets sometimesdid, the horses called the
Nine Tai tLtt that were supposedto have dancedto musicat the
enthronementof the venerable sage-king Yu X 56); but these
performersare concealedfrom our view in the mythic mists of
pre-history.Morevisible, and better documented,is a deep bay
horse from Ferghana, acquiredby Ts'ao Chih W g (I92-232) .
This great writer,and unhappyprince,trainedthe horse to bow
and to move in time with a cadenceof drums.He then bestowed
the animalin a burst of fraternalgenerosityon his brotherTs'ao
P'i t (I87-226), reigningemperorof the Wei dynasty57).
We meet with moredancinghorsesin 458, when an entireteam
of them was sent to the Sungcourtat Chien-k'angt1# fromShihyin FS, rulerof the T'u-yu-huntS jW(reg.452-8I) and Kingof
A),
but in medieval texts it appears most often as Benign Patrician.
It is likely that the namesof all three of the horsesmentionedin the preceding
sentences (which may originallyhave representedtransliterationsof foreign
terms or dimidiationsof archaic single phonemes) underwentsome modification and semanticizationto reach the forms in which we know them.
55) The names Flying Yellow and Benign Patricianwere also attached to
two of the six "pleasances"X or parks for imperialhorses at Ch'ang-anin
T'ang times. Ta T'ang liu-tien f ;/ m (Tokyo, I973), II.25a;
THY,
65. I IZ6.
56) Shan-haichingchien-shu,7.o99-300.
As remarkedin the commentaries

to this passage, the chiu tai t t may not have referredoriginallyto horses
at all but rather to the music performedat the ceremony, being perhaps a
miswriting of chiu.ch'eng tF@. But to most medieval writers, especially
those who wrote of the T'ang dancing horses, there was no doubt that the
phrase signified a performing horse troupe of Yu's.
57) Ts'ao Chih's memorial of presentation is preserved in the seventhcentury encyclopedia I -wen lei-ch>. See I -wen lei-chu; fu so-yin, lei-sh?
shih chung 6 ;t ffiffi18S q| ffig + g (Taipei, I 974), 93.I 6e 3. The text
may also be found in T'ai-p'ingyu-lan i + , (Taipei, I968), 8g4.6b; and
Ch'uanSan-kuowen 8 _ g $;, Is.4b, in Ch'uanshang-kuSan-tai Ch'inHan
San-kuo Li?X-ch'ao
wen h t 5
fe f /R-1R1/ / t (I893 ed )

257
Ho-nan jUjMT 58). These are the first true precursorsof the T'ang
troupe. The Sung monarch, Liu Chiin IJq
& (pht. Hsiao-wu Ti
Ar, reg. 454-65), ordered his servitors to compose rhapsodies
in celebration of this unusual gift. One of these works is still preserved for us-"A Rhapsody on Dancing Horses" by Hsieh Chuang
a (42 I-66) 59). It is filled with pious allusions to the far-flung
imperial virtue that the proffered horses betoken, but it furnishes
us no notable description of the animals' performance. Hsieh
Chuang was also enjoined to write a "song" (ko tJk)in honor of
the horses, which was then set to music; but this lyric has not
survived. There are two other reports in the Sung shu of dancing
horses being sent to court from the "Western Regions" and the
"[King of] Ho-nan" at the end of 459 and during 46I, but these
reports are probably misdated references to the very horses celebrated by Hsieh Chuang60).
Half a century afterward, in 505, the Liang court was favored
with a similar troupe, again provided by the T'u-yui-hun61). A
protracted fu on these horses exists, in the hand of Chang Shuai
W (475-527)62). It is a splendid composition, but far too long
to quote in full here. The steeds are described in Chang's preface
as "red dragon foals, possessed of rare aspect, agile-footed, able
to make obeisance and excellent at the dance." We cannot fail to
remark at least part of Chang Shuai's poetic depiction of their
performance:
Having tipped their heads in concert with the pitch-pipes,
Next they stamp their feet to the flurry of the drums.
They toss their dragon heads,
Twist round their cervine torsos;
58) The rulers of the T'u-yii-hun, whose dominions included much of
western and north China, had from the early fifth century been designated
"Kings of Ho-nan." Thomas D. Carroll, Account of the T'u-yii-hun in the
History of the Chin Dynasty (Berkeley, I953; Chinese Dynastic Histories
Translation, No. 4), p. 32, n. 85.
59) Sung shu, 85.2175-76; also in Ch'iian Sung wen
34.7a-8a.
_tl;,
It is impossible, with the evidence at our
60) Sung shu, 6.125, 96.2373.
disposal, to tell which date-458, 459, or 46I-is
the correct one for the
horses' presentation. It is most unlikely that groups of dancing horses
would have been sent three times in a space of only four years-familiarity
breeds contempt, especially in exotic gifts.
61) Liang shu Z :
(Peking, I973), 33.475.
62) Liang shu, 33.475-78; also Ch'iian Liang wen
554.3a-4b.

258
PAUL W. KROLL
Their glances [like] double mirrors,

Their kickings [like] wild-ducks paired.
Once they have reachedthe arena, they bow in courtly fashion;
Attending timely to the tune, they move sedately or in haste.
It was to be two hundred years before a Chinese emperor and his
court were to look on such an exhibition again.
It was not HsuianTsung's dancing horses,however, that were the
first such group recorded in T'ang times. A similar team had performed some years previously at the court of his uncle Li Hsien
4M (pht. Chung Tsung 4 , reg. 705-IO). Schafer has translated
a lively extract from the Cling-lung wen-kuan chi
3lrj-t
which describestheir routine 63). Here I should like to call attention
to another description of this troupe, done in verse by HsuiehYao
e
64)
Hsuieh'spoem, translated in its entirety below, is an elaborate

and masterly evocation which not only presents a vivid picture
of these steeds (the remembrance of whom surely had a large
effect in inspiring HsiuanTsung to select and train a like troupe,
when he ascended the throne) but also breathes fresh literary life
into many traditional equine motifs and allusions established
in former eras. The poem begins in heptasyllabic meter but modulates about halfway through to a mixed prosodic scheme employing
lines in six, five, or three syllables as well (indentation will indicate
these metrical shifts in the translation). It consists of seven stanzas
E. H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, 67.
There is some biographical confusion surrounding this writer in
various sources, which should here be cleared up. The note on Hsiieh Yao,
preceding his five extant poems, in CTS, 80.869, is largely in error. It is
taken primarily from the twelfth-century T'ang shih chi-shih 1
X
(Hong Kong, I972), 13.I89. In its statement that Hsiieh married the Princess
Ch'eng-yang ; M i}
(daughter of T'ang T'ai Tsung) and the remarks
following about his supposed sons, one of whom wed the influential Princess
T'ai-p'ing ;k T./. i, it has confounded Hsiieh Yao e - with Hsiieh Kuan
9 l. This latter did indeed marry Princess Ch'eng-yang but he died sometime during the years 670-74 (see HTS, 83.3647-48). The only reliable
information we have regarding Hsiieh Yao, the author of the poem below, are
the one-line biographies of him in ChTS, 73.2591, and HTS, 98.3893, from
which we learn that he was the son of Hsiieh Yiian-ch'ao f# M (622-83)
who had held ministerial status at court, that he took part in the compilation
63)
64)
during the years 698-700 of the San-chiao
chu-ying
ffi
A,
and that he
was politically attached to Chang I-chih g4R

, one of the notorious
brothers Chang who were the favorites of "Empress" Wu from 699 to 704.

259
of varying length, each of which reflects a change in rhyme; within

each stanza the rhyme adheres strictly to one chosen tone (Hsuieh
does not avail himself of the looser rhymes allowable in the binary
p'ing-tse ziFp,classification of tones), and each of the four tones
ot Middle Chinese is utilized as a rhyming tonic at least once. A
commentary will follow the translation.
Of stars' essence and dragon's seed, they skitter and dance side
by side;
The yellow gold of their paired eyes glows against their purple
gloss.
When one dawn chances to meet with an age ascendant in
tranquility,
Submissive in the fold, a chart in muzzle, these then serve
thearch and king.
The consummate virtue of our Illustrious One burgeons out to
the Six Confines;
The vulgar, the majestic are in accord at this time, as the stone
of Yu is struck.
From yesteryear one hears of the Nine Tai who held so much
renown;
In our present day the hundredfoldbeasts come ahead to dance.
By the Hooked Array and the Guarded Enceinte-banners and
standards for reverence;
From bell and gong, gourd and earthenware vessels-sounds to
make the earth thunder.
The racketing clamor of "Receiving the Clouds" startles the
sun's numen;
The lilting tinkle of "Harmonious Dew" sets Heaven's team-offour in motion.
Racing the dust, they are arrows in flight-like to unicorn or
dragonet;
Treading the sunlight and chasing the wind-indifferent to our
vision and ken.
Chewing and champing on the "pulling iron," they are equally
unwonted, uncommon;
Cloaked and caparisoned in tooled blazonry, very sightly and
stunning!

260
PAUL W. KROLL
Clinking trinkets of purple jade dangle over their jewelled

stirrups;
Striated halters of bice-blue silk gird their golden bridles.
Following drum and song, they bolt away fulgurously;
Mete with grelot and sword, they gallop tempestuously.
Demeanor collected, their light step remains nimble;
Mettle concentrated, their rapid gait does not waver.
Their brilliance rivals the wlhite sun descending,
Their breath envelops the verdant haze lowering.
Now they give way, limping, but in fact have not yet doneFor, suspended in air, their pace quickens, and red dust flies!
Startled ducks, soaring egrets, are not fit to be set beside them;
Sublime phoenix, swirling simurgh, do not suffice for comparison.
As asarum-scent hangs and cinnamon wafts-tragrance full and
favoringWith long neighs, they sweat blood, floating utterly with the
clouds.
But not shrinking from bitter misery, they have taken the eastern
road,
And all due to the hallowed hymnody heard here dawn to dusk.
Amid Ch'ang-ho
And nigh the Jade Terrace,
They take in the warmth of graciousness, oh! producing a glorious
hue.
With jingling of simurgh-bells,
Winged glide of carriages,
Completing the countenance of our state, oh! they are boisterous
ornaments.
Crowding the clouds, they soar, oh! in the Son of Heaven's
courtyard;
Shouldering the sun, they engage, oh! our affections limitlessly.
Benign Patrician now is ridden, oh! and a thousand years are won;
Divinity here is attained, oh! to the tenure of heaven and earth.
The prognostic from the Great Change sayeth: "the longevity of
South Mountain";
And careering, cavorting, they share in the glee of this season of
sagely brilliance 65).
65)
"Wu-ma p'ien" CTS, 80.870.


26I
The poem is a virtual compendiumof caballinelore. Manyof the

imagesshould,however,be familiarto us now. Thus the dancing
horses are Heavenly creatures,akin to stars and dragons.Their
eyes are coloredyellow gold, like those of Benign Patrician(who
will be mentionedmore explicitly near the end of the work). In
the presentrare age of earthlyamity, they are avatarsof Flying
Yellow "submissive in the fold" and of the chart-bearing
dragon-horseof the Ho 66). "Our IllustriousOne" (@;g), in the
second stanza, is of course the emperorwhose excellent moral
power reacheseverywhere,to the "Six Confines",\@ (the four
cardinaldirections,as well as upwardand down),uniting all the
people. The "stone of Yu" tE that is "struck"(fg ) is the
lithophoneonce playedby K'uei , ministerof musicto the sagekingShunR (whohailedfromYu t andis oftenidentifiedby that
toponym);the tones producedby this stone were so compellingly
harmoniousthat "the hundredfoldbeasts led one another to
dance"67). It is thus an image of the unanimityenjoyed under
the currentmonarch.The horsescalledthe Nine Tai who danced,
as we have seen, at the accessionof the GreatYu X, are now reincarnatedin our presentsteeds; and it seems that a multitude
of other beasts as well are moved to join in the dance, just as
happenedin Shun'stime.
"HookedArray"(kk) referscelestiallyto the potent constellation that includesthe North Star68). It corresponded
to the Rear
Palacewithin the imperialcompoundon earth69) and was joined
to the sovereign'sown "GuardedEnceinte"(MX). This is where
the ceremonialensigns are ranged on this occasion,where the
courtmusiciansplay and the horsesperform.The melodiesinclude
the piece "Receivingthe Clouds"(;$$), once enjoyed by the
66) Note especially Sung sh?, 28.796: "When the Kingly One's virtue
reachesto the abysmal springs,the Ho gives up the Dragon Chart."
67) Shang shu chu-shu,2.2gb. We also find the "stone of Yu" in the fifth
of Yu Hsin's ffff (5I3-8I)
series of "Lyrics for Taoist Adepts Pacing the
Void" +,@g.
There it is used to "convene the luminous Realized
Ones," i.e., the resplendentinhabitants of the Taoist heavens. Yu Tzu-shan
chi chu ffi f f ffi E (Taipei, I959), s.4b. The Ch'ingcommentatoron Yu's
works, Ni Fan {Q3 (fl. I7II), states his puzzlement over the meaning of
"the stone of Yu," but we may now supply the correctinterpretation.
68) Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T'ang Approachesto the Stars
(Berkeley,I978), 45-47.
69) Chin shu EX t
(Peking,
I974),
I I .289.

262
PAUL W. KROLL
Yellow Thearch himself 70), and "Harmonious Dew" (i S) which

stirs the steeds to movement. The horses are characterized here
as "Heaven's team-of-four" () p), again stressing their sidereal
essence, for there was a star-group by that name which was the
especial astral emblem of horses, particularly divine steeds belonging to the Son of Heaven 71). With this, at the end of the
third stanza, all the necessary scene-setting has now been accomplished by Hsuieh Yao, the music has commenced, and from here
to the end of the poem our attention will be centered solely on the
actual spectacle of the dancing horses themselves.
The long fourth stanza depicts, in shifting rhythm, the swift
movements and bright trappings of these hooved Terpsichores.
They are "arrows in flight"-like the Heavenly Horse described
by the Sung writer Yen Yen-chih 72)-keeping pace with the sunlight 73). Champingon their bits, they are "unwonted, uncommon"
-the familiar epithet first applied to the Han Heavenly Horses.
Their fleet dartings are coordinated with the sound of "drum and
song" and also with the harness-bells and rhythmically waving
swords (waanchien AN]0) that add extra music and pageantry to
their performance74). As radiant as the sun they seem, and their
See Lieh tzu 1 lF (Taipei, I972), 3.Ia/b, Chang Chan's f?g commentary.
T'ien-szu X I9 is an alternate name of the lunar lodging "Chamber"
(Fang F). See Erh ya shu
e
, 6.9a (Szu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.). This was
one of the seven lodgings in the sidereal "Palace" of the "Blue Dragon"
) which was associated in T'ang times with the residence of the
(E9
emperor and referred specifically to the dragon horses kept in his stables.
See Schafer, Pacing the Void, 76-77, 82. Note also the comment of Kuo P'u
(276-324) quoted in the early T'ang encyclopedia I-wen lei-chii, 93.i622,
that "the horse . . . is descended from T'ien-szu."
(also
72) See Yen's "T'ien-ma chuang," quoted in 1-wen lei-chii, 93.I623
Ch'iian Sung wen, 37.Ib), where the Horse of Heaven is seen as "Outracing
the waters-a startled duck;/Overrunning the land-an arrow in flight.//
Happening upon hills, he is as the wind;/ Encountering clouds, he becomes
the lightning." The phrasing of these lines affects Hsiieh Yao's diction in
at least two other places later in his poem-where the dancing horses "bolt
away fulgurously (i.e., like lightning)" and where they are compared with
"startled ducks."
73) The version of Hsuieh's poem preserved in the Wen-yiian ying-hua
3< irRX_ (Peking, I966), 344.3a-4a, gives these opening two lines of the
fourth stanza as containing only five syllables each: "Like to unicorn or
dragonet, they tread the sunlight;/ Chasing the wind, they are indifferent
to our vision and ken."
74) For a similar reference to "grelot and sword," on which Hsiieh Yao's
is probably based, see Pao Chao's
M (405-66) "Rhapsody on Dancing
Cranes," "Wu-ho fu," WH, I4.292.
70)
71)

263
panting exhalations shimmer in the air like green mist-this

last a wonderfulimage.
The next two stanzas revert to the steady heptasyllabicmeter
with which the piece began.The horsesappearto breakoff their
dance, but it is merely an interval andantebeforetheir supreme
finale. For now, amid the heavy scents of asarumand cinnamon,
they resumeand, like creaturesof the sky but surpassingin perfection even duck, egret, phoenix,and simurgh,they vault aloft,
"floatingutterlywith the clouds."They have truly becomehorses
of heaven!They are seen to sweatblood,as did their Han dynasty
precursorsand, again like them, have taken the "easternroad"
(theHanhorsescamefromthe West)to graceus withtheirpresence,
althoughthe journeyherefromtheir real dwellingplaceis so very
arduc)us75). And it is the "hallowedhymnody"(hsia()-shao
tM)
of our lordXscourt, identical to the sacred music of legendary
Shun76), whichhas drawnthem here.
In the closingstanza, again in a variedrhythm,we are swept
up u ith the horses to the starry realms of Ch'ang-hoFgg
and Jade Terrace i #, respectivelythe Gate of Heaven and
the seat of ShangTi tW, the Thearchon High, celestialregions
whichare but the counterpartsup aboveof the emperor'sresidence
below77). The horsesare the vehiclesto take His Highnessthere.
And these steeds, the crowningadornmentsof the T'ang state,
moreoverforebodethe everlastinglongevity of our ruler, whose
far-reachingvirtue and percipience("sagelybrilliance"W) they
here so marvelouslyattest 78).
The horses of whom Hsueh Yao sang and their more famous
successors,the hundreddancinghorsesof HsuanTsung,wereun75) In one of the Han sacrificial songs, we read "The Heavenly Horses
have come,/ Having crossed the grasslessplaces.// Passing over a thousand
li,/ They have followedthe easternroad!" In the other we find that they are
"Btetted with red sweat,/ Latheredwith flowing sienna." Han sh?w,22.I060.
76) The "hallowed hymnody" of Shun was reputed to have attracted
phoenixes to come dance before him. Shang shu chv-shu,4.I6b; and Shihchi,
2.8I .
77) Again echoing one of the Han songs: "The Heavenly Horses have
come,/ Mediators of the dragon,// To wander to Ch'ang-ho,/And surview
the Jade Terrace."Han shg, 22.I06I. On the asterism Ch'ang-ho,see Huainan tzu chu, I.3, and Schafer,Pacing the Void,47.
78) The "prognostic" from the "Grea!Change" 7t @7, i.e., the I ching
4 lg, is not included in the currentedition of the text, but it was a common
classical idiom connoting long life, especially that of the sovereign. See, for
example, Shih ching I66.

264
PAUL W. KROLL
questionably the elite steeds of the empire, kept merely tor the
joy their cleverness afforded, not to be used as mounts for courtiers,
bureaucrats, soldiers, or post-riders. During Hsiian Tsung's first
dozen years on the throne, from 7I2 to 725, he oversaw an increase
in the number of state-owned horses from 240,000 to 430,000 79).
The best horses of this stock were of course reserved for service
at the capital. We know quite a bit about the care and feeding,
the pastures, the branding, even the dental chronology and the
common diseases of these "imperial" beasts 80). It is easy to imagine
the even more particular attention that must have been accorded
the monarch's personal performing troupe. The cruel fate of that
part of Hsuian Tsung's team that later passed into the hands of
the uncomprehending warlord T'ien Ch'eng-szu (recounted above)
is rendered even more pathetic, when we recall that severe penalties
were mandated by the T'ang legal code for the misuse of any
government steeds, much less those of the emperor himself 81).
Hsiuan Tsung's dancing horses are of course best remembered
for their appearances at the Thousand-Autumn Festival. However,
they did sometimes perform on occasions other than the emperor's
birthday. We know of one such occasion that took place in the
79) TCTC, 2I2.6767.
According
to this source, the T'ang state possessed
a mere three thousand steeds at its founding in 6i8, a century before.

80) See especially Ta T'ang liu-tien, II.22b-27b;
also THY, 72.1305.
Part of this information was copied into HTS, 17.12I7-I8,
1220; for a translation, see Robert des Rotours, Traite des fonctionnaires et traite de l'armee
(Leiden, I948), 218-26,
232-37. Some of it is also extracted in Schafer, The
Golden Peaches of Samarkand, 66; but Schafer's whole section on "Horses"
(pp. 58-70) furnishes important information on the general topic, particularly
on the Central Asian provenance of many of the state horses. A good survey
of the important role of the horse in the T'ang military is Li Shu-t'ung
t #, "T'ang-tai chih chiin-shih yii ma" JAft T. W tX ,, in Chung-kuo
shih-hsiieh lun-wen hsiian-chi @
:
Series 2 (Taipei, I'977),
353-406.
81) I count at least nine articles pertaining to the misuse of government
horses in the T'ang lii shu-i F{tI*i
(Shanghai, 1939; BSS ed.): IO.9I,
overloading a post-horse; 10.92, riding a post-horse off the highway or
passing a post-station without changing horses; 10.92, making a personal
present of a post-horse temporarily in one's possession; I5.12, concealing
private goods in a post-horse's baggage; I5.14, riding an unbroken government horse; 15.14, willfully slaughtering a government horse; I9.63, stealing
and then slaughtering a government horse; 25.25, fabricating credentials
to use a post-horse; 25.25, unauthorized use of a post-horse. The most serious
of these offenses-stealing and then slaughtering a state steed-called for a
sentence of two and a half years at hard labor.

265
THE DANCINGHORSESOF T ANG
ninth month of a year late in Hsuan Tsung'sreign,with female

entertainersfrom the "InstructionQuarter"(chiao-fangZ t ),
the court establishmentthat housed and trained chanteusesof
secular music82), engagingin an equestrienneregalement.This
event, which constitutedthe divertissementat a court banquet,
was celebratedin two rhapsodieswritten at the time, one by
ChingKua ZE 83), the other by Li Cho g 84). It is clearfrom
these compositionsthat the dancinghorses played a large part
in the amusement.Two otherrhapsodieson HsuanTsung'stroupe
given
have beenpreserved,in honorof a non-birthdayperformance
sometimebetween739 and 742 85). The names of the authorsof
this pairoffg havenot comedownto llS, andthe worksthemselves
are, alas, not particularlyinspiring.
A ratherobviousbut still easily overlookedfact should be remarkedhere. Since we know that dancinghorses performedfor
Hsuan Tsung from at least 729 (the year of the first ThousandAutumnFestival) to 756 (whensome are reportedto have been
by An Lu-shan),and sincehorsesseldomlive beyond
appropriated
twenty years,theremust continually,overa spanof threedecades,
have been freshsteeds admittedto the troupeand newly trained,
to fill the placesof those that died or becametoo old to perform
satisfactorily.This indicatesa concernfor what might be called
the institutionalsurvivalof the team and for the perpetuationof
82)
Kishibe,
83)
"Chi-ch'iu
46-78,
I,
all
gathers
the
on
information
pertinent
the
chiao-
fang.
Ching,
an
some
of
if
more
his
lived
fu
the
Calyx,"
also
and
on
(7
perhaps
84)
Ching
85)
to
Illustrious
used
fu,
same
the
CTW,
Thearch
739
adoptions
as
of
and
and
the
an
96
I .I
identical
On
modifications,
Divine
Blossom
and
on
Milfoil,'2
Tree
"The
"The
Lotus"
"
Instruments,
and
rhapsody
fu,
of
the
Cultured,
and
96
CTW,
first
and,
that
of
the
see
THY,
titles
I sa.
works
Militant
Divinely
various
Tsung's
I . I 4b-
these
of
Xttt%;,
Prime"
Hsuan
Li's
Wu-ma
preface
Sagely
Opened
742.
other
numerous
of
rhyme-sequence.
I 4b;
3b-
The
"The
stirred
II5.3376)
ChTS,
Loft
Musical
536.I8a/b.
of
rhyme-pattern.
emperor
the
between
their
use
(see
Among
(g1t),
that
fact
Spider."
CTW,
fu,"
make
Wu-ma
use
refers
of
both
"The
on
him
"The
"The
"Contemplating
on
77I.
in
on
"Rush-reeds"
Tree,"
ma-chi
"Nei-jen
died
Trigrams,"
Eight
curiously,
most
Kua
Both
"The
Manglietia),
or
and
of
criticism
354.IIb-I2b.
CTW,
fellow
compositions
finds
(fg)
Camphor-laurel
to
rebellion
one
fu,"
ma-chi
unambitious
colleagues
great
him,
by
nei-jen
somewhat
energetic
through
penned
kuan
ch'ao-yen,
interesting
and
I.6.

title
the
he
dates
266
PAUL W. KROLL
the entertainment they provided. They were a living symbol of

the glory of Hsiuan Tsung's court and dominion.
No one has sung the praises of these splendid animals more
beautifully than Chang Yuieh. Earlier I quoted three of his six
lyrical quatrains for the horses. He also wrote a set of three heptasyllabic lii-shih in appreciation of them. No study of the dancing
horses of T'ang would be complete without Chang's triple encomium, written in tribute of their performance at the ThousandAutumn Festival.
#I.
For the paragon born of the Heaven of Metal-a Holiday for

One Thousand Autumns!
The jade ale is shared, circulated-a toast for a myriad years
of life!
We have given ear to "The Purple Bayard," a song from the
Archive of Music;
How may it compare, though, with these prime steeds as they
dance on their floriate mound?
Curvettingin company, their conformationevokes transfigured
dragons and fishes;
In promenade prancing, their vigor concentrates a whole
column of birds and beasts.
Year upon year, in accord with tradition, on the day one
pointed to the tree,
Light and lightly, they come as companions, soaring on
felicitous clouds 86).
Some of Chang Yiieh's diction in this poem may be obscure enough

to require explication. The "paragonborn of the Heaven of Metal"
is of course HsuianTsung, born in autumn, the season ruled by the
"activity" of metal. "The Purple Bayard" (Tzu liu * a) is an
old yiieh-fu ("Archive of Music") title, to which songs on the
subject of superlative horses had been composed from at least
the early sixth century 87). But for Chang Yiieh such songs do not
compare with the reality of the extraordinary horses now before
his eyes ("prime steeds" paraphrases % R, a compound binom
alluding to Lu-erh fg , one of the eight legendary chargers of
ch'ien-ch'iu
wan-sui yiieh-fu tz'u san-shou,"
86) "Wu-ma
#1, CTS,
87.962.
87) For examples of poems on "The Purple Bayard," see Sung-pen yiueh-fu
shih chi *
(Taipei, I96I), 24.3a-5b.

267
King Mu of Chou
j E
j
, and Chi F, a thoroughbred courser of
antiquity who could gallop a thousand li in a day).

As we know, the performanceis taking place on the emperor's
birthday. But why should this be referred to as "the day one
pointed to the tree"? To understand this locution, we must
rememberthat the T'ang dynasts, surnamedLi 4, claimed descent
from Lao Tzu, whose surnamewas reputed also to be Li. According
to the fourth-century Shen-hsien chuan V$Ltf4,Lao Tzu's mother
gave birth to him beneath a plum (li 4) tree; the infant Lao Tzu,
who was able to speak immediately upon passing into this world,
pointed to the tree and declared he would take its name as his
surname 88). "The day one pointed to the tree" is thus Lao Tzu's
birthday, and since the emperor is Lao Tzu's descendant and
representative, it is understandable that his own birthday should
be regarded as symbolically equivalent to that of his putative
) of the
ancestor. Finally, the "felicitous clouds" (ch'ing yiin
poem's concluding line, upon which the horses come soaring
(like celestial steeds), are rare atmospheric vapors of five colors
which signal an era of universal tranquility 89).
The second poem of the set focuses on the horses' dance:
#2.
The Illustrious Paragon's perfect virtue is equal to that of

Heaven,
And Heavenly Horses come for this ceremony, from far west
of the sea.
Sedately striding with pasterns flexed, now they bow down on
both knees;
Though full of high mettle, they do not advance, but stamp
with a thousand hooves.
Hispid whiskers and straining manes steadily sweep in time;
As drums grow riotous, the gambading bodies now rear
abruptly upward!
And then to the end of the festal song they have winecups
clenched in their mouths,
And loll their heads and flicker their tails, getting drunk as
mud! 90)
88)
1922),
Shen-hsien chuan, in Tao tsang ching-hua lu 0

Vol. II, i.ib.
'
89) Sung shu, 29.836.

90) "Wu-ma ch'ien-ch'iu wan-sui yiieh-fu tz'u san-shou,"
87.962.

(Shanghai,
#2,
CTS,
268
PAUL W. KROLL
This is a charming depiction that needs no commentary. If one had

to select a single poem to commemorate Hsuian Tsung's dancing
horses, I think one could choose no better composition than this.
The concluding poem of the set is in the nature ot a final survey
of the scene and the occasion:
#3. Afar it is rumored, our Illuminate Sovereign loves unconventional talent;
And by jade whip and golden wings the Dragon's Mediators
have been led in.
If it not be accounted Battened White that now is here
amongst us,
Surely that must be Flying Yellow come from above the sky!
Their silhouettes play with blossoms of sunlight, in mutual
glimmer and shimmer;
Snorting breath frames cloudy hues, as they pace round to
and fro.
Let it not be said that beneath the pylons peach flowers
are dancingInstead, by the river, there are leaves of orchid now opening
out! 91).
None of the allusions here-to the "Dragon's Mediators," "Battened

White," "Flying Yellow"-should pose a problem for us any more.
In fact, we may even take some pleasure in recognizing in Chang
Yuieh's image of the horses' snorting cloud-breaths a pale shadow
of the misty green huffings of Hsiieh Yao's steeds of two decades
earlier. The poem's final couplet is a last gentle reminder of the
season in which this spectacle is being enjoyed-not spring, when
peach blossoms come forth, but autumn, when the orchid unfolds,
autumn when we and all things celebrate a holiday for the emperor.
We end, then, where we began, at the Thousand-Autumn
Festival. And, as Chang Yuieh first proposed the festival itself,
it will be fitting to let these three poems of his stand as a final
appreciation of the most outstanding performers of that celebration, the hundred dancing horses of Hsiian Tsung. No later ruler
of the T'ang was to revel in such a sight as this. The dancing horses
lived to men of after times-as they do for us-only as a fable,
part of the noble epoch that was swept away by the great rebellion
of 756.
91) "Wu-ma...,"
#3, CTS, 87.962.

PLATE I
Silver wine-flask from Hsuan Tsung's reign, decorated with dancing horse
in gold relief.
From Wen-wu, I972.1


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T'oung Pao, Vol. LXVII, 3-5