Ferghana horse

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Ferghana horses were one of China's earliest major imports, originating in an area in Bactria. These horses, as depicted in Tang Dynasty pottery representations of them, "resemble the animals on the golden medal of Eucratide, King of Bactria (Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris)."^[1]

Coin showing Eucratide of Bactria and his horse

Bactria was a nation in present-day Afghanistan, and even as early as the Han Dynasty, China projected its military power to that distant realm. The Han imperial regime required Ferghana horses and imported such great numbers of them that the rulers of Bactria closed their borders to such trade. That move resulted in a war that China won. In 102 CE, the Chinese required of the defeated Bactrians that they provide at least one hundred of their finest horses for breeding purposes, and three thousand Ferghana horses of ordinary quality.^[2]

Chinese statuary and paintings, as well as the Bactrian coin shown above, indicate that these horses had legs that were proportionally short, powerful crests, and round barrels. The forelegs of the Chinese depictions are very straight, resembling the Guoxia (果下,under the fruit [trees] pinyin gǔo xìa or Wade-Giles kuo³ hsia⁴) horse of present-day China.

According to tradition, these horses sweat blood, hence the Chinese name: 汗血馬 (hàn xǐe mǎ, "sweats blood horse"). Modern authorities believe that blood-sucking parasites caused sweat to get mixed with blood when the horses were worked.

[edit] Other images

One of the famous horses of the Taizong Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, it may be descended from the earlier imported Ferghana horses.

Tang Dynasty statuary horse.

[edit] Footnotes

^ See p. 39 of Lida L. Fleitmann's, The Horse in Art, William Farquhar Payson (publishing company), New York, 1931.
^ Fleitmann, p. 39

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