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Appendix V. The Blood-Sweating Horses of
Ferghana
The sending, by Emperor Wu, of an expedition to
secure these horses has been one of the romances of history. Their nature has
been much discussed. HS 96 A: 37a, b = de Groot, Die
Westlande Chinas, p. 110 says, concerning Ferghana (Ta-Yüan), "Its horses sweat
blood, and it is said that their forbears were foaled from heavenly horses.
Chang Ch'ien first told Emperor Wu about them. The Emperor sent an envoy, [Ch'ê
Ling], bearing [the equivalent of] a thousand [catties of] gold, together with
a golden horse, in order to ask for the fine horses of Ferghana, [but] the King
of Ferghana thought that China was not contiguous [with his own land] and was
distant, so that a great army could not reach him. He loved his precious horses
and [so] was unwilling to give [them to the Chinese]. The Chinese envoy said
something improper, so [the people of] Ferghana attacked and killed the Chinese
envoy and took his valuables. Thereupon [in Oct., 104 B.C. (6: 31b)], the Son
of Heaven sent the General of Sutrishna (Erh-shih) [which city was where these
horses were located], Li Kuang-li, to punish Ferghana, leading, in his former
and later [expeditions], more than a hundred thousand men. In the fourth
consecutive year [of the campaign], the people of Ferghana beheaded their King,
Wu-ku, and presented [to the Chinese] three thousand head of horses. The
Chinese troops accordingly returned. A discussion is in the `Memoir of Chang
Ch'ien [and Li Kuang-li; 61: 6, 8-14]." (The fundamental account is to be found
in SC 123: 32-42 = de Groot, ibid., 35-45. An account of these expeditions will be found
in the Glossary, sub Li Kuang-li.)
As to the name, "heavenly horses,"
SC 123: 24 = HS 61: 6a = de
Groot, ibid., p. 28 contains a significant statement:
"Previously [before the Wu-sun had sent Emperor Wu some of their horses as
tribute], the Son of Heaven had the Book of History and
the Book of Changes [text doubtful] opened [in divination, and the diviner] had
said, `Supernatural horses will presently come from the northwest.' When
[Emperor Wu] secured the horses from the Wu-sun, he liked [for them] the name,
`heavenly horses.' But when he secured the Ferghanan horses that sweat blood,
which are even hardier [than the Wu-sun horses], he changed the name of the
Wu-sun horses and called them `the horses from the western extremity [of the
empire' and] called the Ferghanan horses, `the heavenly horses.' " Thus the
statement that these horses from Ferghana were "foaled from
heavenly horses" probably arose from a fancy of Emperor Wu's. (The name is from
Shan-hai-ching 3: 9b.)
Li Kuang-li made two expeditions to secure these
horses. The first expedition was unsuccessful, because of inadequate
preparation. The company returned more than a year later, with only one or
two-tenths of its members. Li Kuang-li was then sent out again, and was
successful in getting the nobles of Ferghana to kill their King and offer the
Chinese their horses, of which Li Kuang-li selected several tens of the best
and more than three thousand ordinary stallions and mares. He returned in the
spring of 101 B.C., bringing back successfully only a thousand horses. In the
present account I shall endeavor merely to present the evidence concerning the
nature of these horses and of their blood-sweating.
To begin with, we consider the early evidence
concerning them. The first poem to the heavenly horses in HS 22: 26a, b, begins,
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"A gift from the Supreme One---the heavenly horses
have been sent down.
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They are dampened by a red sweat---their foam flows
red."
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HS 22: 26b credits this poem
to the horse secured from the Wu-wa River in 113 B.C. (The reference however
gives an incorrect date, so that this attribution is doubtful; from the true
nature of the "red sweat," it is however possible that the Wu-wa horse also
contracted this disease.) Only in the second poem is unambiguous reference made
to the Ferghana horses. In that poem, the only detail regarding the
characteristics of the horses is the line:
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"He had a double spine, [protruding like] a
tiger's."
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The implication is that these horses were very
spirited. (Cf. Mh III, 620 for a translation of these
poems.) HHS, Mem. 32: 13a (by Fan Yeh, 389-445) quotes a
letter of Emperor Chang, dated in 78 A.D., in which he orders sent to two sons
of Emperor Kuang-wu, "a pair of Ferghanan horses, whose blood comes out through
small holes above their front shoulder-blades. You have formerly heard, in the
song of Emperor Wu, that the heavenly horses were `dampened by a red sweat,'
and now you yourselves may see that it was true."
Ying Shao (ca. 140-206), in a note to
HS 6: 32b, says, "In Ferghana from ancient times there
has been a race of heavenly horses. [They are able to] tread upon stones, and
they sweat blood. Their sweat comes out from their front shoulder-blades like
blood. They are called [horses able to travel] a thousand li in one day." Since
in ancient times horses were not shod, except with straw or leather, and since
horses bred upon the plains would wear out their hoofs in long journeys (which
was the reason the Chinese armies needed such large supplies of horses),
mountain-bred horses with firmer hoofs who could travel farther
without needing rest for their feet to recuperate would be a great economy to
the imperial purse and would give a decided advantage to the Chinese
cavalry.
Some mythology has grown up about these
blood-sweating horses. Hsü Sung (1781-1848; this passage is quoted by Shen
Ch'in-han in a note to HS 96 A: 37a) notes that the
Yi-wen Lei-chü (by Ou-yang Hsün, 557-641) quotes the
Shen-yi Ching (attributed
to Tung-fang So, but probably composed some time in 265-618) as saying, "In the
southwest, in Ferghana and Yüan-ch'iu, there are fine horses. They are twenty
feet tall. Their manes reach to their knees; their tails sweep the ground; and
their hoofs are like a thick wrist. They can travel a thousand li by the
setting of the sun. When the sun is at its height, they sweat blood." (The
present text of the Shen-yi Ching, p. 14b, 15a, is however significantly
different, "In the great wilderness of the southwest there are horses, [etc.].
. . . Their whiskers reach their knees, [etc.]. . . . They can grasp the sun
and travel a thousand li; when they reach the sun, they are wounded and sweat
blood. [The person] who rides [in a carriage drawn by them] must bind his head
with floss in order to avoid becoming ill with the wind, [but] the people of
that country do not bind [their heads]." From the construction of the book, the
first words of the present passage cannot have originally been "In the
southwest, in Ferghana," but must have been, "In the great wilderness of the
southwest.")
The true nature of this blood-sweating may be
determined. Shen Ch'in-han (1775-1832) remarks caustically, "The stronger and
sturdier horses of the present Ili constantly have small sores in front of
their shoulder-blades and on their back, which [sores] exude blood. They are
said to have been hurt by an emanation 傷氣. [These sores] are necessarily on the
front of their shoulder-blades, because they are worked very hard. The earlier
commentators did not [use] their eyes to investigate [this matter], hence did
not understand its details."
Langdon Warner (in The Long Old Road in China, p.
124, 125) tells of securing near Tun-huang, Kansu, four Chinese Turkestan
ponies which bled from various sores after a day's work and was told that all
the western ponies did that and that it never for a moment slowed them down. He
adds, "No traveler who had once used these sturdy, patient little beasts could
fail to associate them with this curious disease, probably the result of some
parasitic insect." Mr. C. W. Bishop suggested to me that this was the same
phenomenon as that shown by the "blood-sweating" horses brought from
Ferghana.
Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, Assistant Chief of the
Zoological Division, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, suggests in a
letter that this disease "is produced by a nematode now known as Parafiliaria
multipapillosa and formerly known as Filiaria haemorrhagica. These parasites
occur under the skin of horses and other equines and produce in various parts
of the skin small hemorrhages. The lesions consist of hemispherical elevations
about the size of a pea. In about two hours after the elevations are formed, an
opening appears at the summit of the elevation; from this opening there exudes
blood which mats the hair surrounding the lesion. The lesions occur on the
shoulder, on the back, and in other locations." Perhaps the famous
"blood-sweating" Nesaean horses, mentioned by Greek writers as having bred in
the upland pastures of Media (northeast of Ecbatana; cf. Herodotus III, 106;
Strabo XI, 13, 7; 14, 9; Pliny, Hist. Nat. VI, 25 (29), 44) for the use of the
Great Kings of Persia, with which these Ferghanan horses have sometimes been
identified, had these same parasites.
Mr. Bishop has studied the evidence offered by Han
sculptures concerning the difference between the type of Chinese horse before
and after the introduction of this breed from central Asia. He says that before
this time, Chinese horses were small, with large heads, coarse extremities, a
ewe neck, and an inclination to paunchiness. This breed is still to be met with
in out of the way places in China, Japan, and Korea. The type represented in
the latter part of the Han dynasty is stocky, with a well-developed barrel,
thick neck, short legs, and well-shaped head. It is also shown on a gold medal
struck by Eucratides, a Graeco-Bactrian king of the second century A.D., and in
the famous bas-reliefs of T'ang T'ai-tsung's chargers. It was apparently the
same breed which the central Asian explorer, Vambery, found among certain
tribes of Turkomans, and which he describes as being distinguished less for
size and speed than for strength and endurance. [Cf. C. W. Bishop, "The Horses
of T'ang T'ai-tsung," in Museum Journal, pub. by University Museum, University
of Pennsylvania, Sept.-Dec. 1918, pp. 244-272, which contains excellent
illustrations; also W. P. Yetts, "The Horse: A Factor in Early Chinese
History," Eurasia Septentrionalis Antiqua 9: (1934) 231 ff.] It is thus
possible to determine both the nature of the horses secured by Emperor Wu and
the reason for the curious epithet, "blood-sweating." (Cf. J. J. M. de Groot,
Die Westlande Chinas, pp. 35-45; for the western Asiatic source of these
horses, cf. W. W. Tarn, Hellenistic Military and Naval Developments, pp. 78-83,
156-9.)
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