Reflections, Disputes, and Warnings: Three Medieval Chinese Poems about Paintings of the Eight Horses of King Mu

Abstract

People of the T'ang dynasty loved fine horses. Caught up in the romantic image of heavenly horses from the far west who sweated blood and could gallop thousands of miles in a single day, they depicted horses in every medium. Three-color pottery horses grace the tombs of the nobility. T'ang royal tombs contain murals showing hunters and polo players riding. One famous set of six stone relief sculptures portrays the favorite horses of the founder of the T'ang dynasty) A painter such as Han Kan t$~ could make his whole reputation with pictures of horses. Poets also loved to describe horses, and sometimes even wrote about paintings of horses. Perhaps the most popular and well-known group of horses in T'ang times was the eight coursers ofKing Mu of the Chou dynasty (r. 1001-946 B.C.) 1m f!.:E i ~. This article examines three T'ang poems on the subject of King Mu's horses. T'ang painters and writers frequently drew upon the story of King Mu of the Chou dynasty. King Mu's tale appears in its fullest form in the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan f! 7C ~ ffJ (Transmissions Concerning Mu, the Son of Heaven), which dates to perhaps the third century A.D. In that account the king sets offwith two chariots drawn by eight fine steeds, on a questing and rule-asserting journey to the far west, to lands beyond Chinese knowledge. On the cosmicMount K'un-Iun ~ ~, beside the Turquoise Pond Jt i-l!!., he encounters the Taoist goddess known as the Queen Mother of the West I§ .:E -Rt. They exchange toasts and melancholy poems. He requests the secrets of immortality which she alone possesses. But in the end he returns to his people and duties in the Middle Kingdom, and eventually dies there. The Mu T'ien-tzu chuan recounts the horses' names and positions in harness, and describes them in loving detail. King Mu had obtained the horses from Father Tsao ~ Sl,who accompanied him as charioteer on his journey to the west, and who was handsomely rewarded for his