Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
THE HORSE IN CHINA.
The China pony plays so important a part in the life of foreigners in the East that a short account of the antecedents of this famous animal in past ages may not be without its interest to our readers. In spite of the general inferiority it presents to its confrères of Arabia and the West, its culture has always been an object of considerable attention and solicitude among the Chinese; and though no one who sees the shaggy, unkempt brutes, with their tawdry garniture and jingling necklaces of bells, which are used by the gentry, soldiery, and mandarindom of the empire, is likely to form a very high idea of either the value set upon the animals or the care bestowed upon their welfare, the fact remains that they occupy a high place in the national esteem, and inherit all the prestige which four thousand years of national existence can confer upon them.
Now, apart from the assertion—which we are in no way bound to believe—that horses existed as early as the time of Fu Hsi, there is ample evidence in the Classics that they were both known and used in that golden age of China's history immediately preceding the establishment of the dynasty of Hsia. We read in the Shu Ching of the milk-white steeds which were harnessed to the chariot of Yao; and unless we belong to those who see in the name of this great sovereign no more than an impersonation of Heaven, we need not hesitate to accept the correlative inference that the animals referred to were the flesh-and-blood progenitors of the horses we drive to-day. Under the Emperor Yü and his successors the horse seems to have been regularly trained to the exercises of the battlefield, the labours of agriculture, and the excitement of the chase. In the dynasty of Chou it became the subject of special legislation. Horses were divided into six classes, viz., those for the Emperor and nobility, those to be used in war, those for draught and field labour, those for government posts, those for private riding or journeying, and those for carrying burdens. To the Emperor alone were assigned no fewer than forty thousand war-horses; to the princes and other nobles a smaller number, regulated according to their rank. The art of horsemanship was at this time greatly cultivated and admired. No man was permitted to become a cavalry soldier before the age of thirty-five, or to remain such after fifty. It was necessary for him to be tall, robust, and strong, active, and firm in his saddle. "The good rider," it was said, "is glued to his horse like bark to a tree, and characterised by the rapidity of lightning, the immobility of a rock, and the lightness of a feather." As long as this warlike spirit was kept up, and a simple hardy life recognised as that most honourable to the man of rank, the breed and mettle of horses were preserved at a high standard; but when a spirit of sloth and luxury began to prevail, and internal dissensions disturbed the general tranquillity, the animals became the objects of a pampering and indulgent system which was attended by the most pernicious results. Not only were the horses themselves demoralised, but the people were actually impoverished by the enormous levies laid upon the land for the fodder necessary to their maintenance; insomuch that a certain scholar is said to have frankly told the Emperor that, for his part, he would far sooner be a viceroy's horse than a viceroy's secretary. Nor was this all: the unwholesome luxury in which the horses were reared, and the vast numbers of them which were appropriated to the imperial use, resulted first in the degeneracy of the breed, and then in an alarming mortality. So serious was the mischief which had taken place during the dynasty of Han, that when Kao Tsu, the first T'ang Emperor, ascended the throne, it was found that the entire cavalry of China consisted but of five thousand horses, all told. When he died he left his successor in a position to collect seven hundred thousand from the different provinces of his realm; and before long the stock of horses had so much increased that it was said they were actually more numerous than all the camels, sheep, and cattle in the land. Then the old abuses gradually crept back; corruption became rife in those departments of state to which was confided the care and maintenance of the Government studs; epidemics broke out among the animals; and when, at the close of the thirteenth century, the dynasty of Sung was overthrown by the Mongol hordes, the supply was found entirely inadequate to resist the charge of the invading cavalry. It was the horses of the Mongols which conquered China; but so badly did the humid atmosphere suit the animals themselves, and so widespread was the corruption practised by the native cavalry inspectors, that, when the Yuens were ousted in their turn, they actually found themselves without sufficient horses on which to take to flight.
Such being the violent fluctuations which have characterised the fortunes of the horse in China, it may not be uninteresting to turn to the theories current among the Chinese with respect to the proper treatment of the animal. Horses, be it first observed, are said to be subject to the principle Yang, and under the influence of fire. It is therefore necessary that all their stables should face the south. It is also obvious that, for the same reason, no horse should ever be reared in the neighbourhood of silkworms; for silkworms are subject to the opposing principle Yin, and under the influence of stars whose action is at direct variance with that of the stars which govern horses; and it is impossible to say what dire results might accrue to both were these hostile agencies ever allowed to clash. Indeed, a man has only to rub a horse's teeth with silkworms' droppings to prevent him from masticating his hay, while a few mulberry-leaves will, if placed in his mouth, deprive him of the power of eating for ever afterwards. The smallness of a horse's ears, say the Chinese naturalists, indicates a corresponding smallness of his liver; the size of his nostrils, that of his lungs, and consequent staying power in a race; the largeness of his eyes, that of his heart—arguing courage and spirit; while a small stomach is a sure sign that he requires but little food. A horse has no gall; which, it is scarcely necessary to add, is the reason he is so constantly subject to sore eyes. He hates galloping with the wind behind him, but enjoys it when it blows in his teeth. He is believed also to have a strong objection to cinders, particularly fresh ones; and if he is kept long standing he will get ulcers in his legs. When he rolls in the dust and does not get up again, that is a sign that his bones ache; if on rising he does not shake off the dust, there is something the matter with his skin; if he shakes it off, but fails to snort through his nostrils, his chest is out of order. The maladies to which the horse is most subject are those of the heart, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, and the kidneys. When his heart is wrong the tongue becomes bright red; when his stomach is wrong his lips become discoloured, and have an appearance of laughing; while the other diseases manifest their existence in a variety of ways, all equally relevant and unmistakable. It is, therefore, highly desirable that in the treatment of horses no violence should be done to their natural constitution. That this excellent rule is, however, but seldom observed in its integrity is sufficiently proved by the fact that many horses die before the age of thirty-one, such being the average age of the quadruped as intended by nature. The longer the period of gestation, say the Chinese, the longer the life of the animal; and horses, who have a period of twelve months, live half the life of a man, and twice that of an ox. In order, therefore, to prolong the life of a horse to its full extent three things are necessary. The first is, that a horse should never be transported from the country where he is indigenous to any other. The Tartar horses, it is said, languish and die when carried into the warm, humid provinces of the South; the enervating climate and more generous food work great mischiefs in an animal accustomed to the bracing air and hardy life of the deserts of the West. This was specially found to be the case on one occasion—in the T'ang dynasty, we believe—when the vanquished Tartars were compelled to pay tribute to the Chinese in horses. The animals not only sickened themselves, but introduced a terrible epidemic among the horses of the country—a fact which was attributed to bad faith on the part of the Tartars, until experience and observation disclosed the true reason. The second is, that a stop should be put to the practices of gelding and of working mares in foal, one of which has a bad effect upon the present generation, and the other upon their descendants. The third and last is, that a horse should be always continued in the duties to which he was originally trained. The hack should not be turned into a beast of burden, nor the charger into a beast of draught. If this is done, say the Chinese veterinaries—as in England, for instance, where many a fine racer ends his days between the shafts of a London cab—the animal will most assuredly come to grief. It is related, as a case in point, that in the T'ang dynasty a certain man had trained his horse to dance and caper in time to the cadences of music—an accomplishment which was considered very wonderful in those days, and brought in a fair amount of money. But one morning the owner died at a village near Hankow, whither he was taking his horse to perform at a great fair then being held; and the animal had to be sold in order to procure a coffin for the deceased. He was purchased by a petty mandarin, who, being unaware of his terpsichorean talents, shut him up in a stable with a couple of mules and an ass. But the confinement was intolerable to the poor beast. He had done nothing but dance all his life, and as he was unable to follow out what was really his second nature without restraint, relieved his feelings as best he might by capering in his stall. The mules and the ass resented this extraordinary behaviour, which naturally interfered with their own peace and comfort; and the owner, fancying that the animal must be mad, sold him to a neighbouring butcher, who disposed of him, no doubt, for the good of his customers in general.