Tang Dynasty Horses Danced for the Emperor
Emperor Xuanzong's Famous Horses Performed at the Autumn Festival
Aug 31, 2009
A time of peace, prosperity, and trade for the Chinese people came during the Tang Dynasty, which began in 618 A.D.The Chinese capital, Chang'an, was a thriving city of over a million people from all over northern and eastern Asia. During the reign of emperor Xuanzong (also called Taizong), who ruled from 712 to 756 A.D. poetry, art, and trade flourished along hundreds of miles of the trade route known as the Silk Road.
The Importance of Equine Power
In those days, horses were vital to a successful civilization. They were necessary for getting from place to place and for pulling carts and wagons as well as for riding. For hundreds of years before the Tang Dynasty took hold, tribes from the north had terrorized the Chinese largely because of their larger, stronger horses.
By around 729, Emperor Xuanzong had made peace and political connections with these peoples, and he had acquired superior horses from them. Every year, he showed off his great steeds during the "Thousand-Autumn Holiday" as part of a public birthday celebration that included elephants and rhinoceroses as well as horses and which lasted well into the night.
Xuanzong's Dancing Horses
The dancing horses provided a highlight of the festival. A hundred horses divided into four equal groups, wearing silken cloths with delicate embroidery and bridles of silver and gold, shook their pearl - and - jade-studded manes as they danced to the "Tune of the Tilted Cup."
The horses knew more than twenty different steps. While they pranced, tossed their manes, swished their tails, and reared up in perfect unison, four bands of handsome young men dressed in bright yellow shirts and wearing jade-studded belts surrounded them and played their music.
At one point in the performance, the horses climbed to the top of a three-tiered platform and continued to turn and twirl. Toward the end of the performance, each horse held a wine cup in its teeth. As the music grew to a climax, the horses raised their heads as if drinking wine, then wobbled their heads and collapsed as if drunk.
Surviving Evidence
For a long time, the only evidence available of Xuanzong's extravagant birthday party was the translation by Arthur Waley of a piece written by Cheng Ch'u-Hui around 850 A.D. describing the horses and their dancing. This account appears in The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces, published by Unwin in 1952.
In 1970, a silver pot about six inches tall was uncovered in a suburb of the modern city of Xi'an, which stands on the site of Chang'an, capital of the Tang Dynasty. On each side of the pot is a beautiful gilded image of a dancing horse with a flowing neck cloth holding a cup between its teeth, strong evidence, if not proof, that Xuanzong's dancing horses did, indeed, exist. This exquisite piece is considered to be a national treasure of China.
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