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Power and Agility – A Tang Dynasty Sancai Polo Player
Rosemary Scott, Senior International Academic Consultant Asian Art
Amongst the most dynamic ceramic sculptures ever produced in China
are those from the Tang dynasty, which, like the current example, depict
polo players riding at full gallop and stretching out from the saddle to swing
their mallets. The powerful sense of movement of the horse and the athletic
balance of the rider are perfectly captured by the ceramic artist. The horse’s
legs are extended front and back, in a movement known as ventre à terre, which
emphasizes the impression of speed, while the rider twists from the waist with
arm raised to strike the ball.
The horse has long made a signifcant contribution to life in China and to the
present day remains an important part of the lives of those inhabiting China’s
northern steppes. It is thought that the domestication of the horse in China
began in the Neolithic period, and it is from this time that the earliest artistic
representations of horses have been found. Horses are shown in considerable
variety and number among cave paintings dating to both the Neolithic and the
Bronze Age from Inner Mongolia and Gansu province, while stone carvings
showing life-like horses have been found at Bronze Age sites at Bayan Urad,
Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia. At the same site a carving showing a man
riding a horse has been found (illustrated by University Museum and Art
Gallery, Hong Kong in Heavenly Horses, Hermès, Hong Kong, 1997, nos. 4-6).
From this time onward there developed a spiritual and artistic fascination
with horses in China. Horses were valued, not only as animals which could be
ridden, but as dray animals and, perhaps most importantly, as creatures of war.
The use of horses to draw war chariots and as steeds for cavalry proved crucial
in China’s internal and external conficts. The Chinese belief in the afterlife
and the concern with providing the deceased with those items essential for his
or her well-being in the world after death has ensured that abundant evidence
has been preserved attesting to the importance of the horse in ancient China.
The royal tombs of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1100 BC) at Xibeigang include
burials of real horses, chariots and charioteers, all of whom were interred with
their masters in order to serve them in the afterlife. This gruesome practice
was replaced in later periods by the interment of models in clay, wood or
bronze. The most famous excavation of such models is undoubtedly the huge
ceramic army made to accompany the First Emperor of China (Qin Shihuang)
to the grave in the third century BC. This army, found in Lintong County near
Xi’an in Shaanxi province, included life-size soldiers and horses, all carefully
modelled and painted. The First Emperor was also provided with bronze
chariots. Although these are only three-quarter size, the imperial chariots,
horses and charioteers are masterpieces of the metalworker’s craft, showing
every tiny detail including that of the harnesses (see Li Xixing (ed.), The Shaanxi popular activity at the Tang court and was played by both men and women.
Bronzes, Shaanxi People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, Xi’an, 1994, pp. 330-2).
During the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the famed Ferghana horses were
introduced into central China from the West. These revered horses were
known for their speed, power and stamina, and were sometimes referred to
as ‘blood-sweating’ horses, or ‘thousand li horses’, after the belief that they
were able to cover a thousand li in a single day. These Ferghana horses were
crossed with other breeds, such as the Mongolian-type horses of China’s
northern regions. In the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) horses were regarded as
essential to military capability and the defence of the realm, and their breeding
was considered of national importance. At the beginning of the Tang dynasty
China’s horse population was at a very low level but through an elaborate
system of stud farms the number of horses was raised from 5,000 to 706,000
during the frst ffty years of the dynasty. The stud farms were established
in Gansu, Shanxi and Shaanxi, each ideally with 50,000 horses, which were
assigned to herds of 120 animals. The horses were also carefully crossed
with various breeds from diferent parts of central Asia in order to achieve the
perfect blend of strength and agility. It is also signifcant that in AD 703 the
Tang court received several fne Arab horses. Virginia Bowers has noted that:
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“The most prized mounts for battle, hunting, and polo were quite large,
perhaps sixteen hands. They had a heavier frame than today’s thoroughbreds
yet their thin legs, agility, and lively manner made them diferent from
present-day draft horses. A contemporary polo player was amazed that the
‘heavy’ horses depicted in the mural in Crown Prince Zhanghuai’s tomb could
be so nimble. These Tang horses ... have the same heavy body and ‘Roman’
nose – quite diferent from today’s classic Arabian horses – as the horses
ridden by the Sasamans, and many authorities speculate that they were all
descendants of the famous ‘imperial’ Nisean breed of Achaemenid Persia, as
pictured at Persepolis.” (Virginia Bower, ‘Polo in Tang China – Sport and Art’,
Asian Art, Winter 1991, pp. 27, 32.) The horse depicted in the current ceramic
sculpture therefore represents the results of a carefully managed imperial
breeding programme.
The Han and Tang periods were both characterized by major artistic
achievements and among the visual arts of both periods, depictions of horses
provide some of the fnest examples. During the Han dynasty large unglazed
pottery horses were made in the south west of China in Sichuan province.
Smaller wooden or ceramic horses were often painted with cold pigments,
while bronze horses, such as the so-called ‘fying horse’ found in 1969 near
the city of Wuwei in Gansu province, brought horse sculpture to a new level.
However, the most universally admired ceramic horses are those, like the
current example, which were made for the tombs of the Tang dynasty elite.
These horses, representing wealth and power, played a signifcant part in
emphasising the importance of the occupant of the tomb. These were not
just war horses or horses used for transport, but were also horses ridden for
leisure pursuits – most importantly hunting and polo. The ceramic horses of
the Tang dynasty were either decorated with sancai (three-colour) glazes or
were unglazed and cold-painted. Both techniques were extremely successful,
but the sancai glazes, seen on the current fgure, produced brilliant, lasting
colours, emphasizing the horses’ powerful bodies. The horses depicted, as
noted above, combine power and agility - qualities which are brought out by
the ceramic artist.
Although a 3rd century AD poem by the Chinese poet Cao Zhi (曹植AD
192–232) mentions hitting a ball on horseback, and a mural in the circa AD 584
tomb of Xu Minxing in Shandong province depicts a man mounting a horse
while holding what appears to be polo sticks, the frst clear written evidence
of polo in China dates to the Tang dynasty, when the game was referred to as
jiqiu (擊球 strike ball). Today the game is more usually referred to as maqiu
(馬球 horse ball) or damaqiu (打馬球strike horse ball). Polo was a particularly
The rider on the current horse is female. Polo was specifcally encouraged
by two Tang emperors, Taizong (r. AD 626-649) and Xuanzong (r. AD 712-
56). It was not only seen as an exciting game, but as being excellent for the
development of certain useful skills, which, in the case of the young men of
the court, could be applied to military activities. It is signifcant that a spirited
polo match, involving more than 20 horsemen, is depicted in a mural on one
side of the entrance tunnel to the tomb of Li Xian Crown Prince Zhanghuai,
dated circa AD 706 (see The Silk Road- Treasures of Tang China, The Empress
Place Museum, Singapore, 1991, p. 74). (Fig.1) Zhanghuai was ordered to
commit suicide by his mother Empress Wu Zetian in AD 684, but after his
brother Zhongzong came to the throne in AD 705, Zhanghuai was reinterred
at the Qianling Mausoleum northwest of the capital Xi’an in AD 706 with full
honours. The mural in his tomb shows the players using stirrups, which is not
always the case for Tang equestrians, but which can clearly be seen on the
current ceramic fgure. More signifcantly, the mural’s appearance in this royal
tomb is indicative of the importance of polo at the Tang court of the early
8th century.