Page 226 - CHRISTIE'S Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art 09/14 - 15 / 17

Fig. 1. Polo game, detail of a mural from the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai (AD 655-684). After Tangmu bihua zhenping-Zhanghuai taizi mu bihua (Treasures of Tang Mural Paintings from
the Tomb of Prince Zhanghuai), Beijing, 2002, p. 30, fg. 14.
Polo was even the subject of poetry in the Tang dynasty, and such a poem by
the literatus Han Yu (韓愈 AD 768-824), is entitled Poem to Commander Zhang
at the meeting of the Bian and Si Rivers. The poem describes a smooth polo
feld, one thousand steps in length, with low walls on three sides, and refers to
the ball as ‘the divine bead’. In the poem, the game takes place before sunrise
on a cold autumn morning, and drums are sounded when the red fags are
raised to signal the beginning of the match. The poem goes on to describe
the ferce contest between the players and the excitement of the onlookers. It
ends by pointing out that this is not a game for fun, but is military training, and with a veil. This head-gear was, unsurprisingly, discarded when they played
fnally notes the scarcity of loyal oficers and suggests that they are kept for
fghting real enemies. However, even scholars played polo in the Tang dynasty
and in the latter years of the dynasty it was customary for the successful
candidates in the national civil service examinations to host a polo tournament
in celebration. Records indicate that in AD 877 a team of scholars even beat a
military team, to the chagrin of the latter.
It is reported in several texts that during the reign of Zhongzong (r. AD 705-10),
on the occasion of a marriage between a Chinese princess and a Tibetan
king in AD 709, the Tibetans challenged the Chinese to a game of polo in the
palace grounds. The emperor took up the challenge and a four-man Chinese
royal team, comprising one of his nephews, who was to be the future Emperor
Xuanzong (r. AD 712-56), two of the emperor’s sons and another nephew,
defeated the ten-man Tibetan team. Indeed, historical texts praise the skill of
the future Emperor Xuanzong.
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As mentioned above, the polo player in the current ceramic sculpture is
female, and it is noteworthy that in the Tang dynasty women enjoyed much
greater freedom than they would in later dynasties. Nevertheless, as in the
Han dynasty, the riding of horses during the Tang dynasty was restricted by an
imperial edict of AD 667 to military personnel and court oficials. In the early
Tang period, women generally travelled in small carriages pulled by oxen, but
by the middle of the dynasty they also rode horses – riding astride, wearing
western-style clothing with ftted jacket, accompanied by a wide-brimmed hat
polo, and was generally omitted from their outfts later in the dynasty. Indeed,
when playing polo, the dress of women was essentially similar to that of men.
Women from among the Tang elite must have played polo on a regular basis,
and are depicted not only in ceramic sculptures, but also on bronze mirrors
of the period, where their long, hooked polo sticks can clearly be seen. As
the sticks of ceramic fgures would have been made of wood, they have not
survived on the majority of ceramic sculptures. Female polo players were
praised by the Tang poet Wang Jian (王建 c. AD 767–830). Wang particularly
noted their skill in executing backhand shots, which is what the female rider in
the current piece appears to be doing. While it is not certain, records appear to
suggest that in the Tang dynasty male and female players did not play on the
same team. In fact, it seems that court ladies only played with the emperor,
relatives, and certain other approved male members of the court. However, it is
probable that some mixed games would have taken place.
Models of horses such as this one, representing as they did wealth and power,
played a signifcant part in emphasising the importance of the occupant of the
tomb in which they were placed. The current model is not only extremely rare
amongst sancai fgures both for the powerful and dramatic stance of the horse,
but also for the agile grace of its female rider.