Tianma

See also: Ferghana horse

For other uses, see Tianma (disambiguation).

Liu Song dynasty brick-relief of a Tianma

Flying Horse, East Han dynasty.Bronze. Gansu Provincial Museum.

Tianma (天馬Tiānmǎ, "heavenly horse") was a winged (perhaps metaphorically) flying horse in Chinese folklore.

Mythology

The Tianma is a flying horse that was sometimes depicted with chimerical features such as dragon scales and was at times attributed the ability to sweat blood, possibly inspired by the parasite Parafilaria multipapillosa , ^[1] which infected the highly sought-after Ferghana horse (大宛馬), sometimes conflated with Tianma. Tianma, the flying horse, is clearly connected to Pegasus from the Western Han dynasty artwork ^[2] and in the Tang dynasty sources, as coming from Hellenized Central Asia. ^[3]

In the Western Zhou Empire, Tianma referred to a constellation. ^[4] Tianma is also associated with Emperor Wu of Han, an aficionado of the Central Asian horse, ^[5] and the famous poet Li Bo. ^[6] The bronze statue Gansu Flying Horse is a well-known example.

See also

• Han–Xiongnu War
• Horse in Chinese mythology
• Shanghai Tianma Circuit

References

1. Schafer 1985, p. 295, note 19.
2. "19.07.26.segalen".
3. Lucas Christopoulos, Hellenes and Romans in ancient China Sino-Platonic papers. n.230, p38.
4. Rutt, Richard (2002). The book of changes (Zhouyi): a Bronze Age document. Routledge. p. 331. ISBN   0-7007-1491-X.
5. Kuwayama, George (1997). Chinese Ceramics in Colonial Mexico. University of Hawaii Press. p. 32. ISBN   0-87587-179-8.
6. Wong, Laurence (2019). Thus Burst Hippocrene: Studies in the Olympian Imagination. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 269. ISBN   9781527526150.

• Schafer, Edward H. (1985). The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-05462-2.
• Weng, Wan-go; Yang Boda (1982). The Palace Museum: Peking. New York: Abrams.