Ferghana horses () were one of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

's earliest major imports, originating in an area in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

. These horses, as depicted in

Tang dynasty tomb figures Tang dynasty tomb figures are pottery figures of people and animals made in the Tang dynasty of China (618–906) as grave goods to be placed in tombs. There was a belief that the figures represented would become available for the service of the ...

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a c ...

, may "resemble the animals on the golden medal of Eucratides, King of

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, sou ...

(Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris)." The Ferghana horse is also known as the "heavenly horse" in China or the Nisean horse in the West.

Ancient history

As early as the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

, China projected its military power into the

Indo-Greek kingdom The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent (p ...

Dayuan Dayuan (or Tayuan; ; Middle Chinese ''dâiC-jwɐn'' <

LHC

: ''dɑh-ʔyɑn'') is the Chinese

Ferghana Valley The Fergana Valley (; ; ) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the ...

of present-day Central Asia. The Han imperial regime required Ferghana horses in such great numbers that the rulers of Ferghana closed their borders to such trade, resulting in the Han–Dayuan War, which China won. In 102 AD, the Chinese required the defeated Ferghana to provide at about thirty "Superior Horses" prized for breeding and three thousand Ferghana horses of "middling or lower quality." Sinologist

Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were t ...

in his article ''The Heavenly Horses of Ferghana'' made the important distinction between the two types of horses that

Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign last ...

had sought: the few divine ones to satisfy his spiritual needs; and the many sturdier mounts required to continuously replenish and build up his cavalry. Chinese statuary and paintings, as well as the Bactrian coin, indicate that these horses may have had legs that were proportionally short, powerful crests, and round barrels. The forelegs of the Chinese depictions are very straight, resembling the Guoxia horse of present-day China. According to tradition, these horses sweated blood, giving rise to the name "sweats blood horse" (in ). Modern authorities believe that blood-sucking parasites caused sweat to mix with blood when the horses were worked.

Modern researchers, Mair notes, have come up with two different ideas or the ancient Chinese references to the "Blood-sweating" horses of Ferghana The first suggests that small subcutaneous blood vessels burst as the horses sustained a long hard gallop. The second theorizes that a parasitic nematode, ''
Parafilaria multipapillosa ''Parafilaria multipapillosa'' (syn. ''Filaria haemorrhagica'') is a parasitic nematode of the genus ''Parafilaria'',Ferghana.html" ;"title="or the ancient Chinese references to the “Blood-sweating” horses of Ferghana">or the ancient Chines ...
'', triggered the phenomenon. ''P. multipapillosa'' is widely distributed across the Russian steppes and makes its living by burrowing into the subcutaneous tissues of horses. The resulting skin nodules bleed often, sometimes copiously, giving rise to a something veterinarians call "summer bleeding."

Emperor Wu of Han China Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign las ...

(Wudi) named the horses "Heavenly Horses" ( 113 BCE) after a divination predicted their appearance. Monnaie de Bactriane, Eucratide I, 2 faces

Sometime earlier the emperor had divined by the ''
Book of Changes The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
'' and been told that "divine horses are due to appear" from the northwest. When the
Wusun The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' <
Old Chinese
(140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi-
came with their horses, which were of an excellent breed, he named them "heavenly horses". Later, however, he obtained the blood-sweating horses from Dayuan Ferghana which were even hardier. He therefore changed the name of the Wusun horses, calling them "horses from the western extremity", and used the name "heavenly horses" for the horses of Dayuan.

Emperor Wu sent an army of 40,000 men in 104 BCE 5,000 km to Ferghana, but less than half the army reached their destination. Exhausted, they were defeated. Another army of 60,000 men was sent in 103 BCE and who breached the walls of the city and cut off the water supply after a 40 day siege. Fearing imminent defeat, the inhabitants beheaded their king and presented his head to the Han general and offered the Han to take as many horses as they wanted. After installing a new puppet King, the Han left with 3,000 horses, although only 1,000 remained by the time they reached China in 101 BCE. The Ferghana also agreed to send two Heavenly horses each year to the Emperor, and

lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...

seed was brought back to China providing superior pasture for raising fine horses in China, to provide cavalry which could cope with the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...

who threatened China. The Han dynasty bronze statuette

Gansu Flying Horse The ''Flying Horse of Gansu'', also known as the ''Bronze Running Horse'' (銅奔馬) or the ''Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow'' (馬踏飛燕), is a Chinese bronze sculpture from circa the 2nd century CE. Discovered in 1969 near the ...

is most likely a depiction of this breed.

Medieval China

Ferghana were popular in China for roughly the next 1,000 years until the demand shifted to larger, stronger local breeds. Nomadic breeds like Ferghana horses were fast, tough and had high endurance, but they were smaller and leaner than local breeds. The Ferghana horse is considered to be equivalent to the Nisean horse or

Turkoman horse The Turkoman horse, or Turkmene, was an Oriental horse breed from the steppes of Turkoman desert. Its closest modern descendant is thought to be the Akhal-Teke. It influenced many modern horse breeds, including the Thoroughbred horse. Some h ...

, which are both now extinct. The

Akhal-Teke The Akhal-Teke ( or ; from Turkmen ''Ahalteke'', ) is a Turkmen horse breed. They have a reputation for speed and endurance, intelligence, and a distinctive metallic sheen. The shiny coat of the breed led to their nickname, "Golden Horses". ...

horse is believed to be a descendant of the original Ferghana horse.

Footnotes

References

*Bonavia (2004): ''The Silk Road From Xi’an to Kashgar.'' Judy Bonavia – revised by Christoph Baumer. 2004. Odyssey Publications. . *Boulnois (2004): ''Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road''. Luce Boulnois. Translated by Helen Loveday. Odyssey Books, Hong Kong. . * Forbes, Andrew ; Henley, David (2011). 'The Heavenly Horses of the West' in: ''China's Ancient Tea Horse Road''. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B005DQV7Q2 *Watson, Burton, translator. (1961). ''Records of the Grand Historian by

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

. Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition)'', Columbia University Press. . *Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. North China Branch, Shanghai, China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. ''Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Issues 39-41.''

External links

*http://chinesehoroscop-e.com/astrology/ferghana-horses.php *https://web.archive.org/web/20120329190620/http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20110922000098&cid=1103 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferghana Horse Extinct horse breeds History of Imperial China Horse breeds originating in China Horse breeds

Ancient history

Medieval China

See also

Footnotes

References

External links