Tianma

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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[edit]

The Tianma is a flying horse 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[edit]

References[edit]

  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.