Feb., 1912. Jade. 245 



The sculptor has bestowed much pains on this little artwork: the 

 mane, ears, nostrils, feet, hoofs, the bunch of hair above the hoofs, and 

 the tails being executed with care and a gleam of realism. It is a classi- 

 cal example of what the Chinese art-philosophers understand by " life's 

 motion" (p. 211). The figure of a horse of jade appears as early as the 

 Han period on the bas-reliefs of Wu-liang among the twenty-two 

 "marvellous objects of good omen " (Fig. 151) accompanied by the 





Fig. 152. 



Jade Carving of 

 Recumbent Horse 

 of the 

 T'ang Period 



(from Ku yii t'u). 



inscription, "The jade horse: if the reigning sovereign is pure and 

 intelligent and honors the worthies, then it will appear." 1 



Two interesting jade carvings of horses are published in the Ku yii 

 Vu (Ch. 2). The one (Fig. 152) is entitled "Piebald of black jade, a 

 type of a horse of the T'ang dynasty," with the following annotation: 

 "In the period K'ai-yiian (713-742 a. d.), Wang Mao-chung offered 

 as tribute five-colored (*. e. varicolored) horses for the employment in 

 cavalry. The Emperor Hiian-tsung (713-755 a. d.) ordered them to 

 be represented in sculpture, and his jade sculptors, taking the colors 

 of the five cavalry regiments as basis, took these horses as models and 

 carved them in jade. They were put up on a square table." This is 

 an interesting example of sculpture-modeling after life. 



Another full figure of a horse with the separate figure of a man stand- 

 ing behind it is illustrated in the same book (Fig. 153) and is also notable 



1 Compare Chavann'ES, La sculpture sur pierre en Chine, p. 34. 



