232 Chinese Clay Figures 



gained laurels in their pacification, turned in a petition asking to be 

 placed in service again. As he was in his sixty-second year, however, 

 the Emperor declined his offer in view of his advanced age. Ma Yuan 

 then made a personal appeal to him, saying, "Your servant is still able 

 to sit in the saddle with the armor on his body." The Emperor de- 

 manded the experiment, whereupon the aged soldier flung himself into 

 the saddle and daringly looked around, in order to demonstrate that he 

 was still of use. The Emperor, filled with admiration, entrusted him 

 with the command. 1 It is on record that General Keng Ping, who died 

 in 91 a.d., was always at the head of his troops, enveloped with his armor 

 and mounted on horseback. 2 There is thus sufficient evidence at 

 hand that the Chinese derived their whole system of cavalry from the 

 Huns, both cavalry tactics and cavalry equipment; and there can be no 

 doubt of the fact that the Chinese made exactly the same use of cavalry 

 as the Huns. 3 Thus the Iranian ideas have filtered through the Huns 

 into the Chinese. For this reason it is most likely also that the new 

 cuirasses bedecked with copper and iron laminse, coming up in China 

 during the epoch of the Han, received their impetus from the west, more 

 specifically from the metal scale and plate armors worn by the Iranian 

 and Scythian cataphracti. 



As said before, the history of cavalry development in China (and 

 that of military art in general) remains to be written. An interesting 

 observation may still be added here. Under the Sui and T'ang, the 

 light cavalry, apparently the inheritance of the institution of the Han, 

 was in full operation, particularly in the campaigns against the Turkish 

 tribes. It seems, however, that the method of cavalry charges, as 

 established by the Han after Hunnic example, had subsequently fallen 

 into oblivion; for we are informed from the interesting biography of 

 Yang Su inserted in the Annals of the Sui Dynasty 4 that this daring 



1 Hou Han shu, Ch. 54, p. 12 b; Hirth, Chinesische Ansichten uber Bronze- 

 trommeln, p. 60. 



2 Chavannes, T'oung Pao, 1907, pp. 223, 224. 



3 A good example of the employment of cavalry for reconnoitring is furnished 

 in B.C. 1 52 by the feat of Li Kuang, who went out with a guard of a hundred horsemen 

 and suddenly saw himself confronted by a cavalry corps of several thousand Huns. 

 He advanced to make them believe that he represented the vanguard of a large force 

 following. At a short distance from the enemy he gave orders to dismount and to 

 unsaddle, in order to show that he had no mind to retreat. A captain of the Huns 

 sallies out; Li Kuang and ten of his men jump on their horses, and fell him with an 

 arrow-shot. He turns back, unsaddles again, and orders his soldiers to graze the 

 horses, and to take a rest. Until the evening the distrustful Huns durst make no 

 charge. Under cover of night, the Chinese retreated in good order. The interesting 

 biography of Li Kuang has been translated by A. Pfizmaier (Sitzungsberichte Wiener 

 Akademie, 1863, pp. 512-528). 



4 Sui shu, Ch. 48, pp. 1-6. According to Giles (Biographical Dictionary, 

 p. 914) Yang Su died in 606 a.d. 



