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HEAVENLY HORSES OF TANG TAITSUNG University of Pennsylvania Acquires the Two World Famous Masterpieces of Ancient Sculpture Two of the world famous reliefs of the horses of Tang Taitsung recognized as masterpieces of ancient sculpture equal to the Iwst work of tho Greeks have just been acquired by the museum of the University of Pennsylvania PennsylvaniaAside Aside from their great archaeological and artistic value they are looked upon as the most important acquisitions of the year because they represent more strikingly than anything else that has come out of the flowery kingdom the era when China was the most powerful the most enlightened the most progressive ami the best governed empire not only in Asia but on the face of the globe to quote a recent historian historianTaitsung Taitsung one of the great figures of world his ¬ tory died in the year UO at I Five years before his death there was completed under his direction his sepulcher The decorations on the walls of the mortuary chamber in front of the great mound as was only natural were commemorative of the vic ¬ torious campaigns he had fought and of the terri ¬ tories he had added to his empire Among these decorations were statues of the various kings and Tartar khans and other chieftains whose lands he had annexed and most important of all the reliefs of his famous six horses horsesDr Dr Carl AV Bishop curator of the Oriental section of the museum who has headed two expeditions into China and Japan for the institution ascribes the statues to a Chinese artist of whom practically nothing is known beyond his name Yu Kingshu KingshuUntil Until a few years ago the famous horses were still on the tomb of Taitsung to the northwest of the provincial capital Sina Fu Doctor Bishop visited the tomb in the autumn of 1917 and found that two of the horses had disappeared He learned after some investigation that they had been carried nway by one of the military governors of the province of Peking and was able to keep track of their move ¬ ments until eventually they reached this country when they were acquired by the museum museumAwakened Awakened at last to a somewhat belated sense of the merits of these relics of a wonderful past says Doctor Bishop the authorities had the re ¬ maining four taken to Sina Fu and set up in the newly established provincial museum museumThe The custom of erecting great mounds of earth over tljo graves of the illustrious dead is part of that common heritage dating back at least as1 far as the latter part of the stone age which the ancient Chinese shared with so many other races in Europe as well as in Asia AsiaHOW HOW CHINESE RULERS WERE BURIED Through dynasty after dynasty from ages long antecedent to the dawn of history the Chinese rulers were buried under great tumuli which with the persistence of earthworks everywhere still rear themselves above the soil in vast numbers And when the mighty Emperor Taitsung passed away he too was buried beneath a huge tumulus which still stands standsAAe AAe are told that Cato after the termination of his campaigns in Spain remorselessly sold off his faithful old war horse to the knackers in order to et an example to sturdy Roman thrift and econ ¬ omy omyNot Not so however with the horses that carried Tang Taitsiirig through his numerous battles In life they were cherished and caressed and care ¬ fully tended and in death their portraits adorned their masters tomb tombPerhaps Perhaps no horses ever existed which have bo come so famous Few there are among the hun ¬ dreds of millions of people inhabiting the regions of eastern Asia who have not heard of their marvel ¬ ous swiftness and endurance and courage and of the real part which they played in the making of the history of their time In the course of ages there has clustered around them a great body of legend and story and song and they have afforded the theme for many a great sculptor and painter whose works havu been the delight and inspiration of not less than a full fourth part of the entire human race raceOne One of the most absorbing features of the history of the horse in China is the story of how the breed immortalized in the Taitsung reliefs was started In the year 125 B C Chang Kien famous Chinese explorer returned to his native land after twelve years of wandering in distant western regions in search of a lost Tartar tribe with which the einperor wanted to conclude an alliance allianceHe He reported that in a kingdom far to the west now known as Ferghana were wonderful horses far superior to any known in China The emperor sent an embassy to attempt to obtain some of these heavenly horses but the owners refused to ne ¬ gotiate Thereupon says Doctor Bishop the cmueror sent a large army probably the most gigantic horse stealing expedition on record which after some initial misfortune succeeded in its mission and re ¬ turned in triumph to China bringing with it a number of the coveted horses This breed has been identified by some as the famous blood sweating Nisaean horses mentioned by Greek writers as being bred in the upper pastures of Cappadocia for the use of the great kings of Persia AVilllam A McGarry in the Boston Transcript
