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Start Over Collection Painted horses scroll Date range 1809

Painted horses scroll 0.2 Cubic Feet 1 box

The Painted horses scroll (circa 1800s; 0.2 cubic feet) is written in Chinese, but is from Japan. Contents categorize horses according to "The five natures and ten coats: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water; Gray, Chestnut, Bay, Palomino, Bluish, Black, Skylark, Roan, Buckskin, 'Two-hair' [piebald?]." Text at the end of the scroll, just before the dragon, is a quotation from the Liexan Zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Immortals), with some variations in wording from the original text. Said text praises the Yellow Emperor for being the first to understand and nurture horses, teaching them, and along the way, imbuing them with the spirit and mystical ways of the dragon.

  1. University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.

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