Preferred Citation

MSS 16312, Painted horses scroll, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Provenance

Accession number 2017-0162, purchased 14 April 2017. Marion duPont Scott Fund, 2016/2017.

Scope and Contents Note

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.

The scroll is likely from the early nineteenth century, having been repaired and remounted in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Horses