China does not have a native breed of horse, but equines had a powerful hold on the Chinese imagination. They were militarily, socially, and even politically significant. From the earliest times, the horse-drawn chariot was a powerful tool of the military elite. Battles were won and lost on the basis of cavalry. But it was not until the Fourth Century BC that King Wuling of Zhao realised the potential of the horseback rider in warfare. Lightly-armed cavalrymen, with their speed and mobility, soon dominated the battlefield, outmanoeuvring the heavy and cumbersome chariots. Horses had to be imported, initially short stocky breeds from the Mongolian steppes, and later the much sought-after Arab stallions. By AD 794, the Imperial Stables housed some 325,700 horses. But horses were significant beyond their practical uses. For the Chinese, the horse was a descendant of the dragon. It represented the pure male energy (yang), and embodied the spirit of the mighty Yellow River. In Sino-Tibetan Buddhism, the white horse (baima) came to represent Kanthaka, Gautama Buddha’s own equine companion.

In the north of China, especially the two similarly named provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi, Mongolian horse breeds were a common part of daily life. Wealthy farmers commonly kept horses both as pack animals and to ride the often long distances between villages in the region. As a result, outside many houses in the region one finds hitching-posts (ma’ang). The earliest images of hitching-posts occur during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25 – AD 220), in tomb reliefs, and they occur frequently in the paintings of Gan Han (AD 706 – AD 783), Yan We (AD 950 – AD 1127) and Renfa Ren (AD 1254 – AD 1327). These hitching-posts are most likely wooden, and some are elaborately decorated, mostly with the image of the monkey, which was considered for reasons unknown to have had a symbiotic relationship with horses, keeping them healthy and encouraging breeding. The protagonist of the epic Chinese novel Journey to the West (by Cheng’en Wu, c. AD 1500), the Monkey King, is known as Bi Mawen, the protector of horses. Monkey imagery on wooden posts survived until the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1279 – AD 1368). Stone hitching-posts employ a greater range of decorative motifs, and are generally more elaborate than their wooden cousins.

This stone hitching-post is phenomenally well-carved. It takes the form of a pillar, on the back of a guardian lion (shíshī). Originating in Chinese Buddhism, where the lion had a special role as the protector of the dharma, the shíshī was placed outside of Imperial Palaces, tombs, government offices, and the homes of the wealthy. They were supposed to protect the building, and its inhabitants, from negative external spirits. Since they guarded the doors of the building, it makes sense that horse-hitching posts, also placed near the entrance, often incorporated shíshī. Usually placed in pairs, shíshī were considered representatives of ying and yang. The male (yang) clutches in his paw a ball (xiù qiú), whereas the female is depicted with her cub. However, this hitching-post’s lion and its pair (AB.008) are both male. Depicted with head turned, and hackles raised, the lion is in fierce attitude, perfect for staving off intruders. From the lion’s back rises a square column. On the front, standing on the lion’s head, is a huren, a representative of the barbarian tribes who lived to the north of China. Shown dancing, his body twisted, he adds a flavour of the exotic. He holds in one hand a large lotus flower which grows upwards towards the top of the post.

On two sides of the post is an inscription. Many hitching-post inscriptions simply reveal that it was made in a certain month of a certain year of the reign of a certain emperor. In this case, the two paired hitching posts described here bear lines from a poem, San Huai Tang Ming (A Rememberance of Sanhuai Hall) by the famous Song Dynasty poet, official and gourmand Su Shi (also known as Dongpo). The poem depicts scenes from the life of Wang Dan, a Song Dynasty official who was considered by some Confucians to be the perfect man. The poem has been somewhat adapted, in order to express the piety and loyalty of whichever family commissioned these hitching-posts. Of those hitching-posts which refer to an Emperor, none dates to before AD 1700. However, certain scholars (Zhou et al (2011) “The New Theory of Folk-Carved Horse-Hitching Stone in Guanzhong Area in Shaanxi,” The Journal of the Changsha University of Science and Technology Social Science Edition, 26(6):117-122 [in Chinese]) have proposed, on stylistic grounds, that some stone hitching-posts predate the Qing Dynasty, perhaps as far back as the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – AD 907). Indeed, among the more than 5,000 stone hitching-posts at the Shaanxi Guangzhong Folk Art Museum, a number have been identified as dating from the Tang and Song Dynasties, presumably on the basis of the research cited above. It is eminently plausible, then, that this hitching-post predates the Eighteenth Century AD, and may perhaps date from the Ming Dynasty.