Skip to main content

     MANUSCRIPTS and ARCHIVAL MATERIAL

Painted horses scroll

 Item — Tube_box: 1
Identifier: MSS 16312

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.

Dates

  • Creation: circa early 1800s

Language of Materials

Item is in Chinese.

Extent

0.2 Cubic Feet (1 box) ; 52 1/2 feet long x 12 1/8 inches

Provenance

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

Title
Painted horses scroll
Status
Completed
Author
Tanner Greene
Date
21 March 2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Repository

Contact:
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
P.O. Box 400110
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22904-4110 United States