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