Riding through time: the changing image of horses in China
12 March 2026
For the past two millennia, the horse has borne Chinese people across battlefields and country lanes, and into the charged terrain of myth and art. To mark the year named after the animal, the CUHK Art Museum presents “Celebrating the Year of the Horse”, an exhibition bringing together more than 40 sets of horse-related artefacts dating from the Western Zhou period (1046-771 BC) to the 1970s. Arranged in two sections – technology and use, then culture and imagination – the exhibition traces an arc from bronze fittings and harnesses to ink paintings, revealing how the horse has shaped, and been shaped by, Chinese civilisation.
Dr Sam Tong Yu, Associate Curator of CUHK’s Art Museum, notes that in ancient China, horses were first harnessed to chariots rather than ridden. A pair of S-shaped bronze cheek pieces on display mark this formative stage. Recent comparative research suggests that such fittings, in use from the Warring States period through the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), likely originated on the Eurasian steppe before entering the Central Plains – small objects that speak of exchange between agrarian China and nomadic cultures.
As cavalry later supplanted the chariot, the invention of the stirrup transformed riding into a more stable and accessible practice. A group of Sui dynasty (581-618 AD) terracotta figures of mounted ladies hint at the ways in which horsemanship extended beyond the battlefield. Meanwhile, civilian carriages evolved from single to double shafts, becoming steadier and increasingly ornate – vehicles that both carried passengers and projected status.
The exhibition then turns from utility to imagination. Dr Tong notes that, in the Western Han dynasty (202 BC-8 AD), belief in the “Heavenly Horse” cast the animal as a bearer of souls; winged horses appear on tomb reliefs as emblems of deliverance of the departed. By the Tang dynasty, imperial warhorses were immortalised in Emperor Taizong’s famed Stone Reliefs of the Six Steeds (636 AD), among the most celebrated equine images in Chinese art. Though the original reliefs are now dispersed, a rubbing on display showcases the vitality of one of these steeds. Tang works also recall the courtly spectacle of dancing horses, when equine prowess became performance. And the “dancing horse” therefore became an art theme for later generations to reminisce about China’s golden age.
In Chinese painting, horses often appear beside monkeys – once believed to protect horses from illness – or beneath willow trees, as symbols of departure and longing. Ming and Qing artists delighted in visual puns pairing horse and monkey to wish for swift promotion, as they are pronounced similarly in Chinese. Paintings of monkeys and horses from Edo Japan were influenced by Buddhist culture and invoked the idiom “the mind like a monkey, the will like a horse,” cautioning practitioners to rein in restless thoughts and impulses. The monumental One Hundred Steeds on display absorbed Western modelling and brushstrokes, marking a moment of artistic convergence.
Zhang Mu (1607-1683)
The eighth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty (1669)
CUHK Art Museum Collection (1973.0007)
Gift of Mr Ho Iu-kwong, Mr Huo Pao-tsai, Mr Lai Tak and others
The exhibition culminates in Dust rolling (1669) by the 17th century Guangdong painter Zhang Mu. A horse twists and plunges through a cloud of earth, its movement free and unrestrained. Zhang’s brushwork is spare yet forceful: tensile lines define muscle and momentum, capturing the animal at the height of its tumble, poised between power and abandon. In the southern tradition, painters celebrated for horse imagery are rare, which makes this work particularly precious.
Also on view, for the first time, are Galloping Horse (1979) by the renowned calligrapher and painter Yin Shoushi, and Steed in the Rainstorm (1910s) by Gao Jianfu, one of the founders of the Lingnan School of Painting. The three works are presented side by side, demonstrating how generations of Chinese art reimagined the horse’s form and spirit.
Dr Tong adds that the exhibition focuses on both academic rigour and public education. “As a university museum, we ground each object in careful research. We hope visitors leave not only having admired the works but also with a deeper sense of the histories they carry.”
Celebrating the Year of the Horse
- Open: Until 24 May 2026
- Venue: Gallery III, CUHK Art Museum
- Opening hours and details: Please visit the Art Museum’s website
