DOGS AND HORSES IN ANCIENT CHINA
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considered very auspicious to eat one may have smacked of sacrilege.)
An elaborate set of rules governed the presentation of gifts and tribute. When offering a horse, the donor had first to tie a rope around the animal's neck and hold the other end in his right hand.39 Dogs, however, were to be held with the left hand to leave the right hand free to stop the animal from biting.40 Neither dogs nor horses were allowed into the audience chamber and they were not to be mentioned during an audience.41
Horses and Warfare
As we have seen, the Chinese had been familiar with horses from very ancient times. Horse-drawn chariots were known at least as early as the reign of King Wu Ting of Shang (1327-1265 B.C.), yet it was not until the 4th century B.C. that we find a reference to a man on horseback in Chinese literature. (One expert claims that horses were already used for riding in Shang timesA, a statement seemingly contradicted by another authorityB.)
According to the Shih Chi, the King of Chao is said to have learned the art of shooting from horseback from his nomadic neighbours in 307 B.C.42 This was a momentous step in the development of both warfare and weaponry. By the reign of Wu Ti (140-88 B.C.) of the Han dynasty, cavalry horses had become so important that the Emperor launched several campaigns in Central Asia to secure an adequate supply of them for his army.
It must be remembered that horses in ancient times were not shod except with straw or leather and thus rapidly wore out their hoofs on long journeys. The Chinese armies, therefore, required mountain-bred horses with firmer hoofs which could travel faster without the need to rest their feet. An adequate supply of such horses would not only be a great economy for the Imperial treasury but would also give a decided advantage to the Chinese cavalry.43
Han Wu Ti also urged his general Li Kuang-li to provide him with the famous "blood-sweating horses" of Ferghana. The Emperor's interest in these animals was not so much military as supernatural. It was widely believed that "blood-sweating horses" were the semi-divine offspring of dragons and mares; their sweating of blood being proof of their divine origin.44 (Modern medicine has shown that "blood-sweating" was caused by a parasitical disease,