Zhaoling was a joint tomb of Emperor Taizong of Tang and his empress, in present-day Liquan County, Shaanxi Province. There is a long corridor next to the Zhao Mausoleum, a bit like our honor roll, which puts the emperor's achievements in his lifetime.
The Six Horses of Zhaoling refers to the six horses in bluestone reliefs in the long corridor of Zhaoling Tombs, which are the most famous reliefs in the history of Chinese cultural relics.
The Six Horses of Zhaoling are six horses, based on the six favorite war horses of Emperor Taizong of Tang Andi. They are the coffee-colored Salu Purple, the Fist Hair, the White Hoof of the Body Black Hoof, the Pale Horse with the yellow and white hair, the Green horse of the green and white variegated color, and the jujube red Mashivachi, which was the mount that Li Shimin rode when he assisted Gaozu Li Yuan in pacifying the founding of the four seas.
In the tenth year of Zhenguan (636 AD), Li Shimin issued an edict, ordering the great painter Yan Liben at that time to paint the Six Juns first, and then ordered the craftsmen to carve it out after the painting was completed. The relief is one meter seven meters high, two meters wide, more than a foot thick, and weighs several tons.
If you look at the Zhaoling Liujun, you will find that these six juns have won a total of 20 arrows: 5 arrows of Qinghua, 5 arrows of Shivachi, 1 arrow of Salu Purple, and 9 arrows of Fist Mao. The most arrows in the middle are the fist hair, six arrows in the front, three arrows in the back, and the spins on the body are about to become the bull's-eye.
Salu Zi was the only one standing next to him among the Six Juns, a man named Qiu Xinggong who was bowing his head and drawing arrows for the horse. According to the Old Book of Tang, Li Shimin was chased and intercepted during the battle with Wang Shichong at Luoyang Mountain, and Li Shimin's mount, Saluzi, was shot in the chest by an arrow. Qiu Xinggong immediately turned over and dismounted, ceding his mount to Li Shimin, and the two desperately fought to break out of the siege. This picture is the moment before Qiu Xinggong draws the arrow for Salu Zi, and after the arrow is pulled out, Sa Lu Zi falls.
In 1911, the Chinese soldiers were in chaos. When Yuan Shikai was the interim president, an army lieutenant general named Zhang Yunshan picked two of the best horses, Salu Zi and Fist Mao, and pulled them to his family's mansion. As a result, within two years, the local forces shuffled again, and Erjun fell into the hands of Lu Jianzhang again.
That fall, the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States sent Bi Shibo to China to find some Chinese cultural relics. Bi Shibo once saw "World Famous Horse Map", which included one of the six horses, "Salu Zi", and he wanted to get this thing in his hands as soon as he saw the photo.
After Bi Shibo ran to Beijing, he found an antique dealer named Zhao Hefang and found out that Salu Zi and Fist Mao were in Lu Jianzhang's mansion in Xi'an.
There are many sayings about how Salizi and Fist Mao were transported from Xi'an to Beijing: Lu Qinzhai, a great thief of cultural relics, said that yuan shikai ordered the relocation to Beijing in 1915; some say that the antique dealer Zhao Hefang was entrusted by Yuan Kewen, the second son of Yuan Shikai, to be transported to Beijing.
Bi Shibo was unable to transport this thing out of the country at that time, and Zhao Hefang sold liangjun to Lu Qinzhai.
In 1916, the new museum at the University of Pennsylvania was inaugurated, and Penn wanted to make the Six Horses of Zhaoling an important decoration. Bi Shibo learned the whereabouts of Salu Zi and Fist Mao, and suggested that the curator Gordon contact Lu Qinzhai.
In 1918, the Erjun was transported to Philadelphia, and it was exactly 100 years since the arrival of The Fist And the Purple Ofe.
Lu Qinzhai first lent The Fist Mao and Salu Zi to the Penn Exhibition, and then borrowed money from Penn University. The Penn Museum refused, saying it wanted to buy two horses. Lu Qinzhai took the opportunity to ask for a high price of 150,000 US dollars - in Beijing 100 years ago, 150,000 US dollars could buy almost half a city! The Penn Museum found a rich man named Johnson to sponsor it, and it was eventually sold for $125,000.
Now the Fist And The Purple are on display on the side of the penn museum entrance, and under the display case, you should pay attention to it, with a line of small letters written on it, called "Mr. Johnson Donation."
After the two jun arrived in the United States, Bisbo was not heartbroken and came to China again. One night in the early summer of 1918, he joined forces with Zhao Hefang and stole the other four horses from the carriage.
As a result, the people around them didn't do it! Liu Jun has been here for 1300 years, and the surrounding people and villagers have been looking at this thing since they were born, and suddenly it is gone, and this heart is empty.
So the local squires and people gathered to chase after the guys. Unfortunately, because the whole piece of the Four Juns was too big and too heavy to be shipped, when they caught up, they had already broken into pieces and packed into boxes.
After the Shaanxi overseer Chen Shufan ordered his men to recover the Four Horses, they were first transported back to the Shaanxi Library for preservation. When the Shaanxi Provincial Museum (today's Xi'an Forest of Stone Steles Museum) was established in 1953, it received these four stone carvings for a mosaic restoration and displayed them together with two other replicas.
In 1972, Sino-US relations were thawed, and before the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited China, he wanted to make overtures with China, so he asked some celebrity think tanks in the United States for advice. It is said that at that time, Yang Zhenning suggested that the two horses should be transported back to China, and this gift would be enough. But in the end it didn't come true.
Today, when we stand in the Museum in the United States, the two war horse sculptures that Li Shimin rode, the most important cultural relics of our Tang Dynasty in China, we can't help but feel that the world is hot and cold, and the years are like shuttles.
Ma Weidu, collector, antique connoisseur, CCTV "Hundred Family Pulpit" speaker, the main speaker of the series "Ma Weidu Collection". Founder and current director of Guanfu Museum, columnist and expert of China Net.
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