Tributes of Horses during the Ch’ien-lung Period and the Manchu
Political Culture
Lin Shih-hsuan
History Department
National Chengchih University
Abstract
In the past, when academic circles discussed the Ch’ien-lung period missionary
painting, “Horse Tribute,” they laid particular stress upon the perspective of exchange
between Eastern and Western culture. These investigations stressed how the mixture
of Eastern and Western painting techniques was able to bring forth new artistic
avenues, overlooking the historical background of horses as tribute and how this
custom relates to and is expressed in Manchu political culture. The Imperial court of
the Ch’ien-lung Emperor accepted tribute horses from each of its vassal states, as well
as other foreign countries. In addition to reflecting a tradition of esteem for horses
held by northern Asian nationalities which was carried into both painting and poetic
works, it also shows a unique connotation held by Manchu government culture. This
article uses horse-named artwork, the changes to horse related vocabulary in Manchulanguage lexicon like “Ch’ing Wen-chien,” and the faith in royal shamanism, as
expressed in sacrifices offered to horse gods, to explore this topic.
Keywords: Ch’ing Dynasty, Manchu, Horse, “Ten Horses”, “Ch’ing Wen-chien”,
Shamanism