It is light and handsome, with its head held high, its hooves flying, its bones and muscles vigorous, and its body running like lightning. Moreover, there is no reins, saddle stirrups and reins on horseback, which fully embodies a free and unrestrained realm. The proportions of the parts of a horse are just right. The audience will feel heroic, comfortable and detached romantic mood from the front, side and whole of the statue.
This bronze statue of galloping horse is really an artistic treasure integrating painting, carving, smelting and casting. Even better, its hind foot just stepped on the back of a bird whose wings contracted and flew in the air, which not only showed the romantic consciousness of the creator, but also stabilized the center of gravity of the bronze horse figurine. It's really exquisite.
It is based on this figure of galloping horses that people call it "flying swallows on horseback", which vividly expresses this romantic sentiment.
However, since then, historians have been faced with a mystery. What is the prototype of this art treasure?
At first, experts and scholars just regarded it as a handsome man with vivid modeling. This is why the bronze galloping horse is named "riding on a swallow". According to historical records, there are eight fine horses in Zhou Muwang, one of which is called Panyu. In today's words, it is a fast horse that has exceeded the flight speed of birds. Experts believe that this bronze horse statue probably depicts this handsome horse.
However, it didn't take long for the researchers to find that the bird under the right hind hoof of the figurine Ma Ben didn't look like a swallow. According to the expert's appraisal, the bird turned out to be a sparrow. It seems more accurate to rename the bronze galloping horse "riding a dragon sparrow". This is not the only problem. Scholars pointed out that in ancient China, sparrow was not an ordinary bird, but a Shen Feng, which was called "Fei Lian" in ancient times and was a divine bird. In this way, it will never be trampled by a galloping horse. There is only one possibility, that is, the figurines of galloping horses are statues of extraordinary horses.
Therefore, some scholars have suggested that this wonderful ancient art depicts a "heavenly horse" that invites you to travel in space. Some famous people in ancient times described this kind of god. Li Bai, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote Ma Ge, in which there is a beautiful sentence "Laugh at Yan Zi later". According to historical records, Cecilia Han thoroughbred horses produced in Dawan in Han Dynasty were called "Tianma". Dawan is in the northwest, and Wuwei, the land of Ma Ben's figurines, is also in the northwest.
Horse racing figurines seem to be related to the Han blood horse, but this statement cannot explain some records in historical materials. There is a saying in Zhang Heng's Ode to Tokyo in the Eastern Han Dynasty that "the bronze sparrow terrace is graceful and graceful, and the horse is half-han". This shows that the Bronx and Tianma in the palace were bronze exhibits of equal status at that time, but the horse-racing maid was shaped as a horse on Fei Lian. What's going on here? Recently, it was pointed out that in the Han Dynasty, concubines and Malaysia had very high status and were symbols of royal dignity. No matter whether "Tianma" is a real Han blood horse or a bronze Tianma figurine, it is impossible for the subjects to appreciate it. However, this horse-running figurine was unearthed in a field in General Cemetery called Zhang, which is really incredible. It seems that the horse-running figurines are the words of the heavenly horse, but there are still omissions.
Some people put forward a new view that the bronze galloping horse is a statue of the horse god. The ancient book "Erya Shi Tian" wrote: "Home is also big." It refers to four of the seven nights of the oriental black dragon among the 28 stars in the sky, which is called "Fang", also known as "Tianqi". Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, people worshipped "Heaven" as the god of horses, which later evolved into the king of horses. Since the cavalry appeared in the ancient war in China, people began to worship the horse god. The owner of the Han Tomb in Wuwei is a general. His occupation before his death was riding the frontier, so it is reasonable to worship the horse god. After his death, his relatives buried his general print and bronze horse god, expecting him to be sheltered and honored in the underworld, which is also a natural thing. So this explanation is really convincing. Unfortunately, these explanations are only speculation at present, and they have not found enough historical data to support them.