Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/85

 to the chariot of Yao; and unless we belong to those who see in the name of this great sovereign no more than an impersonation of Heaven, we need not hesitate to accept the correlative inference that the animals referred to were the flesh-and-blood progenitors of the horses we drive to-day. Under the Emperor Yü and his successors the horse seems to have been regularly trained to the exercises of the battlefield, the labours of agriculture, and the excitement of the chase. In the dynasty of Chou it became the subject of special legislation. Horses were divided into six classes, viz., those for the Emperor and nobility, those to be used in war, those for draught and field labour, those for government posts, those for private riding or journeying, and those for carrying burdens. To the Emperor alone were assigned no fewer than forty thousand war-horses; to the princes and other nobles a smaller number, regulated according to their rank. The art of horsemanship was at this time greatly cultivated and admired. No man was permitted to become a cavalry soldier before the age of thirty-five, or to remain such after fifty. It was necessary for him to be tall, robust, and strong, active, and firm in his saddle. "The good rider," it was said, "is glued to his horse like bark to a tree, and characterised by the rapidity of lightning, the immobility of a rock, and the lightness of a feather." As long as this warlike spirit was kept up, and a simple hardy life recognised as that most honourable to the man of rank, the breed and mettle of horses were preserved at a high standard; but when a spirit of sloth and luxury began to prevail, and internal dissensions disturbed the general tranquillity, the animals became the objects of a