Horses in Chinese mythology
According to a cyclical Chinese calendar system, the time period of 31 January 2014 - 18 February 2015 falls under the category of the (yang) Wood Horse.
In the study of historical Chinese culture, many of the stories that have been told regarding characters and events which have been written or told of the distant past have a double tradition: one tradition in which presents a more historicized version and one which presents a more mythological version (Yang 2005:12-13).
Horses are real creatures, of the family Equidae—quick-paced, hoofed quadrupeds, existing now and historically, in China, among other places.
Many breeds have been used or developed for food, transportation, and for military power for thousands of years, in the area of China, and elsewhere, as well as sometimes being loved or cherished, as pets companions, or inspirations for art.
The horse is connected in some mythologies with the origin of humans raising silk from the cocoon of the domestic silkmoth (Bombyx mori), as an alternative to the Leizu mythos.
After days of searching for his daughter in the horsehide, eventually her father found that she had been transformed into a silkworm in a mulberry tree.
Often in mythology the horse appears in a biologically non-exact way: often creatures in stories do not match a rigorous scientific, or even common sense descriptions of actual animals.
Among other accounts, a longma was said to have revealed the Yellow River Map, an early example of a mathematical magic square.
Indeed, the presence of a longma was used as a sign of connection with the manifestation of one of the legendary sage-rulers of legend, particularly one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
As described below, the monk Xuanzang, was legendarily held to have retrieved Buddhist scriptures from India with the help of a famous bailongma, or "white dragon-horse".
Throughout the novel, the dragon-horse serves a role as part of a fairly elaborate metaphor (or conceit), in which the white horse symbolizes mental will, or mindful willpower.
Their assigned duties included induction of souls into the underworld, bringing them before the judges of hell, and consigning them according to judgment.
Shanhaijing (117) also mentioned Bo-horse (Chinese: 駮馬; pinyin: bómǎ), a chimera horse with ox tail, single horn, white body, and its sound like person calling.
