Bo Le

Names

Sun Yang, with the Chinese surname Sun 孫 and given name Yang 陽 (of yin and yang), was renowned for his extraordinary understanding of horses. Sun Yang was given the Chinese honorific name Bole, and is also known Sun Bole (Henry 1987:28).

Bo 伯 means "eldest" and le 樂 means "pleasure; happiness"–was a mythological figure who first tamed horses. Bole's name was given to a star, from which he supervised the winged tianma "heavenly horses". Proposed locations of this Chinese star Bole are with Zaofu 造父 (the legendary charioteer, see below) in Zeta Cephei within Cepheus (Chinese astronomy) (Book of Jin, Spring 1988:198), or in the constellation Scorpius (Chinese astronomy) (Harrist 1997:135-6).

In Modern Standard Chinese, Bole figuratively means "good judge of (especially hidden) talent", from the chengyu idiom Bolexiangma (Chinese: 伯樂相馬; literally: "Bole physiognomizing horse"). The Classical Chinese expression (from the Zhanguo Ce below) Bole yigu (Chinese: 伯樂一顧; literally: "one glance from Bole") means "to instantly raise the ask price of something".

The name Bo Le can also be romanized as Po-le or Po Lo.

Historical context

"Although his fame exceeded that of all others, Bole was only one of many horse experts active during the late Bronze Age" (Harrist 1997:136). Owing to the importance of horse warfare in ancient China, equestrian experts were highly valued. The Lüshi Chunqiu listed ten specialized horse physiognomers, and Herrlee Glessner Creel (1965:654) said the "judging of horses was early recognized as a special art".

During the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE), Chinese armies first battled Eurasian nomadic warriors on horseback. As Creel (1965:670) explained, "The riding horse was forced upon the Chinese. It was first thrust upon their attention as a new and deadly weapon that their nomadic enemies had acquired, and it seems always to have been regarded primarily as an instrument for fighting the nomads." The earliest archaeologically discovered Chinese chariot dated circa 1200 BCE during the reign of King Wu Ding (Shaughnessy 1998). During the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE), horse-drawn chariots were increasingly used both for warfare and aristocratic transportation. The first clear evidence of horse riding in China comes from the late 4th century BCE (Goodrich 1984). King Wuling of Zhao (r. 325-298 BCE) initiated the military reform of hufu qishe 胡服騎射 "barbarian clothing [i.e., belted pants] and horse archery", which replaced chariot tactics with superior cavalry tactics.

When the Chinese imported military horses and chariots from foreign "horse riders", they concurrently introduced a complex equestrian culture, which resulted in new professions in fields such as horse domestication, selective horse breeding (as early as the 14th century BCE, Creel 1965:654), horse training, horse riding, horse tack, horse care, veterinary medicine, and horse shamanism.

The Chinese have traditionally believed the best horses and horse specialists came from foreign sources. While some individuals became outstanding equestrians, for Chinese people in general, Creel (1965:670) says, "the riding horse remained something strange, almost foreign in nature. Horses, and horsemen, were in general associated with the border areas of the north and west. It is a striking fact that the grooms and handlers of horses appearing in Chinese art seem almost always to be depicted as non-Chinese."

Horse physiognomy

Techniques from the Chinese pseudoscience of xiangshu 相術 "human physiognomy; judgment of character from facial appearance" were extended to xiangma 相馬 "horse physiognomy; evaluating a horse by its appearance". (Sōma 相馬 is a common Japanese name.) Bole was specifically a xiangmashi 相馬師 "horse physiognomist", which Robert E. Harrist (1988:136) explains: "By studying the body of a horse, giving special attention to its bone structure and the sizes and shapes of its various parts, Bole was able to assess with unfailing accuracy hidden capacities that a lesser judge of horses would have overlooked."

In 1973, archeologists excavating a 168 BCE tomb in Changsha discovered the Mawangdui Silk Texts. They included a fragmentary text about judging horses, which scholars tentatively call the Xiangmajing 相馬經 "Classic of Horse Physiognomy" (also used for a 5th-century text). This manuscript mentions Bole himself (tr. Harrist 1997:137); "What Bole physiognomized were the horses of a superior man. Yin and yang abided by the plumb line, and curved and straight were exactly even."

The (c. 544) Qimin yaoshu "Essential techniques for the common people" records early Chinese methods of agriculture and animal husbandry, including horse physiognomy. This text metaphorically associates parts of a horse's body with the political organization of a state, and describes the appearance of an ideal horse.

A horse's head is king; it should be square. The eyes are the prime ministers; they should be radiant. The spine is the general; it should be strong. The belly and chest are the city walls; they should be extended. The four legs are the local officials; they should be long. … In judging a horse one begins with the head. The head should be high and erect; it should look as if it were shaved. The head should be heavy, and it is good that there be little flesh, like the skinned head of a rabbit. (56, tr. Harrist 1997:138-9)

The Chinese historically used bronze scale models of horses as hippology reference guides to the ideal horse (Harrist 1997:149-150). The Book of the Later Han records two early examples. The horse expert Dongmeng Jing presented Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE) with a cast-bronze horse and written instructions for using the model to judge horses. General Ma Yuan (a renowned equestrian surnamed "horse") presented Emperor Guangwu of Han (r. 25-57 CE) a bronze model of a horse designed to clarify the points to observe in equine judging. The inscription, which listed four generations of Ma's horse teachers, said (tr. Creel 1965:659), "Horses are the foundation of military might, the great resource of the state." Some Chinese scholars propose that the famous "Flying Horse" discovered in a Han tomb in Gansu was a physiognomic model for a superior horse in motion.

Giambattista della Porta's (1586) De humana physiognomonia was an early Western parallel for horse physiognomy.

Textual attributions

The name Bole occurs in titles of various Chinese books on equine medicine – but this does not mean Bole was the author. Imrie et al. (2001:137) explain that, "As was quite often the case in China, rather than revealing their own names, authors would publish their books under the name of famous historical or even legendary figures living centuries if not millennia earlier."

The oldest recorded books with Bole's name are listed in the (636 CE) Book of Sui bibliographic section on veterinary texts. Two are noted as lost after the Liang Dynasty (502-577): Bole xiangma jing 伯樂相馬經 "Bole's Classic of Horse Physiognomy" and Bole liaoma jing 伯樂療馬經 "Bole's Classic on Treatments for Horses". The third veterinary text was extant during the Sui Dynasty (578-618): Bole zhima zabing jing 伯樂治馬雜病經 "Bole’s Classic on Curing the Various Illnesses of Horses".

Chinese legends associate Bole with the origins of veterinary acupuncture for horses, which some Western sources misinterpret as history. For instance (Lin and Panzer 1994:426), "Another famous veterinarian, Sun Yang, alias Baile, wrote Baile Zhen Jing (Baile's Canon of Veterinary Acupuncture) at the time of Qin Mu-Gong (659-621 BC)." The (1385) Simu anji ji 司牧安驥集 "Horse-herder's Collection of Ways to Pacify Thoroughbreds" cites a called Bo Le zhen jing伯樂針經 "Bole’s Classic of “Needling/Acupuncture”), but this title keyword zhen 針 "needle; pin" can ambiguously mean either "needling (to lance boils, etc.)" or "acupuncture." Imrie et al. (2001:137) conclude there is no reason to associate the Bole zhen jing with acupuncture because the Simu anji ji and other early veterinary texts clearly used zhen to mean "cauterization or phlebotomy".