Horse 馬 / 马
Noon, at full gallop
- Free
- Warm
- Restless
- Hard-working
The Horse holds the noon position, 午, the hour when the sun is highest — the brightest, hottest, most outward-facing point of the whole cycle. Horse people are warm, sociable, quick to enthusiasm and quick to move on; the sign's classic weakness is finishing things.
China's relationship with the horse is imperial. The Tang emperors imported Ferghana bloodstock from the west, buried whole stables in glazed pottery, and produced the horse paintings — Han Gan's above all — that every later Chinese painter has had to answer to. The tack in this painting is Tang tack.
2026 is a Horse year: 丙午, a Fire Horse, the most vivid of the six horses in the sixty-year cycle. The last one was 1966.
The name in the corner
Top left, in black: the old form of 馬, drawn upright — the eye, the standing mane and the legs are all still visible in it.
Why oracle-bone script →Give the Year of the Horse
Canvas prints, scarves, puzzles and more — from $14.
Two full-color hardcovers — 217 empresses, 413 painted characters.
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