Why do Tang Sancai have many horses and camels? It’s actually related to the Silk Road

Tang Sancai is a kind of pottery that was very popular during the Tang Dynasty. Because the pottery is mainly white, yellow and green, it is called "Tang Sancai". I believe everyone has seen Tang Sancai in museums or online. Many people also have a question, why are there many horses and camels in the shapes of Tang Sancai? Horses are easy to understand, but there were no camels in China at that time. Camels were produced in the Western Regions. Why camels? There are also many tri-colored glazed pottery paintings of the Tang Dynasty. In fact, this is closely related to the Silk Road. Here is an introduction for you. If you are interested, let’s take a look.

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Think back to what do you think of Tang Sancai? Camels, horses, and various figurines. Shape? Yes, there are three types of tricolor paintings in the Tang Dynasty: many camels, many horses, and many human figurines.

Today, let’s first talk about why there are more camel shapes in Tang Sancai? (The human and horse shapes will be discussed later).

(The objects in the pictures in this article are all collected by the Shaanxi Museum of History and will not be re-annotated)

In order to explain that there are more camel shapes in Tang Sancai, we must first start with Let’s start with where camels come from.

This is a bit long to say...

There were no camels in ancient China. Camels mainly live in desert areas. They are known as the "Ship of the Desert" and have excellent drought and heat tolerance habits. Before the Han Dynasty, the Chinese had never seen what a camel looked like.

In the Han Dynasty, in the early Western Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu controlled the Hexi Corridor and most of Xinjiang. As its strength continued to increase, it began to harass the eastern region of Gansu, seriously threatening the security of the Han Dynasty.

The pressure of harassment from the Xiongnu Dynasty made the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains always worried and unable to sleep or eat well. During the era of Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty, in order to maintain the stability of the dynasty, Liu Che decided to eliminate this security threat by sending troops to the Xiongnu.

Thus, there is the eternal heroic story of Huo Qubing’s battle in Hexi to annihilate the Xiongnu.

Hexi Corridor

I believe that the term "Hexi Corridor" must be familiar to everyone, because we can hear it almost every now and then in the news network.

"Hexi Corridor" is a geographical term, among which: Hexi refers to the west of the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River; corridor refers to a stretch between Longshou Mountain, Heli Mountain, Mazong Mountain and Qilian Mountain The natural narrow strip of more than 1,000 kilometers is an important passage from the hinterland of the Central Plains to the Western Regions and Central Asia. It is a strategically important place. Because its strip-like terrain resembles a "corridor," it is also known as the "Hexi Corridor."

At the end of 121 BC, Huo Qubing led his army to open up the Hexi Corridor across the board. After that, the Han Empire established Wuwei and Jiuquan counties for the first time, and the Hexi Corridor was incorporated into the original map of the Central Plains.

In the summer of 119 BC, in order to consolidate the results of the Hexi victory, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing each led an army to launch the unprecedented "Mobei War" against the Xiongnu. They went straight to the Xiongnu Shanyu headquarters and defeated the Xiongnu.

From then on, the Xiongnu no longer had the ability to pose a threat to the Han Empire from the west. The Hexi Corridor became the western protective belt protecting Chang'an City. At the same time, it opened up the Han Empire's access to the western world. Gate!

After Hexi returned to the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the Western Regions on behalf of the country.

In 119 BC, Zhang Qian led a delegation of about 300 people to the Western Regions carrying silk, tea, porcelain and other Chinese specialties. At this time, the Hexi Corridor has become a safe and only way for economic, trade, and cultural exchanges and exchanges between the Han Empire and the Western Regions, Central Asia, Europe and other countries and regions. It is known as the "Silk Road" in history.

Zhang Qian’s mission to the Western Regions ushered in a new era of cultural exchanges between the East and the West. It not only brought the products and advanced production methods of the Central Plains to the Western Regions, but also introduced the fine species, woolen products, food and other specialties of the Western Regions to the Central Plains through the Silk Road, such as grapes, pomegranates, carrots, lions, camels, Ma et al.

Among them, camels entered the sight of the Central Plains people for the first time.

As mentioned earlier, the camel is the ship of the desert. Its ability to endure hunger and drought makes it the most outstanding means of transportation in the Western Regions. When the products from the Western Regions were continuously carried into the interior of the Central Plains via camels, the Central Plains people's eyes were opened. They fell in love with this hard-working means of transportation. People believed that owning it meant having great wealth. Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, when generous burials were popular, people made the image of a camel into a visible object, hoping that it would bring glory and wealth to the deceased in the next life.

Because of this, we in later generations can use these unearthed camels, horses and human figurines of the Tang Dynasty to recall the wisps of desert smoke and the jingling of camel bells along the ancient Silk Road. , the beauty and desolation of the long clouds all over the sky...