Six Steeds of the Zhaoling Mausoleum

Six Steeds of the Zhaoling Mausoleum are six stone relief sculptures of steeds that were located at the corridors on both sides of the altar on the northern slope of the Zhaoling Mausoleum, where Emperor Taizong, the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty (599-649) and his empress were buried. The six steeds were six precious warhorses of Taizong, on which he fought the battles for the unification of China. The steeds had different horsehair colors, vigorous posture and extraordinary temperament. Emperor Taizong ordered to put the stone carvings of the six steeds right beside the mausoleum when the construction of Zhaoling began, so as to commemorate the horses that were once his sole company in the battles and to remind his posterity of the hardship in initiating undertakings, while displaying his life-time battle achievements.

The names of the six steeds are Telebiao, Qingmajia, Shifachi, Saluzi, Quanmaoju, and Baitiwu. Carved on six slates of 2.5 meters high and 3 meters wide, the six steeds were in high relief, vividly exhibiting their posture and character by a few compact lines and accurate sculpts and telling their soul-stirring stories of galloping on the battlefields with arrows piercing their bodies.


Quanmaoju

Saluzi
The sculptures are the embodiment of our achievements in carving art in the Tang Dynasty. Resorting to compact and profound technique and the subject of steeds galloping on battleground, the lifelike sculpts later become the gem of stone carving art, as well as the witness of the history of Tang.

But unfortunately, the set of stonework was damaged by smugglers in the early 20th century, when two------Saluzi,Quanmaoju of them were shipped out to the USA in 1914 and are now exhibited in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The other four original works were dismembered to several pieces for shipping abroad by secondhand smugglers in 1918, when the crime was deterred during their transference to the northern suburb of Xi'an. Today, the four steeds are exhibited in Shaanxi Provincial Museum.