The Gods of Cattle and Horses: 馬王神位 牛王神位

Here’s a print whose style and colours pick it out as coming from Zhuxian Zhen, a famous printing centre outside Kaifeng in Henan province, which claims a woodblock printing heritage going back to the Song dynasty.

The title 馬王神位, 牛王神位 translates as “Spirit Tablets for the Horse and Cattle Kings”, protective deities of livestock. Cattle – buffalo usually – were more common in China’s wetter, hotter southern reaches, where they worked alongside farmers ploughing and fertilizing the muddy, waterlogged rice fields. Horses and mules were at home on China’s drier northern plains and grasslands, bred as cavalry and pack animals. Of course there was overlap: oxen were used for transport in northern China, while people also rode horses in the south.

The fierce, multi-armed, three-eyed horse god, dressed in armour and wielding swords, reflects the horse’s widespread military role; while a far more refined cattle deity represents his peaceable, domestic position. This concept of civil and military figures working together in balance is a common Chinese motif. Both are attended by servants holding works on war and farming respectively.

At the bottom, a horse and cow share a feeding trough labelled 槽头兴旺, a wish for their health and safety. This sort of print would have been put up as a protective amulet either at New Year or perhaps on the deities’ birthdays.

高山民藝藏: Mountain Folkcraft Collection

On the back is the seal mark for Mountain Folkcraft, a shop in Hong Kong specialising in Chinese woodblock prints. They’ve been going since 1969 and are still in business. The style of the print is far older though, and if it isn’t a 1980s reprint from old blocks it could date back to the early twentieth century.