{"id":19608,"date":"2025-12-14T08:37:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19608"},"modified":"2025-12-14T08:37:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:37:37","slug":"5-of-the-best-known-horses-in-chinese-legend-from-the-red-hare-to-qilin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19608","title":{"rendered":"5 of the best-known horses in Chinese legend, from the Red Hare to qilin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Civilisations around the world domesticated horses thousands of years ago. They were kept outside the home and, unlike other livestock, were not just seen as a food source but as a tool for farming and basic transport. Many were even used for fighting.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This bond has inspired many fantastical steeds in legend, with the horned unicorn and the winged Pegasus being among the most widely recognised in the West.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">One of the most common references to the tenacious animal in Chinese folklore is \u201cHorse-Face\u201d, a guardian of the underworld that often appears alongside fellow animal spirit \u201cOx-Head\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-12vv9w2 e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Horse-Face (right) and Ox-Head are guardians of the underworld in Chinese folklore. Photo: Zhihu\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/12\/11\/f4fed8e7-f7e5-487e-8683-532e30fa4aea_fb7004a1.jpg\" title=\"Horse-Face (right) and Ox-Head are guardians of the underworld in Chinese folklore. Photo: Zhihu\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">Horse-Face (right) and Ox-Head are guardians of the underworld in Chinese folklore. Photo: Zhihu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This half-human, half-beast duo, which supposedly represents agility, justice and wisdom, stands guard by the Gates of Hell to receive and escort the newly deceased to the other side.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/chinese-culture\/article\/3336066\/5-best-known-horses-chinese-legend-red-hare-qilin?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Civilisations around the world domesticated horses thousands of years ago. They were kept outside the home and, unlike other livestock, were not just seen as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[12879,107,12880,11953,1968,12881,819],"class_list":["post-19608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-bestknown","tag-chinese","tag-hare","tag-horses","tag-legend","tag-qilin","tag-red","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}