Research Articles

 

Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2017

 

The Introduction and Localization of the Domesticated Horse in Northern China (Abstract)

 

Zhao Yueyun and Fan Zhimin

 

Until the late Shang dynasty, only a small quantity of domesticated horses had been introduced into Northern China. However, environmental constraints and the fact that they lacked ways of using domesticated horses meant that our forefathers maintained a relatively loose relationship with the horse between the late Neolithic period and the late Shang dynasty. Starting in the late Shang, environmental changes and “putting the horse to work” led to their rapid adaptation to the local setting. In the central plains, they were used as draught horses, helping to expanding the reach of dryland agriculture and promoting the development of the agrarian population. In the north, where they were ridden, they furnished conditions for the development of nomadic herding and a nomadic population. The different ways in which domesticated horses were localized comprised three linkages: acclimatization, technological advances and cultural acceptance. At the same time, these differences gave rise to the divergent evolution of the economic structures of the northern region and the central plains. This may have been one of the first motive forces for the great social changes in the late Shang, the Western Zhou and the Spring and Autumn Period.