Newly Engraved Horse Book

The Newly Engraved Horse Book is far less famous in China than the Yuanheng Horse Healing Collection, yet it occupies a distinctive place in the genealogy of Chinese veterinary literature. An official compilation directed by Yang Shiqiao, Chief Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, it was completed in the twenty-second year of Wanli, more than a decade before the Yuanheng Horse Healing Collection, and yet contains fewer textual errors. It preserves early works otherwise lost, such as the Discourse on Needling and Cautery, the Thirty-Nine Discourses and the Forty-Six Explanations of the Thoroughly Mysterious Restoration of the Steed, making it indispensable source material for the history of Chinese veterinary medicine, animal husbandry and military logistics. A further virtue is that it discusses horse administration and horse medicine within a single framework: from the six categories of horses in the Rites of Zhou and the breeding proposals of successive dynasties to feeding, watering, grazing, needling, cautery and prescriptions, it forms a complete compendium of Ming equine knowledge and shows clearly how institutions and techniques constrained one another. Mr. Wu Xuecong's punctuated edition of 1984, based on the defective copy held in the Beijing Library, notes the loss of juan 12 and 14 and is the most convenient modern version for reading the book. It does not rely on literary polish, nor is it a popular introduction; but for readers engaged in the history of veterinary medicine, agricultural history or the study of ancient texts, it is a demanding work worth consulting again and again.