Museum's exhibition is steady as a steed

The rubbings vividly present the reliefs' details and serve as precious historical records, preserving the imagery of these national treasures.

Borrowed from the Xianyang Museum of Shaanxi province is the white jade sculpture Celestial Immortal Riding a Galloping Horse, dating to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). A masterwork of Han Dynasty circular carving (yuandiao), this exquisite piece depicts a winged immortal astride a celestial steed. It represents the pinnacle of Han jade craftsmanship and embodies contemporary beliefs in transcendence and the pursuit of immortality, Chu Xin explains.

Among the exhibits, the Figurine of a Drum-playing Horseman from the Tang Dynasty marks recent archaeological finds in China. A loaned piece from the Gansu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, it was unearthed from a tomb of the Tuyuhun people in a village of Gansu province in 2019.

It depicts a rider in a wide-sleeved robe seated on a horse and beating a drum. Tuyuhun served as a crucial buffer zone along the Silk Road between the Tang Dynasty and the powers beyond.

Also on display is a bronze chariot from the Leitai Tomb of the Han Dynasty in Wuwei — the same site that yielded the famed bronze sculpture, A Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow, which is a widely recognized Chinese icon.

Two bronze knights on horseback, one holding a spear and the other a ji, a weapon similar to the halberd, are from a series on loan from the Gansu Provincial Museum, inviting visitors to experience the imposing spectacle of Han chariot processions.

The Shanghai Museum selected two modern Chinese paintings from its collection: Xu Beihong's Drinking Horse and Zhang Daqian's After Cao Ba's Yu Hua Cong.

"We hope visitors will find a moment of peace and leisure, and a feel of the spring breeze in these paintings," Chu Xin says.

Tang Hanchen, a 12-year-old boy from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, was among the first visitors to the exhibition on opening day. Born in the year of the horse, the boy has a special fondness for the animal and told China Daily that the bronze knight holding a spear was his favorite piece.

When asked what quality of the horse he admires most, Hanchen gave a quick and firm reply: "Perseverance."

The exhibition runs until March 17.