Sweating Blood Horse - Kanketuba

The name of the swift horses (Shunme) from the Dayuan state (Fergana region in Central Asia) that were imported to China during the Western Han Dynasty. The Book of Han states, "In the spring of the fourth year of the Taichu era (101 B.C.), General Li Guangli of the Second Army beheaded the King of Dayuan and captured the Blood-Sweating Horse. He composed a song about the Western Pegasus" (Records of Emperor Wu), and the notes say, "Dayuan also had a breed of Pegasus horses, which would sweat blood by stepping on stones. The sweat would come out of their front shoulders like blood, and they could travel a thousand li in a day." Later, it became synonymous with a good horse, and appears in a line from Du Fu's poem "Senheiba": "All the warriors of the capital ride sweat-blood horses."

[Isamu Ogata]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、前漢時代に輸入された大宛(だいえん)国（中央アジアのフェルガナ地方）産の駿馬(しゅんめ)の呼称。『漢書(かんじょ)』に「太初(たいしょ)四年（前101）春、弍師(じし)将軍李広利(りこうり)、大宛王の首を斬(き)り、汗血馬を獲(と)り来たる。西極(せいきょく)天馬の歌を作る」（武帝紀(ぶていき)）とあり、その注に「大宛もと天馬種あり、石を踏みて血を汗(あせ)す。汗は前肩髆(ぜんけんはく)より出でて血のごとし、一日に千里と号す」とある。のち良馬の代名詞となり、杜甫(とほ)の詩「洗兵馬(せんへいば)」の一節にも「京師(けいし)みな騎す汗血馬」とみえる。

［尾形　勇］

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