Zhuǎ Huáng Fēi Diàn 爪黄飞电

Owner:
Cao Cao 曹操

Description:
Neither the literal translation nor the actual chinese words put together make much sense. Loosely translated, it says "Yellow Claws, Flying Lightning", where "yellow claws" is referring to its yellow hooves. The way the 4 words are put together is awkward, but I guess that is the way it was meant to be.

Zhua Huang Fei Dian is Cao Cao's ceremonial horse. It has a body that is white as snow with 4 yellow hooves. An awe-inspiring outlook and a unique name makes it the perfect steed for large events and ceremonies. Cao Cao does not ride this horse into battle.

Zhua Huang Fei Dian has very little mention in the story, but where it was mentioned was a significant part of the story. Cao Cao rode this horse for a hunting excursion with the young Emperor of Han. The entire imperial cabinet came along for the hunt. By this time, Cao Cao has already put the Emperor under his "protection" and is starting to show signs of playing the puppet-master.

A deer appears and the young Emperor let fly 3 arrows, but they all missed. Cao Cao volunteers to shoot the deer down, but he picks up the Imperial Bow and loads an Imperial Golden Arrow (nobody else can use these except the Emperor himself). With one shot, Cao Cao kills the deer. The imperial cabinet, seeing the golden arrow but not able to see who shot it, thought the Emperor got his prey and shouted "Long Live the Emperor!". But when Cao Cao came into view holding the Imperial Bow, everyone's faces turned ashen grey. It was the moment it became crystal clear, that Cao Cao's intention was to grasp the Imperial power for himself.

The Shadow 绝影 (jué yǐng)

Owner:
Cao Cao 曹操

Description:
This horse supposedly runs so fast even its own shadow cannot keep up with it. I was extremely tempted to translate its name as "Shadowfax", the name of Gandalf's horse in "Lord of the Rings", but decided not to so as not to cause any confusion between this two stories. The Shadow accompanied Cao Cao during his early days and was said to be with him since the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

The Shadow became a focal point in the story during the battle of Wan Cheng 宛城之战, where Cao Cao suffered the terrible loss of his bodyguard Dian Wei 典韦. During Cao Cao's escape from Zhang Xiu 张绣's ambush, The Shadow carried its master through a rain of arrows. Cao Cao was said to survive only because of the speed of this horse. Thought to be one of the Da Yuan horses 大宛马, The Shadow suffered 3 arrow wounds to its body but kept going. It was only after an arrow pierced its eye did it ultimately fall in that battle.

In the battle of Wan Cheng, Cao Cao lost his horse (The Shadow), his bodyguard (Dian Wei), one of his sons Cao Ang 曹昂, and his nephew Cao An Min 曹安民.

The Hex 的卢 (dí lú)

Owner:
Liu Bei 刘备

Description:
You could not possibly read Romance of Three Kingdoms and not come across this horse. That is because if not for the Hex, Liu Bei would have died early on in the story.

Liu Bei first came across this horse whilst he was under the service of Liu Biao 刘表. The enemy, Zhang Wu 张武, was sitting atop this beautiful steed and both Liu Bei and Liu Biao admired it from opposite the front line. Zhao Yun 赵云 quickly understood Liu Bei's unspoken desire to have the horse and said to Liu Bei, "Give me three rounds".

Indeed within 3 rounds, Zhao Yun killed Zhang Wu and brought the Hex over to Liu Bei. Liu Bei wanted to honor Liu Biao and presented the Hex to him as a gift, however Liu Biao's advisor hastily discouraged accepting the gift. The advisor claims that the dark recesses under Di Lu's eyes and the spots on its face symbolized a cursed horse that would bring death to its rider. Liu Biao declined the horse and advised Liu Bei not to ride it too, but Liu Bei ignored the superstitions.

Later in the story, Cai Mao 蔡帽 usurped power after Liu Biao's death and planned to ambush Liu Bei. Liu Bei got wind of the plan and hastily escaped with the Hex, but found no way across a creek several meters wide. He decided to take a gamble and hop over the creek on the Hex, but Di Lu stumbled into the creek and got stuck in the mud.

Cai Mao was fast approaching and it seems all was lost. Liu Bei said to the Hex, "The Hex! The Hex! Alas, you bring my death as was foretold!" Suddenly the Hex gave one huge leap and jumped over 10 meters (exaggerated i'm sure) to bring Liu Bei to safety. From that day on, Liu Bei treated the Hex with utmost care and love.

But the story does not end there. Years later, Liu Bei would lend the Hex to Pang Tong 庞统 in their invasion of Luo Cheng 雒城. An enemy ambush mistook Pang Tong as Liu Bei since he was riding atop the Hex and killed him at Luo Feng Po 落凤坡. The Hex went missing and was never mentioned after that.

Zǐ Xīng 紫骍

Owner:
Cao Zhi 曹植 (son of Cao Cao 曹操, younger brother of Cao Pi 曹丕)

Description:
I must confess to finding little about Zi Xing. All that my research has thrown up is it is of the Da Yuan 大宛 breed of horses and is fast as lightning. The word 骍 is already extinct in the common chinese dictionary. It refers to a cross-breed between a bull and a horse with a reddish body. However it is pretty clear that Zi Xing is but a name borrowing on the strength of the Xing breed, when it truly is a Da Yuan breed.

Zi Xing belonged to Cao Zhi, the drunken poet famous for his "7 Step Poem 七步诗". The life and struggles of Cao Zhi can be made for a dramatic novel all by itself. The pinnacle of Cao Zhi's melodramatic life came when Cao Pi wanted Cao Zhi executed for being too drunk to attend their father Cao Cao's funeral. Cao Zhi was challenged to come up with a poem within 7 walking steps or die. That was when Cao Zhi cited his 7 Step Poem, that moved Cao Pi to tears.

Dà Yuān 大宛

Owner:
Not applicable.

Description:
The Da Yuan (commonly mis-pronounced as Dà Wǎn) horse is not one specific horse from the story but an entire breed of horses. During the heyday of the Han Dynasty 汉朝 (approx BC 140), Emperor Han Wu Di 汉武帝 (The Militant Emperor of Han) got to know about the stout horses in the western frontier of Da Yuan. Da Yuan is a valley in Kyrgyzstan in today's map. Han Wu Di wanted to exchange 3000 of his golden horses for 3000 Da Yuan horses, but the King of Da Yuan refused and executed the ambassador from Han.


Obviously, Han Wu Di got mega-pissed and arranged for a massive invasion. The population of Da Yuan feared for their lives and murdered their own King to appease the Hans. The Hans then received their 3000 Da Yuan horses, but only 1000 survived the arduous journey back to Han Wu Di. Today, this horse is endangered and can only be found in the Turkmenistan and Russian regions.

Red Hare 赤兔 (chì tù)

Owner:
Dong Zhuo 董卓, Lu Bu 吕布, Guan Yu 关羽

Description from story:
"If Lu Bu is the human amongst humans, then Red Hare is the horse amongst horses 人中吕布, 马中赤兔" This horse is arguably the most prominent in the entire story, due to its link with Lu Bu. The Red Hare first appeared as a gift from Dong Zhuo to Lu Bu. It served as a bribery to tempt Lu Bu to defect to Dong Zhuo's side by killing Lu Bu's his own god-father, Ding Yuan 丁原. Lu Bu loved the Red Hare so much that he agreed to carry out the venomous deed. It was capable of running 400km a day!

After Lu Bu was executed by Cao Cao 曹操, Cao Cao gave the Red Hare to Guan Yu during his short service under Cao Wei 曹魏. Guan Yu was the only person in the Wei Kingdom who could tame the Red Hare. Cao Cao's respect for Guan Yu showed when he allowed Guan Yu to take the Red Hare with him when he left to rejoin Liu Bei 刘备.

The Red Hare fell into the hands of the Wu Kingdom 吴国 after Lu Meng 吕蒙 captured Guan Yu and executed him. However this horse refused to eat or obey anybody within Wu Kingdom. It consequently died of starvation.