Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion

by Meir Shahar

For centuries in China, people beseeched deities to protect the draft animals on which they relied. Across social classes--from peasants plowing the fields to merchants transporting goods through soldiers riding into battle--animals were essential to daily life and so took on a central place in the religious imagination. Prayers and rituals for animal well-being were most frequently addressed to the Horse King, divine protector of horses, donkeys,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 023121829X
• ISBN13: 9780231218290
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 360 Pages