The Horse Administration Of The Southern Song China

In early period of Southern Song, most Shaanxi region had been occupied by Jurchensforces and the government of Song could not get more war horses from Tubo who lived innorthwest china. During this time Song tried to buy horses in Guangxi frontier and alsostruggled to enlarge the horse trade with tribes of southwest Sichuan frontiers which hadalways carried out since Northern Song age. But with the expending war between Song and Jin,as the official organization to deal with horse trade, Chamasi(茶马司)had to pay its mostattention on obtaining riches for many other military supplies, the horse trade had beenneglected in fact. In 1135, Chamasi began to recover its horse role by consolidating theorganization and adjusting officers. By 1145, the Southern Song state had obtained many goodwar horses in the border of Sichuan and Shaaxi , in which Song government had established twoimportant horse trading sites, DangchangZhai(宕昌寨)and FengtieXia(峰贴峡),and thereSong bought approximately over 5000 good quality horses every year , however the trade in thesouthwest frontier of Sichuan was unsatisfied. So the DangchangZhai and the FengtieXiabecame more and more important for Song's supply of war horse.Guangxi being far away from the north battlefield, Song government paid close attentionto conduct its horse trade there while it restored the war horse affair. After some attempts thetrade had accomplishedly effects. By 1141, about over 1500 horses had been carried north tothe armies resided battle frontier near the Yangzi river. The formation of the horse trade systemhad covered three stages in Guangxi. The song court start to appoint the highest magistrate oflocal army and government, Guangxi Anfushi(广西安抚使),to manage the horse trade,companied with an other important local officer, Yongzhu Zhizhu(邕州知州)in the Shaoxingsixth year. When Hu Shun‐zhi(胡舜陟)presided over the trade he soon made the case batter.After Hu Shun‐zhi's engagement, the institution had been maintained. During the Xiaozong age,the horse trade was carried out steadily. Owing holding the cautious policy in relationshipbetween Song court and the aboriginal inhabitants like as Dali(大理)and NandanZhou(南丹州)so on, the trade had been limited in one site, HengshanZhai(横山寨),so it did notcause more troubles on Song's borders .During the age of Emperor Gaozong, the court set up some horse breeding institutions insuccession, including Raozhou(饶州), Lian(临安)and Zhengjiang(镇江), but the Raozhouinstitution and zhengjiang institution existed for a short time. The followed emperor, Xiaozong, still wish increase the amount of horse by managing the breeding institution, however, a newbreeding institution set in the early time of Longxing had lasted only for one year, and the othertwo breeding horse institution had preserved for three year. Till 1173, all the experimentswere no effect. So the horse resource of the Song had to depend on the trade in the borders ofSichuan and Shaaxi. Excepting by breeding horse and buying border horse, the south songcourt got some native horses in Jinxiang(荆襄)area and Huainan(淮南)region by forciblypurchase from people, but it was an unimportant way.In order to decrease the loss of horse in the process of transport the system and institutionobliged to improve frequently. The distance of transporting the horse from Shaanxi border waslonger than one from Guangxi frontiers. In spite of the horse importing steadily, butmalpractices arose obviously, in the Xiaozong's age the court strengthened the managementand the supervisory on the transportation of horse. The horse transportation was an verycomplicated task in which multiple departments, including the Chamasi, army, and localgovernment, needed to cooperate with closely, then the task would be accomplished smoothly.But in fact many malpractices could not be overcome. The Emperor Xiaozong had tried to carryhorses by boats, supplied the site for horses rest on the way, demanded local governments tobuild hotels by standard, urged the officers to supervise the horse transporting teams, revisedthe regulations of reward and punishment, improved the road conditions and so on, buteventually the effect was not vary obvious. Comparatively, the shortage of soldiers for horsecarrying was a distinct problem in the transportation of the horse from Guangxi. The difficultyand loss in transportation made court to offer more for the equipments of cavalry.The distribution of the war horses in south song had reflected the views that the courthad held in military defenses. Most of good quality horses came from Shaaxi frontiers had beendispersed to the armies of Sanya(三衙),small of the horses had been given to the soldierssettled in Sichuan frontiers, and the other armies fixed along the Yangzi river only got theinferiors horses from Guangxi and southwest Sichuan. The amount of war horses in all armies ofthe Southern Song was about 50000, in fact the horses were not enough in more times,especially at the later period of south song. We can discover that the amount of cavalryarranged in the southeast area was above those of the military forces which were settled inother places , like Sichuan and Jingxiang, furthermore , the quality of the horses assemblednearby Hangzhou were best, so the court maintained the political principle that the power ofthe armies in different places could been arranged in a balance way, so that controlled by the emperor and the court easily, and the design appeared in the beginning age of Song.The administration of horse related closely with the military, the talks of the emperor andhis official in military show that the shortage of war horse caused the weakness in the defenseagainst Jurchens and Mongols , so Song paid more attention on advantageous geographicalconditions which the plentiful mountains , rivers and lakes could hinder shrewd cavalries ofenemy. The passive defense policy rooted in the excessive centralization of state power and thesuppressive attitude to military officers, and the policy was strengthened by the horsing affaires.