Kings of Oxen and Horses

In this remarkable book, Meir Shahar takes readers on a guided tour of China’s haunted and holy territories, from urban cities to the countryside and from the distant past to the present day. Kings of Oxen and Horses is a lively and essential exploration of human-animal relationships in the Buddhist, Daoist, and rural religious traditions of China. -- Benjamin Brose, author of <i>Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim</i> Using a wide spectrum of sources and keen storytelling, Shahar deftly reveals a forgotten and neglected world: the thriving cults of the Horse King in northern China and the Ox King in southern China. Shahar’s extensive research transports the reader out of the armchair and into the field, giving a vivid sense of the scope and practice of rural religion, the overwhelming importance of domestic animals in everyday life, and the extensive influence that Buddhism had on Chinese religion. -- Keith N. Knapp, coeditor of <i>The Cambridge History of China: Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220-589</i> Shahar’s richly illustrated book is a gem in a growing body of studies on the nonhuman animal in Chinese history and religious culture. Tracing the pedigree of tutelary horse- and ox-protecting deities to India and medieval Tantric Buddhism, Shahar’s analysis, supported by fascinating fieldwork findings, underscores the need to study ""Chinese"" animals beyond ethnic, geographical, and political borders. -- Roel Sterckx, author of <i>The Animal and the Daemon in Early China</i>