Ancient Sport of Polo

The title is 唐人馬球圖, which roughly translates as "Tang Folks (Playing) Polo Picture". Polo is 馬球 in Chinese, which is literally "horse ball".

There was an ancient form of polo, played in ancient Chinese during the Tang Dynasty. You might find people playing this game on horseback some 1200 years ago. How related this game is to the modern form of polo is up for debate - but the similarities are uncanny.

There's a bit more writing, 時在癸巳年春月學萬於在錦官林外南郊並記 which indicates the year painted (Spring, 2013), the place painted, (a neighborhood in Jinguanlin), and the artist's signature (his given name, 學萬).

This was painted by Zhang Xuewan (張學萬) of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province (and where my favorite food comes from -> Szechuan = Sichuan).

This was painted in 2013 at the artist's studio in Chengdu.

Zhang Xuewan was born in 1958, Sichuan Province. He's famous for his "boneless painting style", which he learned from Peng Xiancheng. The so-called "boneless painting style" is a traditional but very specialized style of Chinese painting. It requires the artist to pre-paint the whole idea in their heads. The whole composition must flow directly from the artist's mind to his hand and brush. There are no outlines or basic structures laid out before the painting begins.

A little background on the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) which is depicted in this painting: Tang was really the "dynasty of the horse", as more than any other time, horses were an important part of society. In fact, one's wealth was strictly determined by the number of horses one owned. Good horsemanship was also a revered trait. Horses were also an important element of the Tang army, with officers and Chinese knights riding horses into battle.