Man herding horses Painting by Han Gan
During the early years of Jianzhong, someone took a horse to a vet specializing in horses, claiming that there seemed to be something wrong with one the horse’s hooves. He also offered to pay 20 coins to have it cured.
The vet had never seen any horse with such bone structure or fur color, so he laughed and said, “This horse looks more like those Han Gan* the artist painted than real horses!”
He then asked the person to walk the horse around the market with himself following.
Han gan happened to be in the neighborhood and saw them.
“This horse really looks like one of my paintings!” Han said, quite surprised. He checked his art works as soon as he got home, when he found a horse on one of the paintings that looked exactly like the one he saw at the market. On one of its hooves there was a small ink dot that might have been an accident. Han then knew for sure it was the spirit of his painting that he saw.
Later on, all the coins the vet got, after going through several receivers, turned into fake coins made of clay.
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Translated from a story in Youyang Zazu (Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang) by Duan Chengshi (Tang Dynasty)
* Han Gan (c. 706-783): famous artist in Tang Dynasty.
More stories are available in my book Head Flyer and 100 More Ancient Chinese Strange Stories at: https://a.co/d/6gZruWM
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