Baimatuojiang Legend
01 · Historical Records
The White Horse Dragging the Rein legend is a folk story current in the Jincheng area of Shanxi; its basic motif is that a wood-cutting youth cut firewood for a rich man and met an old man who asked him for firewood to warm himself. The youth generously gave him the firewood, and the old man gave him a paper horse in return. When the young woodcutter met with a blizzard, the paper horse turned into a white horse and carried charcoal to relieve him. When the rich man learned of it he wished to take the divine horse for himself but was kicked over by the white horse, and the woodcutter rode the white horse up into the air. The ridge over which the rein was dragged is to this day bare of grass and scattered with ringing horse-bell stones. It is recorded in the old Zezhou Prefectural Gazetteer and Jincheng County Gazetteer.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The basic motif of the White Horse Dragging the Rein legend is that a wood-cutting youth cut firewood for a rich man and met an old man who asked him for firewood to warm himself; the youth generously gave him the firewood, and the old man gave him a paper horse in return; when the youth met with a blizzard the paper horse turned into a white horse and carried charcoal to relieve him; when the rich man learned of it he wished to take the divine horse for himself but was kicked over by the white horse; the woodcutter rode the white horse up into the air, and the ridge over which the rein was dragged is to this day bare of grass and scattered with ringing horse-bell stones. It is recorded in the old city and county gazetteers. In its long evolution, starting from the motif of requiting kindness and the white horse's sacrifice of its life for righteousness, it gradually attached and produced a series of stories roughly the same in content but different in plot and characters, and especially, once linked with the naming of the local White Horse Temple mountain and the White Horse Chan temple, it merged a traditional folk story with the local hills and temples and other scenery into a local scenery legend cluster, and to a certain extent reflects the colour of Buddhist culture.
The Woodcutter Gives Firewood to Help a Man
The episode in the legend in which the young woodcutter gives firewood to help an old man.
The Paper Horse Turns into a White Horse
The episode in which the old man gives a paper horse in return and the paper horse turns into a white horse carrying charcoal to relieve the youth.
The Horse-Bell Stones
The ringing horse-bell stones scattered on the ridge over which the rein was dragged.
The White Horse Temple Mountain and the White Horse Chan Temple
The mountain and temple connected with and named from the White Horse Dragging the Rein legend.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The White Horse Dragging the Rein was originally a traditional requiting-kindness folk story, widely current in the Jincheng area of Shanxi. In its long evolution, starting from the motif of requiting kindness and the white horse's sacrifice of its life for righteousness, it gradually attached and produced a series of stories roughly the same in content but different in plot and characters; especially, once linked with the naming of the local White Horse Temple mountain and the White Horse Chan temple, it merged a traditional folk story with the local hills and temples and other scenery into a local scenery legend cluster, and to a certain extent reflects the colour of Buddhist culture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The White Horse Dragging the Rein legend embodies the true, the good and the beautiful of the human world and promotes the traditional Chinese moral idea of requiting kindness, with important folk-literature value and edifying significance. It is widely current in the Jincheng area and is one of the representative works of the local folk literature.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。