Draft for Qin Qiong Selling His Horse

In summer 1928, Xu Beihong represented the Republican Central Department in admitting art workers. He proposed the theme “Qin Qiong selling his horse,” which would require artists to show their mastery of a range of forms.
This drawing is a response to this theme, but it also depicts a hero down on his luck due to a changing political situation.

The story of Qin Qiong selling his horse was found in the Romance of the Sui and Tang and Stories of Tang. At the end of the Sui dynasty, Qin Qiong was the head bandit catcher in Licheng County, Shandong. His official duties included escorting eighteen criminals to Luzhou in Shanxi, but one of the prisoners died of illness during the trip. When he arrived in Luzhou, the governor Cai Daren consulted the official documents sent from Licheng County and demanded eighteen prisoners from Qin Qiong. The official refused to listen to Qin’s explanations and did not believe the testimony of the other prisoners; he thought that Qin released the prisoner and would only provide the receipt documents after a thorough investigation. While Qin waited for the receipt, he was stranded at an inn in Luzhou. He very quickly spent all of his money, and he had no choice but to sell the spotted horse and gold-decorated double mace that had been with him many years. This is a story of a hero who has fallen on hard times. It is similar to the story that gave birth to the phrase “being unable to recognize a good horse.” If the story of Bole and Jiu Fanggang praises the knowledgeable, then Qin Qiong selling his horse reflects sympathy with a fallen hero. The former tells the story of Bole’s worldly desires, while the latter expresses the resentment of unrecognized and frustrated talent. Comparatively speaking, the latter is a more realistic criticism.
-Hua Tianxue, Xu Beihong’s Reforms of Chinese Painting