说秦汉简牍中的“牝马”

On Pinma in Qin and Han Bamboo Slip

马是秦汉时期重要的战略资源之一,河西地区汉简中关于马的记载层出不穷。梳理这些材料可以发现,除私用外,牝马亦有官用情况。分析这些情况出现的原因和牝马的使用状况,不仅能够考察一些名物信息,还能进一步厘清汉代的马政运作情况。此外,通过对牝马马齿年龄的研究,可知古人在科学扩大马匹种群和满足使用需求上找到了平衡点,这也为研究我国古代马匹饲养繁殖技术的积累情况提供了一个重要的视角。

Horses were crucial strategic resources during the Qin and Han dynasties and there are many records related to horses in the Han bamboo slips found in the Hexi region. These materials show that pinma(mare)not only served private purposes but also had official use.Analyzing the reasons for this and depicting the use of mares not only provides insights into how relevant proper names were used at the time, but also sheds light on horse management during the Han Dynasty. Furthermore, investigating the age of the mares based on their teeth allows us to understand how people balanced the expansion of the horse population with meeting their needs to use horses. This is an important approach to the study of how horse breeding and rearing techniques evolved in ancient China.