Bo, the Tiger-Toothed Horse of the Shan Hai Jing

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Mount Zhongqu lies in the fourth book of the Western Mountains, the far northwestern range of the mountain books. The Shan Hai Jing says a beast lives there that looks like a horse with a white body and a black tail, a single horn, and the teeth and claws of a tiger. Its voice booms like a drum. It is called the Bo, and it eats tigers and leopards, the most feared hunters of the ancient Chinese hills.

The last phrase gives its use: the Bo can ward off weapons, which usually means it protects against war and armed attack. A horse that preys on tigers was a natural guardian. Like many creatures in the book, it is built from familiar animals, here the horse and the tiger, combined into something stronger than either, and given a single horn that marks it as more than an ordinary steed.

The Bo in other early texts

The Bo turns up again in the Beyond the Seas: North book, which describes a beast like a white horse with saw-like teeth that eats tigers and leopards. The Erya, one of the earliest Chinese dictionaries, has a similar line in its section on domestic animals: the Bo is like a horse, with jagged teeth, and eats tigers and leopards. The three descriptions agree on the core of the creature. It is white, shaped like a horse, and deadly to the big cats that every traveler in the mountains feared.

Neighbors on the same range

The fourth book of the Western Mountains is one of the wildest parts of the Shan Hai Jing. Mount Gui, the next stop after Mount Zhongqu, is home to Qiongqi, an ox-like beast with hedgehog bristles that eats people, and its Meng River holds the Luoyu, a fish with bird wings whose appearance brings floods. Next to them the Bo stands out as a protector. Its fierce parts serve the people near it: the tiger teeth that would frighten a traveler are turned against the tigers themselves.

Bo in Beasts of Shanhai

In Beasts of Shanhai, our browser game built on these creatures, the Bo keeps its role as a guard against war. It is a Metal beast with Guard, so foes must attack it first, and at the start of each battle it raises a shield that grows with the number of Metal beasts on your side. At three stars it also shields the ally to its right. For another sacred mount of the book, see the Chenghuang, whose rider lives two thousand years.

Tiger-Tooth Steed in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Tiger-Tooth Steed is a Metal beast that costs 2 Gold. Its skill is Metal Shield. At the start of a battle it gains Shield equal to 20% of its max HP for each of your Metal beasts (at least 2 each). It has Guard. At three stars the shield is 40% per Metal beast and also goes to the ally on its right.

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