Kings of Oxen and Horses

Keith N. Knapp, coeditor of The Cambridge History of China: Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220-589:
Using a wide spectrum of sources and keen storytelling, Shahar deftly reveals a forgotten and neglected world: the thriving cults of the Horse King in northern China and the Ox King in southern China. Shahar’s extensive research transports the reader out of the armchair and into the field, giving a vivid sense of the scope and practice of rural religion, the overwhelming importance of domestic animals in everyday life, and the extensive influence that Buddhism had on Chinese religion.

Benjamin Brose, author of Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim:
In this remarkable book, Meir Shahar takes readers on a guided tour of China’s haunted and holy territories, from urban cities to the countryside and from the distant past to the present day. Kings of Oxen and Horses is a lively and essential exploration of human-animal relationships in the Buddhist, Daoist, and rural religious traditions of China.