Abstract:

In such a world with abundant material culture, more and more people start to pay increasing attention to immaterial culture. The influence of immaterial culture on people is profound and unintended. Horse culture is an important part of immaterial culture in China and England. Apparently, Chinese culture is different from Western countries. There are also some differences of horse culture between China and England. Horses contributed greatly to Chinese and English history. The image of horse in China indicates a spirit of bravery, loyalty and perseverance, while it means chivalry in England and it is a symbol of nobles. The reasons that cause  these differences are complex. The study centers on horse culture, explores the origin and development, analyses image of horse between China and England as well as Chinese and English idioms. Besides, the study discusses four reasons of these differences.

Key words:horse culture; connotation; idiom; reason

摘要：

在这样一个具有丰富的物质文化的世界，越来越多的人开始关注非物质文化。文化对人类的影响深远，是潜移默化的。马文化是中国以及英国文化的一个重要组成部分。很明显，中国文化与西方文化不同。中国的马文化与英国的马文化也有不同之处。马对中国和英国的历史作出了巨大的贡献。马在中国的形象代表一种勇敢、忠诚和坚持不懈的精神，而在英国它代表一种骑士精神并且是贵族的象征。造成这一现象的原因很复杂。本论文以马文化为中心，研究了中英两国马的起源与发展、关于中英马的内涵、习语以及产生这些不同的原因。

关键词：马文化；内涵；习语；原因

Introduction
    What is horse culture? Horse culture is the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth that people create in the practice of human society. It includes people’s knowledge, training, working of horses and arts, literature and sports about horses. It indicates the relationship between human beings and horses. It is a branch of human cultures.
    Horse plays an important role in Chinese history. Since it has a special relationship with human beings, many evidences are left in people’s culture. Writers describe horses by their vivid words and civilians record horses with objects or idioms to express their deep love to horses. In China, horse comes to the first place between the six domestic animals (horse, cattle, sheep, chicken, pig and dog). Horse also has a place in Chinese zodiac. Regardless of agriculture civilization or industrial civilization, horse makes people’s life more convenient. It is also a good helper to plow cropland and transport goods, which led to the Ancient Tea Horse road. Then the road was named as “ma lu”. In Western cultures, horses are used to protect and inherit traditional cultures.