In the 13th National Games held in Tianjin, the new square dance, dragon boat, softball, dragon dance and other mass events attracted much attention. So in ancient times, the people are playing what "fashion" sports? Being held in the Tianjin Museum of an ancient Chinese sports heritage exhibition, focusing on the essence of traditional Chinese sports culture.
From military sports to recreational sports
The Tianjin Municipal People's Government, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage jointly sponsored the event, bringing together more than 10 cultural and museum units in the country's collection of ancient sports artifacts. 200 exhibits, including more than 20 pieces of national level cultural relics, to the people to outline the beginning of the ancient sports in the production of labor, military training, and prosperity of leisure and entertainment change
Early in the prehistoric barbaric era, the ancestors of the Chinese nation in the gathering of the life of the group, due to the need to seek food and self-defense, running, jumping, climbing, throwing, etc. become the most commonly used physical activities, the initial prototype of the human sports thus born. With the emergence of tribal disputes, the ancients consciously military training, thus giving rise to a series of military sports activities.
The exhibition in the domestic more than 10 cultural and biological units on loan many precious relics, *** display more than 200 pieces of cultural relics, of which more than 20 pieces of national cultural relics.
Tens of thousands of ancient petroglyphs found in the eastern foothills of Ningxia's Helan Mountains truly reproduced the scenes of ancient mankind grazing and hunting 3,000-10,000 years ago. And the exhibition site a terracotta warrior from the Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang, silently to the present day to teach the then archery posture: the left foot to the left front diagonally out of a half-step, the feet into a d shape, the left arm half-raised, the right arm curved up in front of the chest, the head and the body slightly to the left side to turn, head gazing at the left front. This is quite similar to the launching preparatory action of modern archery.
In ancient times, the horse as an important tool for production and military combat, people hold a high degree of worship, and many sports are also centered around the "horse". Ancient sports such as mounted archery and polo were based on horseback riding, and the ability to tame a horse was seen as a special ability.
The Tang Dancing Horse Bit Cup Silver Jug from the Shaanxi History Museum was unearthed in 1970. This fine silver wine-containing object retains on its surface the image of two dancing horses sitting with their tails on the ground, their mouths holding wine cups, and prostrating themselves to the people. Hong Dequan, a volunteer lecturer at the Tianjin Museum, said this shows that people at that time had reached a considerable level of horse-taming, and were happy to tame horses.
In fact, the ancient people in the material conditions gradually improved, leisure, entertainment in daily life plays an increasingly important role, many sports also centered on this theme. As early as in the Neolithic era, some sites left children's tombs have many stone and ceramic gyros, which can be seen at that time to play this game. Swinging is a kind of sport created by the northern minorities in ancient China, which was introduced to the Central Plains during the Spring and Autumn Period, and gradually became a customary folk activity performed on festivals such as Qingming and Dragon Boat Festival after the Han Dynasty and has been handed down to the present day. In the Ancient Women's Play Scroll from the Nanjing Museum, swinging, throwing pots and fighting with weeds were very popular among women in ancient times.
Ancient "games" were similar to modern sports
Ancient China had a wide range of ball sports, including cuju, which was known as ancient soccer, and was the most popular. Cuju originated in the Warring States period, and gained great development in the Han Dynasty, the most prosperous Tang and Song Dynasties, and began to decline in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. 2004 July 15, FIFA announced that the ancient Chinese cuju is the origin of soccer.
A number of "ancient soccer" pictures in the exhibition hall, reflecting its evolutionary trajectory. The end of the Western Han Dynasty bow for four pieces of animal skin spliced together and become, to the Southern Song Dynasty has developed into twelve pieces, "soccer" more round. The Han Dynasty bow is stuffed with animal hair solid ball, to the Tang and Song Dynasty was changed into an inflatable ball into the animal bladder, more technical.
Southern Song Dynasty, the palace banquet will generally be held at the Cuju competition, people in the center of the stadium erected two poles three zhang high, the upper part of the goal diameter of about one foot, called the "wind flow eye". The two teams stood on both sides of the "wind flow eye", by the players upside down, pass the ball a few times to the vice-captain, the vice-captain upside down a few times to be the ball upright and stable, and then passed to the captain, the captain will kick the ball to the "wind flow eye", according to the end of kicking the ball over the "wind flow eye". At the end of the game, the winner was determined by the number of balls kicked through the "eye of the wind". "Compared with modern soccer, this kind of cuju is less confrontational, but requires more accurate kicking."
From the Tang Dynasty, the sport of cudgel, which evolved from polo, began to spread among commoners. From the Palace Museum's "Ming Xuanzong palace music map," you can see, whacking ball sports, whether it is the shape of the clubs, or the hole of the white triangular flag, as if the same as the modern golf game. The playing style of whack-a-mole is also very much in line with golf, including side-spin, inside and outside-spin, etc., while the hitting posture is both standing and kneeling.
Song and Yuan period about polo physical materials are also seen.
In one corner of the exhibition hall, a half-meter-high, square stone (wugong stone) triggered a lot of onlookers. In ancient times, the project originated from the military - moving Wugong stone, somewhat like modern weightlifting. Hong Dequan introduction, moving Wugong stone is a mandatory subject of the ancient martial arts examination, the test takers need to lift the stone weighing 250 pounds to 300 pounds, and the bottom of the Wugong stone to be lifted above the waist, the difficulty is not smaller than weightlifting.
Movement and static combination, heavy fitness is also heavy nourishment
Ancient Chinese sports advocate the combination of movement and static, focusing on cultivation, which is somewhat different from Western sports, but complementary. "Western sports focus on competition and promote more individual heroism, while Eastern sports are softer, focusing on the unity of mind and body, and the unity of heaven and man."
Visitors' interest was piqued by the many types of chess in the exhibition, which includes forms such as Go, Xiangqi, Roppo and backgammon. For thousands of years, playing chess has both unlocked people's wisdom and satisfied human competitiveness, entertaining generations of people. For various kinds of chess, the ancients had a few idle words to say, such as "Immortals take six chopsticks and play against the corner of Taishan Mountain - Rokbo", "Sitting against a pair of scales, who studies this flavor - Weiqi", "The game of chess", "The game of chess", "The game of Xiangqi", "Backgammon" and so on. -Go" "You see the play in the orange, the wonderful is not out of the game - Xiangqi" ......
Anciently, chess included Go, Xiangqi and Xiangqi. Chess included forms of Go, Xiangqi, Roppogi and Backgammon.
Many ancient sports and games had rich cultural connotations. For example, Weiqi, which implies the ancient Chinese philosophy of "one element gives birth to two instruments, two instruments give birth to four elephants, four elephants give birth to eight trigrams, heaven is round and earth is square, nineteen farmers' festivals, and the number of three hundred and sixty circumferences, etc., is rich in variations and has a profound and fascinating meaning.
Of course, the ancient sports also have class points. In ancient times, the imperial art of driving a carriage was a six-door compulsory course for gentlemen, and civilians could not afford to play it. And it was only when sports like polo were simplified into whack-a-mole that the people were able to participate.
Anciently, fishing, chess and other leisure activities, also has the meaning of cultivation. The Ming - you seek - chess report axis" depicts such a scene: the famous statesman of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xie An in the elegant garden villa with the game, just rushed from the front line of the military soldiers want to report to him Interfax victory, but he is still focused on playing chess, calm and collected. This kind of dashing demeanor and calm cultivation is what the ancient talented bachelors sought.