Chinese Traditional Sports 中国传统运动

China is well known as an ancient country with a civilization several thousand years old. But few people know that sports in China claim a history as long and honorable as the country’s civilization. Ancient relics (遗迹) that have been unearthed indicate that people in China from 4,000 to 10,000 years ago already knew how to do physical exercises. Such physical activities as archery (射箭) and juding (举鼎) were carried out as far back as in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Traditionally, Chinese people regard sports as an essential method for fit-keeping as well as for entertainment, like the dragon-boat races during the Dragon-boat Festival, swings (秋千) during the Pure Brightness Festival, mountain-climbing during the Double-ninth Festival and dragon-dance and lion-dance during the Spring Festival. People also relate sports to an enhanced insight into life, such as with Weiqi (known as go in the West) and Chinese chess. As a country with diverse cultural traditions passed down from one generation to another over thousands of years, China has developed a variety of sports, including archery, cuju, martial arts, Taijiquan (shadow boxing), qigong and acrobatics. In terms of the purposes they serve, they may be classified into the following groups:

(1) Performing and entertaining sports, such as swordsmanship (剑术) and touhu① of the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods, cuju (football) and baixi② of the Han Dynasty, polo (jiju③) of the Tang Dynasty and bingxi④of the Qing Dynasty. Hunting, which is for amusement, also falls into this category.

(2) Fit-keeping activities such as daoyin⑤ (physical and breathing exercises combined with auto-massage) and five animal exercises (wuqinxi) of the Han Dynasty, and all kinds of traditional life-preserving exercises that have been handed down to this day.

(3) Various forms of physical training for military purposes, such as archery and charioteering⑥ in the Western Zhou Dynasty and long-distance runs in the army camps of the Ming Dynasty.

There were also exercises for two or more of the above purposes. wrestling (Jueli角力) and martial arts (wushu), for example, maybe practiced as performing arts, or as fitness exercises, or as military skills.

Sports in ancient China were extremely rich and diversified, each with distinct features of its own. Traditional Chinese fit-keeping arts, in particular, combine bodily movements and mental activity in a way rarely seen in sports practiced in other parts of the world. With their unique values in promoting health and combating disease, these arts are invaluable assets to mankind.

With their unique national features, Oriental charm, fit-keeping and therapeutic (治疗的) values and entertaining effects, ancient sports form an intrinsic part of Chinese civilization. Today, they are being steadily improved on a scientific basis and have taken their place in the sporting world, enriching the sports culture of human civilization.

Abridged and revised from

http://www1.chinaculture.org/library/2008-01/25/content_127341.htm

Notes:

① touhu: 投壶，是众人轮流将箭杆投抛至酒壶内的游戏，是自春秋时代到清末时流行于汉民族的游戏，也流传到朝鲜半岛、日本。

② baixi：百戏，是古代对民间诸技的总称，尤以杂技为主。

③ jiju: 击鞠，也就是现代的马球，出现在唐代。游戏者必须乘坐于马上击球，击鞠所用的球有拳头大小。

④ bingxi：冰嬉，亦称“冰戏”。古代汉族冰上活动的泛称。宋代已有。明朝成为宫廷体育活动。故宫博物院所藏的《冰嬉图》描绘的就是清朝时宫廷冰嬉的盛大场面。

⑤ daoyin: 导引，是修炼者以自力引动肢体所作的俯仰屈伸运动（常和行气、按摩等相配合），以锻炼形体的一种养生术，与现代的柔软体操相近似。

⑥ charioteering: 御，即驾驶马车的技术，是周朝的“六艺”之一。据《周礼·大司徒》，周王官学要求学生掌握的六种基本为“礼、乐、射、御、书、数”。