What was polo called in ancient times?

Polo was called "bowing" in ancient China.

Polo, English for polo (or transliteration from Tibetan Pulu, meaning "ball"), is a kind of sports activity that rides on a horse and hits the ball with a polo club. In ancient China, it was called "auspicious drama", which began in the Han Dynasty and prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. But there is no exact statement about the origin of polo.

Scholars generally believe that the history of polo can be traced back to Persia around 600 BC, and then spread to Tubo (now Tibet), the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in China, Iran, India and other Asian countries. Today's professional polo is mainly popular in Argentina, Britain, India, Pakistan and the United States.

Development history

According to documents and archaeological data, this sport was popular in the Central Plains as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty. Besides horses, the main tools of this sport are balls and sticks. The ball is only the size of a fist, made of light and tough wood, hollowed out in the middle and painted outside. Generally, it is red or painted, which is very different from the white of modern polo.

Horse bats are called "bats" and "bow sticks". Because the curved part at the top of the bat looks like the "half-chord moon" at the beginning of the lunar calendar, it is often described as "moon stick" or "the beginning of the moon" in ancient poems.