What were the ancient methods of physical exercise (e.g. running, sword dancing)

In ancient Chinese sports activities, there is a unique class of sports forms, which is skill. Ancient Chinese skill movement, originated from the prehistoric human activities and production and labor practices, with the development of society and human cultural progress, to the time of Qin and Han, this form of movement has become one of the spiritual and cultural forms of the unified authoritarian empire "music and dance," the main content of the art of the hundred plays. The main items of this form of skillful movement include somersaults, inversions, jiu-jitsu, play cars, wearing poles, rope skills and so on, many of which require a high degree of physical skill. These rich to show the body's high skill of the main form of movement, after the Han Dynasty, basically established its position in the ancient Chinese prevalent "hundred theater" art.

Wei-Jin-Sui-Tang-Five Dynasties period, the skills of the physical exercise program, basically inherited the Han Dynasty has been more complete form, but in the difficulty, the way to develop. Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties skill activity form, from the court to the feast, from the town to the countryside, widely popular. In particular, the performing arts venues in towns and countryside walks have various forms of physical skill content. In addition, in addition to the development of movement skills, there are also changes in the program. In the Ming Dynasty's painting of "Ming Xianzong's Lantern Festival", there is a part of the picture that shows the content of skills in the form of boarding wheel, drilling circle, inverted spinning man, jujitsu, and stacking man, and so on. As a way of exercising the body's potential, skillful sports added new contents to ancient Chinese sports.

Athletics

Athletics in ancient Chinese sports were weak, especially after the Tang Dynasty. Shooting was one of the six arts. The "six arts", i.e. "rites, music, archery, the imperial court, calligraphy and mathematics", were the main educational contents in the pre-Qin period of China. Among them, "Archery" is archery, and "Royalty" is driving.

The creation of the bow and arrow became a sharp weapon for hunting and war. The practice of archery was an important sporting activity for the ancients. The Zhou Dynasty formulated the "archery ritual", which refers to the ritualized archery competitions, and was an inevitable activity held on many occasions in ancient times, such as sacrificial ceremonies, vassal pilgrimages, diplomatic alliances and other occasions. There are four types of archery competitions according to their rank: the Great Archery, the Bin Archery, the Yan Archery, and the Countryside Archery, which make archery a cultural rite of passage.

Anciently, there were many warriors who were good at archery, such as Yang Yuji, Jichang and Feng Meng in the pre-Qin era, Li Guang in the Han Dynasty, and Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms period, who could "shoot birds with his hands".

Because of the important role of archery in ancient military activities, the Tang Chang'an two years (702 AD), Wu Zetian created the selection of military personnel, the martial arts system, on the archery special attention. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, archery has been the main program of military martial arts. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, due to the invention and use of modern firearms, archery activities in the military, ceremonial and other significance of the weakening of the competition and entertainment, but gradually strengthened, but still belongs to the important content of martial arts until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Wushu

Wushu is a unique type of sports of the Chinese nation, which has gradually developed along with the progress of human social life.

Instruments, the basis of traditional martial arts, was initially developed along with the emergence of hunting and war, and many of the later martial arts instruments actually originated from some of the ancient production tools and weapons. The various types of bronze weapons that appeared during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, such as go, halberd, spear, knife, sword, etc., can be said to be the earlier martial arts equipment. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, with the development of iron smelting industry, iron martial arts equipment is increasingly diversified.

Boxing, an important part of Chinese martial arts, is characterized mainly by the use of unarmed fists and feet limbs. Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, with the flourishing of religion, martial arts in the boxing more popular in the temple religious and folk, and to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the content of the Chinese martial arts is increasingly rich in boxing routines in which the technology is maturing, mainly in the formation of a variety of schools with different styles and technical characteristics.

In addition to the use of unarmed fists and limbs, the use of equipment for technical exercises is also an important part of the martial arts. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, influenced by the need to adapt to close combat in the war, the practice of equipment

gave rise to remarkable changes. From the Song and Yuan dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the ruler's promotion of martial arts, the prosperity of folk martial arts activities and the new development of set techniques objectively promoted the diversification of martial arts equipment exercises.

Jockeying

Jockeying was an important sport in ancient China, including horse racing and circus. Riding was originally invented for hunting, and was later introduced to the military. Due to the important role of riding in hunting and military, it has always been emphasized by people and gradually developed into a sports activity.

Jockeying appeared earlier in China, the earliest invention of jockeying should be living in the northern nomadic people. In Gansu Hexi Corridor, Jiuquan Dunhuang area, since ancient times is the diersi, Qiang, Turkic, Xiongnu, Xianbei, migratory birds and other nomadic people living and breathing place. Ancient Central Plains region of the conditioning of horses and driving carriages in the Shang, Zhou period has also appeared, this period also use the horse-drawn chariot combat. The emergence of cavalry is an armed revolution, at the same time, the riding technology also put forward higher requirements, with the promotion of the cavalry in various countries, riding became an important part of the assessment of the skills of soldiers.

Horse racing was very popular during the Spring and Autumn period, although it was only a gambling activity for the lords and nobles at that time, but it showed that the people at that time already had a high level of skill in driving horses.

Polo is a sport closely related to horsemanship, which is called "bowing". Polo developed greatly from the Han Dynasty through the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and was especially popular in the Tang Dynasty. Polo has very high requirements for horsemanship, and participants must be very skillful in riding horses. The Tang Dynasty was even more horse-heavy, and its army had very strict equestrian training. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, riding performances, in addition to folk, also served as an important element of military training.

Traditional Ice Frolic

Skiing, as early as the Sui and Tang dynasties have been mastered by some ethnic minorities in the north. At that time, living in the northeast of the female genitalia, there has been a "bamboo horse" used to gallop, this "bamboo horse" in the ice skating speed, but also very energy-saving.

Song Dynasty, ice sports more prosperous. At that time, the prevalence of a kind of human pull on the ice activities, that is, in the wooden boards laid on some mattresses and other soft and warm objects, two or three people sitting on it, so that a person pulling on the ice skating, this is the earliest ice bed, it is a unique form of skating on ice. Until the Ming and Qing dynasties, some children of rich families still play this game on the ice of Jishuitan in Beijing.

The ice activities of the Ming Dynasty were further developed among the ethnic minorities in the north. Ming Xi Zong five years (1625) in the first month, the Northeast Jianzhou female Zhen tribe chief Nurhachu once hosted a grand ice games on the Prince Edward River. In this Games, the first hockey show, and then speed skating competition. The champion was rewarded with 20 taels of silver, and the runner-up 10 taels, which was the first ice sports meeting in ancient China.

Manchu people into the Central Plains, the traditional sports activities of their people ice hippie also brought to the mainland, its content is colorful and colorful, presented a generation of prosperity. At that time, the Royal every winter from all over the world to select thousands of "good walking ice" of able hands into the palace training, in the winter solstice to "three nine" in the Taiyiquan pool (now Beijing's Beihai and Zhongnanhai) performances.

Skiing, another form of snow sports that has flourished since the Sui and Tang dynasties, has also been popular among ethnic minorities in the north.

Practicing strength and lifting weights

Practicing strength and lifting weights went through three major phases in ancient China: first, lifting household utensils, second, lifting weights made of wood and iron

, and third, lifting weights made of stone. Due to the different lifting appliances, their names also vary, such as warping off, carrying tripods, lifting stone locks, etc., are the ancient practice of lifting heavy objects activities called.

Spring and Autumn, the Warring States period, China's historical records on the "warping off" and "carrying tripod" records.

During the Warring States period, it was the state of Qin that had the largest number of tripod lifters, and the state of Qin used the method of sealing the palace to recruit many Hercules. In the Han Dynasty, the practice of lifting weights was still practiced by carrying tripods, and the way of practicing strength was expanded. Although the form of practicing strength in Han Dynasty still utilized the tools of life, it was used in the way of social entertainment performance increased. Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties weightlifting in addition to military training as a martial arts examination, or an important part of sports activities.

After the Song Dynasty, stone weightlifting equipment began to be further popularized, and there are many benefits to the widespread development of weightlifting. From wooden and iron weightlifting equipment to stone weightlifting equipment, can be regarded as China's ancient universal weightlifting movement of a symbol. The Ming and Qing dynasties inherited the Tang Dynasty martial arts system, the original examination content of the warping off the weight lifting method changed to "pick up the stone", when the folk were prevalent in lifting stone locks, stone burden and other activities.

Jiaojia, sumo wrestling and wrestling

Jiaojia is an ancient form of athletic activities, belonging to the scope of unarmed combat, is the original means of self-defense of mankind's development and improvement. According to ancient documents, the corner of the earliest began in ancient Jizhou "Chi play", popular in the north of China in ancient times, is to commemorate with the Yellow Emperor by deer in the Central Plains of the Chi clan.

After the Qin Shi Huang unified China, prohibited the private possession of weapons, as the unarmed combat corner thus flourished. Han Dynasty, there is a folk by the "Chi play" developed by two people in public performances of athletic activities, with the characteristics of wrestling later. At the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, another name - sumo wrestling. In the Tang Dynasty, sumo, jousting two names in parallel, which is still characterized by the power of the competition, and more in the military.

Sumo in the folk prevalent in the Song Dynasty. At that time, sumo can be roughly divided into two categories: one is the formal competition; the other is in the Washa and other places of performance sumo, its competitive nature is not as fierce as the former. Sumo wrestling performances were undoubtedly the most interesting part of the yakuza performances at that time. The costumes of the sumo wrestlers were very similar to those of present-day Japanese sumo wrestlers.

After the Ming Dynasty, sumo wrestling was more popularly known as wrestling. Especially after the Manchu came to dominate the Central Plains, wrestling was also naturally brought into the Central Plains.