What is the meaning of the "Imperial" in the Six Ancient Arts, "Rites, Music, Archery, Imperial, Calligraphy, and Mathematics"?

The technique of driving a horse-drawn chariot.

The Five Imperials: Song and Luan, By Water, By Table, By Dance, By Fowl, By Fowl, By Left.

"Zhou Li - the ground official - Paul's": "is taught the six arts ...... four said five harness." Zheng Xuan note: "five harness: song and luan, by the water song, over the table, dance cross streets, by the poultry left." It is said that when traveling and luan sound corresponding; car with the curved bank speeding without falling into the water; passing the table of the son of heaven have etiquette; pass through the passageway and drive freely; chasing birds and animals from the left side of the shot when you are hunting.

Extended Information

The other five arts.

1. Rites: etiquette. Five rites: auspicious rites, fierce rites, military rites, guest rites, and jia rites.

2. Music: is the six music. Six music: refers to the six sets of music and dance, namely, the "Cloud Gate Great Scroll", the "Ham Pond", the "Great Shao", the "Great Summer", the "Great Surging", and the "Great Wu". The earliest of the ancient

3, shooting: military archery technology five shooting: white vector, Senlian, Hepai Note, Xiangshi, Jing Yi. White vector, arrow through the target and arrow white, indicating that the hair vector accurate and powerful; Senlian, before the release of a vector, after the three vectors in succession and go, vectors and vectors belong to each other, such as the link of the pearl of the title; Hepatitis, said that the vector line of the disease; Xiang feet, the minister and the king shot, the minister and the king and stood up, so that the king of the ruler a foot and retreat; well Yi, four vectors in a row, are right on the target.

4, the book: calligraphy (writing, literacy, text) Six books (Zhouli did not specify, the speculation of later generations may be): pictograms , refers to things, will be, form and sound, transcription, false borrowing. (Note: transfer notes, false borrowing is a literacy method , and pictograms, refers to things, will be, form and sound is a method of creating words, of which the shape and sound of the characters accounted for about ninety percent.)

5, number: number of techniques, also known as the art of number, is the technology of calculation, mathematics. There are nine chapters of arithmetic.

Baidu Encyclopedia - The Six Arts