Ancient Archery Culture

Archery, in the earliest days, was a skill of ancient mankind for productive labor and obtaining materials for living activities.

Human beings invented the bow and arrow very early.

Hunting

In China, the latest archaeological discoveries show that arrows were already available in the country about 28,000 years ago at the site of Zhiyu in Shanxi province.

This suggests that humans were already using bows and arrows by this time, and it is speculated that our ancestors would have invented them much earlier.

Archery

Archery entered the realm of sport during the Shang and Zhou dynasties in China.

Particularly in the Western Zhou period, archery not only had many elements of the nature of sports competitions, such as perfect competition regulations, standard competition organization and management, but also with the function of social and moral enlightenment and the significance of selecting talents for the country.

In the pre-Qin period of China, not only appeared in the history of the world's archery, the first similar to the modern sports competitions, archery activities, but also summarized a more diversified archery ideas and theories.

Archery Teaching

Specifically, in the area of bow and arrow production, a book called "The Records of the Examining Worker" elaborates on the art of bow and arrow production, including the selection of materials for making bows and arrows, the processing and treatment of the materials, as well as the process of production and precautions, and the method of quality checking after the production, etc. This book is the first of its kind in the world.

This reflects that the making of bows and arrows and their use as weapons advanced the strengthening of the military function of archery to a certain extent, and at the same time, it also reflects that the strengthening of the military function of archery in turn promoted the improvement of the art of making bows and arrows.

All this reflects that under the influence of the early civilization of ancient China, archery with its sporting significance had already walked in the forefront of the world at that time.

Archery

Qin Shi Huang unified China and established the Qin Dynasty, and ancient Chinese society entered a feudal society.

Changes in social patterns brought about further development of society, and the forms of archery became increasingly rich, with many forms of archery such as bow-shooting, eagle-shooting, and crossbow-shooting appearing in terracotta tombs.

To the Han Dynasty, archery further development, and gradually into all levels of society, get the general recognition of the masses, acceptance and veneration, which may be today we can find archery in the Han portrait stone, Han Fu, Han Jane in the figure of one of the reasons.

Archery performance

In the two Jin and North-South Dynasties, which were characterized by frequent regime changes and divisions, the political situation was unstable, but this period prompted a great fusion of North and South cultures.

Together with the important characteristics of the rise of family heritage in this period of history and other factors, these are **** with the rapid development of military, recreational and other nature of archery, and to the characteristics of the development of the road.

Archer in the army

At the same time, the rise of recreational archery has largely influenced the content and mode of people's entertainment and enriched people's lives. During the Tang and Song dynasties, when the country was strong and the economy was developed, the rulers created the martial arts examination and the martial arts school, and established a relatively perfect system for selecting and training talents.

The rulers of the Yuan and Qing dynasties were nomads who were good at riding and shooting and attached great importance to hunting, while the Ming dynasty placed more emphasis on the traditional culture of archery rites, which was not valued in the Yuan and Qing dynasties.

And Zhu Yuanzhang, the Great Ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, attached great importance to the culture of archery and actively restored the archery rites, formulated a special ritual system of the Great Archery Rites, which perfected the ritual system of the Ming Dynasty and had a far-reaching influence on the later generations.

Mounted archery

In recent years, people held in the temple of successive emperors to restore the rites of the Great Archery Rite is modeled on the Ming Dynasty Great Archery Rite of the rites.

Like many things, archery in ancient China has gone through a historical process from occurrence, development to maturity and finally weakening.

In the process of the frequent change of dynasties and the integration of nationalities in ancient China, the bow and arrow occupied a social and historical status and historical and cultural significance, although there are different high, low, light and heavy.

Archery sculpture

But under the influence of politics, economy and culture in different historical periods, archery, originally a single function to meet the basic needs of survival, has gradually evolved into a social and cultural form with a variety of functions, such as military, recreation, etiquette, education, folklore and so on.

In the thousands of years of ancient Chinese civilization, gradually formed the "shooting" as the core of the ancient Chinese archery multi-cultural system, rich in ancient China's tangible and intangible cultural heritage, is the ancient Chinese multi-cultural impact and integration of the crystallization and wealth, but also the history of China's ancient sports a bright pearl.