The first thing that jumps into our eyes is the stone ball, which belongs to the rough stone ball of the Paleolithic age from about 654.38 million years ago to 4800 BC. Stone balls and pottery balls in 4000 BC clearly saw the evolution of stone balls from production tools to game equipment, which reflected the emergence of sports from one side. The dance pottery pots unearthed in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province depict simple lines and vividly show the scene of ancestors stepping on songs arm in arm. This kind of physical activity to meet physical and mental needs has become an indispensable activity in celebrations and sacrifices in slave society. From the stone arrowheads, bronze arrowheads and bronze arrowheads, we seem to see the scene where the first people shot wild geese with bows. This hunting method was called "shooting with a bow" by the ancients. Goshetu reflects the transformation from fishing and hunting to farming, and the transformation from hunting to military training and entertainment. Swimming is another way to obtain survival means in fishing and hunting. Painted pottery pots with fish patterns and pictures vividly describe what the Book of Songs says: "As long as it is deep, it is a boat; It's shallow, and it's a swim. In addition, cultural relics such as Jiao Jiao, ethnic crossing and bronze sword reproduce the seeds of productive labor, tribal wars and ancient sports in daily life.
The period from Warring States to Qin and Han Dynasties was the rising period of feudal society in China. The emergence of a unified multi-ethnic feudal country and a relatively stable social life have created favorable conditions for the prosperity of sports. Cultural relics in this period are very rich, including tomb murals, stone reliefs, brick reliefs, pottery figurines, poems and songs, etc. Among them, the Han Dynasty portrait brick is a dazzling pearl, which records many sports competitions.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the art of hundred operas has developed into many performances, such as jumping pills, flying swords, overlapping cases, playing with cars, flying ladders, taming animals, equestrian and so on. Han stone reliefs unearthed in Yinan, Shandong province reflect a comprehensive performance form, which is a combination of martial arts ceremony and music, dance and acrobatics of various ethnic minorities? Hundred plays. From left to right, the first part is jumping pills, that is, dancing with small balls in both hands. Jumping pills are smooth and light. There have been 379 pills in past dynasties. There are also lively and difficult performances such as jumping swords and looking for buildings. The former is similar to a pill, but the sword is used instead of the pill, and the latter is also called "Yuanlou". Generally speaking, it uses its head, hands and other parts of the body to support a very tall long pole, with a cross at the top of the pole and performers at both ends of the pole and crossbar. In the second part, there is a band of fifteen people, and drums, bells, Qin and other musical instruments are clearly distinguishable. The third part is stepping on the rope, which may be the predecessor of tightrope walking, but the action of ancient people stepping on the rope is more complicated and even reversed. The fourth part of Hundred Circus is Circus and Happy Cars, which is a large-scale acrobatic performance. This requires not only superb skills but also extraordinary courage. Other exhibits also vividly reflect various performances, such as running backwards, that is, walking upside down. There are many forms of handstand, and Han Tao Xun handstand is a good cultural relic. In addition, narrow movements similar to drilling fire rings, such as swallows jumping over the water, can be seen in the sarcophagus acrobatic map.
Cuju is very popular in this period. This is an ancient football game in China. "Bow" is made for leather, and the other is an antagonistic competition. There are rich and vivid records from brick and stone relief to Xiao seal. The sand table model allows us to understand the prevalence of this sport in the Han Dynasty more intuitively.
The "Guide Map" of the Western Han Dynasty introduced the concept of "winning by people" and illustrated a whole set of exercises, just like the schematic diagrams of various boxing methods and exercises we practiced today. This shows that human beings have begun to gradually improve their understanding of their own values and emphasize resisting various external tests through exercise. The emergence of many thinkers in the Warring States period and the emergence of books such as Huangdi Neijing reflect that the ancient Chinese people created a unique way to understand life phenomena. Hua Tuo's Wu Qin Xi, Zhuangzi's Fate, Wei Boyang's Zhouyi? Participation contract, a precious ancient heritage, still shines immortal.
From Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, the feudal society was highly developed, and ancient sports moved from embryonic form to initial stereotypes. Polo, martial arts and health guidance are outstanding events. The chessboard in Sui and Tang Dynasties shows that Sheng Xing was a chess player at that time.
Polo is the most attractive event in this period. In addition to various pictures, pottery figurines, bronze mirrors and written records, the museum has specially made a lifelike model of a huge sand table playing polo in the Tang Dynasty. Polo, also called batting in ancient times, was the most popular in the Tang Dynasty, and was regarded as a routine activity by emperors and soldiers. In the court of the Tang Dynasty, female geisha were generally trained to play ball, mainly with emperors and nobles. Mrs. Hua Rui of Houshu said in Gong Ci: "Since I taught Gong E how to play ball, the jade saddle first straddles the waist and is soft." This scene was recorded in the bronze mirror and Tang's hitting spectrum. "
Sumo in the Tang Dynasty became a festival entertainment and an important competition. We can learn about the development of this sport in Sui and Tang Dynasties from sumo paintings, Dunhuang murals and sketched banners on inkstone. There were wars in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and ethnic minorities brought horseback riding into the army. In the Tang Dynasty, horse riding and archery were very popular. The bronze mirror and hunting map in the picture are the embodiment of the superb technology described by the great poet Li Bai, that is, "killing two tigers with one shot and flying two kites lightly". In addition, the word dance of people in the Tang Dynasty is lifelike, and it is the embryonic form of ancient large-scale group gymnastics.
There are many records about the origin and development of Weiqi in China, such as the Han Dynasty stone chess table unearthed in Wang Du, the magnetic chessboard unearthed in Zhang Shengji in Sui Dynasty, the chess picture with heavy screen and the chess picture of ladies, etc., which describe the development history and popularity of Weiqi.
Wushu tradition is deeply rooted in our country, from hunting in the "six arts" to archery, from large-scale martial arts dramas to "bow and horse first" martial arts. Now fencing is mainly about strengthening the body and prolonging life, practicing spirit and concentrating. It gradually broke away from the training methods of the ancient army and embarked on the road of independent development, becoming one of the essences of Chinese national Wushu.
Song Dynasty was the climax of the development of ancient cuju, which became a performance program at that time and produced different kicking methods. From Song Taizu Cuju, Ertu Cuju, the ivory pen container with Cuju pattern in Song Dynasty to the image of men and women fighting on the bronze mirror of Cuju in Yuan Dynasty, all of them are consistent with the poem "If Tao is the work of cherishing jade and fragrance in a bridal chamber, six skins of incense will be used as cigarettes". In Ming Dynasty, women and children still liked this activity, but the court has issued a ban on playing football.
Throughout the development of ancient sports in China, we can appreciate the glorious history of sports evolution in China from the limited cultural relics preserved and excavated.