|
Another significant development came in the Tang Dynasty, when the Empress Wu Ze Tian decreed in about 720 AD that cavalry and infantry archery was to become a compulsory subject in military examinations. This spurred an academic interest in archery technique and resulted in the publication of some of the great Chinese archery manuals which have survived to this day. Training in archery remained a major concern in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the following Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). But in the 1901, the Chinese court, faced with growing military losses at the hands of aggressive foreign colonial powers, finally to conceded that 'Tests of strength with the bow, infantry and cavalry archery have no place in military practice and in the present day and age are no longer useful... they shall be permanently discontinued.' Thereupon, archery was deleted from the examination syllabus.
|
|
The effect of this combination was that unstrung, the bow would double back into a 'C' shape, as you can see in the illustration above (after Tan Dan-jiong). The assembled wood, horn and sinew was bound tightly with silk thread and finally given a coat of lacquer to keep moisture out. Often the bows were decorated with snakeskin or birch-bark, and the grip was bound with ray skin (like the grip of a Japanese samurai sword.) The form of the bow didn't remain constant throughout three thousand years; but it did not vary too much either. Up to the Ming Dynasty, bows were about two-thirds of body-height; but in the Qing Dynasty, they became larger, and bows were commonly about the same size as modern western reserves at around 66 inches.
Chinese literature contains a lot of tales of extraordinary draw-weights for bows. But technical writings stress that a heavy draw-weight was not desirable, and could actually be counter-productive. For military purposes, a weight of fifty to sixty pounds was adequate, and for civil archery, a much lower weight was drawn. Military examinations tested strength to draw up to ninety pounds: but this was a test of physique rather than archery: even the bows for 'strength drawing' were different from those used for archery.
Likewise, technique was not static, and many fashions developed. But discussions of technique centered on the elements of a prescribed form of archery set down in about 150 BC in the Han Dynasty. The ancient shamanistic magic left its mark in a demand to place the feet at right-angles. This form persisted up until the Ming Dynasty, when it was replaced by a foot-position not too different from the open stance of today. |
|
