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Because of the difference in archery players' physical conditions, he raised the point of "Shebuzhupi", means that reaching the target is not the single most important purpose of shoots. In Confucius's mind, the actual participation and the proper behaviors during the whole process are more important. Confucius's thoughts on archery generate a great influence upon the later development Chinese archery, especially on the various archery related physical activities, we can even see this as one of the most important reasons why ancient Chinese sports take the competitive element so lightly.
| From of old, China is always a multinational country. The interactions, conflicts and fusions between various nationalities rising and falling constitute the basic impetus propelling the continuous development and flourishing of Chinese culture. This feature can be seen particularly clear in the development of Chinese national sports, among which Chinese archery is definitely a typical one. In ancient China, archery techniques were divided into Han archery and Hu archery. Han archery means the original Chinese archery; Hu archery means the archery techniques from other nationalities living in the west region of China. Also archery can be divided as ground archery and horse back archery. Furthermore, Chinese archery can be categorized according to the bow and arrow production, etiquette, related customs, and the contest rules.
During ancient ages, Chinese regimes regularly held archery competitions with peripheral nationalities. Most of these competitions were proceeded between deliberately selected players, so they were also political and cultural events other than athletic competitions. for people to learn etiquettes and the moral standards. These multinational interactions of archery technique were finally integrated during the Qing Dynasty, shaping out the complete and mature form of Chinese archery; it is a perfect amalgamation of multinational archery traditions and techniques, mainly originated from Han nationality and Hu nationalities. |
