There are many kinds of entertainment methods of ancient literati and inkers, which also contain many etiquette norms for people to behave in the world, and today's introduction to you is a popular game among ancient traditional scholars and doctors - throwing pots. Speaking of throwing pots, everyone may be a little strange, but if we recall Ouyang Xiu's "Drunken Pavilion", everyone must still have a little impression of the word "shooting" in it, why do a group of literati shoot arrows? In fact, the "shooting" here refers not to archery, but to a fun jug throwing game. At that time, the literati did not care to use boxing, singing, etc. to help when drinking, and they did not know much about other entertainment methods, so slowly the pot became popular among the scholars.
The rule of throwing pots is very simple, that is, to throw arrows into the pot, and the number of shots is used to determine the winner and loser, and the number of winners is won, while the loser is punished according to the pre-agreed amount. Compared with the fist-pumping, I can't help but increase a lot of literary and artistic fans, get rid of a lot of fireworks. In fact, the earliest pot throwing, but also back to the Warring States period, at that time it was in a ceremonial way to appear, and the real can be carried forward in the Tang Dynasty, because the Tang Dynasty's economic development is relatively fast, the people's pursuit of entertainment methods has produced a variety of different needs, so in this period there are many entertainment methods arising, throwing pots is one of them.
Speaking of the past and present lives of the pot throwing, the earliest can be traced back to the pre-Qin period, until the end of the Qing Dynasty before it gradually disappeared into the torrent of history, the popular place is mainly in the ceremonial occasions and banquet games, the pot throwing ceremony comes from the shooting ceremony. The process of evolution is because the venue required for archery is huge, the general courtyard is not enough to shoot the target placement, so the target is replaced by a pot, and another important reason is that the number of guests in the host's family is large when the banquet is held, and the number of curved bows is limited, which cannot meet the needs of many people, so the cancellation of the curved bow by hand has slowly become the mainstream. In fact, there is another reason, the shooting ceremony is in the banquet, it is difficult for guests not to drink, so the guests who have drunk wine are not good to pull the bow again, not only easy to hurt themselves, but also easy to hurt others, the pot throwing ceremony will slowly replace the position of the shooting ceremony on the banquet.
The Song Dynasty scholar Lü Da Lin once recorded in the "Biography of Rites":
Throw pots, shoot fine also. Yan drink has a shot to lebin, to the habit and to talk about art also.
In fact, in the earliest Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the most wonderful part of the princes' banquet for guests was the archery ceremony, and at that time, if adult men could not shoot arrows, it was difficult to raise their heads in the official field at that time. If the host asks the guest to shoot an arrow, and the guest refuses, it is a great disrespect to the host. At that time, under the situation of the hegemony of the princes, few people dared to disobey, and even if they would not, they would have to be the scalp. Later, once a scholar-doctor shot the arrow and fell to the ground, and the prince threw it into the wine vessel in the house, which attracted the applause of the whole audience, and then the guests who could not shoot arrows replaced the archery with a throwing pot. Over time, throwing pots became a game of feasting.
The Book of Rites and Throwing Pots also says:
The pot thrower, the host and the guest swallow drink on the gift of talent also.
Since then, not only have officials played this game during banquets and drinks, but even the common people have set off a boom in pot throwing in the folk. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the archery ceremony was abolished, and the pot throwing ceremony became the entertainment of the official banquet guests. In the Han Dynasty, the form and technique of throwing pots have changed, from the beginning of the pot filled with red beans to later not loaded, the purpose of loading red beans is to prevent arrows from flying out of the pot, and the purpose of not loading is to let the arrow jump out, in order to catch the re-throw, at that time there were also words that praised people who had many re-throws: more than a hundred times in a row, called "Xiao".
The rules became complicated during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, when different rules appeared in the Jin Dynasty's pot throwing activities, with different ways of winning and losing, and there were new changes in the decoration of pots. Two ears have been added to both sides of the mouth of the pot, and many new categories have appeared in the pattern and rules of the pot, such as "ear", "ear piercing", "inverted ear", "even in the middle", "full pot" and other famous categories. This new game experience is another feeling for some Confucian scholars, not happy but depressed, the earliest archery is a Confucian elegant activity, and slowly evolved into a juggling that lingers in the city, which makes them feel a lot of dissatisfaction in their hearts.
In the Song Dynasty, the great Confucian Sima Guang had a new view of the pot throwing, as a representative of the new development of the Confucian school, he was more respectful of the emphasis on the etiquette on entertainment, the educational significance of the pot throwing ceremony was more prominent, with the purpose of education to explain the way of throwing the pot, the feudal etiquette into the process of throwing the pot. Sima Guang once said:
Throwing pots can cure the heart, can cultivate the body, can be for the country, can be observed. Why? The man who throws the pot does not make it pass, nor does he make it fall short, so it is also in the middle. Do not let the bias wave disperse, so it is positive also. Zhongzheng, the root of the Tao also.
So he added the color of "etiquette" to the various names of the pot and the rules for calculating the score, and Sima Guang once again favored the confucian school.
Although it returned to the embrace of Confucianism, soon after the Ming Dynasty, the pot had its own ideas, and began to be unconventional in any form, boldly saying goodbye to the past. The Ming Dynasty is another climax of the ancient economic development, the pot has also become a gambling weapon with the development of the economy, according to the size of the stake in the bet, the dealer often earns a pot overflowing, so the pot has also entered a new stage of development, but it has also become a tool for accumulating wealth. And those pot throwing masters are very heavy, with them sitting in the town often bring a lot of benefits to the bookmakers, after the Qing Dynasty, under the influence of Western entertainment, the pot throwing is declining, but the palace ceremony department still practices this kind of pot throwing ceremony, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
The pot throwing ceremony has changed many times in history, and has been given a new meaning by the times again and again, and the wind and rain of more than two thousand years have been full of historical vicissitudes, which have been spread among the scholars, and because of the impact of other new products, no one cares. The reason for this situation is that from the beginning it appeared in the form of an ancient ritual, which the scholars believed was a self-cultivation etiquette, and the elegant entertainment method met their identity requirements and made them acceptable. Another important reason is that this kind of entertainment has the ability to cultivate human sentiments. However, it still can't withstand the impact of new entertainment in the end, but the pot is still not separated from etiquette, so the audience is slowly narrowing is an important reason for its disappearance in the long river of history. With the rush of modern forms of entertainment into the gates of the Qing Dynasty, the activity of throwing pots has gradually faded from people's sight and finally left the stage of history.