Ball sports as a modern sports popular competition, has been refined into a number of small events, more famous is the "three small balls" and "three balls": the former for table tennis, tennis and badminton; the latter refers to football, basketball and volleyball, in the Yanghai ancient tomb group, found several ancient relics from three thousand years ago, experts said after research, this is the ancient polo, what is going on? Let me reveal the secrets to you:
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As the contemporary "three balls", football, basketball and volleyball have their own unique charms, their game is highly ornamental, and they are often a comprehensive test of players' physical strength, skill and teamwork ability. But in ancient China, we also had our own "three ancient balls", which were called Keju, Polo and Punching Ball. According to experts in the study of ancient cultural relics, Keju is the prototype of football, which originated in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, flourished in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty, when many famous Keju societies were formed by the people, and the "Qiyun Society" that is still mentioned by people to this day is a model at that time.
Polo conditions are more, as the name suggests, polo is a sport that needs to be ridden on a horse, using a polo club to hit the entry side to score, in ancient times, polo is not a man's patent, women can also gallop "arena", a contest. The ball is similar to today's golf ball, it does not need to use a mount, it is a sport that takes the ball into the hole as the rule, of course, whether it is keju, polo or punching ball, it is a sport that needs to be divided into two teams to fight, so they are a test for the whole team.
Obviously, it is easy to see, in the three major balls of ancient times, polo is a special existence, it needs athletes to ride horses to compete, to know that in ancient times horses and other livestock are different, in most cases, they are going to the battlefield, so expert analysis: polo should also appear in the military camp at the earliest, but because the time span is too large, its origin we have not yet known, but according to Cao Zhi's "Famous Capital" verse: "Even riding to hit the bow, clever and swift push." "We can judge that at the end of the Han Dynasty, polo has long appeared. But what was the ancient polo like? This can not find the real thing, it is indeed a feeling of unwillingness.
Unexpectedly, in the distant Turpan Basin, we have a new discovery about polo. As the largest known tomb group in Shanshan County, the dynamics of the Yanghai Tomb Group in Shanshan County have always affected the nerves of archaeologists around the world, according to professional analysis, at least half of the Yanghai Tomb Group is still hidden underground, so the excavation of it has always been in progress. Recently, in a humble tomb, experts found two strange things.
They are three "skin sacs", similar in size to an adult's fist, and a red cross pattern can be faintly seen at the bottom, what are they made of? From what era? What is it for? With many questions, the experts conducted a comprehensive study of these three skin bags. First of all, the experts conducted a chemical analysis of their materials, combined with isotope tracking technology, and the experts were surprised to find that the three leather bags were actually made of cowhide leather, and they came from the distant Warring States period.
What are these three "cowhide sacs" for? Experts believe that this is an ancient polo, but it is still a semi-finished product. Ancient texts record: "The white mule of Kaifeng City under the Ministry of Works took the skin and prepared it for the imperial use to take the bow staff." "It can be seen that polo is actually sewn from tough cowhide, but it needs to be filled with hair on the inside, and the royal polo even has to be painted on the outside. The three skin sacs unearthed in the Yanghai Ancient Tomb Group are actually the ball skins that have not had time to fill the hair.
Ancient polo is not only "cortex". The Jin Shi Li Zhi records that "(the horse) is as small as a fist, and it is zhuzhi with a light and tough wooden orange." This means that the wooden polo is hollow, still the size of a human fist, but the appearance should be painted red, so that it is more eye-catching in the game. Therefore, we can conclude that polo is divided into two types: wooden balls and leather balls, but they should be the first to appear between them.
Because polo is a sport with a high threshold, that is, it requires that athletes must have horses, so it gradually became an exclusive sport in the inner courtyard of the palace, and gradually declined. But as modern people, we have discovered the history of polo, so we hope that this sport can be revived, after all, this is also our cultural heritage!
Special History Contributor: Jin Xiaozhou