In the Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Relay story short film "The Covenant of Ice and Snow", the ice and snow lover teenager (Yi Qianxi) starts a journey of light chasing light from a prehistoric ski petroglyph in Dundebulak, Khandegat Township, Altay Region, Xinjiang.
On closer inspection, the skis in the petroglyphs are very different in appearance from the skis we see now, which are unique to Altay——— fur skis.
In 2005, a petroglyph of the Altai people pedaling skis and holding a single pole ski hunting in the Altai Mountains was found in The Dundebulak of Khandegat Township, Altay City. It is speculated that it was completed around 10,000 BC, predates similar ruins in Northern Europe and Russia. On January 16, 2006, many experts and scholars from all over the world held a seminar in Altay, Xinjiang, confirming that the ancient Altay people began skiing as early as about 10,000 years ago, forming the "Altay Declaration" that "the Altay region of Xinjiang, China is the earliest origin of skiing in the world", and determined that January 16 of each year is the "Anniversary of the Origin of Human Skiing".
Local residents perform fur skiing.
The Chinese nation has had an indissoluble relationship with ice and snow since ancient times, and many regions have a long tradition of ice and snow sports. In the long historical process, Chinese not only learned to resist the cold of ice and snow, but also learned to use ice and snow, watch ice and snow, and play with ice and snow, at the same time, ice and snow have gradually integrated into the spiritual value system of Chinese.
From "riding wood" to "ice bed shuttle"
From the Sui and Tang dynasties onwards, skiing skills were widely popularized among various ethnic groups in the north of the continent, such as Murwei, Uighur (Uighur), Liu Ghost, Banogu, and Bashimi.
The Murwei people mainly live in the Nenjiang River Basin, in the southern part of the Daxing'an Mountains, where "the climate is the coldest, and the snow is deep and there are no horses". The Murwei people do not yet know how to farm, and can only live by hunting deer and carnivorous clothing. During the long winter months, the rivers freeze and cover the grounds with snow. Hunting wild beasts in such mountains forced them to master a clever way of action——— "riding on wood".
Hundreds of years ago, herders used fur skis as their main means of transportation for hunting.
"Riding on wood" means stepping on a wooden board similar to a sleigh walking in the snow and ice, the wooden board is generally 4 feet long and 5 inches wide, one left and one right, tied to two feet. This not only greatly increases the speed of travel, but also prevents falling into the ditch. It is said that "riding a wood" can catch up with a galloping horse when speeding through the snow and ice.
The Heishui Jingxiao (ancestor of the Jurchens), which lived north of the Changbai Mountains and in the Songhua River and The Heilongjiang River Basin, began to use "bamboo horses" to glide on the ice and snow. The method is that people stand on a "bamboo horse" made of bamboo pieces, hold a stick in their hands, and slide forward for more than ten meters with a force. "Riding wood" and "bamboo horses" not only solve the pain of snow difficulties, but also add winter fun to people.
In the Tang Dynasty, the Bashimi people living in the present-day Xinjiang region "used wood as horses and chased deer on the snow", wooden horses, that is, skis, elongated or oblong, with a front end upturned, wrapped back in horse skins and wrapped back on the bottom of the snowboard, tied with ropes or straps. When going downhill, use the cane to prop up the gallop; walk on the flat ground, alternately stab the ground with the double cane, and alternately slide on the double board; when going uphill, untie the wooden horse and hold it with your hands and go forward.
At that time, there was also a "Trojan Turkic" tribe living on the northern frontier, and it can be seen from the name of the tribe that they were a popular skiing people. The New Book of Tang records: "The three tribes of the Trojan Turks are known as Dubo, Milego, and Ozhi... Ride on a wooden horse on the ice, with a board to ride on the foot, bend the armpit of the wood, take a hundred steps, and the momentum is rapid. "Riding on the ice on a wooden horse" is not only specific in image than "riding on wood", but also improved in terms of riding comfort and speed. "With the foot of the board, the bent wood armpit" is the predecessor of modern skis and ski poles. "100 steps, rapid and exciting", very dynamic high-speed sports, making it possible to evolve into sports competition.
During the Yuan Dynasty, some ethnic groups living in the northern forests would hold ski poles and stand on skis to chase prey such as mountain cattle. Untrained skiers can get injured when going downhill and galloping, while skiers who are skilled in skiing skills can run at high speeds. They would also connect skis to transport the hunted animals, much like the prototype of a sled.
The Yuan Dynasty also called skiing and ice skating "riding wood" and snowboarding "wooden horses". At this time, the slip has been significantly improved: the bottom of the Trojan horse is usually covered with the fur of roe deer, deer and other animals to reduce friction, and is equipped with a sliding rod. During this period, a game that could be played on ice——— "Hip Stone Play" was very popular, and ice and snow sports began to develop in the direction of entertainment and competition.
Since the Song Dynasty, ice and snow sports have no longer been the patent of ethnic minorities in the north. In the Song Dynasty, there was a "ice play" developed from skiing. The Song Shi Lizhi says that the emperor once "blessed the Houyuan, watched the flowers, and made ice frolics". At this time, there is also a professional tool ——— "ice bed". At that time, a kind of ice game with human pulling was popular, that is, laying some soft and warm objects such as cushions on wooden boards, and two or three people sat on it, letting one person pull on the ice and slide fast, and some officials at that time used it as a means of transportation.
Beijingers riding on an "ice bed". British photographer Thomas Child in the 1870s.
Shen Kuo, a famous scientist of the Northern Song Dynasty, once witnessed the spectacle of "ice bed shuttle" in Cangzhou, and in addition to being amazed, he wrote this scene into the "Mengxi Pen Talk". During the Ming Dynasty, Liu Ruoyu recorded in the "History of the Ming Palace": "Outside the Yangde Gate, the winter solstice is frozen, the bed can be dragged, the wood is used as a flat, the extra bed or the grass mat is recommended, one person leads the rope in front, two or three people can be pulled, and the ice is like flying." "On the sixteenth day of the first month of the third year (1524) of emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, the crown prince came to see him from the palace, that is, the river ice sat on the bed and dragged it." There is also a description of ice in the Ming Palace words: "Liu Li Xinjie Yu River Water, a bright mirror diamond." The snow in the West Garden is clear, and the bed is sitting fast and the clouds are soaring. ”
The first "Ice Games" and the Ice carnival
However, compared with the Song and Ming dynasties, the Qing Dynasty really carried forward the ice play movement. The Manchus, who rose to prominence in the northeast of the mainland in the 17th century, have always maintained an interest in ice and snow sports, and the earliest form of Manchu ice play activity is the "Tatar Slipper". The climate in the northeast region is cold, and in winter, people wear "tassel shoes", that is, iron bars are tied under the shoes and glide on the ice.
After Nurhaci unified the Jurchen ministries and established the Later Jin regime, he held a grand ice sports meeting on the Taizi River in the tenth year of the Mandate of Heaven (1625), with men "kicking their heads" and women "running ice". When the Ancestors of the Manchus, the Sushen, captured bears, tigers, leopards, wild boars and other beasts, the hunters put the animal's head on a tree stump to thank the mountain gods, and then roasted the meat of the beast, and after eating, they had to kick the head of the beast to have fun. Later, bear heads were mostly kicked objects, and this activity was called "kicking bear heads". Later, it was sewn with bear skin and bear hair to make a ball, replacing the bear's head to kick, so it can be called "kick-shaped head". During the ice race, some people lost control of their feet and fell to the ground, and Nurhaci laughed incessantly. Subsequently, Nurhaci also held a grand banquet on the ice, killing cattle and sheep to entertain the kings Belle and Fujin who participated in the grand event, until the evening was full of fun.
On the eighth and fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Chongde (1642), Emperor Taiji also held two consecutive ice entertainment events on the Hun River Ice in Shengjing City. Therefore, after the Qing army entered the customs, the ice play as a "national system" will last forever, and the Qing room also enshrined this as an enduring "family law", and recorded this system in the "Great Qing HuiDian".
The purpose of ice play is to "practice labor and reward in order to parade martial arts", which is essentially a military exercise conducted by the Eight Flags soldiers on the ice. Therefore, the management is strict and the training is extremely arduous. During Qianlong's reign, due to his own love of ice sports, ice sports reached their peak. During his reign, the annual Tailiu Pond Ice Frolic Festival was held every year, and sports included flag skating, figure skating, keju, school shooting, ice games and so on. Every year, when Dr. Qin Tianjian in the palace chooses the auspicious day of the zodiac and makes various preparations on the ice rink, the ice sports officially begin.
January 26, 2011 The Royal "Ice Frolic" performance reappears in Beijing.
Ice play performance project, the action difficulty, high skill, in addition to the participants have higher requirements for physical strength, speed and technology, but also need collective cooperation to meet the performance requirements. Therefore, participants must undergo long-term rigorous training. Among them, the two techniques of "swinging mountain" and "one horse and thirteen styles" are similar to modern large-scale group exercises. During the performance, a total of 100 "skates" from the left and right teams performed in a neat and uniform manner according to the patterns composed of "WanziJin" and "Gourd Brocade" and other patterns, with 24 kinds of difficult movements such as "Swallow Playing in the Water", "Phoenix Spreading Wings", "Dongbin Back Sword", "Green Dragon Turning Back", "White Tiger Swinging Tail" and so on.
The ice frolic competition is not only grand but also has rich prizes, and the ice frolic has also become a grand ice and snow carnival in the royal winter of the Qing Dynasty. According to legend, after the ice frolic movement, the Qianlong Emperor often played on the snow like a child, played snowballs, built snowmen, and sculpted snow horses, and then drank and wrote poems to express his nostalgia. Qianlong once left many inscriptions and poems for BingXiao, the most famous of which is "Ice Frolic Endowment": "Thinking of the Cave of the Moon and the Vast Cold, Qi Taking Advantage of the Stars and the Streets of White Elm." Unbuckled up, suddenly down from the empty. The change of the dragon of the sudden god, the hair of the phoenix of Rui Yi. "Vividly depicts the scene of ice playing like a dragon soaring through the clouds, flying up and down."
Ice sports went out of the court and into the folk
According to the "Notes on the Living of the Qianlong Emperor", from the seventeenth year of Qianlong to the sixtieth year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor read the ice more than 150 times. The tradition of the emperor reading the ice in winter was continued in the Jiaqing Dynasty. The Jiaqing Emperor also read Bingxiao more than 100 times. After the death of the Qianlong Emperor's biological mother, Empress Chongqing, the Qianlong Emperor continued to read ice play according to the old system, but because the word "ice play" had a strong entertainment meaning, he changed the name of "ice play" to "ice technology".
During the Daoguang years, the national strength of the Qing Dynasty declined. In the early days of Daoguang's reign, the reading of ice technology could still be held as scheduled, but the scale and influence of the event were declining. After the eleventh year of Daoguang (1831), it was difficult to hold the ice art as scheduled, and it was in a state of intermittentness. Finally, in the nineteenth year of Daoguang (1839), the year before the Opium War, the Qing court officially stopped reading ice skills.
At the same time that the royal ice frolic activity withdrew from the stage of history, the ice movement went out of the court and entered the folk.
Skating is simple and easy to do, every winter, especially in the Beijing-Tianjin area, a large number of teenagers gather on the ice surface of rivers, rivers, lakes and ponds to carry out a variety of ice skating activities, becoming a sport for children to exercise their bodies, cultivate their emotions and cultivate brave and tenacious character in winter.
In Beijing, folk ice skating is mostly in Shichahai, Houhai, Jishuitan, and on the moats outside the city. The folklorist Deng Yunxiang knew a gentleman named Lu Shoushan, who lived in Tongzhou, worked in Cangchang at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and often traveled between Beijing and Tongzhou for official business. In the middle of winter, he would put on his ice shoes from the moat outside chaoyang gate, slide south along the river to Dongbianmen, and then go east, passing through Qingfeng (second gate) and other gates, all the way to Tongzhou.
Modern ice sports in China began at the end of the 19th century. There were three routes to China: the first was Tianjin and Beijing in northern China at the end of the 19th century; the second was Dalian in 1906-1908; and the third was Harbin in the early 20th century.
After the Second Opium War, the great powers successively divided the concessions in Tianjin, and modern sports were also introduced to the mainland, and modern skating gradually rose in Tianjin. The "Miscellaneous Records of Jinmen" records: "There are so-called runners who run over shoes, take off their bags to slide iron, parade on the ice as a play, two feet like flying, slow and natural, vertical and horizontal, not falling, Yujin foreigners take pleasure in it, so as to comfort the qi and blood." In 1890, with the increase in the number of overseas Chinese, the Bureau of the Ministry of Works of the British Concession in Tianjin decided to build a playground of 5,200 square meters in the Zizhu forest in the south of the city for the recreation and entertainment of the overseas Chinese, and built tennis, football, baseball, ice skating and other venues in the field.
In 1921, in order to implement the reform of school education, the Ministry of Education of the National Government ordered the school to change the gymnastics department into the physical education department, and expanded the content of physical education teaching, increased the number of physical education teaching hours, abolished military exercises, and replaced them with athletics, ball games, gymnastics and skating, thus promoting the development of ice sports in North China. Some schools in Beijing and Tianjin, such as Yenching University, Peking University, Fu Jen University, Beijing Tax college, Beijing Tongzhou Luhe Middle School, Tianjin Nankai University, Beiyang University, and Nankai Middle School, have successively used ponds on or near the campus to open ice rinks. Some parks in Beijing and Tianjin are also watered with ice in winter, open to students and society.
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the construction of the Middle East Railway, a large number of Russian expatriates and Eastern European expatriates poured into Harbin and brought skating to the city. Russians established the Skating Association in Harbin, in 1907 Harbin held the Skating Games, in 1909 held small skating competitions and established the Harbin Ice Hockey Association, in 1910 in Daoli built a stadium where the winter ice rink could be poured, and in Nangang built the "Zayasi" skating rink. These two ice rinks are the earliest artificial skating rinks in China.
(Excerpted from the National Humanities History, No. 1, 2022, "From Chasing Deer on the Snow to Tailiu Ice And Drinking Ice and Snow Sports in Ancient China" and "The Most Modern Sport in Winter" The Development of Modern Ice and Snow Sports in the Mainland" has been abridged)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Xiao Yawen
题图为《冰嬉图》，清，故宫博物院藏。乾隆年间宫廷画家张为邦、姚文翰根据当时宫廷冰上表演的盛况绘制。 Source: Author: Jin Sheng