chess
Today is Children's Day. With the popularity of mobile phones and computers, it is very common for modern children to play with mobile phones and computers as entertainment, and some parents are also accustomed to coaxing children with mobile phones and computers. Nowadays, children are not lacking in materials, but in terms of entertainment, they are actually very boring, cookie-cutter, leaving mobile phones and computers, many children probably will not play. There is a joke that when today's children are sent to ancient times, children will be bored to death. According to this statement, it is as if the children of ancient times had no games, and they were bored all day and had nothing to do? In fact, there are many games for children to play in ancient times, and they play happily with their friends every day. The Song Dynasty is the great development stage of ancient society, children's games are complete, many types, clear rules, today we will take stock of those interesting Song Dynasty children's games.
First, puzzle chess and cards
The game of chess is a game that has existed in China since the Spring and Autumn Warring States period. By the Song Dynasty, various game games had been finalized. The so-called Bo refers to the game, which is played with dice; the game refers specifically to chess. Later, the game gradually became used and became a general term for board games. The following focuses on chess.
According to the Taiping Imperial Records, Yuwen Yong, the Emperor wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, invented chess, but chess at that time was completely different from today's game. The chess game of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was extremely complex, and its rules incorporated twelve kinds of metaphysics, including astronomy, geography, yin and yang, four hours, arithmetic, law, bagua, the righteousness of loyalty and filial piety, the righteousness of kings and subjects, the debate of literature and martial arts, the ceremonial image, the examination line, etc., which was simply not played by children or ordinary people. In 762, a Tang dynasty man named Cen Shun claimed to have obtained the oracle: "The Heavenly Horse flew obliquely to the three frontiers, and the admiral ran amok in all directions." The car is straight and there is no return, and the Rokko order is not obedient. According to this, he reformed chess and simplified the steps and rules of chess, and chess gradually became popular in society.
Yuwen Yong
By the late Northern Song Dynasty, the rules of chess had become the pattern of nine horizontal, ten vertical and thirty-two sons, and had the appearance of chess today. The emperors of the Song Dynasty all loved to play chess, and because of the idol effect, chess was more popular. By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, chess stores had appeared, and Liu Zhen of the Southern Song Dynasty had written a poem entitled "Eight-Year-Old Female Good Chess", praising this eight-year-old girl who played on the side of the rural road as "wise and gentle".
2. Sports competition
There were many competitive sports activities in the Song Dynasty, and some of them were not very large, and they were also suitable for children to play. The pot throwing game existed as early as the Zhou Dynasty, and the Book of Rites named it "The Gift of Throwing Pots". The host hands the guests one by one arrows and asks them to throw pots to show respect and intimacy to the guests. The pot used to throw the pot is also exquisite, the caliber of the pot is 1.5 inches, the neck of the pot is 7 inches, and the belly of the pot is 5 inches. When throwing, the person should be 2.5 feet away from the pot.
After experiencing the development of the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the game of throwing pots is still enduring because it is easy to master the rules. By the Song Dynasty, Sima Guang wrote the book "Throwing Pot New Grid", which formulated new rules for throwing pots, stipulating: The pot is divided into pot mouth and pot ears, the pot caliber is 3 inches long, the pot neck is 1 inch long, the pot height is 1 foot, the small beans are loaded inside to stabilize the pot body, and people should be two and a half arrows away from the pot, and each person has 12 arrows of 2.4 inches long, thrown in turn. If 12 arrows advance in full, they win; otherwise, if they are repeated, the one who has the 12 arrows in advance wins. Sima Guang praised the pot throwing in "Xinge" as a good recipe for curing the heart, and the Song Dynasty pot was sought after by the majority of children. In the TV series "Know It or Not", Sheng Minglan's childhood mastery of throwing pots is not empty.
Pitcher
Song Dynasty ball games can be described as countless, and the two most popular games of the Song Dynasty, Keju and Qiu maru, are introduced.
Keju is very similar to today's football, and legend has it that it was created by the Yellow Emperor. During the Sengoku period, keju was popularized in order to train soldiers and soon developed into a recreational activity in the civilian world. The "Records of History" says that when Su Qin arrived in Linzi, the state of Qi, he saw many "squatters". In the Song Dynasty, keju became more popular, and Song Taizu stipulated that the emperor should bow with his ministers every March to close the relationship between the monarch and the subject. In the Song Dynasty, there were also special performances of keju hook bars, and all social classes took pleasure in keju. Song Dynasty children also loved Keju. On the porcelain pillow of the Song Dynasty, which has been handed down, a small boy wearing long sleeves is depicted as he bows. In the Song Dynasty Su Hanchen's "Changchun Hundred Sons", there are also scenes of children taking a bow. Two children in the picture are kicking a bow, and the other two children are watching with relish.
Su Hanchen's "Hundred Sons of Changchun" (partial)
Punching pills is Chinese-style golf. It is not clear when the punching pill appeared, but it is certain that the Song Dynasty punching pill has become popular. The rules of hitting the ball are very similar to golf, using a bat to hit the ball on the ground and let the ball into the hole. In the Song Dynasty, the beating pill had become a toy for the whole society. Not only the nobles love to play, but even the children of ordinary people love to play. The Song Dynasty painting "Banana Shade Batting" now in the Forbidden City in Beijing shows two commoner children playing with balls.
《Banana Shadow Batting Chart》
Third, the game of seasonality
In addition to enjoying the scenery and eating food, the fun of the festival is of course indispensable to the game, and the Dragon Boat Festival Doucao is one of them. The Dragon Boat Festival was first seen in the Southern Dynasty, and The Chronicle of the Jingchu Dynasty by Emperor Zongzong of Liang Dynasty says: "May 5th, known as the BathIng Orchid Festival." The Jingchu people also stepped on the hundred grasses, and there was a play of fighting hundreds of grasses. "Originally, during the Dragon Boat Festival, people gathered grass and inserted wormwood on the lintel to avoid epidemics, and later grass picking became a game of fighting grass. By the song dynasty, the game was widespread.
In the Song Dynasty, fighting grass was divided into literary fighting and martial fighting. The so-called Wendou is to report the name of the grass, according to the type of grass collected, say the name of the grass, require the battle to be neat, the grass picking types are many, this Wendou is both more than knowledge and knowledge, is the girl's favorite game. Song Dynasty Yan Shu "Broken Line" Yun: "Doubt that last night's spring dream was good, and yuan is the winner of the current dynasty." "It depicts a young girl participating in a grass fighting game. And martial arts is a game that can be seen even in elementary school students today, two children choose the grass they collected, use blades of grass or grass roots to pull each other after intercourse, and the grass is constantly winning. Fan Cheng has a poem "Green branches are full of flowers, I know that my children and grandchildren are fighting grass", which shows that children in the Song Dynasty like to play this kind of game.
Fighting grass
The Song Dynasty Dragon Boat Festival also had some water-related games. There are many water networks in the south, and the southern people are good at water, "seven years old and can wade, ten years old can float, fifteen years old and can float." By the Southern Song Dynasty, the political and economic centers of gravity had shifted southward, and there were more water-centric games. Dragon boat racing in the Dragon Boat Festival has existed in the Warring States period, the Southern Song Dynasty dragon boat racing is more intense, and regardless of whether it is noble or low, they all enjoy watching the dragon boat, "On this day, there are dragon boats to be considerable, and people, rich or poor, come out of the city." In addition to watching dragon boats, there are also juvenile dragon boat racing, swimming, tide racing, fishing, water fights, etc. are also suitable for children's entertainment in the water games.
Firecrackers are traditional Chinese festivals, people think that the sound of firecrackers can expel sneaky, the so-called "one sound two hundred ghosts frightened, three four ghost nests pouring", the Song Dynasty also had the custom of setting off firecrackers in Chinese New Year's Eve. Wang Anshi's "Yuan Ri" poem Yun: "In the sound of firecrackers, one year old is removed, and the spring breeze sends warmth into Tu Su." "Children are even more fond of setting off firecrackers. "The Past Of Wulin" mentions that there were a large number of teenagers setting off firecrackers by the West Lake at the time of Chinese New Year's Eve.
firecracker
Wen Shijun said:
The Song Dynasty has formed a variety of games, complete categories, suitable for children. These games are not symbols of childishness, but reflect a peak in the cultural development of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty commodity economy was highly developed, folk pleasure, in order to meet the needs of the public entertainment appeared a variety of games, many of these games are very suitable for children to play or appreciate, than modern children's games, some are also healthier.
bibliography
1. Wang Qihui, "The Diversity of Children's Games from the Genre Paintings of the Song Dynasty", Sports Literature and History, No. 12, 1991.
2. Wang Yongping, "Games, Competition and Entertainment: A Dialysis of Medieval Social Life", Zhonghua Bookstore, 2010.
3. Hao Tingting: "Research on Children's Games in the Song Dynasty", 2019 Master's Thesis of Liaoning University.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Purple Orange)
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