Metrology in ancient sports
Whether ancient or modern, measurement has played a pivotal role in the development of sports and sports science. What measurement knowledge does running and archery infiltrate?
Metering makes "time" fairer—faster
Athletics, simply put, is running, which is the simplest sport that does not require a large financial investment, suitable for men and women, young and old. In ancient Chinese mythology, "Father Quao is day by day", Father Quao is the earliest pioneer of athletics.
Speaking of running, I have to mention the measurement of time, modern timekeeping tools include watches, stopwatches, electronic clocks, smartphones, hourglasses, etc., so how was ancient time calculated?
As early as the late Shang Dynasty, there was a 100-hour timekeeping system that divided a day and night into 100 equal parts, and it was used by successive dynasties until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Because of the emergence of the 100-hour timing system, ancient China had a unified timekeeping standard. This is a great initiative that embodies the endless wisdom of ancient Chinese ancestors.
Among the various types of timekeeping instruments in ancient times, the most important and the longest used is the missing engraving.
In the early days, it was mostly a drainage type leakage, the water flowed out of the leaky pot hole, the floating arrow in the leaky pot descended with the water surface, and the scale on the floating arrow indicated the time. The later water-receiving type leakage floating arrow is in the receiving kettle, indicating the time with the rise of the water surface, and in order to obtain a uniform water flow, a multi-stage receiving kettle can be placed.
Measurement makes "distance" fairer – more accurate
Archery is a very popular sport both in ancient and modern times. In ancient times, it was a necessary subject to obtain martial arts, and "100 steps through Yang" can be described as the highest evaluation of a shooter.
"Shiji Zhou Benji"
Chu has a person who nurtures the foundation and is good at shooting; Those who go to the willow leaves shoot at a hundred steps, and they shoot a hundred shots. Originally refers to the ability to shoot through a specified willow leaf from a hundred paces away. Later, he used "100 steps through Yang" to describe the arrow technique or marksmanship as very clever, and by extension, the skill is very strong.
Step: hieroglyphics, stop, is half a step, originally refers to two footprints in front and one back, originally refers to two feet apart, the distance in between. Later, it developed into a unit of measurement, which varied from generation to generation: eight feet as a step in the Zhou Dynasty, and six feet as a step in the Qin Dynasty. According to expert research, the ruler of the Zhou Dynasty is 17 centimeters, the so-called "hundred steps", about 136 meters now, it is really exaggerated to shoot a leaf at such a distance, so "a hundred steps through Yang" is more to appreciate the mastery and skill of archery, not to really be able to shoot through the leaf.
So from the perspective of measurement, the difficulty of the operation of "100 steps through the Yang" can be seen, and if you also want to become a marksman, mastering these measurement knowledge is essential?
Measurement makes "weight" fairer – stronger
Ancient weightlifting, hundreds of thousands of years ago, the earliest ancestor of human beings, the ape-man, knew to use the most primitive tools such as wooden holds and stones to hunt for food and self-defense. In labor and martial arts, it is sometimes necessary to lift and lift huge weights, and due to the needs of labor and survival, our ancestors often used heavy lifting objects to exercise strength and courage, so there are legends in various countries about the extraordinary strength of ancient strongmen. In spring and autumn, there are "Qiu Guan" and "Carrying Ding", which are giant wooden deadbolts on the city gate, and Qiu refers to holding one end to lift the Guan Mu, and the arm and wrist strength required for this laborious lever weightlifting can be imagined. Ding has two ears and wears a wooden beam between the two ears as a beam, and holding the beam in his hand to lift the Ding is called carrying the Ding, and the Chu overlord Xiang Yu claims to be able to carry the Ding.
Spring and Autumn Warring States period. The writing and measurement units of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods have not yet been unified, so the weight units of each country. It's also different. The units of weight measurement used by Qin and Jin are roughly the same, using Hu, dou and Sheng. Among them, the hu is the largest, the liter is the smallest, and the decimal system is adopted. The weight measurement units used in Qi Guo, from small to large, are arranged as bells, kettles, districts, beans, and liters, and the decimal system is not adopted, where 1 bell = 10 kettles, 1 kettle = 4 zones, 1 zone = 4 beans, 1 bean = 4 liters. The State of Chu used the Shao and Sheng systems, and the two adopted the five-base system.
By the Qin Dynasty, the unit of measurement was unified. The unit of measurement uniformly uses the unit originally used by the Qin state. Converted into the commonly used volume units, 1 Hu = 20,000 ml, 1 bucket = 2,000 ml, 1 liter = 200 ml.
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Some of the graphics and text come from the Internet
Contribution: Municipal Institute of Quality Inspection
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