Fragrant Song Dynasty female sumo wrestler
Wu hook
Sumo is now the national skill of Japan, but eight hundred years ago, it was one of the most popular mass sports in the Song Dynasty, and there were not only daily sumo commercial performances in the city, but also a national sumo competition. In cities such as Beijing and Hangzhou, artists perform sumo wrestling shows every day and collect tickets from the audience. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the most famous sumo wrestling masters in Hangzhou were "Zhou Qiankui", "Dong Qiankui", "Wang Qiankui", "Saiguansuo", "Red Hair Zhu Chao", "Zhou Busy Desire", "Zheng Boda", "Tie Shaogong", "Han Tongzhu", "Yang Long Foot", and so on. This list is included in the Southern Song Dynasty notebook "Mengliang Record".
The peak terrace south of the Gokokuji Temple in Lin'an Castle is a sumo wrestling ring, which often holds national sumo tournaments, and the sumo wrestlers who compete on the stage are from the "prefectures of various provinces", and they are all selected by each state. The winner can get prize money, trophies, pennants, and only "those who are strong and strong and have no right in the world can win their rewards". The prizes of the champions include "flag tents, silver cups, colored satins, brocade jackets, official meetings (huizi), and horses". During the reign of Emperor Jingding of the Song Dynasty, there was a Wenzhou sumo wrestler named Han Fu, who was able to "replenish the post of military assistant" because he "won the first prize" in the sumo wrestling tournament.
The most novelty for future generations is the women's sumo wrestling competition. It is not difficult to imagine that female sumo wrestling must be very glamorous, and may even be "very yellow and violent". Judging from the sumo wrestling diagrams unearthed from the Song Dynasty sumo figurines and song tomb murals, the male sumo wrestlers are naked on the upper body, and the lower body is only wrapped in a piece of cloth, showing a strong muscle; the female sumo wrestler, even if she is not like a male sumo wrestler, must be wearing a tight suit with extremely economical cloth, and the curve is exposed.
Northern Song Dynasty sumo figurines collected by the Shaanxi History Museum
The 104th time in "Water Margin" describes a sumo wrestling contest between men and women, the woman's name is Duan Sanniang, and the man's name is Wang Qing: "The woman is twenty-four or five years old, she took off her outer shirt, rolled it into a ball, and threw it on a table, inside was an arrow shaft with small sleeves, a parrot green short jacket, wearing a pair of large purple sleeve pants, stepping forward, raising her fist, and looking forward to Wang Qing. Wang Qing saw that she was a woman, and saw that she had flaws in her fists, deliberately playing her, deliberately not to fall quickly, and also dragged her fists to spit out a portal, swing the solution, and sumo wrestling with the woman. Judging from the description of the novel, the female sumo wrestler wears a tight suit.
Although "Water Margin" is a novel written in the Ming Dynasty, what is described in the book may not be in line with the facts of the Song Dynasty, but the female sumo exhibition tournament is indeed a very common entertainment program in the Song Dynasty, and the dress of the female sumo wrestlers is more irritating than that of Duan Sanniang in the novel. The Liao State, which coexisted with the Northern Song Dynasty, also popularized the sport of female sumo wrestlers, and female sumo wrestlers used their breasts to "cover their breasts, and if they were exposed, they walked with their hands over their faces, deeply ashamed", and they wrestled with their underwear. The social culture of Song and Liao influenced each other, and the attire of female sumo wrestlers should be similar.
According to the "Records of Dreams" and "The Past Events of Wulin", there have always been female sumo wrestling competitions in the Washe Gou column in Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty: "The sumo wrestlers in Washi, the Luqi people (folk artists), gather first-class partners to try their hands." First, the female floppy (that is, the female sumo wrestler) is used to play the condom, which is watchable, and then the wrestler competes. "These fee-based commercial sumo exhibition matches are usually held in the form of female sumo wrestling matches, attracting spectators, and then the official competition of male sumo wrestlers.
The "Records of Dreams" and "Past Events of Wulin" also include the names of several female sumo wrestlers in Hangzhou Vashe: "Sai Guan Suo", "Huan San niang", "Black Fourth Sister", "Han Chunchun", "Xiu Le Shuai", "Jin Le Shuai", "Sai Mao Duo", "Yu Liu Niang", "Junior Yu", "Female Hurry" and so on. These female sumo wrestlers, like male sumo wrestlers, competed in the "watts and counties" and made a name for themselves.
However, after the Song Dynasty, there was no longer any entertainment for female sumo wrestling in the city, and even urban entertainment institutions such as the Washe Goulan disappeared into the depths of history. This may be the reason why the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties after the Song Dynasty, the restraint of etiquette on the common people, and the state's control of society tended to be strict.
(This article is an excerpt from Wu Hook's new book Living in the Song Dynasty.) Available in major bookstores and online stores)