Football in Ancient China
UEFA Euro 2008 is going to open. Exciting time! By the way, I support the Germans.
As FIFA has acknowledged that the earliest form of football originated in China, let’s see what football in ancient China was like.
In old China, the game was called “Cu Ju”, while “Cu” means kick and “Ju” means a ball made of leather. At first, the ball-kicking game was a method of military training. Later, it gradually became a popular sport for ordinary people.
It was curious that the early form of Chinese ancient Cu Ju was very similar to the modern football, but as it developed, it went on a different way. In the Han Dynasty (200 BC - 220 AD), a two-team match was the major form of Cu Ju game. The match was held on a special playground surrounded with short fences. Each of the two teams had a goal and twelve players on the field. The team that got more goals in a given time was the winner.
In the Tang Dynasty (618 AD -907 AD), there were still two teams competing on the field, but there was only one goal in the middle of the field now. The goal was about 20 feet high, with a hole two feet wide in the upper part of it. Which team kicked more balls cross the hole would win the game.
Playing with the ball with no fixed goal or field or team has always been valuable supplement to the game. However, it gradually became the major form of Cu Ju in China after the Yuan Dynasty (1271 AD - 1368 AD). The intense competitive match slowly faded out of scene while the ballet-performance-like form took the upper hand little by little. By that time, the players were mainly young women dressed in gorgeous gowns. There were many special patterns in ball-playing and all of the patterns had beautiful names. The game had developed into more an entertainment than a sport.
Painter: Du Dong in the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD - 1683 AD).
The first enthusiastic fan of football in the world
Xiang Chu in the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) was ill. The doctor told him not to get too tired. However, Xiang Chu was so enthusiastic about football that he went out to play football in spite of the doctor’s advice. In the end, he died of blooding omitting.
The first aerated football in the world
In the Tang Dynasty (618 AD -907 AD), the Chinese managed to make better footballs. They used eight pieces of leather instead of the previous two pieces to sew the ball, thus making it more round in shape. Besides, instead of putting feathers in the ball, they used an animal’s bladder and aerated it. Such a ball was much lighter than before, so there was more room to develop new skills and ways of playing.
The first football star in the world
Gao Qiu in the Song Dynasty (960 AD - 1297 AD) was famous for his football skills. In fact, his name, Qiu, means “ball” in Chinese, so there is a justifiable doubt that Qiu was actually not his original name, but his nickname. Gao Qiu was so good at football that even the emperor was attracted. With the emperor of favor, Gao Qiu eventually became the prime minister of China.
The first football club in the world
Again in the Song Dynasty (960 AD - 1297 AD), the football players formed their own union, called “With Cloud Society” (meaning they could kick the ball as high as the clouds) or “The Round Society” (because the ball was round in shape). The aim of the union was to organize football tournaments and increase the publicity and promotion of the game.
