Confucius and the Martial Arts
Confucius is well known as a great thinker and educator. Thousands of educational institutes all over the world established by China to promote the Chinese language and culture are named after Confucius. While the Confucius Institutes today are mainly focused on the Chinese language, what Confucius taught himself had a much wider variety.
According to Confucius, a man should be well educated in six aspects: etiquette, music, archery, chariot-driving, writing and mathematics. This is a very comprehensive educational scheme. Apart from the literary skills, an educated man should have mastery of good manners, science, arts, and sports as well.
Confucius himself was well qualified for such statements. It is recorded that Confucius was nine chi six cun tall. One chi equals ten cun, and in the time of Confucius, one chi was about 20 centimeters long, so Confucius was at least 192 centimeters tall, or six feet four inches. This is a very remarkable height for Chinese people even now: the average height of today’s Chinese male is 169 centimeters. The basketball genius Michael Jordan is just 6 centimeters taller, 198 centimeters.
Apart from his height, Confucius also had great muscles. In fact, his family had been famous for physical strength since his father. It is recorded that his father could lift up the castle gate, which was said to be as heavy as 1000 jin, namely about 300 kilograms. Confucius himself had a habit of lifting such heavy gates, too.
Confucius’ skills in archery and chariot-driving were also impressive. He could shoot birds in the sky. In his time, which was the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 746 BC), chariots were widely used in wars, similar to the ancient Grace. On the chariot were three men: the driver, the archer and the armored lancer. The archer did ranged attack but was vulnerable in melee combat, so the armored lancer’s duty was to protect him and do melee attack. Though Confucius never took part in war himself, he attached great importance to these martial trainings.
To Confucius, archery was not only a means of war righting or a healthy sport, but also a way to cultivate people. If two gentlemen had an disagreement and words could not settle them down, archery was a good way to decide the winner without hurting anyone. After the archery competition, the two should drink a toast to each other. This is a “friendly rivalry” in modern terms. Gentle in manner but firm in action, a true gentleman is like this.
