 | THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty |  |
APPENDIX IV
THE COMPETITIVE GAMES
The competitive games (chio-ti [OMITTED] [or [OMITTED]] [OMITTED]) seem first to have been
mentioned in SC 87: 36 (= D. Bodde, China's First Unifier, p. 46),
which says, "At this time [208 B.C.], the Second Emperor was at the
Kan-ch'üan [Palace (then near Shang-lin Park, not at Yün-yang; cf.
Glossary)], and was just then holding a spectacle of competitive games
and theatricals." These games are also mentioned in HS 6: 27b, and
later. The nature of these games seems to have varied.
HS 23: 5b says, "After the Spring and Autumn [period], . . . somewhat
was added to the rites in military reviews, and they became games and
amusements and were used for boasting and showing off; the Ch'in [dynasty]
changed their name to chio-ti." Thus the name (and probably
the practise) originated in the Ch'in state and in the Ch'in period. Ying
Shao explains these games as follows: "Those who chio, contest in skill;
those who ti, butt each other." Wen Ying adds, "In my opinion, the
[Ch'in dynasty] named this amusement chio-ti [because] in pairs they
opposed and contested (chio) with each other in strength. They
contested in skill and talents, in archery and in driving, hence they
named it chio-ti. It was probably an amusement [which consisted in
contests of] miscellaneous skills, of the sort as when [the people] of the
Yü [River] in Pa [Commandery] play fishes and dragons stretching
themselves out. The Han [dynasty] later changed the name [of these
games] to P'ing-lo-kuan [OMITTED] (the Spectacle of Peaceful Amusement)."
The Yü River performances were thus originally distinct from the competitive
games, but may later have been combined with them, although
even Wen Ying does not explicitly say that this combination was actually
made. In a note to HS 22: 35a, where, at the time of a general reduction
in the number of palace musicians, K'ung Kuang and Ho Wu ask to
have thirty-six drummers from the Yü River in Pa Commandery dismissed,
Yen Shih-ku comments, "When the Eminent Founder, [Emperor
Kao], was first made King of Han, he obtained the people of the
Yü [River] in Pa [Commandery]. Both were strong and active and
good at fighting. With them he conquered the three [kingdoms that
had been made out of the state of] Ch'in and annihilated [the state of]
Ch'u. Hence he preserved the military games [of the peoples who
had assisted him]. The games of the Yü [River] in Pa [Commandery]
had their beginning [at the imperial court] because of this [circumstance]."
finem says, "When the Eminent Founder, [Emperor Kao], of the Han
[dynasty] was about [to go] from Pa and Han to conquer the three
[kingdoms made out of the state of] Ch'in, [Mr.] Fan from Lang-chung
thereupon led the levies [from Pa]. With them he followed the Emperor
and acted as his van-guard. When Ch'in-chung had been subdued,
[Emperor Kao] enfeoffed [Mr. Fan] as Marquis of Lang-chung and
exempted his seven clans of levies. [According to] their customs,
they liked dancing. The Eminent Founder rejoiced at their fierceness
and ardor, and several times watched their military dances. Later he
had his musicians familiarize themselves with them. In Lang-chung
Prefecture there is a Yü River. Because this river was [by] their dwelling-place,
[this performance] was called the dance of the Yü [River]
in Pa [Commandery]." The "fishes and dragons" were eight hundred
feet long, according to Chang Heng's (A.D. 78-139) "Hsi-ching Fu"
(cf. Wen-hsüan, 2: 32a); this amusement probably consisted in some
sort of dragon parade (cf. Tz'u-yüan sub [OMITTED]; Tz'u-hai sub [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]). Yen Shih-ku says that ti means to oppose and not to butt.
Lang-chung [OMITTED] was a prefecture of Pa Commandery, located, according
to the Ta-Ch'ing Yi-t'ung Chih 390: 2a, in the west of the Ch'ing
dynasty's place by the same name; cf. HS 28 Aiii: 96a.
There are other references to these games. Chia Yi (200-168 B.C.)
in his Hsin-shu (in the Han-Wei Ts'ung-shu) ch. 4, "The Huns," p. 4b,
writes, "The Emperor should thereupon feast the Huns with a great
chio-ti." Thus in the time of Emperor Wen, these chio-ti were probably
held. T'ai-p'ing Yü-lan, 755: 5b, quotes the Han-Wu Ku-shih (prob.
by Wang Chien, ca. 452-489), "The chio-ti games which were held in
the court of Wei-yang [Palace], originated [in the time of] the Six States
[475-207 B.C.]; when [the state of] Ch'in united and seized [the other
states in] the empire, it added and enlarged these [games]. Although
when the Han [dynasty] arose, [these games] were abolished, yet they
were not entirely ended; at the time of Emperor [Wu], he again chose
and used them. He joined [with them] the amusements of the barbarians
at the four [boundaries] and introduced marvellous illusions, so that it
was as if spirits or gods chio-ti, and had them butt each other with the
strength of their horns." Jen Fang (460-508), in his Shu-yi-chi A: 2a,
says "[In the period] of the Ch'in and Han [dynasties], it was said that
Mr. Ch'ih-yu's ears and his hair on his temples were like a double-edged
sword and a three-pointed lance, and that on his head were horns (chio)
and that he fought with Hsien-yüan [the Yellow Lord]. When he used
his horns to butt people (chio-ti [OMITTED]), people were not able to withstand
called Ch'ih-yu's Games. In it the common people wear horns
on their heads and butt each other, two [against] two, or three [against]
three. When the Han [dynasty] established the chio-ti games, it was
probably after this style." (Cf. C. W. Bishop, "Ritual Bullfight,"
Smithsonian Inst. Report, 1926, p. 453.) These games are mentioned
in Wen-hsüan 2: 30b (von Zach, p. 5, col. 1), but no further explanation
is given. It is noteworthy that when the Wei dynasty attempted to
reestablish these games, no one at court could be found who understood
the meaning of the words in the four songs danced at these games
(cf. the continuation of the passage from the History of the Chin
Dynasty quoted above).
These competitive games thus originated out of military exercises
and included chariot-racing, archery contests, and similar events of a
military nature. They were connected with the region of the Shang-lin
Park in both Ch'in and early Han times, where there possibly was an
arena for such performances. Their name indicates that with these
military contests there were also performances in the nature of a ritual
bullfight connected with Ch'ih-yu (q.v. in Glossary). Wang Hsien-ch'ien
thinks that they were a sort of wrestling. With the foregoing two elements
there were probably also combined the religious dances from the
Yü River in the present Szechuan, which latter were performed by some
of Emperor Kao's soldiers and encouraged by emperors as an entertainment.
Emperor Yüan abolished these games in 44 B.C. (HS 9:
6a). Their precise nature seems to have been already forgotten in
ancient times. (These games are also discussed by Wang Kuo-wei, in
his Sung-Yüan Hsi-ch'ü Shih, p. 5, 6.)
| THE HISTORY OF THE FORMER HAN DYNASTY The history of the former Han dynasty | |