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Appendix IV. The Competitive Games
The competitive games (chio-ti 角[or 觳] 抵) 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 平樂觀 (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]."
The History of the Chin Dynasty 22: 11a, b, Treatise 12 ad 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 魚龍蔓延;
Tz'u-hai sub 魚龍漫衍). Yen Shih-ku says that ti
means to oppose and not to butt. Lang-chung 閬中 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 人), people were not able to withstand 131APPENDIX IV him. Now in Chi
Province [present Hopei and Shansi] there is an amusement 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.)
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