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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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