Football originated in China, why can’t it be played in modern times？ It has something to do with Zhu Yuanzhang’s prejudice against Cuju.
When it comes to football, I believe many students will think of ancient cuju in China. There is no doubt that football originated from ancient cuju in China. In 2004, FIFA confirmed that cuju in ancient China was the earliest prototype of football. # You don’t know the history of football #
So, when was Cuju invented in ancient China? The "Ju" in Cuju can be traced back to the stone balls in the cultural site of Ding Cun 100,000 years ago. At first, it should be a hunting tool. In the late primitive society, stone balls kicked by feet and hollowed-out pottery balls appeared.
However, it is not known from the development of stone balls to the inventor of Cuju. According to Liu Xiang’s "Bielu", it is said that Cuju was invented by the Yellow Emperor and began to be used in military training. The bow was made of leather and filled with hair.
The earliest accurate and credible written record of Cuju was in the Warring States Policy and Historical Records. In 285 BC, that is, during the Warring States Period, Cuju was recorded as an activity with both military and recreational nature.
When introducing the living conditions of people in Linzi, the capital of Qi State, Qice wrote: "There are 70,000 households in Linzi … which are very rich and real, and all of them are people who play the flute, drum instruments, percussion, playing the piano, fighting cocks, walking dogs, playing six blogs and squatting."
It can be seen that cuju has developed into a popular way of sports in Linzi, the capital of Qi during the Warring States Period.
During the Han Dynasty, Cuju ushered in a period of rapid development. Cuju can be used not only for entertainment and performance, but also for competition and training. It is estimated that many students can’t believe that Cuju will be used for training. This is because Cuju can not only train soldiers’ physical fitness, but also enrich military life.
If Han Dynasty was the first peak of Cuju’s development, then Tang and Song Dynasties was the second peak. After improvement, Cuju started with a solid ball stuffed with hair and became an inflatable ball. Because of the lower cost of football, more ordinary people could afford to play Cuju. With the increase of the number of Cuju, there were teams and norms dedicated to Cuju, and organizations specializing in Cuju competitions appeared in the Song Dynasty.
Having said that, everyone must first think of Gao Qiu, the first master of cuju in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, because Song Huizong liked cuju very much when he was the king of Duan, and when Gao Qiu sent something to the palace of Duan, he inadvertently showed a few hands, thus being left behind by Zhao Ji. After Zhao Ji became king, he began to promote Gao Qiu.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the gradual popularization of cuju, Japan often sent Tang envoys to China at that time, and brought the game of cuju back to Japan. Today, football is still called "cuqiu" in Japanese and Han Wenzhong, which is also influenced by China’s cuju.
Why did China Cuju, which was still at its peak in the Tang and Song Dynasties, fall out of fashion in the Ming and Qing Dynasties? Even after the mid-Qing Dynasty, football turned from export to domestic sales and reappeared in the eyes of China people.
All this stems from an imperial edict of Zhu Yuanzhang. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, it was different from the situation that the previous generation used cuju as a means of military training. Zhu Yuanzhang thought that cuju was a sign of being a plaything, because Zhu Yuanzhang had an old rival named Zhang Shicheng, and Zhang Shicheng’s troops liked cuju very much. However, when Zhang Shicheng was at war with Zhu Yuanzhang, it was simply vulnerable. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that cuju would not help the improvement of soldiers’ military literacy. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that the Ming army would not be allowed to cuju in the future, and offenders would be punished.
Because this order only prohibits soldiers from playing cuju, but not the people, it actually abandons the function of competition and training, while the people play cuju more for entertainment and viewing.
Therefore, in Ming Dynasty, cuju was still popular among the people, but most of them were women. At that time, cuju was a talent show, just like a brothel woman performing singing and dancing. Although there were several emperors who liked cuju in Ming Dynasty, it was even recorded that the emperor organized eunuchs and maids to play cuju in the palace, but at that time, cuju had developed into a very lightweight thing, and even developed into kicking shuttlecock, which completely deviated from the development of modern football.
During the Qing Dynasty, there were few records about cuju. When the Qing army entered the customs, cuju was banned in the Eight Banners during the Shunzhi period, and cuju was combined with skating, resulting in the movement form of "cuju on the ice".
While the development direction of football in China is crooked, western countries are keen on playing football, and Britain is the first country to popularize modern football.
According to legend, in the 11th century, there was a war between England and Denmark. After the war, when the British were cleaning up the ruins of the war, they found the skull of a Danish invader. They were in resentment, so they kicked the Danish skull with their feet to vent their dissatisfaction. Later, everyone felt that it was very difficult to kick the skull, so some smart people thought of replacing the skull with a cow’s bladder, so there was the origin of modern football.
It can be seen that the birth of modern football itself is full of bloodshed and killing. The initial football match is not just an entertainment, but more like a confrontation.
Generally, two cities take part in a football match. The host throws the football into the air. At the beginning of the game, both sides rush into it, not only shouting, but also running and kicking. Which side can kick the ball to the downtown area of the other side is the winner.
The strong desire to win or lose makes the participants on both sides crazy. In order to win, when the football rushes into the residents’ houses in the middle, the players will rush in and kick around, often leaving the houses in pieces. Therefore, when there is no football match, the people have to close their doors and wait until the end of the game before they dare to leave the house.
Under the strong opposition of the people, the British government had to make a ban, stipulating that football matches can only be played in open spaces, but not in downtown areas, so there was a special football venue.
By 1848, the first written rule of football, Cambridge Rules, was born, which was made between Oxford and Cambridge for a football match. The rule was that only 11 people played in each team, and this rule continued until recently.
In 1862, the world’s first football club was established in Nottinghamshire, England. On October 26th, 1863, the world’s first official football organization, the English Football Association, was established in London, England. This day was also regarded as the birth day of modern football. Since then, with the further improvement of the rules of the game, football has quickly spread around the world.
It can be said that while modern football is flourishing, the ancient cuju in China is evolving into a shuttlecock-kicking sport. Do you think that the decline of modern football in China is related to Zhu Yuanzhang’s ban on military cuju? Welcome to discuss in the comments section below!
