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  • Chinese Archery

    Hello. I'd like to talk a bit about one of my favourite Chinese fighting arts. Please excuse me if I use dynastic names without dates - I assume those with an interest in Chinese history might already know them and feel like they are being talked down to. If anyone wants dates, then I can put them in.

    I haven't been practising Shaolin Wahnam Gong Fu for very long. Before I bought some of Sifu's books (I only have two - Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan and the Art of Shaolin Kung Fu), I had practised Judo for only about 3 months, a small amount of Wing Chun when I attended a few classes with a friend, Taijiquan at school (leading to under a year of lessons with a frankly crap instructor) and also quite a lot of boxing, which greatly increased my co-ordination, footwork, speed, and above all, external strength.
    I looked around for books on martial arts, and found Sifu Wong's books, which probably represent some of the best classic martial arts literature on the market. I have been learning Chinese (putonghua) for about 6 years on and off, with Chinese friends, and I will be studying it at university for the next 4 years. My interest in martial arts sprang from watching kung fu movies in Chinese with friends to learn better, and from watching great wuxia like the newer films "Hero" and so on. I have been interested in ancient China for a long time.
    I live mostly a simple life, and I practise "primitive" living and living from the land - I know the plants in my area quite well. From this, sprang my interest in traditional archery. Combining the two interests, I bought some books on Chinese archery.

    Chinese archery in the Han dynasty was considered one and the same as "daoyin", the old name for what was essentially qigong. Archery was about taking internal force, internal resolve, and mind power, and transfering it to the arrowhead (I have heard people say that the old military arts relied solely on external force. This is not the case). There are many styles of archery, that have varied throughout the different dynasties of China. Some things have remained relatively constant. Long draws (to the ear or shoulder) are preferred, and the bows are drawn using the thumb and a thumb ring (there are two styles of this - Mongolian (used probably since the late Warring States period) and "Chinese"). The bows are typically composite in manufacture, that is to say, made up of more than one material. (There are also many, many variations here.) Wood, water buffalo horn, roe deer sinews, mulberry wood, lacquer, silk, and fish glue would be used to create one bow, which might take around 3 or more years to complete. These bows were used up to the Qing dynasty for fighting, and part of the military examination until the end of it; and a composite bow was made for Mao Zedong before he started the campaign against the "Four Olds."
    In any case: I don't use these composite bows. They cost a lot of money, or take a very long time (and lots of money) to make, and very, very few people make them anymore, and they are mostly in the west copying from old archery manuals and bowmaker's books. Luckily for me, wooden bows have also been used in China's history.
    Korea, which has probably the finest archery tradition in the world, was using the bow as a military weapon until 1890, and their bows are some of the most complex and brilliant weapons (also composites). However, the average soldier in the Korean army would have used a bow of bamboo laminates, backed with sinew if he was lucky, or skilled.
    In China, the situation was similar. [The early development of the crossbow (circa 1000 BCE, according to many scholars) is attributed to the fact that the large population of China could not be equipped with either heavy bronze equipment or the typical composite bows because both were expensive to make. Warfare in the Zhou dynasty was conducted using chariots and noble archers taking potshots at each other. The battle would be over when one side felt they had made their point; the crossbow was an attempt by some rulers to gain supremacy by mobilising their peasant populations and arming them with armour piercing crossbows.] Wooden longbows have been discovered in tombs and in the western dates, of various woods, and "The Rites of Zhou", a book from the state of Qi in the Warring States, mentions several woods from which bows could be made. Bows of large section bamboo were discovered at Xi'an with the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang Di (as well as crossbows, of course.)
    Ancient Chinese myth, such as the myth of the immortal archery Yi, mentions wooden bows as gifts from the Heavenly Emperor (Shangdi) to suppress evil spirits. I felt, and still feel, justified in using wooden bows and calling it "Chinese archery".
    As I am pretty handy with wood, I made a replica of a longbow of ash wood from the western Han (the original was of "zhe" wood), and I use that, using a range of traditional techniques and transfering my force to the arrowhead (I tend to use blunts, as well as some metal arrowheads). It works well as a qigong technique, it's relaxing, traditional, very, very ancient, powerful and beautiful. It improves co-ordination and other such things.
    I also have made a couple of crossbows. They are not the ancient crossbows of the Warring States or even up to the Tang, which used wonderful and strong bronze mechanisms, but crossbows of (surprisingly) later periods, after the major nomad invasions. Song and Ming illustrations and books show and talk about crossbows with antler and wooden triggers, since previously, not being able to own weaponry at all under the Yuan and before that, the Jin Ruzhen dynasties, the Chinese art of making the bronze mechanisms died out. Chinese crossbows also have long draws (over a foot at the least.)
    I'll see if I can get hold of a camera to take some nice piccies. I'm just enthusiastic about Chinese archery, and I don't think anyone would deny that it is a pure and ancient Wushu. I hope you'll not be too angry at seeing this giant post and seeing no pictures! I'll try and explain the forms, stances, and true techniques in more detail if you'd like.

    Incidentally, the "bow-arrow" stance of Shaolin Wahnam and other kung fus is not the stance used traditionally when shooting. The stance from Shang times (honestly - the forms are that ancient) has been with the feet placed in a "T" shape. Picture a horse-riding stance with the feet at a "T"; a low, powerful, Qi motivating stance with one foot stabilising and one foot pointing towards the target.

    Have a nice day!

  • #2
    I'd like to hear more and see some pics...

    Comment


    • #3
      Incidentally, the "bow-arrow" stance of Shaolin Wahnam and other kung fus is not the stance used traditionally when shooting.
      The Bow-Arrow Stance is not so-named becaue it was used in archery. It is named because the stance itself looks like a bow and arrow. If you look at the stance from the side, the upper body and the lower leg form the two curves of the bow, and the back leg is the arrow (shooting upward at an angle).

      There's today's Kung Fu triva.
      Sifu Anthony Korahais
      www.FlowingZen.com
      (Click here to learn more about me.)

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      • #4
        re

        In that case, I'm sorry for having misrepresented Shaolin kung fu.

        I think you might have to wait until the beginning of July before I can get any pictures for you, but I can give a little more general information.

        1. In Chinese techniques, most often the bow-hand is the left hand, and the right hand is the string-hand.
        2. The arrow is drawn on the right side of the bow. This is not the standard western practise, and feels uncomfortable if you have been used to western archery.
        3. The arrow is generally around a fist longer than the draw of the bow. This is due to the shape of the bow hand when drawing. Assuming you are using a left handed bow hand, your left index finger points across the back (front, if you don't know archery terminology) of the bow to the right to feel for the arrowhead - at this point you have reached full draw, and loose immediately upon feeling contact with the arrow. (This is known as "snap" or "touch" shooting in the west, I believe.) You may have to work hard to visualise this.
        4. Breathe in on the draw, breathe out (or shout "si" or some other Chinese phrase about hitting/killing the target) on the loose.
        5. Aim at relaxation, and do not aim along the arrow - aim using intuitive, natural, instinct. This is difficult to do until you have the feel for the form. Like most good martial arts, in archery, proponents had to practise forms and structures for at least a few months before picking up a bow. (I didn't do this, because I am impatient. In retrospect, it probably took me a lot longer than a few months to properly learn forms.)

        These are just some general points, and archery has changed a lot over the years. In the pre-Qin period, the point was to be able to pierce the maximum layering of leather armour at fairly long range - accuracy and power. But Qi Ji Guang recommended drawing a powerful bow and getting in close - as his Japanese pirate enemies did. So, their forms are different, their arrows different, their bows different.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by West
          2. The arrow is drawn on the right side of the bow. This is not the standard western practise, and feels uncomfortable if you have been used to western archery.
          I used to do a bit of archery at university and I am pretty sure we had the arrow on the right side of the bow (drawing with the right hand.)

          If any of you are ever in Leeds, check out the Royal Armouries (it's free!!!) They have a big cabinet with ancient Chinese weaponary, including bows. They even have one of the few surviving "portable" bows with a hinge in the middle.
          Last edited by George; 9 June 2006, 03:55 PM.
          George / Юра
          Shaolin Wahnam England

          gate gate pāragate pārasaṁgate bodhi svāhā

          Comment


          • #6
            I'm going to university at Leeds to study modern Chinese. I've also been to the armouries many times, and it's definitely got a lot of cool things. The hinged bows, though, are not that rare - they were made quite a lot in the Qing, and you can buy them in markets in Beijing and probably Shanghai, too. I think they were used for pellet shooting, rather than shooting arrows, but I'm not entirely sure; I suspect it depends on the specimen in question.
            It's interesting that you say you shot from the right hand side. I suppose different archery teachers instruct in different ways, and it depends on how they've learnt, and so on. Anyway, it's interesting info.

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            • #7
              Continuing my Scholar Warrior development, I was recently shooting arrows (real ones, not chi ones ) and found the whole process extremely enjoyable. The instructor gave valuable advice and even though the targets quaked in fear, I still failed to hit anything convincingly.

              Aim at relaxation, and do not aim along the arrow - aim using intuitive, natural, instinct
              Or in our teminology - enter a Chi Kung state of mind and have fun

              It's a wonderful art and I'd suggest everyone try it at least once. Meditation in motion

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              • #8
                I did a beginners trial session of archery on holiday last year. The teacher told us to 'focus'. I smiled to myself

                Chris

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                • #9
                  Or in our teminology - enter a Chi Kung state of mind and have fun

                  It's a wonderful art and I'd suggest everyone try it at least once. Meditation in motion
                  Good choice of words there. Initially, learning new archery forms is difficult, and it becomes something of a chore to ensure you have the right footwork, handshapes, and are drawing the whole and correct distance. But after a while (just like with gongfu), it clicks into place, and indeed, can be meditation in motion. It appeals to many senses, it has a loooong heritage, it's actually good exercise, and it has been practised in China for relaxation for centuries.

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