Wrestling and Lifting
6 min readThe Chinese traditional art of acrobatics appeared as early as in the Pre-Qin dynasty.Though the acrobatics was quite primitive during this period，theacrobatics took rudimentary forms，which was of great significance in the acrobatics’tradition.
In the primitive society people lived in the extremely adverse environment.In order to defend against the attacks of the beasts and defy the adverse environment，the primitive men grasped some survival skills through constant learning and accumulation，for instance，they tried to run fast in order to catch the game and they flung the stone instruments to hit the game；in order to pluck the fruit they had to climb the tree…Anyhow at the strong urge to survive in the natural environment the primitive men kept on improving their skills，so the basic skills of acrobatics came into their command as a result.Some of primitive men were capable of exceptionally high skills and they showed their feats on certain occasions.That was how primitive acrobatic performance began.
Besides at that time people believed in the existence of ghosts and spirits，and the sacrifice rites and the exorcising activities were held annually，which provided the stage for the acrobatics as well as the market for tapping the potentials of the primitive acrobatics.It was during this period that the acrobatics began to bud an appeared the first acrobatic prop，”the boomerang”.And the Chiyou Opera was also very popular back then.
Certainly each historic phenomenon is intimately linked with the level of the then current productive forces.The acrobatics couldn’t have made significant progress in the primitive period due to the low productivity.In the slave society the slave owners amassed a big fortune.To satisfy their own desires for any conceivable pleasure，the slave owners had the slaves wrestle.The slave wrestlers were mostly engaged in hard toil and some of them were full-time performers，which we11 facilitated the evolution of acrobatics.The slave owners tended to pick faults with the acrobatic performance，which prompted the performers to aim higher and deliver better performances.
During the Spring and Autumn Period，the imperial power was on the wane and lost control of the vassal states.It became a general trend to hunt for and retain the talents among all the vassal states，for instance，Guan Zhong，the Grand Councilor of the Qi State put up a poster which read that anyone who had extraordinary strength or some forte was welcome to serve the Qi State as an official.In such circumstances people endeavored to learn some sort of art or craft in an attempt to better their future prospects.After being accepted into the vassal states，these men in command of some forte were called the hangers-on.For a period of time it wa quite a trend to keep the hangers-on who excelled in some regard.These hangers-on made prominent contributions to the development of acrobatics in the Spring andAutumn Period and the Warring States Period by creating the seven categories of rudimentary acrobatics，the physique skills，the juggling performance，the air show acrobatics，the conjuring tricks，the horsemanship and the comic talk.
In brief，in the Pre-Qin dynasty and the Period of the Spring and Autumn&the Warring States in particular，the acrobatics made progress to some degree.The acrobatic acts evolved to be more sophisticated from the simple strength game to the performing art.
Wrestling and Lifting
Both wrestling and lifting are under the category of strength acrobatics whichwas developed ahead of any other category of acrobatics. The wrestler must have extraordinary strength, otherwise it is impossible for him to live up to his role.
The wrestling has another name of combating. The combat between Duke Songmin an his liege is kept in historical records. In the murals unearthed in the tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty at the Tiger Pavilion in Xinmi, Hebei Province there are combating scenes. Actually the commemoration of the Yellow Emperor proved to have played a significant role in carrying forward the tradition of wrestling and combating.
In China the legend about Huangdi who conquered Chiyou is widely circulated.
Huangdi is the ancestor of the Chinese nation, so Chinese all over the world areconsidered as “the offspring of Yandi and Huangdi”. At that time Huangdi was thechief of a clan commune. His conquest of Chiyou was a significant success in his life journey. Chiyou was the head of Jiulizu Alliance in charge of 81 clans of substantial strength. Legend has it that the Jiulizu people with the beast’s body and the human head were very valiant. They could feed on grit or stone and soar into the sky. Huangdi suffered repeated harsh failures despite his maneuvers and strategies. Then the Huangdi allied troops from many tribes to form up an alliance and at long last conquered and killed Chiyou after going through untold difficulties and hardships. To celebrate the huge success Huangdi organized a game by simulating the just bygone war: some soldiers were dressed up like Chiyou with horn-fixed masks on their heads and they combated against each other. All the people had a terrific time as some of them were dancing or singing along. On festive days such games would be organized in honor of Huangdi. Year after year this game gained popularity in an ever-expanding area and it was very popular especially in the Central Plains.
Jiaodi was also called”the Jiao-Di Opera”among the common people. Jiaodi was performed in the troops as well as in the sacrifice rites at temples. According to the Historical Records by Sima Qian,a historian in the Han dynasty, Chiyou had horns atop his head and rammed its horns against the rivals. Today the Chiyou Opera has been created in the Central Plains. In the South and North dynasties a scholarnamed Ren Fang said in The Tales of the Marvelous: in the Central Plains a kind of entertainment was Chiyou Opera in which people in twos or threes wore cattle hornsto bump each other. It is obvious that the Chiyou Opera was prevalent at that time.
Lifting, meaning raising something with both hands, shared something in common with the present-day weightlifting. In 306 BC lifting was one of the games prevalent in the state of Qin. The legend about “Wuhuo,a man of incredible strength, carrying an exceedingly heavy vessel”in the Qin and Han dynasties was related to such a game. Virtually the game’s tradition can be traced further ahead. The historical documents reveal that Shu Lianghe, Confucius’ father, was noted for his unusual arm strength. Shu Lianghe once held up the blockade at the city gate, which proved that he fully deserved such a reputation. And his contemporaries, Dihu and Qin Jinfu also enjoyed a big name. Dihu could swing the large wheels of the chariots and demonstrate a variety of shows.
Qin Jinfu was noted for his agile climbing up the city tower. He could climb up to the city tower by the cloth hung down from the tower. Each of She Lianghe’ slifting, Di Hu’s swinging the wheel and Qin Jinfu’s climbing the cloth was the rudimentary form of the respective art. At that time people admired those of substantial strength and the acrobatic varieties were limited, which afforded favorable conditions for the development of lifting. It is said that Confucius wasmore than an erudite scholar since he had remarkable strength as well. Some record has it that Confucius could hold up the state gate. The acrobatic act of lifting necessitated some skills besides the super strength on the part of the performer, and it also proved to be the rudiment based upon which a variety of acrobatics was developed at a later stage.
