On The Historical Cultural Connotations Of Ancient Chinese Football Game

The Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States period prospered the Chinese civilization greatly. The rise of Cu Ju in the capital city of QI, with the high level of cultural development, gave birth to thousands of years'football legend. What were the features that produced the ancient football culture at that time and in that place? In order to exhibit the openness and inclusiveness of Chinese culture, when doing researches on history and culture, we should have scientific thoughts of space time to connect ancient times with today, and China with the whole world. That making sure the ancient football game originated from a specific time in our country is beneficial for us to discover and treasure the historical value of ancient football. Both football and its origin belong to the whole world. Therefore, there are plenty of broad and wonderful prospects for us to imagine and explore this subject.Nowadays, the weakness and decadent of Chinese football is not the obstruction for us to probe. That we are looking back to the history now is not to avoid reality and to self-comfort. Facing to the reality and tracing back to history, we will find the historical value of Chinese civilization. It is not only the inspiration to prosper the contemporary world football, but also the indication to the future.This article is to trace back to the origin of ancient Chinese football game by the methods of literature review, surveys and experts interviews. And then to reveal the factors in QI that facilitated the origin of ancient football game. After a lot of study, thinking, and specific analysis, the main factors are physical labor, entertainment, military affairs and religious worship. Among which, the physical labor is the basis; entertainment, the dominant; and military and religious worship, the auxiliary. The origin of ancient football game is not a static point of time, but a spiral and ascendant process. That is from imaginary to visualization, from games to sports, and from passive reflection to initiative creation. For the aspects of life, human's physical labor reflects the need of material life. While for the aspects of sports and culture, physical labor reflects the proficiency of active control of human's upper limb after getting rid of the passive reaction. This is exactly the symbol of the liberation of human's hands. Ancient football game also makes human's feet free from passive activity to control things actively. Though the feet are less significant than hands when controlling things, this is, for human beings, also achievements of the pursuit of natural and humanistic spirit. The pursuit of natural spirit is reflected in the challenge to the monopoly authority of hands, the shackles of gravity, the limits of natural balance law, the human's mindset and the unknown areas. The pursuit of humanistic spirit is reflected in the unity and the differences of the world, the evolution of Yin and Yang. According to the above analysis to the factors, locus and cultural connotations of the origins of ancient football game, this article is to draw a forward-looking inspiration to the development of contemporary Chinese football game at the aspects of basic construction, openness, creativeness, independence and cultivation of human nature.