中國弓道의 騎馬法에 관한 硏究

A Study on the Technique of Horse Riding in Relation to Chinese Archery

  In relation to the origin of Chinese archery, Chinese archaeologists discovered an arrowhead made of a pair of stones from remains of the Old Stone Age near Chiyok village, Sakhyeon, Shanxi(Sakju, Shanxi Province at present) in 1963. It was the oldest arrowhead found in China and determined by radioisotopic examination to be manufactured in the late Old Stone Age(28,000 years ago). In addition to bow and arrow as epochal shooting means of Chinese archery, the technique of horse riding in China was investigated through reviewing ancient Chinese books to find that few materials of the Shang period were found about skills of horse riding, but remains related to the skills, which manufactured in the early period of Western Zhou, were discovered. This indicates that skills of horse riding were already used in the Shang period. Calvary soldiers first began to be militarily organized in the period of Civil Wars. In the periods of Chin, Han and Three Kingdoms, the profession of so-called "Jugi" was succeeded as a family business from generation to generation. "Jugi" meant a person who was responsible for handing over skills of horse riding to the next generation. This indicates that the technique of horse riding was considered quite important. In the periods of two Jins and Southern & Northern Dynasties, mounted shooting was considered very important as wars were often operated through calvary battles and infantry actions. In the period of Sui and Tang periods, people first used bows and arrows as means of living, irrespective of their gender, but later women scarcely shoot arrows as male and female works were separated. During the Sung, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties, archery fell into a means of amusement. But it became a critical course of military service examination in the periods of Ming and Ching. Especially, The Ching Imperial Court enjoyed mounted shooting as an amusement under the motto, "stabilize the whole world with the benefits of archery and horse riding". In conclusion, ancient Chinese books regarding the technique of horse riding in relation to Chinese archery were reviewed here to find that in China, the technique of horse riding had its firm social position, historically and traditionally, and was considered important as much as in Korea.