When did football rise in China?

First, the origin of ball games and the formation and initial development of Cuju activities.

In the ancient literature of China, the earliest name of Cuju was "Cuju", which was called the ancient football in China. The most fascinating ball game in sports history is the largest member of the ancient ball game family in China.

As early as the Western Han Dynasty, a scholar named Liu Xiang wrote in his book Bielu: "Cuju athletes are said to have been done by the Yellow Emperor." (Quoted from "Taiping Magnolia" Volume 754), his son Liu Xin also mentioned in the book "Seven Views": "Cuju players are said to be made by the Yellow Emperor." (Quoted from Qing Yan Ke Jun's Chronicles of Three Generations, Qin and Han Dynasties, Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties in Ancient China (Volume 4 1). Here, the origin of Cuju was set in the era of the Yellow Emperor 4600 years ago. Because there was no written record in the era of the Yellow Emperor, Liu Xiang and his son all said it was a rumor. So, is this a fact? ：

1973, archaeologists unearthed a silk book, The Ten Classics of Zhengluan, in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty at Mawangdui No.3 in Changsha, Hunan. This is a silk book that tells the story of Huangdi's victory over Chiyou. There is a legend about the origin of Cuju: "... Huangdi was so lucky that he was caught. ..... fill your stomach, thinking that you are bowing your head, making people hold on, and those who win more will be rewarded. ..... "About 4600 years ago, the Huangdi tribe in the Central Plains and the Chiyou tribe in the South fought a war in Zhuolu (Zhuoxian County, Hebei Province). The war was fought for many years, and then the Huangdi tribe won and captured Chiyou. In order to vent his resentment, the Yellow Emperor stuffed Chiyou's stomach with his hair and made a ball for the soldiers to kick. The Yellow Emperor is a legendary tribal leader. At that time, there was no written record, and social culture was passed down from mouth to mouth. Was it possible to create a football game at that time? Of course, this information can't be used as history, but combined with the process of human economic development, it at least shows that games like football have sprouted. However, it should be noted that from the perspective of cultural genesis, the same culture and natural environment may produce similar cultural forms, so this kind of earliest ball games is not necessarily limited to a certain area.

For a long time, archaeologists have found many stone balls, pottery balls and related rock paintings in primitive social sites in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Xinjiang and Yunnan. Even in Hunan, northwest of China. Especially in the 1960s, archaeologists discovered rock paintings 3,400 years ago on the high mountain cliffs in Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province, and drew pictures of many people playing with balls. These areas are not limited to the nomadic areas of the Yellow Emperor tribe more than 5,000 years ago, but cover a wider area. Therefore, whether in kind or in legend, human beings have the ability to create such ball games in different regions for a long time.

Although these legends and archaeological discoveries do not fully prove the origin time and specific place of ancient Cuju, they reflect the long history of ancient ball games in China. All these indicate that China is the place where "ball games" originated the earliest in the world. This has also been recognized by world football history experts and FIFA. Please check the following information:

In the first chapter "The Birth of Football" written by Aldao Scheff Qilu Man (translated into Japanese by the Japanese National People's Congress Zhu Yu 1977, and then supervised by the director of the Japanese Football Association), the author made a comparative analysis of the emergence of ancient European regions such as ancient Greece, Italy, Britain and the United States, and clearly pointed out that many data showed that the appearance of ancient football in China was earlier than that in Europe and America. In the era of the Yellow Emperor in 2697 BC, football skills appeared in China, and its name was Cuju (the author explained here: it was quoted from Liu Xiang's book Bielu in the Western Han Dynasty). Until the end of the Zhou Dynasty (256 BC), this kind of ball game was popular not only among soldiers, but also among the general public. The article also emphasizes that in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the King of Qi proclaimed himself emperor (? -30 1 years ago), Linzi, the capital of Qi State, was very popular with this sport.

1985, at the opening ceremony of the first "Koda Cup" World Youth Football Championship held in China, Mr. Havelange, then president of FIFA, said in his speech that football originated here with a history of more than 2,000 years, which is indisputable.

200 1 FIFA President Blatter emphasized that "football originated in China" when he gave a report on the development history of international football in Coach training class organized by AFC.

On February 4th, 2004, jerome Champagne, Deputy Secretary-General of FIFA, officially announced at the press conference held in London: "Although many countries think that they are the birthplace of football, historians who study international football have definite evidence that football originated in China-the ancient cuju in China is the origin of football." He also said: "FIFA will officially recognize China as the birthplace of football during the Asian Cup this summer, and we will use this ceremony to show our respect for China football."

Recently, FIFA President Blatter attended the 50th anniversary celebration of AFC in Kuala Lumpur. When meeting with the China delegation, he once again made it clear that according to expert research, football originated in China. At the same time, he hopes to use the 2004 China Asian Cup to promote this concept.

In a word, from the prehistoric legends, the display of archaeological materials and the research of experts, we can determine the following two points: First, a ball game similar to football appeared in prehistoric China, and its appearance and popularity were very extensive due to the cultural and natural environment; Secondly, a ball game similar to later football, namely "Cuju", an ancient football after its formation, first appeared in China and was recognized by international football experts and the international football community.

Above, we made an empirical analysis of the origin of Cuju. So, how did this spherical shape gradually develop in the early stage?

According to the research in recent years, it has developed from a ball game to a "cuju" with the characteristics of later football. According to ancient literature, it was first seen in the Warring States Policy and Historical Records. In fact, both directors are telling the same message.

Second, the preliminary standardization of Cuju activities

Cuju has been formally named and developed in the early stage, and has developed into a very specialized football sport in the Han Dynasty. Its distinctive signs are as follows:

Fourthly, Cuju has been widely popularized at this time. It is not only a means of military training, but also more popular with the people. Militarily, as a training method, it was valued by military strategists in Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, cuju was also regarded as a good military training method, because it could enhance physical strength and cultivate the spirit of courage and hard struggle. Liu Xiang made it more clear in "Bielu", pointing out: "Cuju is also a warrior, so it is necessary to practice because of fighting." It is mentioned here that foot soldiers are interested in training with football. As a result, they not only exercised their physical strength, but also experienced the sense of attack and defense in actual combat and had fun in the game. It is not only the usual military training program, but also the wartime. Liu Xin also pointed out in his book "Seven Views": "The method of stepping on a bow is more subtle, because it is fun to talk about trainers. So far, the sergeant has nothing to do, so he stepped on the bow. " Historian Ban Gu's biography of Han Huo Qubing once recorded that Huo Qubing "joined the army, ... he was outside the Great Wall and lacked food, or he couldn't help it himself, but he went across the field to get sick." Fu Qian's evaluation of this in the Eastern Han Dynasty is: "Penetrating the ground is the arch room." That is, digging ground and infrastructure cuju field. Huo Qubing took the lead in playing football outside the Great Wall, which played an inspiring role. During the Three Kingdoms period, the development of Cuju was still related to the military.

"Taiping Yulan" Volume 754 quoted "Records of Meeting Records" as saying: "At the end of the Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms stood on their own feet. In the year of the Great Revolution, scholars took bows and horses as their service, and the family took cuju as their study." At that time, almost all men in ordinary families had to be drafted into the army. When I was a soldier, I often carried out activities such as cuju. After the soldiers return home, Cuju will be further deepened among the people. Therefore, the statement that "Cuju is the home of learning" is generally in line with the facts.

Cuju has become a fashion among the people, whether it is official families or ordinary people. According to Hanshu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty often held a "chicken bow meeting" in his palace. Dong Xian, the pet giant of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, also has a "Juke" who can play football at home. Huan Kuan wrote "On Salt and Iron", which said that the society of the Western Han Dynasty had existed for a long time. "Noble family, deep sea fishing, let the dogs and rabbits go free, give full play to their talents, and fight cocks" enjoys it, and ordinary people also enjoy "being too cold at the top and obedient in the poor alley". On many Han Dynasty stone reliefs discovered by archaeologists, there are also pictures showing folk cuju in Han Dynasty. It reflects that Cuju has become a popular sport.

Fifth, women's cuju appeared, which is the earliest women's football activity in the history of world football. Move it.

Third, the further development of Cuju activities.

Judging from the development of Cuju in the Han Dynasty mentioned above, we can find that the development of Cuju at that time reached the first peak in the history of ancient Cuju in China, both in scale and standardization. In the Tang, Song, Yuan, Liao and Jin Dynasties, its development was further developed.

First of all, with the development of cuju technology, the tools of cuju in Tang Dynasty began to improve. The bow in the Tang Dynasty is no longer a bow aimed at Wei in the Han Dynasty, but a balloon with a ball skin and a ball bladder. According to Tang (659? 727) "Beginners" records: "Bow is the word of the ball, and today Cuju is called the ball game. It was wrapped in hair in ancient times, but it is made of skin today. " With the cell as the core, it can be achieved by holding your breath. "Pi Rixiu, Volume 5 of You Mao's Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty, recorded a story: The children of the Guangxi Department were dissatisfied with Pi Rixiu, so they wrote poems to laugh at Pi Rixiu. The poem wrote: "Eight sharp skins were made into balls, which rubbed in the fire and water, leaving a pack of gas as usual, provoking fists and kicking pawns." "This poem and the above-mentioned literature records tell us that the balloon in the Tang Dynasty was made of eight pieces of leather, which is similar to the production method of modern football. Secondly, in the spherical shell sewn with leather, an animal urine bubble is stuffed and filled into a balloon. Zhong Wuyan in the Tang Dynasty also gave a concrete explanation of this kind of balloon in his Balloon Fu, in which he wrote: "Qi is a ball, which is made of quality, so that it can leap forward and be leisurely, while boasting and taking reality. "Visible to prance. What needs special mention here is that the invention of inflatable ball first appeared in Britain in the west, but the time was 1 1 century, which was three or four hundred years later than the invention of inflatable ball in China in the Tang Dynasty. As far as the invention of balloons is concerned, China is also the earliest in the world.

In the Song Dynasty, the manufacturing technology of bows was improved compared with that of the Tang Dynasty. According to the records in Cuju Manual and Cuju Atlas, the spherical shell developed from eight-pointed leather to twelve-fragrant leather. The raw material is "cooked nitrate yellow skin, the real material is lightly cut". The process is "close seam, no exposed line angle". The weight of the ball should be "14 Liang". Football specifications should be "broken". It can be seen that although the bow of the Song Dynasty was still baked with fire and water, the leather of the bow was made closer to a circle because it reached 12. The ancient weighing instruments were 16 and 1 kg, and now 14 is about 430 grams, which is basically the same as the weight of the ball used in football matches. At that time, there were forty different kinds of balls made by manual workshops, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The progress of ball-making technology promotes the development of kicking technology; The development of player industry reflects the increase of social demand.

Secondly, there are more specialized books on cuju. Cuju professional books in Song and Yuan Dynasties were more diversified. There are three existing books: one is Guang Ji Wu Ji written by Chen in the Southern Song Dynasty; The second is "Cuju Map" compiled by Wang Yuncheng, also known as playing musical instruments; The third is the "Cuju Spectrum" by Anonymous. These three books have repeatedly mentioned the football professional organization-the Round Club. According to "Cuju Pu", if a person joins a circle club, he can travel all over the world, because there are circle clubs in many places. The circle will conduct technical assessment on them and accept them after passing the examination. It can also be seen from books such as Cuju Pu that football in the Song Dynasty attached great importance to the familiarity with the ball and the ability to control it. Moreover, people have realized that cuju is not only for entertainment, but also for fitness and moral cultivation. In particular, these professional books introduce the specific forms of Cuju from different aspects.

Thirdly, the diversification of cuju forms has further developed compared with the Han Dynasty. The forms of cuju in the Tang Dynasty have been very rich. At that time, there were two main forms, one was aimless cuju activity and the other was targeted cuju competition. The first one includes several forms: one is "playing ball" which was introduced to Japan from abroad before 664 AD. This is a game of cuju without goals. There are ten kinds of competitions, from "one-person field" to "ten-person field". Others call it "general market households". For example, in a one-man field of "general field", all parts of the body can touch the ball and change patterns. "Ordinary players" independent game, regardless of the number of players. When there is no competition object, it can be carried out alone or as a personal fitness exercise; First, the poet Wang Jian in the eighth and ninth centuries called it "beating in vain" in Gong Ci. There is no goal in the game, but two people can kick each other, or many people can kick each other. This kind of cuju is especially suitable for women, so there is a saying in Wang Jian's Gong Ci that "cold food always beats his wife"; One is "bow", in which playing golf is the way of competition. Wang Wei's "Cold Food in the East of the City" once said that "Cuju flies over birds many times and swings fly out of weeping willows", which describes this kind of bow, showing the height of playing football at that time. Kang Pian, a native of Tang Dynasty, recorded such a thing in his drama: Wang Chao, an official of Jingzhao Mansion, walked through Shengyefang North Street in Chang 'an one day, and saw a ragged girl of about seventeen or eighteen years old under a locust tree by the roadside, who was picking up several sergeants to play football. She couldn't control the ball. She was unhurried, stretched out her legs and caught it firmly. With a hard kick, the ball flew straight to dozens of feet away. It can be seen that the level of this bow is still quite high. At the same time, it also shows that women's cuju activities at this time have already possessed certain skills.

The second is a game with goals.

There is also a left and right army, each with 16 people.

There are two ways to play the game without goal, no landing point and landing point.

Fourth, at this time, Cuju has entered the commercialization mechanism. Because Cuju is very popular with people, many merchants take this opportunity to start promotional articles. According to historical records, there are many "Cuju Teahouses" and "Jiaodian" in Bianjing City. According to "Cuju Atlas", there were many handicraft workshops specializing in bow making at that time. There were 24 kinds of commercial bows with brands, and "Cuju Atlas" recorded 4 1 species. At the same time, in the Song Dynasty, there were also football artists who made a living by playing football. According to records, Su Shu, Zhang Jun and other famous players played football at court banquets in Bianliang City in the Northern Song Dynasty and Lin 'an City in the Southern Song Dynasty. The actors in Street Tiles include Huang Ruyi, Fan, Zhang Ming and Cai Run. This reflects the prosperity and development of Cuju at that time from another side.

Fifth, court cuju is more distinctive. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there were many emperors and ministers who loved cuju. Qian Xuan Su Hanchen's "Cuju Map of Song Taizu" depicts six people playing Cuju together: Taizong, Zhao Pu, Zheng Si, Chu Zhaofu and Shi Shouxin. There is no goal in the picture, so this kind of "six-person field" should be regarded as the kicking method in "Ordinary Field Household". Li Bangyan was also a prime minister who loved Cuju very much in the Northern Song Dynasty. He once claimed to "enjoy all the flowers in the world, play all the balls in the world, and be an official." Therefore, it was called "the prodigal prime minister" by people at that time.

There was also a football team in the court of the Song Dynasty, and the football team often performed in various grand activities held in the court. According to "Dream in Tokyo", the players of the court football team in the Song Dynasty were divided into three classes: the first class was called "ball head", the second class was called "deputy ball head" and the third class was ordinary players. Each team has a "ball head" and two "auxiliary ball heads", and there are generally more than ten players. This can be said to be the earliest court football team in the history of China.

Sixth, Cuju activities have become more popular, and professional non-governmental organizations have emerged. Folk cuju was very popular in Song and Yuan Dynasties. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were artists who performed Cuju in Kaifeng. In the early spring, there was a saying, "Look up, you will laugh when you swing, and you will be crazy when you touch cuju" ("Dream of Old Tokyo in Mengyuan" (Volume 6 Yuan Xiao).

During the Southern Song Dynasty, folk cuju also developed. Lu You, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote in the poem "Spring Festival Evening Pavilion": "There are 100,000 households in Liangzhou, and playing cuju is still luxurious." There is also a sentence in the poem, "Feeling old, Zhang Gaisi has a wide road", saying that "the road into Liangzhou is flat, and the cuju is clear." It can be seen that the popularity of cuju activities at that time was wide. At that time, there was a folk football organization called "Yun Qi Club" or "Round Club". Yun Qi is higher than kicking the ball into the clouds, and the round club is more vivid. According to Cujupu's account, the club has had a certain influence in Beijing, and there is a saying that "if you talk about romance, there is no round club" and "everyone is harmonious, and the three brocade strive for the first place". These words are reflections and praises to the club. People who join the club should abide by the rules of the club, such as not allowing people to turn around and step back; People step on their shoulders, turn their backs back and other dangerous actions. It also stipulates that "no kicking in the wind, no kicking after drinking" and so on. And put forward that we should pay attention to sports hygiene when playing football. This can be said to be the earliest folk football association in the history of our country. The emergence of folk football organizations has made this sport more socialized. It is further popularized among the people from the professional teams of the military and courts.

During the Yuan, Liao and Jin Dynasties, citizens' cuju activities were also very prosperous and appeared in a large number of literary works. There were many descriptions of the activities of idle people in the market at that time in Yuan Dynasty. For example, there are two divertimentos of "female captains" in Guan Hanqing's Sanqu, and the captain is the highest level artist in the garden club. There was a female captain in the Yuan Dynasty, "Cujuting, Mingke Lane, famous in the north and south, deliberately in the world." "Guan Bai appeared, the officialdom kicked the pavilion, and chinese odyssey was offline, and the audience came first." The performance of female Cuju artists plays an important role in leisure and entertainment. "After dinner, I invited my old friends to thank the Qin Lou Museum and relax my worries. Cuju is the most romantic, so the exercise must be gentle. " Deng Yubin's "Balloon Pun of Ladies' Garden Club" even said: "There have never been so many female captains, and the garden club often throws cuju and occupies the field to accompany the heroes" and so on. This shows that cuju was still very common in the Yuan Dynasty after the Song Dynasty. In the early 1990s, archaeologists discovered murals of Cuju activities in Liao tombs in Inner Mongolia. Judging from the layout of the picture, it should be a general "beating for nothing" kicking method, which shows that cuju activities are also popular among the northern minorities in Liao Dynasty.

To sum up, in the history of ancient Cuju, the Cuju movement in the Tang and Song Dynasties was the second peak in the history of ancient Cuju in China.

Fourthly, the evolution and gradual disappearance of Cuju activities.

Cuju in ancient China, developed into the Ming and Qing Dynasties, has begun to be entertaining as a whole, and basically lost its due competitiveness. From the perspective of its development and evolution, it is mainly manifested in the following points:

First, cuju has further become an entertainment project of the court. Cuju in Ming Dynasty is one of the most popular ball games. Most of its sports styles follow the games with and without goals in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but there are some changes, which can be seen from the Cuju Atlas written by Wang Yuncheng. "Tong Mingjian" (Volume 43) records that Wu Zongzhu played football: Zhang Mao, a thief from Wen 'an County, often went in and out of the Forbidden City to serve the emperor since his family became brothers with eunuchs. There is a poem in Wang Yuchang's Chongzhen Palace Ci: "Brocade is covered with purple courts, skirts and dresses are graceful, and the world is harmonious, and a cluster of colorful clouds stops." This palace poem describes the scene where a maid-in-waiting plays cuju with the emperor's favorite concubine.

The activities of court cuju in Ming Dynasty can also be seen in paintings at that time. There is a picture of Zhu Zhanji, the great-grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, watching the courtier cuju in the Palace Museum's "Long Scroll of the Amusement Map of Ming Xuanzong" drawn by Ming Dynasty people.

In the first volume 2 of "Notes on Tong Ming", it is also recorded that Zhang Shixin, the younger brother of Zhang Shicheng, the king of Wu, who said that the army was divided, loved cuju: "Every time I leave school, I don't ask about military affairs, I just need to bring a gambling tool, cuju and give a banquet for women." It shows that playing football and music are connected. Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, he issued an imperial edict prohibiting soldiers from playing football. However, Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial edict can only prohibit soldiers from playing football, but it cannot change the entertainment nature of football.

Second, Cuju is deeply loved by women and children. The folk cuju style has been further developed. The article "Qingming in Yangzhou" in Zhang Dai's "Tao Anmeng" records that Yangzhou is Qingming, and men and women in the city finish their work and enjoy "cockfighting and cuju". There is a beautiful cuju picture in Du Jin's Beauty Picture collected by Shanghai Museum. The picture shows Cuju following the customs of the Tang Dynasty at that time, focusing on the activities of ordinary players.

Compared with the previous generation, the sociality of Cuju in Ming Dynasty gradually decreased, but there are still many records in cultural relics and history books. In addition to the above-mentioned Painting of Ladies by Du Jin in Ming Dynasty, there are scenes of cuju, and there are also pictures of cuju in Three Stories by Wang Qi in Ming Dynasty. In addition, in some cultural relics collection institutions at home and abroad, there are scenes depicting women and children playing cuju at that time. In a picture of a garden lady on a twelve-screen giant wooden screen in Ming Dynasty collected by Nanjing Museum, a group of women in your family are playing cuju and other entertainment activities in the garden, which can be said to be a real picture of women enjoying themselves in the upper class at that time. Archaeologists unearthed a woman's blouse in Ming Dingling, Changping County, Beijing in 1956 ~ 1958, and embroidered patterns of Bai Zi operas, including cuju, on the chest and sleeves of the blouse. In the Cuju pattern, there are three teenagers playing Cuju. One of them is kicking the ball with his feet, and the partners on both sides are staring at the kicked ball intently. The picture is lively and interesting. These cultural relics vividly explain a truth to us: Cuju is still widely welcomed by women and children, so it has been used as the decoration of daily necessities during this period.

Thirdly, the description of Cuju in literary works reflects the process of further entertainment and gradual decline of Cuju activities from one side. In the novel Jin Ping Mei, which is called the social encyclopedia of Ming Dynasty, there is a passage about Ximen Qing watching Li Guijie, a prostitute, play football in Li Chunyuan, from which we can learn the popularity of cuju in Ming Dynasty. The novel writes: "Ximen Qing was drinking in a busy place when he saw three round sticks come forward and made a half-kneeling. Ximen Qing know, one is called Bai Bald, one is called Xiao, and the other is called Luo. Because he said,' Wait outside. After drinking, we will look around. Ximen Qing once came out to play in the yard after drinking, and then taught Cassia to play with two round sticks. Between a stub and an obstacle, there is no shortage of applause and flattery, kicking around, and some shortcomings are almost taken away. Instead, he came to Ximen Qing to ask for a reward, saying,' Cassia's wardrobe is getting more and more familiar than before, and she lost her leg and taught me something. In a year or two, this hospital is also one of the best in this line, dozens of times stronger than the daughter of Dongguan in Erxiang. The above description can also show the entertainment of playing football in this period. Football artists in the Song Dynasty can perform at banquets in the palace or on tiles in the city, while Yuan Club in the Ming Dynasty can only entertain guests in brothels.

Cuju activities with entertainment as the theme were still relatively common in the early Qing Dynasty. In the cultural relics of this period, there are children and women depicting Cuju activities from time to time. However, in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, this cuju movement became more entertaining, which actually indicated that the cuju movement, which prevailed in China for thousands of years, began to decline.

Born in Zibo, Shandong Province, Pu Songling, a famous writer in Qing Dynasty, wrote Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, which is one of the only remaining works describing Cuju activities at that time in Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, there were few records about football activities in history books. As an encyclopedia of feudal society such as A Dream of Red Mansions, there is only one mention of cuju in the book, and there is only one sentence, that is, "What a coincidence that a follower plays football under Yonglu." Only in Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, there are many stories about cuju activities, such as Wang He and Xiao Cui, among which Wang has a long description of cuju activities. The book says: Wang Luzhou (now Hefei, Anhui Province), both father and son are good at playing football. A few years ago, my father drowned in Qiantang River. Wang Nan traveled to Dongting Lake and stayed at the lake for the night, missing his father's death, trouble sleeping. Suddenly I saw five people coming out of the lake, spreading a big mat on the water, drinking and having a good time. Take out a crystal ball to kick after drinking. Seeing that the old man who can play football looks like his father, Wang sat on the boat and watched. At this moment, the ball landed right beside him. Wang was provoked and kicked back. Seeing this, the old man exclaimed, "This is my meteor turning over." Who knows that Wang kicked the ball too hard and broke it, and everyone on the lake lost the ball in an instant. It turns out that those four people are fish spirits. His father was saved from drowning by the fish essence and has been a servant. The ball he plays with is made of fish fat.

When Pu Songling wrote that the ball was kicked off, he used the following sentence to describe it: "There is light leakage in the ball, like a rainbow, and it suddenly falls, just like the wisdom of the sky, thrown into the water and boiling." If this sentence is moved to describe the development process of ancient Cuju in China, it will be more appropriate. Cuju in ancient China has gone through thousands of years. During the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, it once shone like a comet. Later, it was put into the water of Qing society, leaving only a little foam and finally extinct.

In a word, the ancient cuju in China gradually went extinct in the middle of Qing Dynasty, but the influence of the cuju movement in the folk for thousands of years was not completely cut off. Manchu people who like skating once combined it with skating form and invented a kind of sports form called "Cuju on the ice". However, this is only the aftertaste of the traditional cuju activity that prevailed in China for more than two thousand years. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, under the restriction of social factors, with the gradual introduction of modern western football, the traditional cuju activity in China was finally replaced.

By analyzing the rise and fall of ancient football in China and finding out the reasons for its demise, there are probably several reasons: from the objective social conditions, Neo-Confucianism rose in the Song Dynasty, and society valued literature over martial arts, but it also despised the entertainment of physical activities. The royal family of the Qing Dynasty brought ethnic minorities into the Central Plains, implemented the policy of weakening the people, and prohibited people from practicing martial arts and physical exercise. The rise of traditional Chinese opera novels and the expansion of social entertainment scope have relatively reduced the interest in playing football for entertainment; As far as the development of Cuju itself is concerned, it has changed from direct confrontation to indirect confrontation, losing the characteristics of martial arts, physique and will, and reducing the social function of football. The transformation from one's own entertainment to others' entertainment, from social festival entertainment to banquet entertainment in hutong makes the sociality of football narrower and narrower. In this way, under the restriction of social objective reasons, extinction is inevitable.

It can be said that in the long history, the wise ancestors of China not only invented football, but also created rich cuju skills and complete rules of the game, which provided a good reference for the development of modern football. It can be said that this is a great contribution of ancient China to human civilization.