A Study Of The Festival Folk Sport In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

The Ming and Qing dynasties are the interim of China's antiquity and neoteric societies. In this period, the folk sport activities completely had the traditional sport culture during the festivals, which provided valuable resources for the development of modern sports. The research on folk sport culture in the Ming and Qing dynasties can help us to master the traditional culture, especially the traditional folk sport culture. It can offset the blank of research on folk sport in this period and provide some references for the development of modern sport at the same time, which is the aim of the paper.On the basis of the folk sport activities during the festivals of the Han nationality in the Ming and Qing dynasties, I take literature research as the basic method, mainly studying "walk-taking to drive away all diseases", "rope-skipping" around January 15 of lunar calendar,"; "walk in the country", "swings", "kite-flying" around April 5 of the lunar calendar; "dragon boat matches", "mountain-climbing" around September 9 of lunar calendar. It also studies the origin and development of those activities, and the aim and form, the sex and age, and the time and distribution. It concludes as follows:The original folk activities were always related with the fete and no-no and luck-praying. As one part of folk activities, folk sport also has its mystic side. With the development of social productive force and the increase of people's requirement in cultural life, the sportful character of folk physical culture in sport seasons begins to appear gradually and to be enhanced, and finally it has substituted the function of contemplativeness. The change began in the Tang dynasty and had completed in the Ming and Qing dynasties.In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the society was comparatively stable. The economy developed steadily, and the nations union put new energy into the society and its culture. More and more sport activities migrated into folklore as the dominant status of neo-Confucian was established. All of this promoted the folk sport to develop further on the basis of heritage, and the scales became larger and the category became more prolific than before. The characteristics appear as following:1. Mystery and entertainment coexist, but the entertainment is the main characteristic of folk sport in sport seasons.2. Larger scale and many categories are the important characteristic of folk sport in this period.3. Different forms and outstanding regional character are another important characteristic.4. The sport of long standing and rich cultural connotation are the important characteristic of the folk sport in the Ming and Qing dynasties.The Ming and Qing dynasties are next to modern society, so the research on the folk sport in this period can help us to obtain holistic cognition on traditional folk sport and enlightenment to promote social harmony, vivify economy and improve the folk body-building level. At the same time, it has realistic significance to the protection and exploitation of the sport cultural heritage.