An Analysis And Inquiry Into The Causes For The Rise And Decline Of Traditional Han Sports During Qing Dynasty

China is a country with long history,not only intellectual heritages were developed along its course of history,but also were the sports cultures,which boast a significant position in Chinese culture.China has been a multi-ethnic country for millennia,and the sports of the ethnic majority Han people have been flourishing for thousands of years.Yet,as Manchu replaced Han as the ruling class during Qing Dynasty,a great deal of Han sports declined,as well as some which have well survived till today.The researches in this article are based on the analyses on the causes for the rise and decline of Han sports during Qing Dynasty.In this process,several research methods are used,including documents citation,interviews with specialists,logical reasoning etc..Several reasons for the rise and decline of Han sports during Qing Dynasty are deduced,among which,the major causes for the inheritance and development of Han sports include:1.The Manchurian ruling class adopted Confucian thoughts.Manchu is a nomadic nationality from north China.Though they had their own writing system,they lacked long-lasting political thoughts.Besides,after unifying the whole country,in order to get support from Han people,Manchurian ruling class learnt Confucian thoughts from Han people and made the most of it to stabilize their reign.Therefore,some sports related to Confucian thoughts were preferred by Manchurian ruling class and were thus inherited and developed,e.g.,pot-tossing,chess games etc.2.Anti-Manchurian organizations and peasant uprisings helped promote martial arts among the people.After the establishment of Qing Dynasty,some descendants of Ming Dynasty took up arms against it and founded a large number of anti-Manchurian organizations.Since military force was there main form of resistance,martial arts became their primary measure in practices and fights.Besides,the Taiping Heavenly Kindom Movement and Yihetuan Movement,which emerged in late Qing Dynasty,were both focused on fighting the Manchurian court and foreign invaders with martial arts.All of the above factors had caused unprecedented development of martial arts.3.The golden ages in Qing Dynasty also paved the way for the development of traditional fold sports.The establishment Qing Dynasty unified China and normalized social life.Productivity level was continuously improved and national economy steadily grew.The middle period of the dynasty saw the emergence of "Kangxi-Qianlong Golden Age",in this age,people began to demand better health condition as their life bettered off.Traditional physical and breath exercises were combined with martial arts,thus Yixing Boxing,Bagua Boxing and Taichi Boxing were created.Besides,traditional Han folk games were also greatly developed in this period,e.g.,swinging,kites-flying and rope-skipping,etc.Meanwhile,developed printing and paper industry also facilitated the publication of books on traditional sports,therefore,traditional sports were well-preserved through this new media.The causes for the decline of traditional sports in Qing Dynasties mainly include:1.The policy of "giving the highest priority to Manchu" dissolved the dominance of Han people.Under the Manchurian reign,the superior power of the country was held by Manchurian aristocrats through Council of Central Ministers and Eight Banners System,thus,the places of Han officials were marginalized.This change hindered further development in Han aristocrats’ favorite sports such as Cuju,Chuiwan and Chinese polo.2.Manchurian government,s suppressive policies against Han people also limited the development of many traditional Han sports.The basic principle of ethnic policies of Qing Dynasty is the oppression against Han people.This principle was in accordance with Manchurian aristocrats,yet,it undermined the interests of Han people.Manchurian ruling class compelled Han people to adopt some of Manchurian traditions,such as"hair-shaving and braid-reserving".This type of oppressions in culture and thoughts separated and ravaged the Han traditions to certain degree as well as restricted the inheritance and development of traditional Han sports.Besides,in order to uphold its reign,the court of Qing Dynasty also enacted a large number of restrictions,such as those on learning martial arts and keeping horses,such action made a direct impact on the development of martial arts and Chinese polo.3.The preference for traditional Manchurian sports caused a shift in the popular forms of sports.Manchu people had a rich repertoire of sports.The Qing emperors were particularly concerned with traditional Manchurian culture.As for the area of sports,the emperors kept promoting Manchurian sports and set military practices as official traditions,such as Mongolian Autumn Hunting,ice play and Manchurian wrestling.They also established professional sports institutions and encoded sports laws and regulations,in order to promote Manchurian sports.Such activities in promoting Manchurian sports undoubtedly marginalized Han sports furthermore.4.The preference of liberal arts over physical practices,which prevailed in Qing Dynasty,undermined the position of traditional Han sports.Qing Dynasty saw the second climax of Neo-Confucianism,the principles of this trend of philosophical thinking weakened people’s physical being.People were focused on reading Confucian classics and despised sports.This was another cause for the decline of Han sports.5.The feebleness of the country’s power and the introduction of modern sports from the West in late Qing Dynasty caused traditional Han sports to wither away.China became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country after Opium War,The input of Opium and war reparations caused more harm to the already weak government and set the whole society in turmoil.Therefore,traditional Han sports lost its environment for growth.Besides,modern sports began to be introduced into the country after the beginning of Westernization Movement and during the reforms in late Qing Dynasty.The changes in military exercises and the launch of school P.E.lessons were both based on modern sports.Modern sports,due to its high level of competitiveness and aesthetic values,became accepted and preferred by Chinese people over traditional sports.This new change dealt a final fatal blow on traditional Han sports.