The Origin of Archery in Primitive Society (III)

3. The legendary worship of archery heroes

The so-called intelligence and outstanding ability are called heroes, and the courage and strength are called heroes. This should be the general understanding of heroes by modern people. However, in primitive society, due to low productivity, human beings’ ability to resist natural disasters was extremely limited or extremely weak. Therefore, the heroes in people’s minds at that time should be capable people and supermen who can “reach the moon in the sky and catch turtles in the five oceans”. Therefore, the historical legend of “Yi Shooting Nine Suns” appeared in archery activities. "Huainanzi Benjingxun" states: "During the time of Yao, ten suns came out at the same time. They burned crops, killed plants and trees, and the people had nothing to eat. Xianshu, Zaochi, Jiuying, Dafeng, Fengxi and Xiushe were all harmful to the people. Yao sent Jie to kill Zaochi in the wilds of Chouhua, kill Jiuying on the Xiongshui River, capture Dafeng in the Qingqiu Marsh, shoot ten suns in the sky, kill Beishu in the sky, cut off Xiushe in Dongting Lake, and capture Fengxi in Mulberry Forest. All the people were happy and made Yao the emperor."

First, archery was regarded as an omnipotent superpower in primitive society, which should be related to the backwardness of production tools and low productivity at that time.

Second, there should be many excellent archers in primitive society, and their social status should be relatively high and they should be loved by people. Yi should be just one of them. Because in fact, the Dongyi people Pan, Zhang Hui, Yi, etc. reflected in ancient books are all the names of some primitive tribal chiefs who were good at archery at that time.

Third, the initial phenomenon of hero worship appeared. Hero worship is actually modern idol worship, that is, the "fan" phenomenon, which is a basic attribute of human society.

Although hero worship is often an over-interpreted cultural illusion and an overload of value demands, the archery hero worship phenomenon in primitive society is undoubtedly also conducive to promoting the popularization of archery and the improvement of technical skills.