The Development and Improvement of Archery (III)

Oracle bone script and archery

Oracle bone script refers to the characters carved on tortoise shells or animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty of China for divination and record. After the demise of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty, oracle bone script continued to be used for a period of time. Oracle bone script is the earliest mature Chinese writing, which combines characters and paintings. It is the earliest known systematic writing form in China. Modern Chinese characters evolved from oracle bone script. The existing oracle bone script reveals a lot of information about archery activities, which reflects the important position of archery activities in people's lives at that time from another aspect.

Archery is a skill and an official position

These three oracle bone scripts are all pictographic characters, like the appearance of drawing a bow and shooting an arrow, to represent archery activities. "Shuowen Jiezi" explains that the bow and crossbow are fired from the body and hit far away, so it is composed of body and arrow and shooting. It is worth noting that archery here is not only a physical activity, but also the name of an official position, indicating that there was an official position dedicated to managing archery activities at that time. For example, in the Zhouli, 52 official positions were set up to manage archery, and there were specific divisions of labor.

Those who are good at archery are social talents

Archery is a very important skill, and those who are good at archery are respected by society. Therefore, with the bow as the basic element, many characters related to the bow are formed, and they represent people's names. They all record the names of archers at that time. For example, the first character is the name of a person with a bow on top and a mouth on the bottom; the second character is the name of a person with a bow outside and a mouth inside; the third character is the name of a person with a horse on the left and a mouth on the right. For example, the oracle bone inscriptions also use the bow as an element to form pictographic characters, which refer to the names of people at that time, and should be some influential archers in society at that time. The pictographic characters of oracle bone inscriptions record people who were good at archery at that time, such as characters. "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Yin, open the bow." The character "Yin" is like drawing a bow, and it also records a person's name.

Interpretation of oracle bone inscriptions with bow as an element

The bow is one of the earliest long-range killing weapons in the world. Generally, the arrow is shot through the elastic force of the bow arm. Bows and arrows are used for hunting and have also been used in wars. It is a pictographic bow character in oracle bone script. "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Bow, with the near to the far, pictographic." The original bow refers to the name of a country or a person's name. From this, it can be inferred that it is likely to be a tribe or craftsman who was famous for making bows or using bows and arrows at that time. The characters composed of bows, such as, from bow and from jin, also refer to place names or names. It is also possible to record a famous craftsman who makes bows or places where bows are used. There are also pictographic characters related to bows, and the bow shape plus two strokes is the origin of the word "勿". Its original meaning should be to use a horse to open the pass, which means the bowstring is plucked. There are also oracle bone scripts, which have the same meaning. This is the origin of the word "发", and it also looks like the shape of a bowstring trembling. Therefore, "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "发, from bow, sound." Another example is the oracle bone script, pictographic, from two bows, which is the origin of the word "疆", which means to seize or guard the territory. There are also oracle bone inscriptions, which are pictographic. A pictographic symbol is added to the bowstring to indicate the location of the bowstring, so it is the word "string". "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "String, bowstring, from the bow, like the shape of a silk peg."

Interpretation of oracle bone inscriptions with arrows as elements

Arrows, also known as arrows, are fired with bows or crossbows. They are structurally divided into arrowheads, arrow shafts, and arrow feathers. Arrows originated in the Neolithic Age and are one of the oldest weapons in history. The earliest arrows were very simple to make. A tree stick or bamboo pole was cut into an arrow shaft of a certain length, and then one end was sharpened to make an arrow. The real origin of arrows should be the Stone Age of primitive society. People ground stone flakes, bones or shells into sharp shapes and installed them at one end of the arrow shaft. This made arrows with stone arrowheads, bone clusters or shell arrowheads, which was a big step forward compared to arrows made with wooden sticks and bamboo poles alone. Since ancient arrow shafts are difficult to preserve to this day, only arrowheads are often left in unearthed objects.

In the Neolithic Age, stone arrowheads, bone arrowheads, and clam arrowheads were in various shapes, such as rods, leaves, and triangles. Some of them had arrowhead stems and reverse thorns. There are many pictographic characters in oracle bone script that are composed of arrows as the core element. For example. The first one is a pictographic character composed of an arrow below and a stop above. The second one is a pictographic character composed of two arrows below and a stop above. They all represent names of people. From this, it can be inferred that this should refer to two martial arts talents who are good at archery. Another example is oracle bone script, which are all pictographic characters composed of arrows as the core element, and they also refer to names of people. It can be considered that at that time, those who were good at archery must have been greatly respected by the society, otherwise it would be impossible to leave so many names with arrows.

The so-called "When a son is born, a man sets an arc on the left side of the door" (Sun Xidan: "Liji Jijie", Zhonghua Book Company, 1989, p. 761) is the best explanation. In addition, the oracle bone script is composed of eyes and arrows, which is the character "眣", indicating the name of a country. Therefore, we believe that this should refer to the name of a tribe that is good at archery. Other pictographic characters that use arrows as an element to represent place names include, which may also refer to the name of a tribe that is good at using arrows. The oracle bone script "shan" is also a pictographic character composed of arrows as the core element, and it also refers to a place name, but the place name here may refer to a famous place for making bows and arrows. In addition to representing names of people and places, there are also characters that use arrows as an element to represent archery tools. For example, the oracle bone script "医" is , pictographic, with arrows and mouth. According to "Shuowen Jiezi", "医, a device for storing bows and crossbows." Therefore, 医 is a device for shielding arrows, just like a shield for protecting soldiers, and the oracle bone script "医" refers to a place name, from which it can be inferred that it was a place that specialized in manufacturing bow and arrow devices. There are also pictographic characters related to archery tools, which seem to be a basket for holding arrows, so it should be a tool for holding arrows. For example, the pictographic characters, which seem to hide arrows in a bag, also indicate a tool for hiding arrows, and also refer to place names, which should refer specifically to the place where the quivers were made. The oracle bone script, which is pictographic, seems to have a flat arrowhead on the top of the arrow, which later evolved into the meaning of giving. The characters composed of arrows as elements also have the meaning of hurting. For example, the oracle bone script, which looks like an arrow plus a "son", means that it hits the human body and has the meaning of hurting people, so they became the origin of the word "hurt". There are also pictographic characters in the oracle bone script that use two arrows side by side to indicate the meaning of hurt, such as. Another example is the origin of the word "疾", the oracle bone script has a character structure of "大" and "矢", which looks like a person being hit by an arrow, so it means trauma, so it is "疾".

This shows that in the early days of human beings, people's initial understanding of diseases may not refer to natural diseases, but to man-made injuries, and they may have gained an understanding of diseases from the initial arrow wounds. If so, then it reflects the importance and extensiveness of archery activities in people's lives at that time from another aspect. In addition, there are other oracle bone characters related to arrows, such as "arrow", which is a pictograph of an inverted arrow on top and a horizontal line on the bottom. The horizontal line symbolizes the land, and thus has the meaning of surrendering from afar. The characters in oracle bone inscriptions with arrows as the core element reflect the influence of archery on social life at that time and the popularity of archery.