CONFUCIUS AND THE ART OF ARCHERY
The teachings credited to Confucius, (551 - 479 BCE; Kong Qiū, Master Kong, the Greatest Sage), laid the foundation of Chinese and East Asian culture. Confucius was born in the vassal state of Lu in eastern China. He lived in an age when the power of the feudal lords exceeded monarchs; they waged wars, disrupted society, and disturbed the peace of their communities.
This socio-political unrest must have played a big part in Confucius’s life, and has been an important influence on his work, especially on the development of his philosophical ideas about stability and tradition – specifically, his ‘harmonious’ ethics, and the revival of ancient ritual practices, and of familial and ancestral traditions. Unsurprisingly, one of the ‘Six Arts’ practised under the Zhou dynasty (1122-256 BCE) was archery, and I shall explore below the link between the discipline and the tenets of Confucian philosophy.
