Archery or Shooting an Arrow

射箭

Archery is an extremely old sport. According to the archeological materials, the stone arrow was found in the Zhiyu site of Shanxi province about 20, 000 years ago.

射箭是一种极为古老的运动。据考古发掘资料，在距今两万多年前的山西峙峪人遗址中，已发现有石制的箭头。

The birth of bows and arrows

弓箭的出现

The early appearance of the shooting skills has close relationship to the living activities of ancient people, for they lived mainly on hunting and collecting before the appearance of agriculture.

远古人类的生存方式导致了射箭活动的产生。因为在农业生产出现以前，远古人类主要靠狩猎和采集为生。

At the very beginning, people used sticks and stones to fight against animals, which required to fight with animals closely.

开始时，人们主要靠棍棒和石头对付野兽，这就必须与野兽进行近距离的搏斗，

It was not only very dangerous to people but also aroused the vigilance of them. If so, it was difficult for people to approach the animals.

这样，不仅对人的生命有很大的威胁，而且也会引起野兽警觉。

People discovered in their long life experiences that bamboo and some sticks with good flexibility had great recoil,and great power would be made by using the recoil to shoot. The bow and arrow were created in time.

在长期的生活中人们发现，竹子及一些柔韧性较好的树枝会产生很大的反弹力，用这种反弹力来发射物体，可产生很强的杀伤力。于是，便出现了弓箭。

Houyi Shot the Suns

后羿射日

To be good at archery means to have more bag, so the ancient people respelled the sharpshooter much.

擅长射箭意味着可以获取更多的猎物，因此，古人对擅长射箭的神箭手十分推崇。

The legend about “Houyi shot the suns” was coined in this situation.It is said that there appeared ten suns in the sky in the reign of Emperor Yao.The suns baked the earth, and the people struggled to survive.

神话传说《后羿射日》就是在这种崇拜射箭技术的状况下创造出来的。据传，在帝尧时代，天上突然出现了10个太阳，把大地烤成了一片焦土，地上的人们都在死亡线上挣扎。

When the lord of Heaven found this and sent the miraculous sharpshooter, Houyi, to descend to the world. Houyi shot down nine suns at one time.

天帝俊发现此事后，便派神箭手后羿下凡。后羿一箭射下了9个太阳。

From then on, there had been good weather on the earth, and all the living things began to grow up strong and sturdy.

从此，大地上又开始风调雨顺，万物也重新茁壮成长了。

Shooting proprieties in the Western Zhou

西周时期的射礼

During the period of the Western Zhou, proprieties were stressed a lot as means to control the people and standards to communicate in daily life. Proprieties required people to be just in the heart and have proper manners when they behaved.

西周时期，礼作为一种统治手段和人们日常交往的规范而受到人们的高度重视。礼的特点是要求内心中正，表现于外时则要求规矩合度。

It was found that archery was identical with proprieties.

人们发现，射箭时的状况与礼的这一特点十分吻合。