Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Li Shimin wanted more than just competing with the archers of later generations.

He was more interested in the music of later generations.

Whether it was the dream of returning to Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, or the long dragon of lights, or the fireworks and fireworks in the sky, he wished he could see them with his own eyes.

And the grand ceremony of later generations that he saw now also made him extremely fascinated.

Fighting in the name of China and competing with athletes from hundreds of countries, and finally winning and becoming famous throughout the world, just thinking about it makes people feel excited.

As for the saying that archery is the pursuit of consistency in later generations, he, the general of Tiance who is good at shooting, can also vaguely perceive some of the ways.

Since the precious bow was given to Xue Rengui, every time he practiced shooting, he felt that the arrows could not follow his heart as usual. The difference may be what the younger generation said about using equipment to improve consistency.

Thinking of this, he actually envied the treatment of this sharpshooter in later generations. As he said, there were dozens or even hundreds of people who were experts in this art to help him improve.

And what about him, the emperor? After the precious bow was gone, he had to personally make a new one. He also had to worry about being discovered by Wei Zheng and being reported to a memorial for his loss of ambition...

This was not the first time that he had envied the future generations. Li Shimin suppressed it with ease and said to himself:

"Perhaps we can hold another meeting of the World Conference to correct the mistakes of silk wrapping trees and help future generations to show off their power in competitions. From this..."

Empress Changsun and her husband Erlang had a rapport. After hearing this, she thought for a while and said:

"If you want to do great things, you must stabilize the Western Regions and calm the East China Sea."

She knew what her husband was talking about. In the fifth year of Daye, Emperor Yang went on a western tour from Guanzhong to Hexi. Along the way, there were chariots and flags fluttering, and horses neighing, showing off the power of the emperor. He summoned envoys from 27 countries to Zhangye for a grand banquet, played the music of the nine countries, and performed the dance of fish and dragons. Finally, he held a grand ceremony at the Zen place of Yanzhi Mountain. Later, this grand ceremony was called the World Conference.

In the sixth year of Hou Daye, Emperor Yang summoned all nations to pay tribute to the Sui Dynasty again, and used silk to wrap trees to show off his wealth, and used wine and food to show off his splendor, in order to show the power of the Sui Dynasty. However, Emperor Yang would rather give the Hu Khan tens of millions of brocade than give the poor half a piece of hemp cloth, and was eventually laughed at by the barbarians.

Combining these two old events before the Sui Dynasty, it is not difficult to guess what the husband is thinking now.

Although she has more confidence in Li Jia Erlang, Empress Changsun can't help but feel uneasy. Li Shimin smiled at this:

"I am not Emperor Yang, and I know that if I want to make the hundred Hu people submissive and follow the Tang etiquette, I need to use military power first, and then I can talk about the matter of using virtue to educate them."

"I am the Son of Heaven, and now I also envy the people of the future. Similarly, when I can make the Khan of the barbarians envy the common people of our Tang Dynasty, the power of the Tang Dynasty can be announced to the world from the mouths of the hundred barbarians."

...

In Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Kuangyin also had the intention of rubbing his hands.

Song followed the Tang system, and would receive foreign pilgrims during the New Year, and give banquets, appreciation of plays and competitions. Zhao Kuangyin had always felt that this old ritual could not well demonstrate the emperor's majesty.

After all, the surrounding countries today were not like the Xiongnu and Baiyue in the former Han Dynasty, where even eating was a problem. A palace banquet would only surprise the foreign envoys, and would not help to show power.

But now, Zhao Kuangyin felt that the effect of such a grand ceremony in the future might not be something he could imagine.

It is appropriate to wait until the Northern Han Dynasty was destroyed and returned to the Song Dynasty, and then the Khitan was expelled from Hebei to unify the north and the south, and then try to hold this event to celebrate the achievement of unification.

[In "Xuanzong's Pleasure Picture", polo is more worth mentioning.

This thing is a traditional competitive entertainment project in ancient times with a long history. In 2008, polo was even included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

So what is polo? There is a detailed explanation in "Zizhi Tongjian", so we won't post the original text. In short, it is a bit like today's football, except that you need to hit the ball with a stick instead of kicking it.

Like football, polo has simple rules with clear winners and losers. It has certain requirements for the contestants' equestrian skills, reactions, teamwork and other abilities, and is quite competitive.

Generally speaking, this competitive sport originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, declined in the Ming Dynasty, and completely disappeared in the Qing Dynasty.

The decline of polo can be seen from the paintings left today, not to mention other things. In the Tang Dynasty, every time polo was painted, it must be two teams riding horses to compete. In "Xuanzong Xingle Tu", polo has become a sport with goals set up, and then the contestants hit the ball one by one, losing the distinction between offense and defense, and thus fundamentally losing the confrontation.

Just as most modern sports have strong military attributes at the beginning of their birth, polo is the same.

Yan Kuan, a Tang Dynasty poet, pointed out in his work "Wen Tang Yuqiu Fu" that "the game of playing polo is a skill of using troops".

As we mentioned earlier when we talked about the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty's expansion never stopped during the hundred years of the Taixuan Prosperity. Until the eve of the Anshi Rebellion, Gao Xianzhi was still fighting fiercely with the Central Asian coalition forces in Talas.

In ancient times, such expansion naturally required a very sufficient supply of horses. The "New Book of Tang" briefly described this, "From Zhenguan to Linde, in forty years, there were 760,000 horses... It is said that since the Qin and Han Dynasties, Tang horses have been the most prosperous, and the emperor is also keen on military affairs."

It can be said that during this period, the Tang Dynasty was filled with a very strong martial arts atmosphere from top to bottom. At that time, the competitive sport of polo could both boost morale and train horse skills. It is no wonder that Yan Kuan called this sport "the skill of using troops".

However, in the feudal era, whether a sport could become completely popular still depended on the most important factor: the emperor.

Fortunately, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty, who always liked to argue with each other, always attached great importance to equestrianism, so they played polo very diligently. For example, Tang Zhongzong Li Xian left a record of "good at hitting the ball, so it became popular among the people".

It was precisely because of the royal family's love that polo even had considerable political influence in the Tang Dynasty.

For example, the "Fengshi Jianwenji" written by the Tang people recorded that when the Tibetans married Princess Jincheng, they won the polo game against the Tang people. So when Tang Xuanzong Li Longji personally went to the field, "Xuanzong drove east and west, the wind turned back and the lightning was exciting, and he was unstoppable", and he saved face for the Tang Dynasty with his superb skills.

From the fact that polo even involved in the political diplomacy of the Tang Dynasty, it can be seen that polo was popular at that time, and it can also be seen that the martial arts atmosphere was strong throughout the Tang Dynasty.

It is no wonder that even Li He, who was sick in bed, could shout out such a heroic poem as "Why don't men take Wu Gou and take over fifty states of Guanshan"

Of course, the "good story" of "betting on the governor of Sanchuan" by Emperor Xizong of Tang Dynasty, which was inspired by polo, was left behind when he faced the aggressive Huang Chao. That is a story for another time.

In the Ming Dynasty, the greatest influence on the competitive sport of polo was the guiding ideology of the strategy of the Ming Dynasty mentioned by the founding monarch Zhu Yuanzhang in "Huang Ming Zu Xun":

"The land is not enough to provide, and the people are not enough to command." 】