Chapter 5 The fourth quarter tired pills and swords

Leiwan and Nongjian are acrobatic arts that emerged in the south during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. They were influenced or inspired by hitting the soil and throwing pots, and combined with early Chinese martial arts. Tired pills, playing tricks on pills again.According to the records in "Zhuangzi·Dasheng Pian", once when Confucius was passing through the state of Chu, he saw a hunchbacked man accurately catching "Zhigao" (cicada) in the forest. Confucius was very surprised and asked, "What a coincidence! Is there something wrong with the way?" The hunchback replied that it was the result of long-term training that he was able to achieve such dexterity.When he started practicing, he used five or six months to get two balls in his hands, and he rarely made mistakes when he got three balls in his hands. Nine times, when he was tired of five balls in his hands, it was like picking up objects in his hand, and he never sent empty shots.

In "Zhuangzi · Xu Wugui Chapter", it is recorded that Xiong Yiliao, a master of pill making in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods: Scholars of later generations have quite different interpretations of the content of this text.Cheng Yuanying Shuyun: "Duke Chubai wants to kill Yin Zixi because of the chaos. Simazi Qi said: "Xiong Yiliao is also a warrior. If he wins, he will have five hundred enemies." Play, don't talk to the envoy,...Baigong can't be a bureaucrat, and rebellion can't be done, so it is difficult to understand the two families." In "Maru Jing·Xu", it is said that in the past, King Zhuang of Chu lived in Beijing, the capital of the Song Dynasty. Xiong Yiliao, a warrior from the south, was good at making pills. He flew nine pills in his hand in front of the army. The Song army stopped fighting and watched, but the army was defeated.Although these two explanations are not the same, they reflect that Xiong Yiliao's technique of making pills is very wonderful from different angles.

Make a sword, and make a jumping sword.From the point of view of technique, it is generally the same as making pills, except that the utensils used are different, and it is more difficult and dangerous. "Zhuangzi Shuofu Pian" records Lanzi, an ancient acrobat who played swords.Relying on his superb skills, he went to see Song Yuan.He can dance double swords on a galloping horse, and "handle seven swords, leaping one after another, and five swords are always in the air", which is called sword dancing or sword dancing.Seeing this, Song and Yuan were "surprised, and immediately gave gold and silk".Later, there was an acrobat named Lanzi who was good at Yan opera. Hearing the adventure of the sword player, he became greedy and went to see Song Yuan to perform his skills. It took many months before he was released.

On the portrait bricks unearthed from the Han Dynasty Tomb in Yinan, Shandong, there is a picture of an old man playing with a ball and sword with bare arms and bare feet.He threw three daggers into the air with his right hand, and held a dagger in his left hand. At the same time, he bent his knees and kicked back, and five small balls flew up from behind.This may be a more difficult and thrilling move of Wanjian Tongju, which is more sophisticated and difficult to practice than Xiong Yiliao's Wanwan and Lanziwu sword.On the portrait bricks unearthed from the Han tomb in Fenghuang Mountain, Chengdu, Sichuan, there are pictures of artists dancing swords and making pills.This acrobatic art had a new development in the Tang and Song Dynasties, continued until the Qing Dynasty, and was even inherited and developed in modern rhythmic gymnastics.