Chapter 7 The beginning of the seventh section of water sports

Human survival is inseparable from water, and the early ancestors generally lived and moved by water.They not only drink water to maintain their lives, but also catch fish and shrimps and other creatures from the water for food. They also look forward to exploring more living resources in the nature across the water.Inspired by fallen leaves and dead wood floating on the water, they invented water vehicles.It is said in ancient books, "The ancients saw fallen leaves because they thought they were boats" (Western Han Dynasty Liu Xiang's "Shiben"), "The ancients saw the wooden float [kuan style] and knew it was a boat" (Western Han Dynasty Liu An "Huainanzi" ), it is the portrayal of the invention of the boat.

The earliest water sports tools are rafts and canoes, which are still used in some places today, which shows their strong vitality.Rafts can be divided into wooden rafts and bamboo rafts, and the manufacturing process is the simplest, as long as the logs or bamboos are tied together side by side.For canoes, thick tree trunks are selected, generally with a diameter of more than one meter and a length of more than five meters, and some are even 10 or 20 meters long. Partially carbonized, and then chopped with stone axes and stone knives.Later ships were developed from canoes.

There are many legends about the inventor of the canoe in ancient times.It is said that it was invented by Gonggu and Huodi, two ministers of the Yellow Emperor, and it is said that it was invented by a skillful craftsman named Chui during the Yao period. [Yan Yan] Wood is a boat. The benefits of boats and boats cannot be achieved with money" ("Yi Xici 下").These legends show that the canoe was not invented by one person, at one time, or in one place. All the people who are active near the waters have the opportunity to invent the canoe.