Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 775: Polo Governance
What Li Shimin wanted was far more than just competing with the archers of later generations.

Instead, he was more interested in the appreciation of music in later generations.

Whether it is the dream of returning to Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, the long dragon of dancing lights, or the fireworks filling the sky, I wish I could see it with my own eyes.

The grand ceremony of future generations that he was seeing now also fascinated him.

To fight in the name of China and compete against athletes from hundreds of countries, and ultimately win and become famous throughout the world, just thinking about it makes one's blood boil.

As for the later saying that comparing archery skills is about pursuing consistency, he, General Tian Ce who was already good at shooting, could vaguely sense some of the tricks.

After the precious bow was given to Xue Rengui, every time he practiced archery, he felt that the arrows could not fly as he wished as usual. The difference might be what the later generations call "using equipment to improve consistency".

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

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

This was not the first time that Li Shimin had felt envious of future generations. He suppressed his envy easily and said to himself:
"Perhaps we can start a new World Congress, correct the mistakes of silk wrapped around trees, and help future generations to show off their power in competitions, and thus..."

Empress Changsun and her own Erlang were of the same mind. After hearing this, she thought for a moment and said:

"If you want to accomplish great things, you must ensure that the Western Regions are stable and the East Sea is peaceful."

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

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

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

Although she was quite confident in Li Jia Erlang, Empress Zhangsun was still somewhat worried. Li Shimin smiled and said:

"I am not Emperor Yang. I know that if I want to make the barbarians obey the Tang etiquette, I must first use military force before I can talk about civilizing them with virtue."

"I am the Son of Heaven, and now I also envy the people of future generations. Similarly, if I can make the Khans of the barbarians envy the common people of our Tang, then the power of the Tang will naturally be proclaimed to the world through the mouths of the barbarians."

……

In the Guangzheng Hall, Zhao Kuangyin was also ready to take action.

The Song Dynasty followed the Tang system and would receive foreign pilgrims during the New Year, giving banquets, watching plays and performing arts competitions. However, Zhao Kuangyin had always felt that this old ritual was not enough to demonstrate the emperor's majesty.

After all, the hundreds of countries around today are not like the Xiongnu and Baiyue in the early Han Dynasty, where even eating is a problem. A banquet given by the court will only surprise the envoys from foreign countries and will not help to show off one's power.

But at the moment, Zhao Kuangyin vaguely 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 is destroyed and the Song is annexed, and then the Khitan is driven out of Hebei to unify the north and the south, and then try to cite this event to celebrate the achievement of unification. [In "Xuanzong's Pleasures", the most noteworthy thing is polo.

This is a traditional competitive entertainment project in ancient times with a long history. In 2008, polo was 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 here. 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 on the contestants' horsemanship, reaction, teamwork and other abilities, and is highly 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 painting of polo would show two teams competing on horseback. However, in "Emperor Xuanzong's Pleasures", polo has become a sport with goals set up and contestants scoring goals one by one. It has lost the distinction between offense and defense and has fundamentally lost its confrontational nature.

Just as most modern sports had strong military attributes when they were first created, polo is no exception.

Yan Kuan, a Tang Dynasty poet, pointed out in his work "Wen Tang Yu Qiu Fu" that "the game of football is actually 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. Even on 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 40 years, there were 760,000 horses... It is said that since the Qin and Han dynasties, the Tang Dynasty had the most horses, and the emperor was also keen on military affairs."

It can be said that during this period, the Tang Dynasty was permeated with a strong martial atmosphere from top to bottom. At that time, the competitive sport of polo could both boost fighting spirit and train horsemanship. It is no wonder that Yan Kuan called this sport "the art of using troops."

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

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

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

For example, the "Fengshi Jianwenji" written by a Tang Dynasty person recorded that when the Tibetans married Princess Jincheng, they won polo matches against the Tang people repeatedly. So when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, personally took to the field, "Xuanzong drove east and west, with the wind and lightning, unstoppable", and used his superb polo skills to win back a game for the Tang Dynasty and save face.

The fact that polo was even involved in the political diplomacy of the Tang Dynasty shows how popular polo was at that time. It also shows how strong the martial spirit was throughout the Tang Dynasty.

It is no wonder that even Li He, who was lying in bed sick, could compose such a heroic poem as "Why don't men take Wu Gou and take over the fifty states across the mountains and rivers?"

Of course, the "legend" of "betting on the governor of Sanchuan by playing polo" which was inspired by polo, was left behind when Emperor Xizong of Tang faced the aggressive Huang Chao. But that is another story.

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

"The land we have is not enough to provide for our needs, and the people we have are not enough to command."

(End of this chapter)