RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991
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64

28

19

3:0

David Nivison, The Life and Thought of Chang Hsueh-ch'eng, (Stanford, 1866), 251

Ibid

See Si ku wei shou shu mu u yao, 5 juan, 1807 Ruan Yuan's bibliographical annotations on important books omitted from the Si Ku chuan shu. He had found these books in Zhejiang. The original memorials that accompanied these books and his annotations are in the Qing Archival Collection at the National Palace Museum (Taipei)

31 Yi zheng Liu Meng zhan nian pu (Chronological account of the life of Liu Wen chi), 114-115.

32 Arthur Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, (Washington DC, 1943), 91

33

34 Yang Wensheng X, Si shi cao ji (1801), Preface

Letter to Liu Taigong (1790-1855), dated 1802 Liu's daughter was married to Ruan Yuan's adopted son, Ruan Changsheng,

34 Letter to Wang Niansun.

36 Ruan Yuan blamed the errors on the fact that he had not had a chance to do the final proof reading before the book was printed.

37 Ruan Yuan's letters written in old age, Ruan Wen da gong zhi shi hou jia shu, consisting of several dozen memos written to his family after 1838 when he retired from government service, serve to prove that Ruan Heng, always referred to as "my younger brother" but actually a distant cousin who had been adopted as heir to a half brother of Ruan Yuan's father, had taken care of Ruan Yuan's business and financial interests with the aid of a couple of clerks. These letters are in the Rare Book Collection of Beijing Library. I am grateful to Professor Wang Junyi and his staff of the Qing History Institute at the People's University who made it possible for me to have access to the collection in March 1991

38

I am not happy with the English translation "tent friend" or "guest"

Ding xian ting bi tan, 1:11a.

40

41 See, for instance, Ding xiang ting bi tan 3.52b-53a

Hai ning zhou zhi gao 4:3 shan, 11b-12b.

42 Xie Guozheng, Jin dai shu yuan xue xiao zhi du bian quan kao (An inquiry into recent changes in the academies and schools of China), (Hong Kong, 1972), 2-18.

43 Zhang Ying in Wen lan xue bao 2:1

Lin Bo tong, Xue hai tang zhi
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278
251

contemporary biographies of officials who passed them, we can see that they had a strong Confucian content and included practical displays of military skills, which would certainly have included archery on foot and on horseback.

The Confucian Base of the Tang examination system

The chapters in the 'Tong Dian' on the Tang Examination system say explicitly that "The method of offering up officers (shi) in the Great Tang basically followed the Sui system." (Tong Dian: Cap. 15. Xuanju 5.) Nevertheless, you cannot read more than a practical, military objective into the words of Li Shimin when he re-established military training in 622. (Jiu Tang Shu: Taizong Benji. Selby: 9A.)

The establishment of the Military Examination System (wu ke ju) by Wu Zetian in 702 coincided with the publication of an archery manual (attributed to Wang Ju) (Selby: 9B) intended to prepare those taking the official examinations. It draws directly on the Confucian ‘Archery Classic', and can be said to be a practical elaboration of technique of the 'Classic'. There can be no doubt those undertaking the military examinations in the Sui and Tang period understood that they were continuing the overall structure and objectives expressed in the Confucian classic: submission, expression of the inner self and competition within limits approved by Confucian orthodoxy.

Thus decorum, elegance of movement and deference to one's peers were to the fore. The Tang text stresses that 'archery' is ritual archery, which needs to be expressed with grace and restraint, in order to ‘hit' the target (that is, accord with ritual). Although Wang Ju's text is based in practical archery method, only the terse comments on horseback archery could be regarded as utilitarian military method. The rest is a refined ritual event.

Certain current versions of Japanese Kyudo ritual archery (raisha), while using equipment radically different from that used in China, follow the movements in the Tang Classic of Wang Ju step-by-step.

Cultural and acquired archery skills

The development of archery in military and hunting practice after
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