Ancient Chinese Ball Game Cuju Is Earliest Form Of Modern Football

[Pavel Karavaev]

There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games, played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world.The history of football stretches far back in time.  According to FIFA the competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence

 

Cuju is an ancient Chinese ball game, Cantonese “chuk-ko”. It is a competitive game that involves kicking a ball through an opening into a net. The first mention of cuju in a historical text is in the Warring States era Zhan Guo Ce, in the section describing the state of Qi. It is also described in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (under Su Qin’s biography), written during the Han Dynasty. A competitive form of cuju was used as fitness training for military cavaliers, while other forms were played for entertainment in wealthy cities like Linzi.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), the popularity of cuju spread from the army to the royal courts and upper classes. It is said that the Han emperor Wu Di enjoyed the sport. At the same time, cuju games were standardized and rules were established. Cuju matches were often held inside the imperial palace.

 

 Handbooks praise the positive effects of the game. Kickball "promotes happiness" and is "an example to rowdy youths".

"It strengthens the body, supports the digestion and helps combat obesity." It also "releases tension, raises the spirits, and helps you forget the daily grind" - a feeling anyone will know who has played football at whatever level, even in the park or on the school field.

Women were also enthusiastic fans. A 9th Century poem describes the kickball performance of Li Guangyan, a chancellor and general in his day job.

"Quick as a monkey on the ballfield, with a falcon's grace / Three thousand ladies tilted their heads to watch him / Trampling shiny earrings as they crowded for a view / Standards bobbed and waved, banners flashed and shone."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuju

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35409594

http://www.ancientpages.com/2016/01/22/ancient-chinese-ball-game-cuju-is-earliest-form-of-football/

[Apech]

Han City 3 - Warring States United 0

 

 

[Pavel Karavaev]

The team that got the most goals won. Successful kicks were rewarded with drum rolls, pennants and wine - maybe something the Premier League should consider?

 

It all sounds a bit static compared with watching Neymar and Messi, and as you'd expect in a Confucian society, kickball clubs were keen on the key virtues of benevolence and courtesy. A great player was one who embodied "the spirit of the game".

The "Ten Essentials of Kickball" included respect for other players, courtesy and team spirit. There was to be no un-gentlemanly behaviour, no dangerous play, and no hogging the ball. In other words, as we used to say, "Play up and play the game."

[GreytoWhite]

It might be the earliest historical form but I highly doubt it is in any way connected to modern football. On the other hand - Calcio Storico Fiorentino is.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNyZnRxavRM

 

[Pavel Karavaev]

A lot of similar to modern football. There were also similarities to clubs, leagues and fans. It is interesting that this game lost popularity in China. it is difficult to imagine what this can happen to modern football, in terms of its huge popularity.

 

6 hours ago, GreytoWhite said:

On the other hand - Calcio Storico Fiorentino is.

 

Thank you, it is interesting. But they do not use legs to manage the ball (only to manage with opponents ), so it seems different to footbal.

 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

First, in the following discussion, even though I am from the U.S., I will use "football" in its international sense, for what is usually called in the U.S., "soccer", rather than its American sense.

 

Plato, writing between 400 and 350 BCE, uses as an analogy a ball made of "twelve pieces of leather", that must have been very much like the modern round football:

 

Quote

to begin with, the earth when seen from above is said to look like those balls that are covered with twelve pieces of leather; it is divided into patches of various colors  (Plato, Phaedo, 110b)

 

For him to use it as an explanation like this, means that it must have been a commonplace item, and not some rare object seldom seen, so that such a type of ball would have been common in ancient Greece 150 or so years before the founding of the Han.  The Greeks apparently had some games that were more Rugby like, such as episkyros, but may have used a round ball such as Plato describes, as indicated in this picture:

 

 

However even early Rugby balls were more round shaped than the modern ones.

 

Interestingly, the modern round football is like a regular dodecahedron, whose otherwise flat surfaces have been expanded to form a sphere, as can be seen in the second picture in the OP.  In Plato's cosmology the Heaven's are formee from a dodecahedron, but this is not described in much detail.

 

What all this means to the "origin of football" is hard to say, because not enough is known about the early Greek ball games, to say if a specifically football like game was played, but the chances that a more rugby like game was played seem good.

 

ZYD