practiced as a regular pastime. In order tofill the position, however, Chen
would have had to transfer from his civil position and be given a military
posting. The emperor offered him a high position if he would accept the
transfer. Chen had to check with his mother before accepting. His mother
responded by beating him with a staff and berating him for considering
degrading the family, whose position had been established through literary
merit, just for a bigger salary. From a later Confucian perspective, for a
civil official to take a military position was simply unacceptable.
Having not received a response from Chen, Zhenzong sent a short
message to the intermediary in the matter that read:“Did the archer’s
arrow go through the leather?”This was a direct reference, keeping on the
theme of archery, to the passage in Confucius:“In archery, one does not
emphasize piercing the hide of the target, because people’s strengths differ.
Such is the ancient Way.”^10 The message was misdirected, causing consid-
erable confusion. The opposition of Chen’s mother, however, prevented
him from taking the position.
On another occasion, when Chen had returned from a tour of duty, his
mother asked him if he had accomplished anything.^11 He replied that the
area he had served in was strategically important, and he therefore had had
many meetings with army officers. He always demonstrated his skill as an
archer, for which they all praised him. This spurred his mother to berate
and beat him again. Her argument was that he had been trained to do
important government work and chose instead to pride himself on a mere
physical skill.
Finally, the most important story demonstrating the Song Confucian
perspective on martial arts also involves Chen Yaozi’s skill as an archer.
This apocryphal anecdote was recorded by the statesman and Confucian
moralist Ouyang Xiu ( 1007 – 72 ).^12 While Chen was practicing archery in
his garden one day, an oil peddler stopped to watch him. When Chen asked
whether he knew something about archery, the peddler discounted Chen’s
skill as merely the product of practice. Chen was incensed that the peddler
scorned his accuracy. The peddler thereupon put a coin (Chinese coins had
a square hole in the middle) over the opening of a gourd and ladled oil into
it without touching the sides. This was easy, the peddler related, because he
practiced this task all the time. Physical skills, in this perspective, might
seem impressive, but in reality are quite banal.
Ouyang Xiu used Chen Yaozi as a perfect foil to denigrate archery and
all things physical in comparison to the intellectual and moral attainments
of the literati. Skill with archery was no different from oil pouring. This
particular story is well known to all Taiwanese school children, and many
Archery 125