as it was adopted across China. At this early stage we hear of places famed
for their swords, but no famous swordsmen. Most famous martial artists
in the Warring States period were archers.
Archery and Archery Contests
Archery remained a central preoccupation of Chinese elites in the Warring
States period. Not only was it a practical skill for hunting and war but it
also carried ceremonial and spiritual power. As a consequence of this,
many thinkers used archery analogies to explain their larger points about
morality. The audience for these thinkers was other members of the elite
who were intimately familiar with archery. Archery became thefirst mar-
tial art directly connected to mental cultivation, that is, to a distinct mental
focus transcending ordinary concerns. The archer as martial artist pro-
jected the practice of a means of violence into a number of realms that we
would recognize today. Archery was a practical skill of war, it was a
performance skill, it demonstrated proper attitude and deportment, and
at its highest level it developed an improved mental state. It would even
figure in many early legends, written down during the Warring States
period, and seemingly possessed magical qualities.^8
The practical skill of archery used to kill men or animals is widely
attested in texts from the Warring States period. Aristocrats shot from
chariots just as they had during the entire Zhou dynasty, using thumb rings
for a Mongolian release. Most tombfinds that include quivers have no
more than two or three dozen arrows accompanying the chariot. If this is
even somewhat representative of the amount offirepower the average
chariot archer possessed in thefield, then he could hardly sustain combat
for very long. Given the limited stamina of the chariot horses, this was
probably just as well. This does make it clear, however, that the aristo-
cratic chariot archers were notfiring enormous coordinated volleys of
arrows. Most of the aristocratic archery would have been directed at
other aristocrats–that is to say, carefully aimed shots more in the form
of a personal duel.
Chariots diminished in effectiveness across the Warring States period
even before true cavalry appeared. Although the trend is clear, it is difficult
to parse the various factors and designate the primary reason for the shift.
From the perspective of archery, chariot archery would have had little
effect against disciplined, massed, armored infantry with shields. Infantry
archers, when available, would have had morefirepower than a chariot
archer or even a group of chariot archers. Added to this was a new archery
38 The Warring States Period