The gentleman Confucius referred to was not in a struggle with other
gentlemen to win the contest; at most this was secondary. Two areas
important to the gentleman were demonstrated in his performance in the
archery contest: ritual capability, and internal cultivation. Ritual puissance
was critical, of course, but the physical display a gentleman made during
the contest was indicative of his internal mental state. That state, and the
centrality of archery within the lives of Warring States period elites, con-
nected archery metaphorically to the pursuit of virtue. Thus we see that
Zhu Xi’s later interpellations regarding Confucius on archery were in fact
connected to his reading of the later Confucian scholar Mencius ( 372 ?–
289 ?bce). Two passages in Mencius use archery as an analogy for benev-
olence and self-cultivation:
Benevolence is like archery: an archer makes sure his stance is correct before letting
fly the arrow, and if he fails to hit the mark, he does not hold it against his victor. He
simply seeks the cause within himself.^13
Here Mencius assumes that the archery being practiced is in a contest, not
in battle or a hunt. Success in archery is entirely within the archer and does
not depend upon outside events or people. Archery for the Confucian
scholar became a measure of personal development. It is a skill that one
practiced, and whose success or failure was the result of the archer’s own
discipline in repeatedly reproducing the correct form, just like correct
behavior. It is also something that has no connection to his competitor,
also just like correct behavior. The archery contest thus became a compe-
tition with oneself.
Martial arts has always been a highly individual and personal practice,
as I noted Stanley Henning observing in the introduction, and which
Confucians like Mencius also clearly recognized. Wisdom, for Mencius,
was something that could be developed, just like martial arts:
To begin in an orderly fashion is the concern of the wise while to end in an orderly
fashion is the concern of a sage. Wisdom is like skill, shall I say, while sageness is
like strength. It is like shooting from beyond a hundred paces. It is due to your
strength that the arrow reaches the target, but it is not due to your strength that it
hits the mark.^14
The skill of archery, like any skill, martial or otherwise, can be developed if
one puts effort into it. Mencius has offhandedly separated strength and
skill, following Confucius’own comments separating the skill and correct
ritual practice of archery from the strength to penetrate the target. The
emphasis on skill and deportment over skill, deportment, and strength,
Archery and Archery Contests 41