SHOOTING WITH INACTION

SHOOTING WITH INACTION

"During the 2008 Olympics, when I saw Zhang Juanjuan's stance for her last shot, I knew she would win the gold metal."“2008年奧運會，張娟娟的最后一箭，我看到第一個動作，就已經知道奪金沒有問題。”

Xu Kaicai, who is in his 70s, still make great efforts to the inheritance and promotion of traditional archery.70余歲的徐開才仍積極致力于傳統射箭的傳承與推廣。

nihao：what's the connection between the archery in Olympics and traditional Chinese archery?

Xu:As for results, either victory or defeat is normal, while in the sense of athletics, the thinking is, how's the future of Chinese archery. Modern archery belongs to athletics and takes the best of the results. However, traditional archery is also called “shooting with inaction”, which pays more attention to the process and emphasizes the accuracy. If these two sides are connected, art and morality can be united to wield a kind of qualitative change. The real master necessarily values the art and morality simultaneously. Reaching a certain level, breaking-through for archers is not just about skills, but thoughts. I've spent most of my life being an athlete and then a coach, and I think I just understood half of it. Later, when I listened to Peng Lin from Tsinghua University and Ma Mingda from Ji'nan University talking about traditional Chinese classics, I started to realize that the other half I lacked was in the morality of traditional Chinese archery.

nihao: what's exactly the morality of traditional Chinese archery?

Xu:the training ideas and guiding ideology of traditional Chinese archery are actually Chinese philosophy and methodology. Traditional archery cherishes “shooting in order to show courtesy”.“Courtesy” here is not only morality, but also a kind of “way of thinking”. The archery morality of the ancients strives eventually for the interaction of inner and outside systems. It's about how to adjust oneself to conform to the “minds of god”(natural law). Everything has its own objective law for development. When you want to shoot straight, there must be a set of standard actions in general to comply with natural law. The archer needs to keep training, keep correcting and keep contemplating to find his own law, and step by step, from inside out to regulate his body to obey the law. This will be achieved during the long-term training, in the process of “seeking the cause in oneself” that is emphasized by traditional archery and finally be accumulated unconsciously. The moment of realizing the status “with God's will” is like a sudden“Zen meditation” or stepping into a situation that“nature and man are one” as well as man and bow are united.

"In 1964, my wife Li Shulan first broke the world record of women's archery upon her last shot of 'trance'." Li is the archer who broke world records most times in the world (17 times in total).“1964年，我的妻子李淑蘭憑最后‘入定’一箭，為中國打破女子射箭世界紀錄。”李淑蘭是迄今打破世界紀錄最多的射箭運動員（17次）。照片由受訪者提供

射之道：無為之射

nihao:奧運射箭與中國傳統射箭之間，有什么關聯？

徐：奧運會若從結果來說勝敗都是常事，但從競技的角度，會讓人思考中國射箭的出路在哪兒。現代射箭是一種競技，它重視結果，傳統射箭叫“無為之射”，它重視的是過程，更著重怎么修煉自己去射準。如果把兩者結合，就把術和道結合了，會產生質變。真正的高手必然是術道并重的。到達一定水平后，再想突破，絕對不是技術，而是思想。我做了大半輩子運動員和教練，老覺得只懂了一半。后來聽清華大學彭林、暨南大學馬明達老師講中國傳統經典，我反應過來了，缺的那一半就在傳統射箭里，在“道”里面。中國很多經典古籍里，例如《論語》《孟子》《易經》都有對射箭的論述，需要去悟、去深入學習。

nihao：傳統射箭的“道”是什么？

徐：傳統射箭的訓練理念、指導思想，其實講的是中國的哲學觀、方法論。古人講“射以觀德”，其實這個“德”不光指品德，還指“思維”。古人的射箭之道，實際上講的是內外系統的互動。人怎么調整自己，去做到順應“天意”（自然規律）。每個事物都有其發展的客觀規律。射準，客觀存在著一套合乎“天意”的標準動作。人需要不斷練習，不斷修正，不斷去悟，找到自己的“天意”，并一步步由內到外，控制自己身體達到“天意”的要求。這需要在長期的規范訓練下，在“反求諸己”的過程中，無意識累積到。在做到“順應天意”的那一刻，就像突然“禪定”了，進入一種天人合一、人弓合一的境界。現在，越來越多的人開始喜歡射箭，不為射中，就是享受那種匯聚心神、修煉身心的過程。