Olympic Athletics in Chinese History: Equestrianism
By admin on 2014-12-15

When John Woo's  "Red cliff" hits the new top of 300 million RMB's box office in the first month, more attention arround the world were focused on Romance of the Three Kingdoms,  one of the magnum opus of classic Chinese novel.

In the novel, there are not only epic stories like war of red cliff, but also interesting segments widely read by Chinese generations. And you even could find Olympic elements among them.

One of the stories said, since the years in the end of Eastern Han Dynasty, China was in chaos with seigneurs uprised frequently. Liu Biao was one of them who built his own force at mid-lower reaches of Yangtz River. To strengthen his army, he recruited lots of heros under his command, including his cousin Liu Bei, the unborn lord of Shu kingdom.

However, insurgence occured in Liu Biao's barrack. One general named Zhang Wu revolted to his former master and took a part away from Liu Biao's troop.

It made Liu Biao much angry . He sent Liu Bei as the leader, and built up a group of army to exterminate the insurgence.  When Liu Bei met the betrayer Zhang Wu in battlefield, he noticed that the mount Zhang Wu rided was extemely outstanding and favored it very much with admiration.  It happened to be heared by the famous hero Zhao Yun. In the next minutes, general Zhao Yun slayed the betrayer and took away the horse as a present to Liu Bei.

On the celebration of triumph, Liu Bei's new mount admired by all the guests except one man, Kuai Yue. He said to Liu,"Have you notice the small pieces of mark beside the eyes and the white dapple on the forehead of the hourse ? " "Indeed, it is a good mount with the famous name, Dilu."

"But it will bring the master doom in future. " "Zhang Wu's death is an evidence for proving the fact." Obviously, Liu Bei was absorbed in gladness of celebration and neglacted Kuai Yue's words.

In the next year, Liu Bei was persecuted and chased by his enemy untill he arrived at the side of a river named Tan Xi. Liu had no choice but urged the mount crazily to jump over the river.  In facing the popple stream, the horse Dilu hesitated arround no matter how the rider whipped it.

As the enemies got closer, Liu Bei regreted not take the advise of Kuai Yue and cried in sorrow. But unexpected thing happened, Dilu jumped out all of a suddenly towards the other side of the river and landed on the riverside accurately. The legendary jump not only helpped Liu escaping from danger successful but also completed the first equestrianism performance perfectly in Chinese history.

In modern equestrian steeplechase, horses are tested of speed and accuracy of movements by requiring them to span over 12-15 obstacles like pools, bars and simulated stone walls in certain order. Race result with the horse jumping over all the the obstacles and arriving the end of sign posts, can be effective. Each obstacle is not higher than 1.6 meters. If the horse touch the obstacles, refused to leap or fall down in processing, or could not get across all the obstacles in certain order, the score will be deducted.  And the champion will be the one who complete the performance with highest score and least time.