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年奥运会，张娟娟的最后一箭，我看到第一个动作，就已经知道夺金没有问题。”

Xu Kaicai, who is in his 70s, still make great efforts to the inheritance and promotion of traditional archery.70余岁的徐开才仍积极致力于传统射箭的传承与推广。

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，我的妻子李淑兰凭最后‘入定’一箭，为中国打破女子射箭世界纪录。”李淑兰是迄今打破世界纪录最多的射箭运动员（17次）。照片由受访者提供

射之道：无为之射

nihao:奥运射箭与中国传统射箭之间，有什么关联？

徐：奥运会若从结果来说胜败都是常事，但从竞技的角度，会让人思考中国射箭的出路在哪儿。现代射箭是一种竞技，它重视结果，传统射箭叫“无为之射”，它重视的是过程，更着重怎么修炼自己去射准。如果把两者结合，就把术和道结合了，会产生质变。真正的高手必然是术道并重的。到达一定水平后，再想突破，绝对不是技术，而是思想。我做了大半辈子运动员和教练，老觉得只懂了一半。后来听清华大学彭林、暨南大学马明达老师讲中国传统经典，我反应过来了，缺的那一半就在传统射箭里，在“道”里面。中国很多经典古籍里，例如《论语》《孟子》《易经》都有对射箭的论述，需要去悟、去深入学习。

nihao：传统射箭的“道”是什么？

徐：传统射箭的训练理念、指导思想，其实讲的是中国的哲学观、方法论。古人讲“射以观德”，其实这个“德”不光指品德，还指“思维”。古人的射箭之道，实际上讲的是内外系统的互动。人怎么调整自己，去做到顺应“天意”（自然规律）。每个事物都有其发展的客观规律。射准，客观存在着一套合乎“天意”的标准动作。人需要不断练习，不断修正，不断去悟，找到自己的“天意”，并一步步由内到外，控制自己身体达到“天意”的要求。这需要在长期的规范训练下，在“反求诸己”的过程中，无意识累积到。在做到“顺应天意”的那一刻，就像突然“禅定”了，进入一种天人合一、人弓合一的境界。现在，越来越多的人开始喜欢射箭，不为射中，就是享受那种汇聚心神、修炼身心的过程。