The Chinese (probably) invented Golf

[doumeizhen]

MCLC LIST

Subject: Mongolian golf

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Source: The Times (4/27/06):

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-2153019-23529,00.html

Confucius he say 'take a seven iron'

By Jane Macartney

China is claiming that emperors and concubines were putting balls into

holes in the ground for centuries before the game of golf was first

played in Scotland.

WITH its invention of gunpowder, fireworks and chopsticks, China has a

head start in any competition for inventions that shred the nerves.

Now, however, the Chinese are laying claim to something that may cause

more frustration and anguish that almost anything else on Earth ‹

golf.

More than 400 years before Scottish shepherds began tapping a ball

across the grass at St Andrews, the Mongol emperors of China were

swinging their clubs in the game of "hit ball", the Chinese Golf

Association announced yesterday, in a ceremony at the Great Hall of

the People where China's leaders receive visiting heads of state and the parliament gathers once a year.

Experts from the Palace Museum, China's most prestigious, and from

Peking University were on hand to reveal their findings after more

than two years of research. To back up their case, they showed off a

replica set of clubs, re-created from ancient paintings that show the

emperor at play.

White-gloved girls unrolled copies of four paintings depicting the

emperor, courtiers and his ladies putting balls across the ground into

circles on the ground that are designated by tiny coloured flags. It

all looks a lot like golf.

Zhang Xiaoning, secretary general of the golf association, swelled

with pride. "Most sports in China are imported from the West . . . I

believe this discovery of a game very similar to golf is a great

contribution by China to world sports."

The officials restrained themselves from an outright claim to the

invention of golf, saying that more research would be necessary. But

they clearly harboured few doubts as to where the game originated.

Cui Lequan, a professor of the cultural history working committee of

China General Administration of Sport, compared "hit ball" with modern

golf and quoted from a rule book written in 1282 to back his case. "If

you read Ball's Rules and compare that with the rules set by St

Andrews in 1754, there is little difference."

But how did golf reach Europe from China? Professor Cui has an answer.

When Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes conquered much of the known world,

he left some of his warriors behind in Europe. "I am not saying for

sure that they introduced golf to Europe, but it's possible that they

combined hit ball with a local ball game and this developed into

golf."

China would have it that emperors, and particularly their concubines,

were golf addicts hundreds of years before Scotland's first documented

reference in the 15th century.

The replica golf ball

The sticks copied from the ancient paintings do bear

a remarkable resemblance to modern golf clubs and were carved from

expensive rosewood. Song Yatong, from the Central Arts Institute, said:

"This took us two years of work and we kept to the ancient style while

using our own creativity."

This latest claim of invention follows an illustrious list. China's

Four Great Inventions are the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing.

But Chinese ingenuity does not stop there. In January China found

cliff paintings that suggest residents of the far western Xinjiang

region were skiing in the Stone Age. Last year the discovery of a

4,000-year-old bowl of noodles was taken to show that in the rush to invent pasta, China got there first.

And then there is football, which China says was first played in the

8th to the 5th centuries BC in eastern Shandong province but

disappeared in later centuries because of a lack of interest. The fork

is another invention to which China lays claim, although, like golf,

it's a find that did not quite catch on.

Mr Zhang raised a laugh by admitting: "It seems our ancestors were

playing golf hundreds of years ago, but the skill of Chinese players

today is pretty low so this discovery encourages us to catch up."

China's landscape is now pockmarked with golf courses, particularly

around Main cities, and the sport has become a national pastime that is

especially popular with officials and entrepreneurs who see an

opportunity for an outing while cultivating connections. So perhaps

it's not so unlike golf in the West after all.

[liuzhou]

As is generally acknowledged, every invention known to man, and many known only to woman, comes from China. From the beginning of the universe, (mistakenly translated as the “Big Bang” due to some half-deaf idiot mishearing 冰棒(Bing Bang) , which in ancient Chinese indicated the two terrestrial poles and so, by association, our planet Earth, centre of the universe) everything worth having was invented by the Chinese. Everything not worth having was invented by Japan.

In particular, every sport known to man (and the Mrs) originated in China. Take cricket, for example. Clearly, any game which takes several days to complete and after which few people know who won must have its origin in the usual Chinese card game which people play for days on train trips. An alternative theory is that it comes from the average Chinese meeting which can last for days and at the end no one can remember what happened. Because nothing happened.

Clearly, only the Chinese could have come up with the idea of thumping a ball with a stick. Golf was, in fact, actually invented when some resident of the Middle Kingdom took it upon himself to clear his basement of rats by battering them with a stick. The rats, being sensible chaps, ran into holes.

“Stone me!” said aforementioned chappie, “That would make a good game!”

He then wrote a book explaining the rules (after inventing paper, books and writing using pictures of badly drawn television aerials).

An explorer (did you know the Chinese invented exploring?) took a copy of this book and went sailing down the Yellow River, got caught up in a storm and accidentally ended up off the east coast of Scotland, as you do.)

Having landed safely (due to the excellent stability of that Chinese invention, the boat) he wandered up to the ancient St Andrew’s University (founded 1413) and presented them with a copy of his opus, which had survived the hazards of the journey and the sea by being securely wrapped up in a heavy duty plastic bag sealed with duct tape, both of which which the Chinese had fortunately invented the previous week.

Fortunately, the book was written in the local St. Andrews dialect (which was a variation on Putonghua and invented just weeks before the Chinese invented English) so everyone understood it immediately. Within days, the entire town was playing 高尔夫, which was anglicized as “golf”.

Having introduced the world (or a tiny village on the east coast of Scotland (or Sugarland as it was then known) to the delights of screwing up a good walk in the countryside, the intrepid traveler went into the catering business and invented the haggis and the Scottish style Chinese restaurant (specializing in newly invented dishes completely unrecognizable to the average China man (or woman).)

[roddy]

Liuzhou, you are Gavin Menzies and I claim my 5Y!

[liuzhou]

Liuzhou, you are Gavin Menzies and I claim my 5Y!

The cheque is in the post.

[mrtoga]

Nice one Liuzhou

Going back to the original article, if they actually have documentary evidence of the rules of "Hit Ball" (which was claimed) as well as some paintings of the emperor playing (golf) with his concubines, that would seem like pretty solid proof.

I would be suprised if the rules are very similar though, apart from the basic concept of hitting a ball into a hole......

[skylee]

The heritage museum in HK is having an exhibition on ancient chinese pastimes. And there is a painting of Ming Dynasty on people taking part in a game of 捶丸. Take a look.

圖中展示的是《秋宴圖》局部，《秋宴圖》描繪了明代官員崔銑外放，朋友為其餞行，眾人在庭院之中弈棋、捶丸、飲酒作樂等場面。當中所謂的捶丸，便是圖中所見的活動，它是我國古代球戲之一，以杖(棒)擊球進洞定勝負，與現代高爾夫球相似。捶丸活動在宋、元期間十分流行。明代的捶丸，雖遠不如前代那樣普及，但上層貴族中仍流行。

This painting of meticulous brushwork on paper presents the scene at a farewell banquet for an official, Cui Xian, before he leaves to take up new duties. The participants are engaged in amusements such as chess games, chuiwan and drinking. Chuiwan is the ancient Chinese pastime equivalent to the modern-day golf, in which the player tries to hit a ball into a hole, much like on today's golf courses. Chuiwan was very popular during the Song and Yuan dynasties and although it was not as widely played during the Ming dynasty as before, it remained popular with the upper classes.