Ming Dynasty Chinese Horseback Archery

Mounted Archery was an important discipline in Chinese archery, and scenes of nomadic Jurchen, Khitan, Yuezhi, Xiongnu, Mongolian, Manchu and Han nobles hunting/fighting on horseback are shown prominently in artwork.
This is filmed in Inner Mongolia, reenacting mounted archery with Ming Hanfu.
Uploaded with permission from Li Zhang of Alibow

China has a long history of cavalry archery. Prior to the Warring States period (475–221 BCE ), shooting from chariot was the primary form of battlefield archery. Eventually, horseback cavalry archery replaced chariot archery during the Warring States period. The earliest recorded use of mounted archery by Han Chinese occurred with the reforms of King Wuling of Zhao in 307 BCE. Despite opposition from his nobles, Zhao Wuling's military reforms included the adoption of archery tactics of the bordering Xiongnu tribes, which meant shooting from horseback and eschewing Han robes in favor of nomadic-style jodhpurs.
The style of drawing that is most commonly associated with Chinese archery is the thumb draw, which was also the predominant draw method for other Asian peoples such as the Mongolians, Tibetans, Koreans, Indians, Turks and Persians; However, during earlier periods of Chinese history (e.g., Zhou dynasty), the 3-finger draw was common at the same time that the thumb draw was popular.

Furthermore, the various styles of Chinese archery offered different advice on other aspects of shooting technique. For example: how to position the feet, what height to anchor the arrow, how to position the bow hand finger, whether to apply tension to the bow hand, whether to let the bow spin in the bow hand after release, as well as whether to extend the draw arm after release. In addition, the various Chinese styles used a variety of draw lengths: literature, art and photographs depict Chinese archers placing their draw hand near their front shoulder, near their cheek, near their ear, or past their face.

The dichotomy between ritual/examination archery technique and battlefield archery technique provides a significant example of the contrasts between different Chinese styles. Wang Ju, an author from the Tang dynasty, favored a ritual/examination style that involved a post-release follow-through where the bow spins in the bow hand, and the draw arm extends straight back; by contrast, certain authors such as Zeng Gongliang (Song dynasty), Li Chengfen (who was influenced by Ming dynasty generals Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang) and Gao Ying (Ming dynasty) eschewed aesthetic elements (such as Wang Ju's follow-through) in favor of developing a more practical technique.

In the Zhou dynasty (1146–256 BCE), nobles regularly held archery rituals which symbolized and reinforced order within the aristocratic hierarchy. The typical arrangement involved pairs of archers shooting at a target in a pavilion, accompanied by ceremonial music and wine. In these rituals, shooting with proper form and conduct was seen as important in order to hit the target. Ritual archery served as a counterpoint to the typical portrayal of archers, who were often skillful but brash. Confucius himself was an archery teacher, and his own view on archery and archery rituals was that "A refined person has no use for competitiveness. Yet if he cannot avoid it, then let him compete through archery!"

Although civil archery rituals fell out of favor after the Zhou dynasty, examinations inspired by the Zhou-era rituals became a regular part of the military syllabus in later dynasties such as the Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing. These exams provided merit-based means of selecting military officials. In addition to archery on foot, the examinations also featured mounted archery, as well as strength testing with specially-designed strength testing bows.

[imugi-]

Mounted archery is always so mesmerizing to look at.

[ahlyae]

not me fangirling at the prettiness of those robes.

i like the ming look, its so elegant and pretty.

[Leverguns]

That was an amazing riding and shooting, thank you so much for sharing

[jackm]

Man that is so cool! thank you for sharing!

[ARTCHILD]

I need to live this life…thanks for sharing and all the best!

[raphlvlogs]

the background and the way its filmed made it feels even more like a video game

[dirkauditore]

Is it just me or it feels like cavalry archers were actually the scariest thing you could possibly encounter in an ancient battlefield. As a melee infantry soldier you're basicly hopeless as they can shoot volley after volley at you and you can't do anything. And due to their mobility even foot archers would have a hard time hitting them. Hell not even melee cavalry could catch up to them fast enough before eating plenty of arrow fire.

[notbobrosss]

Beautiful place wherever that video was made.

[societyofrobots]

Where can I buy that quiver in the first few seconds of the video?

[siberiamannnnn]

notice how fast you can shoot from the quiver already. why would you bother holding it like lars anderson for horse archery?

[dtoxxyz]

Hope they find all of their arrows they lost in grass

[alexhage]

That's so amazing, only missing one thing.. Falcon 0.o Asia is amazing, from far east to west.

[cretudavid]

Would love to se someone shoot an 90+ lbs bow from a horse!

[gunsroses]

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, these Ming warriors invaded Mongolia five times to the north and hunted and killed the Mongolian Khan in the desert. Several Mongolian tribes, including the strongest Oirats, were massacred.

[AlanLamb]

I can't tell how good of archers they are but they are very good riders.

[BradMellalieu]

I have to ask what happened to all of the hitchhike the world videos? Will they ever come back. I loved that series because I was living in Ottawa at the time you hitchhiked across Canada to Vancouver before heading south. All the best!

[AggelosKyriou]

Why don't movies include this? It looks so much cooler than these mass duel styles of battle.

[maasbekooy]

They got skills, they got style, they got horsies that are kinda smoll but ride smooth as fuck.
Damn I'm jealous

[sparkrain]

Could you make a video about the historic quivers the mongols used?
Awesome vid btw!