Bow

The Bow and Arrow are among the oldest weapons ever created by humanity that have lasted until the present day.

Archery, or shèjiàn (射箭) in China, has a long and rich history.  It was a weapon of the highly skilled soldier in warfare. It was also used as a hunting tool. Skill with the bow, was regarded with an almost spiritual kind of respect. If you were an archer, this usually meant that you were an elite warrior.

a depiction of mounted archery practice

In the Spring and Autumn period, archery gained popularity as a competitive sport. Even Confucius supported the practice of archery. It is regarded as one of the Six Scholarly Pursuits:

Rites (禮)  Music (樂)  Archery (射)  Charioteering (禦) Reading and Writing(書) and Arithmetic (數)

As with most Eastern styles of archery, Chinese archers used the thumb draw, rather than the typical Western, or "Mediterranean draw". The thumb draw involved the use of thumb rings (韘/弽). The function of the thumb ring was twofold; to protect the thumb, and to hold the bowstring.

The earliest known thumb rings have been found in China, dating back to the Shang dynasty. These early thumb rings were made of jade, and are found in tombs as burial artifacts. It is likely that these jade artifacts were mostly decorative, and not meant for actual archery practice. The most common materials for making functional thumb rings are deer antler, bone, wood, and sometimes metal. Thumb rings gradually changed their shape over the course of Chinese history, and served both as an excellent tool, and a symbol of rank and status.

Lady Fu Hao's thumb ring, Shang dynasty, circa 1280 B.C.

In the Tang dynasty, the practice of archery continued to be useful on the battlefield, and was a key factor in determining worthy officers for promotion in the first official military examinations.

Chinese reflex bows, strung and unstrung.

During the Ming dynasty, and throughout most of Chinese history, archers used bows that were reflex, recurve type. The Northern Chinese made bows that were much like Mongol and Korean composite bows, or vice versa. These bows were made from a mix of horn, bamboo, and mulberry wood.

However, during the Qing dynasty, archery had a "falling out" from mainstream Chinese culture. This was because it had lost its usefulness on the battlefield due to the widespread use of firearms, and as a recreational sport it became closely associated with the Manchurian people, who were seen as oppressive foreign conquerors. This in turn made archery unpopular among the native Han Chinese people.

In more modern times, things only seemed to get worse, with the communist takeover in 1949 and the subsequent "Cultural Revolution" in the 1960's, when any of the old Chinese culture was stamped out.

It is not until very recently that archery in China has seen any revival in practice and culture.