| “The Memory of Dongjing” was written by Yuanlao Meng, for memorizing the prosperity of Bianliang, the capital city of Northern Song Dynasty. It covers the people’s livelihood, food and entertainment, imperial banquet, seasonal custom, etc. From the entertainment depicted in the book, we can have a general idea of the entertainment sports development in Song Dynasty. The ancient Chinese sports can be divided into three parts: military sports, entertainment sports and health preservation sports. Before Song Dynasty, sports are mainly military sports. During the Song Dynasty, the entertainment sports developed quickly and surpassed the military sports. Some of the games were traditional ones in Han and Tang Dynasties, and others were games and performance developed in Song Dynasty. These entertainment sports not only enriched the cultural life at the time, but exerted great influence on the development of sports in later times. The development of the entertainment sports in Song Dynasty was based on the governing strategies of the ruling class, the entertainment interest of the nobles and the cultural requirements of the urban people. |
