The purpose of was to examine the evidence of sport in the so
called "Golden Age" of ancient China, and to place that evidence in a
cultural context. The particular theoretical approach was a
structuralist and functionalist one, its basic assumption being that
sport as a social institution is to be understood in terms of its
relationship to other components in the system, and thus sport can be
seen as reinforcing or supporting other dimensions of the system. A
theoretical model proposed by Salter and Jones was utilized. When
evidence of sports and the cultural components of the Salter and Jones
model were subject to analysis, activities related to cultural
identification were in the majority, followed by those classified as
being of social interaction, then political, ceremonial, economic and
domestic.As sports are held to be a microcosm of society then the conclusion
would have to be that the culture was one that stressed the ideas,
standards, knowledge and techniques of that culture, and emphasised the
reciprocal relationship of human beings. Political and ceremonial type
sports also loomed large in the culture, demonstrating perhaps the
subservience required of a majority of the population and the firm
control by those in power to control that population.Four hypotheses were advanced and upheld. First, that sporting
activities in the Golden Age of ancient China were influenced by both
enculturation and acculturation. Second, that the preponderance of sport
was related to the upper classes. Third, that the majority of the
activities were of the informal variety, some of them being purely
recreational. Fourth, the majority of the activities were for males,
which corresponds with the male dominant, traditional culture of China,
though the point is valid that their involvement exceeds that of any
prior period in Chinese history. Fifth, that certain activities were
restricted through climate and geography.
Sport in the Golden Age did not stand separate from life, rather it
influenced, and was in turn influenced by, the various cultural
components. Sport was clearly a social phenomenon, which extended into
politics, even into foreign policy, the military and religion, and
formed close relationships with these various components. It would
appear that sport was a reasonable mirror, or microcosm, of culture in
the Golden Age of ancient China.
