Chapter 60: Ancient Football, the Qixi Festival

At the same time, the roads in the south were also under construction.

In the blink of an eye, it was the day before the Qixi Festival. At this moment, Su Liang set aside his tasks to prepare gifts for the ladies in his residence for the festival.

The ancient Qixi Festival, also known as the Begging for Skills Festival, is held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month each year. Young maidens and wives often gather to worship the two stars, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

On this night, in order to beg the clever Weaver Girl for dexterity, people would hang lanterns and build a "Begging for Skills Tower." Young maidens and wives, dressed in new clothes, would use tea, wine, fruit, longans, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds, and cosmetic pollen as offerings to worship the Weaver Girl star while the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were reunited.

Afterward, they would thread needles by the moonlight, using "seven-opening needles" with seven holes at one end; whoever threaded them the fastest was considered clever, and the winner was said to have "obtained skill." The purpose of threading needles to beg for skill was to hope for the Weaver Girl's guidance to become adept at weaving and sewing, and it was also a girl's aspiration for her future marriage.

Just at this moment, Li Shimin arrived.

Su Liang didn't even need to think to know why Li Shimin had come; it was nothing more than to sponge off him.

Sure enough, the next moment Li Shimin looked at Su Liang and laughed heartily: "Haha... my good son-in-law, have you prepared any good things today? Give some to me, too, so I can take some decent gifts back for your Empress."

Su Liang then brought over the cheongsams sewn by the clothing workshop; there were long-sleeved ones, short-sleeved ones, and even sleeveless ones.

"Hehe... Your Majesty, please choose for yourself. If it's not enough, I'll bring some more," Su Liang said, smiling at the wide-eyed Li Shimin.

"Haha... good, good, good! This way, my other concubines will have some too."

Li Shimin was not at all polite about this; he immediately accepted all the cheongsams Su Liang had brought and then urged Su Liang to go get some more. For a while afterward, Li Shimin also requested some bags, perfume, lipstick, as well as undergarments, underwear, and socks.

When Li Shimin had finished his harvest, he looked at Su Liang and said: "My good son-in-law, now that all the soldiers of our Tang Army are using your training methods, can the method of using Cuju to train soldiers' formations be cancelled? Give me an idea."

"Recently, the military generals have been arguing endlessly over this matter."

As the words fell, Su Liang also recalled the matter of Cuju.

Cuju had been a popular recreational game among the people as early as the Warring States period, and from the Han dynasty onwards, it became a method for military training. By the Tang dynasty, Cuju had evolved from the original solid ball stuffed with hair to using an inflatable ball.

At this time in the Tang dynasty, there were mainly three forms: the two-goal match, the single-goal match (two types of "Zhuqiu" play), and the no-goal match ("Baida").

For a single-goal match, two goalposts three zhang high were erected in the center of the field, with a goal about one foot in diameter at the top, called the "Wind-Flow Eye." For a two-goal match, identical "Wind-Flow Eyes" were set up on both sides of the field.

In the no-goal match ("Baida"), there were no goals. Each person played individually, using their feet, shoulders, head, back, and other parts to contact the ball, not letting it touch the ground. The winner was whoever played the longest without the ball touching the ground, or whoever had the most diverse moves.

The most mainstream of the "Zhuqiu" games, the two-goal match, consisted of a Left Army and a Right Army (two teams) wearing different colored clothes, with twelve or sixteen people on each side standing on either side. Each player had their own role and task, the most critical being the "Ball Head." Others included the "Vice Ball Head, Side-Holder, Meeting Master, Net Guard, Orderly, Brave-Side, Meeting Manager, Supervisor, Left Army, Right Army, Point-Maker, and Slant-Flyer."

Besides using their feet, they could also receive the ball with their heads, shoulders, buttocks, chests, abdomens, and knees; the rules of play were almost identical to modern ones.

The process of the match could be summarized as: the team in possession of the ball passed the air-filled ball back and forth between players several times, and finally handed it to the Ball Head to attack the goal, kicking it toward the "Wind-Flow Eye." If it went in, it counted as a score, and then the opponent would pass and attack.

This final shot by the Ball Head was still somewhat different from later generations.

At this time in the Tang dynasty, Cuju was not just a recreational activity for men. Women's Cuju, besides "Baida" and "Zhuqiu," also included two-person and three-person fields, both being head-to-head matches. Besides this, they would also use the ball to play other games. The late Tang top scholar Pei Shuo said in a poem: "Lightly kicking the painted ball in the pot's space, colorful ribbons flying high on the palm," which refers to a game of knocking over a pot by kicking a Cuju ball.

The Tang dynasty had an open atmosphere; the women of the Great Tang knew how to play, could play, and dared to play!

Not only could they participate extensively in Cuju, but they could also play polo, dance with swords, swing on swings, and go out for horseback riding and archery. The content was rich and colorful, showcasing the proactive, intelligent, and wise demeanor of Tang women, which was very rare in feudal dynasties.

Unfortunately, after the Tang dynasty, women were gradually bound by various rules, and with the appearance of the evil custom of foot-binding, they were directly deprived of the right to play ball.

And at this moment, the Tang Army was following the training methods of the Han dynasty, using Cuju to train soldiers in formations, such as the Fish-Scale Formation (a military formation shaped like fish scales), the Goose-Flight Formation (a V-shaped military formation), the Crescent Moon Formation (a half-moon-shaped military formation, similar to the 4-3-2-1 formation in football), and so on.

After thinking for a long time.

Su Liang looked at Li Shimin and said: "No need to cancel it. Currently, we cannot equip the entire Tang Army with it yet, so Cuju is still needed for training."

"Besides, Cuju is also a very interesting game; the soldiers can use it for entertainment in their spare time."

"However... the rules of this Cuju can be changed a bit."

Currently, the "Wind-Flow Eye" goal, which is only one foot in diameter, is still a bit difficult for the soldiers of the Great Tang. For children, it is even harder; after all, football needs to be cultivated from a young age.

Su Liang then explained to Li Shimin in detail about adding a goalkeeper and changing the shape of the goal.

Finally, they settled on the modern football rules of 23 players per team, an 18-man roster, 5 substitutes, and 11 players on the field, as well as the standards for the football field and goals.

Once this was decided, Su Liang redeemed a large number of footballs and air pumps from the system and handed them to Li Shimin.

"Haha... the football my good son-in-law brought out is much better than the current leather air-filled ball," Li Shimin said, holding the football in his hand and clicking his tongue in praise.

Hearing this, Su Liang smiled slightly; the football he redeemed was naturally the best.

Historically, it was not until the Song dynasty that the ball used for Cuju was sewn from twelve pieces of leather, which was already identical to the football of later generations.

"Sigh..." Li Shimin then let out a soft sigh.

After a pause, he continued: "If my good son-in-law had told me these rules and ways of playing earlier, the Cuju match at this year's Cold Food Festival would definitely have been much more exciting."

Before this, Cuju matches could only be shot by the Ball Head, which was indeed not as interesting as the modern way of playing that Su Liang spoke of.

As Li Shimin's words fell, Su Liang also pondered to himself...

The Cold Food Festival is one or two days before the Qingming Festival. When it first became a festival, people were forbidden from using fire and only ate cold food; it is the only festival among the traditional Han festivals named after dietary customs. Initially, it only had the customs of forbidding fire and eating cold food. In the development of later generations, customs such as sweeping graves, spring outings, flying kites, swinging, Cuju, tug-of-war, cockfighting, planting trees, inserting willows, rope pulling, flower viewing, banquets, and reciting poetry were gradually added. The Cold Food Festival lasted for more than two thousand years and was once known as the number one sacrificial day for the Chinese people.

However, some customs of the Cold Food Festival in later generations have almost been lost, and people only know about sweeping graves and spring outings during the Qingming Festival.

Now that he was here, he would definitely make full preparations and would not let these traditional customs disappear.