Cuju | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese | 蹴鞠 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "kick ball" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cuju or Ts'u-chü (蹴鞠) is an ancient Chinese football game, that resembles a mix of basketball, association football and volleyball. [1][2] FIFA cites cuju is the earliest form of a kicking game for which there is documentary evidence, a military manual from the Han dynasty.[3]
It is a competitive game that involves both teams trying to kick a ball through an opening into a central hoop without the use of hands whilst ensuring the ball does not touch the ground.[4] This is similar to how hackey-sack is played today. Descriptions of the game date back to the Han dynasty, with a Chinese military work from the 3rd–2nd century BC describing it as an exercise.[5][6] It was also played in other Asian countries like Korea, Japan and Vietnam.[7]