PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND ITS

HISTORY
SUBMITTED BY:
JURILLA, MARK KC B. BPED 2A
SUBMITTED TO :
MS. MIA BALISTA
 TOPIC CONTENT

▪ Early cultural and primitive society

▪ Physical education in Greece
▪ Physical education in ROME
▪ Physical education IN INDIA
▪ Physical education in CHINA
▪ Physical education during Dark ages
▪ Physical education during The age of feudalism
▪ Physical education during renaissance Period
IMPORTANCE OF HISTOTY

IT ENABLES US TO UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT STATUS OF PHYSICAL

EDUCATION

TO BE AWARE OF THE INFLUENCES THAT HAVE SHAPED IT AND LED TO

EACH STABLISHMENT

IT CAN BE USED HIS KNOWLEDGE TO HELP VERIFY AND CLARIFY

PRINCIPLES FROM THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION AMONG
PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
PRIMITIVE MAN MOVED IN ORDER TO SATISFY A FELT NEED A
NECESSITY
THE PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES FOR PRIMIIVE MAN WERE NOT
ORGANIZED
HIS MOTIIVES FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES WERE MAINLY TO SEARCH
FOR FOODS AND TO PROTECT HIMSELF
FOR PEOPLE WHOSE LANGUAGE WAS LEES ADEQUATE DANCE WAS
MEAN OF EXPRESSION, PARTICULARLY IN A CERTAIN TRIBAL
SOCIETIES
PLAY AND GAMES WERE AN IMPORTANT PART OF LIVING FOR THESE
PRIMITIVE. IT BECAME A RECOGNIZED WAY TO IMPROVE STRENGHT,
PRIMITIVE DANCE
 DANCE IS THE OLDEST AND LIVELIEST OF ARTS, REFLECTING
MAN’S AGE OLD USED TO COMMUICATED JOY OR GRIEF BY USING
THE MOST IMMEDIATED INSTRUMENT OF HIS DISPOSAL AND HIS
BODY
FOR PRIMITIVE MAN, DANCE IS A WAY OF THINKING AND LIVING
PRIMITIVE MAN DANCED WHEN:
I. CHILDREN WERE BORN
II. OLDER ENOUGH TO BE ACCEPTED AS ADULT MEMBER OF THE
TRIBE
III. THEY WWERE MERRIED
IV. THEY DIED
V. TO GAIN COURAGE FOR BATTLE
VI. THE ENEMY WAS BEATEN
VII.PRAY TO THEIR GOD TO DRIVE AWAY EVIL SPIRIT
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN GREECE
ATHENS, CITY STATE IN EASTERN GREECE
SPARTA, PELONNESUS ATHENIANS BELIEVED IN THE DEVELOPMENT
PHYSICAL EDUCATION WAS PRACTICED OF THE TOTAL INDIVIDUAL IN ALL LIFES
TO DEVELOP STRONG POWERFUL ARMY. ASPECT.
THE SPARTANS WERE SUBSERVIENT TO THEIR OBJECTIVE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
THE STATE AND REQUIRED TO HELP WAS FOR PHYSICAL PERFECTION WITH
DEFEND IT AGAINST ENEMIES. EMPHASIS ON BEAUTY OF PHYSIQUES
WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN WERE GYMNASTICS WAS BELIEVED TO
REQUIRED TO BE IN PHYSICAL CONTRIBUTED TO PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
CONDITION. AND MUSIC WAS ALSO CONSIDERED IMPORTANT
A MAJOR TRAINING CONSISTED OF TO THE INTELLECT.
SUCH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AS , GYMNASTICS FOR THE YOUTH WAS
WRESTLING, JUMPING, RUNNING , PRACTICED IN PALAESTRA.
THROWING THE JAVELIN AND DISCUS, PAIDOTRIBE, THE PROPRIETOR IN THE
HORSEBACK RIDING AND HUNTING. PALAESTRA AND WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR
ONLY THE STRONG AND VIGOROUS DERICTING THE EXERCISE FOR THE YOUTH.
BABIES WERE ARE ALLOWED TO LIVE IN GYMNASIUM WHICH WAS THE SOCIAL,
THIS MILITARY LIFE. INTELLECTUAL, PHYSICAL CENTER OF GREECE
LED BY THE OVER ALL IN CHARGE CALLED
GYMNASIARCH
 THE ANCIENT OLYMPICS IN GREECE
IN KEEPING WITH THE CLOSE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE P.E AND THE RELIGION, EACH GYMNASIUM
RECOGNIZED A PARTICULARLY DEITY, SUCH AS THE ACADEMY FOR ATHENA , LYCEUM FOR APOLLO
AND KYMOSARGES FOR HERCULES
GREECE HAD A NATIONAL FESTIVAL EVENTS WHICH WHERE MOST IMPORTANT IN THEIR LIVES. FOUR
OF THEM ARE OF SPECIAL IMPORTANCE AND ATTRACTED THE NATIONAL ATTENTION
I. OLYMPIA FESTIVAL – THE MOST FAMOUS OF THE FOUR, IN HONOR OF ZEUS, THE SUPREME GOD
AND WAS HELD IN WESTERN PELOPONNESUS DISTRICT.
II. PYTHIA- FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF APOLLO , GOD OF LIGHT AND TRUTH AND WAS HELD AT DELPHI
III. NEMEA FESTIVAL- IN HONOR OF ZEUS AT ARGOLIS NEAR CLEPNAE
IV. ISTHMIA FESTIVAL- IN HONOR OF POSEIDON, THE GOD OF THE SEA AND WAS HELD AT ISTHMUS
OF CORINTH
 THE FIRST OLYMPICS WAS HELD IN 776 B.C AND CONTINUED EVERY FOUR YEARS THERE AFTER
 THE CONTISTANT HAD TO UNDERGO TEN MONTHS TRAINING AND RIGID SCREENING. HE HAD TO
BE FREE MAN WITHOUT ANY CRIMINAL RECORD. HE HAD TO BE IN PERFECT PHYSIQUES AND OF
GOOD CHARACTER
 HE HAD TO COMPETE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RULES
 THE VICTORY DID NOT RECEIVE ANY MATERIAL BUT A WREATH OF OLIVE BRANCHES AS HIS CROWN
 DURING THE GAMES , A TRUCE WAS DECLARED BY ALL THE CITY STATES IN GREECE, IF THIS TRUCE
WERE BROKEN, THE WRATH OF GODS WOULD BE VISITID UPON THE GUILTY
THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION

H
E
R
O
RECOGNIZE
D
D THE USE O
OF P.E IS AS T
AID TO U
MEDICINE S
GALLEN

STATED THAT
P.E IS A PART
OF HYGIENE
AND
SUBORDINATE
TO MEDICINE.
 PROCLAIMED THE
LAW OF USE AND
DISCUSE OF THE
PARTS OF THE BODY
HIPPOCRATES
PLATO

CONSIDERED
MUSICS AND
GYMNASTICS AS
THE TWO MOST
IMPORRTANT
SUBJECT IN THE
CURRICULUM
ARISTOTLE

RECOGNIZED THE
CLOSE
INTERRELATIONS
HIP OF THE BODY
AND SOUL, AND
THE MENTAL
FACULTIES CAN
BE AFFECTED BY
POOR HEALTH
SOCRATES

GAVE EMPHASIS
ON THE
IMPORTANCE OF
P.E IN ATTAINING
HEALTH IN
ORDER TO
ACHIEVE ONES
PURPOSE IN LIFE
XENOPHON
THOUGHT
OF P.E AS
IMPORTAN
T ON
TERMS OF
THE
MILITARY
THE PHYSICAL
EDUCATION IN
ROME
 OBJECTIVE AND ITS NATURE

 ARMY LIFE WAS CONSIDERED VERY IMPORTANT TO THE ROMANS AND

CONSIDERED HEALTH AS IMPORTANT ONLY TO MILITARY LIFE.
 A ROMAN SOLDIER HAD TO ENGAGE IN VARIOUS PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
FOLLOWING A RIGID SCHEDULE OF TRAINING SUCH AS MARCHING, JUMPING,
RUNNING, THROWING THE DISCUSS AND JAVELIN, SWIMMING AMONG OTHERS
AND BODY CONDITIONING.
 THE ROMAN WAS NEVER FAMOUS AS AN ATHLETE BUT ADMIRED GOOD
PERFORMANCE IN OTHERS AND PROMOTED IT ON PROFESSIONAL BASIS LIKE
CHARIOT RACING AND GLADIATORS COMBAT WHERE THE LIFE OF THE
CONSISTANTS WERE AT SAKE.
 THE MOST FAMOUS STADIUM WAS THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS IN ROME, A HUGE
ARENA THAT SEATED 200,000 SPECTATORS. THE CHARIOT RACES WERE THE
MAIN EVENT HERE.
 OBJECTIVE AND ITS NATURE
 THE GLADIATOR COMBAT WERE HELD IN THE COLOSEUM, AN ARENA 150 FEET
HIGH SEATING 50,000 PEOPLE CAPACITY.
 ANOTHER FACET OF ROMAN LIFE THAT RELATES TO P.E WAS THE THERNMAE
THE PUBLIC BATH.
ROMAN AND SPORT
VERY LITTLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE STATE OF
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA. MANY OF THE HISTORIAN HAVE
DEVELOPED VERY LITTLE SPACE TO THE ASPECT OF INDIA
HISTORY THROUGH INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION, WITHOUT
DOUBT, HAS BEEN THAT THE PEOPLE NEVER KEPT THE WRITTEN
RECORDS OF THEIR CULTURE AND POLITICAL ADVENTURES .
GAMBLING WAS INE OF THE MOST POPULAR SPORTS IN THIS
PERIOD OF PREHISTORIC RECKONING. CHILDREN MOSTLY
PLAYED WITH BIRDS AND BEAST MADE UP OF CLAY. WHEN THE
ARYANS OCCUPIED SPAT SINDHU, THEY PUSHED DOWN THE
DRAVIDIANS THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES IN INDIA. CERTAIN FACTS
CONNECTED WITH SUCH A TRANSITIONAL PERIOD SHOW THAT
DANCING WAS VIGOROUS AND VERY POPULAR ACTIVITY
AMONG THE INHABITANTS OF INDIAN CLUB CONTINENT. THAT
IS WHY PEOPLE OF INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION WERE VERY
STRONG PHYSICALLY.
IN FACT, THE HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA CAN NOT BE
STUDIED ALONG WITH THE CLASSIFICATION OF VARIOUS PERIODS OF
POLITICAL HISTORY OF INDIAN WHICH IS DIVIDED INTO AGES
I. VIDEC AGE (2000-1000 B.C)
II. EPIC AGE ( 1000-600 B.C)
III. HISTORICAL AGE ( 600 B.D)
IV. NALANDA PERIOD ( 300 A.D)
V. RAJPUT PERIOD ( 300 to 1200)
VI. MUSLIM PERIOD ( 1200 to 1750)
VII.BRITISH PERIOD ( up to 1974)
 VEDIC PERIOD
MUCH OF THE DESCRIPTION ABOUT THE ARYANS WHO MIGRATED
TO INDIA FROM CENTRAL ASIA, COME FROM VEDAS. THE VIDAS
ARE NOT ONLY THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS BUT THEY ALSO
CONTAINS REFERENCES TO THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND
GEOGRAPHICAL LIFE OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
INHABITANTS OF INDIA, AT THIS PEERIOD, WERE VERY STRONG
AND STURDY. THEY GENERALLY LOVED PASTORAL AND
AGRICULTURAL LIFE. YOGA SEEMS TO HAVE ORIGINATED IN
THIS PERIOD. PRANAYAMA WAS CONSCIOUSLY AS A SACRED
DUTY. PRANAYAMA IS YOGIC EXERCISE BY WHICH ONE BALANCE
THE RESPIRATORY CIRCLE IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEIR
COMPLETE
 EPIC AGE
THE EXPLOITATION OF THE INDIANS CAN BE GATHERED FROM “
RAMANAYANA AND MAHABHARATA” WHICH WERE COMPOSED DURING
THIS PERIOD. BOTH THE EPICS REVELS THAT THIS PERIOD WAS APERIOD
OF GREAT TURMOIL AND WARS . THIS SYSTEM HAD , A PART FROM
SCRIPTURAL STUDIES PHYSICAL EDUCATION AS ONE OF THE
COMPULSORY ITEMS. ARCHERY, JAVELIN THROW , SWORD FIGHTING,
CLUB FIGHTING, WRISTLING, HORSE RIDING HAVE BEEN ELABORATLY
REFERRED TO IN RAMAYANA AND MAHABHARATA. THERE WERE NO
SEPARATE PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR TEACHERS BUT THE KNOWLEDGE
IN ARMS AND ARMAMENTS WAS GIVEN BY THE SAME TEACHERS WHO
WERE WELL-VERSED IN SCRIPTURAL STUDIES TOO. THERE USED TO BE
GURUKULS ( school) WHERE THE PUPILS LIVED CELEBRATE LIFE UP TO THE
AGE OF 25 YEARS AND LEARN ALL PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AND ENGAGED
IN MENTAL ACTIVITIES.
HISTORICAL AGE

THE ANCIENT RELIGION ( THE HINDU DHARMA) HAD THE FIRST JOLT
IN THIS PERIOD. THERE WAS A GREAT E REVOLT AGAINST THE
EXISTING SOCIAL DISPARITIES, CAST SYSTEM , RIGID
BRAHMANICAL ATTITUDE AND ORTHODOX ACCEPTANCE OF THE
SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY. BOTH JAINISM AND BUDDHISM
EMPHASISED THE WAYS OF PEACE AND DID NOT ENVISAGE ANY
BODY BUILDING ACTIVITIES FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES.
HOWEVER MEGASTHENES WHO VISITED INDIA DURING
CHANDRAGUPTA’S MAURA’S PERIOD HAS BEEN REFERRED TO A
VERY ELABORATED SYSTEM OF PHYSICAL AND WEAPON TRAINIG
FOR THE ARMY.
 NALANDA PERIOD

NALANDA WAS A GREAT SEAT OF LEARNING

WHERE MORE THEN 6000 STUDENTS, NOT ONLY
FROM VARIOUS PART OF COUNTRY, BUT ALSO
FROM FOREIGN LANDS, USED TO STUDY.
ALONG WITH RELIGIOUS, SCRIPTURAL AND
PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOURSES, PHYSICAL
EDUCATION WAS TAUGHT TO THE STUDENT
FOR KEEPING GOOD HEALTH. WALKING, SOME
CONSIDERED TO BE ATONIC FOR HEALTH.
 RAJPUT PERIOD

THERE WAS REVIVAL OF HINDUISM

DURING THIS PERIOD. THIS PERIOD
MAY BE KNOWN AS THE CHIVALRY.
THE RAJPUT WERE VERY PROUD
AND WERE DIVIDED IN TO
HUNDREDS OF CLANS. TTHEY DID
NOT BELIEVE IN A CENTRAL
 MUSLEM PERIOD
NO DOUBT, THIS PERIOD IS ALSO MARKED BY MUCH OF STRIFE IN WHICH
BOTH THE HINDUS AND THE MUSLIMS TOOK PART FOR THE SUPREMACY OF
THE ONE OVER THE OTHER. IN WHATEVER FORM PHYSICAL EDUCATION
EXISTED DURING THIS PERIOD. IT EXISTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PREPARING THE INDIVIDUAL FOR WAR. MANY OF THE TRADITIONAL
ACTIVITIES LIKE YOGA WERE GIVEN ASSET BACK DUE TO THE FACT THE
MUSLIMS WANTED TO UNDO WHAT THE HINDUS HAD DONE DURING THE
LONG PERIOD OF THEIR MUNDANE EXISTENCE.
HUNTING SEEMS TO BE VERY POPULAR SPORT OF THIS PERIOD . FOR THE
PURPOSES OF GITTENG, THE FOLLOWING SPORTS WERE PRACTISED VERY
COMMONLY
 BRITISH PERIOD
A FLESH BACK TO PRE-INDEPENDENCE TO DAYS. PHYSICAL EDUCATION HAS ALWAYS
EXISTED IN THE INDIAN SOCIETY IN ONE FROM OR THE ANOTHER, BUT HAD NEVER
BEEN CONSIDERED AS A PART AND PARCEL OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM. THE ENGLISH
ARE THE SPORTS LOVING PEOPLE AND PIONEERS IN EDUCATION BUT IN INDIA AS
RULER, THEY ALSO NEVER PAID ANY ATTENTION TO THE INCLUSION OF PHYSICAL
EDUCATION PROGRAMME. IN 1833 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA SHOULDERED THE
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EDUCATION AND 1870, THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION WAS
MADE A STATE SUBJECT-ONLY THE CENTRE RETAINED THE SUPERVISORY POWER.
GYMNASTIC, DRILL AND OTHER EXERCISE SUITED TO EACH
CLASS OF SCHOOL. THE SPURRED THE INTEREST IN THE SCHOOL
CHILDREN TO TAKE PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AS ENJOYABLE
ACTIVITIES. IN 1894, THE QUESTION OF MAKING PHYSICAL
EDUCATION AS A COMPULSORY SUBJECT WAS CONSIDERED BUT
NO DIFINE POLICY CAME OUT OF THIS, WESTERN GAME
ESPECIALLY CRICKET, WERE BECOMING VERY POPULAR ON
VOLUNTARY BASIS. PRIVATE ORGANIZATION FOR PHYSICAL
EDUCATION LIKE GYMNASTICS, VYAYAM, SCHOLAR AKHADA
AND KREERE MANDAL CONTRIBUTED APPERIABLY TO THE
SPREAD OF TRADIONAL INTEREST IN DEVELOPMENT AND
CONDITIONING ACTIVITIES.
In the past, China’s physical education experienced a development process of
growing out of nothing, and from imitating to mirroring. Up to now, it has
found a right road of development embodied with China’s characteristics,
and the development theory of sports education has been gradually mature.
The essay analyzed the present situation of the development of physical
education in China by inspecting the development trace in the past one
hundred years, on the purpose of establishing a new system of physical
education. When investigating a thing’s development process, we’ll have to
pay attention to its past, now, and future, and the development of physical
education is not an exception. The different stages of the development of
China’s physical education covered up to one hundred and a half. Every
stage will abandon something old and create something new, producing a
scroll effect, which consisted of the history of China’s development of
physical education. Investigating the development of physical education in
China in the past one hundred years is conducive for us to grasp the overall
development of the physical education in China.
 The situation of the physical education from the Opium War to the May
4th Movement

Since the Opium War, sports had been into the New School and become a class
as a “western art”, and the Military School has also started the gymnastics
classes. Meanwhile, all kinds of gymnastic activities were carried out with
priority to western modern gymnastic activities. Westernization Movement
exerted a positive effect to the modern physical education objectively in
China. During the process of Reform Movement, the bourgeois reformists
whose leader is Kang You well imagined a preliminary complete education
system, emphasizing the role of the sports in the school education, which
produced an enlightenment effect to the development of physical education in
China in both theory and practice. In the late nineteenth century, American
and Britain sects stated plenty of church schools, which attached great
importance to the after-class sports activities, although they didn’t have
formal sports classes.
They established various sports organizations and track and
field teams, carried out the wonderful athletics and sports
activities and held sports competitions, by which they spread
western gymnastics. In 1904, the Qing Government issued
the set up some standard to the sports curriculums in the
schools of different identities and ranks. After the Xinhai
Revolution, in 1902 and 1903, the government of the
republic of China made a correction to the school education
system in China. After the execution of the new educational
system, schools at all levels started the gymnastic classes, by
which, the modern sports education obtained an extensive
development, ending the two-thousand-year history without
fundamental sports classes .
The physical education after the May 4th Movement and before the
foundation of the People’s Republic of China

During the May 4th Movement, Militarism that was prevalent in one time increasingly
declined, and the soldiers fuck lost the previous important role in the school sports
education. In 1923, the Beiyang Government issued the <Course Outline Draft> aimed at
the primary school and the high school students, and changed the “Gymnastics” to the
“P.E.” formally, which is a great change and reform in the school sports in China,
symbolizing that the school sports education had been into a new stage of development.
The school sports education in this period all abandoned the soldiers fuck and athletics and
sports activities became the main part. And American sports thoughts which adhered to
naturalism spread widely in China and had a great influence on the school sports education.
In addition, the Kuomintang(KMT) Government strengthen the management on the school
sport education, issued some laws concerning the school sports and took some political
actions, making the school sports start to develop systematically and regularly.
 The sports education from the foundation of the People’s Republic of
China to the Reform and Open up
In 1949, the People’s Republic of China is founded. As a result of the influence
of international political environment, the fate of China’s physical education
has close relationship with that of our mother country. At the beginning the
foundation of the People’s Republic of China, Chairman Mao put forward the
guidelines “To be health is in the first position, and to study is the second”,
“Be in good health, study well and work well”. The Central People’s
Government of the State Council issued<The decisions concerning
improving health of students in different classes of schools> later on. All of
these had a great effect on the physical education. At the same time, under
the influence of the sports thoughts called “three foundations” of the
Former Soviet Union, China’s physical education formed a teaching system
about physical education whose goals included imparting knowledge, motor
skills and technology, pursuing the perfect and completeness of technology
and emphasizing the technological details
The physical education in the new period

After the Reform and Open up, undertakings of physical culture and sports had
developed rapidly. From series of sports teaching outline and work rules set
up by China’s government, we can see that the physical education in the new
period increasingly adjusted to the demands of social development and
students’ comprehensive development. In 1978, the Education Department
complied <Physical Education Syllabus in Ordinary High Schools> and
issued <Provisional Rules of School Sports and Health Work>, <Provisional
Rules of Work of Higher Universities and Colleges> ， <National Physical
Training Standard> ， <The teaching guidelines of the physical education
curriculum in the national ordinary higher universities and colleges> later on,
which all strengthened the physical education, perfected the teaching system,
offered a criterion of exploring the school physical education in the primary
stage of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
In 2002, <The Table of Student Physical Healthy Standard> the
Education Department and the General Administration of Sports
issued together started to be implemented in most of the schools all
over the country, further realizing the guidelines” To be healthy is in
the first position”. From what has been discussed above, series of
laws issued and new corresponding measures taken by China’s
government in the new period produced a deeply strategic meaning
in order to promote the work of physical education in China.
 The revelations from the course of the change of China’s
physical education in the past one hundred years

Local features are the foundation of the development of the physical education. In the
past one hundred years, China’s physical education experienced such a process of
development as imitating Japanese teaching systems, referring American teaching systems
and implanting the Soviet Union’s model, showing strong foreign culture orientation and
the exogenous characteristic. After the Reform and Open up, China faced a new situation
of stable politics, booming economics and diversified culture, offering an unprecedented
great environment to the development of the physical education in China. In order to reach
the overall requirements of the quality education, we had to get rid of the shackles of the
Soviet Union’s pattern which had characteristics of high centralization and dense
technology. Developing China’s local physical education and absorbing the mainstream all
over the world is the foundation of the development of physical education in China.
Government’s attention is crucial for the development of physical
education

From the several changes of the purposes of the physical

education, we can see that the role of the physical education
was rising and gradually developed into a dispensable part to
cultivate students of sound development. Series of
government’s provisions concerning the physical education
standardize and guarantee its development and also reflected
that the government attached importance to the physical
education. As a matter of fact, it’s the government attention
that facilitated the development of the physical education.
 Students are in the first position in the process of the physical education

Since the modern times, the physical education developed into a diversified
culture and got rid of instrumentalism gradually. In 1961, the government
issued <Sports Teaching Outline of the Primary and Middle Schools> and
emphasized the importance of strengthening the physical education on the
purpose of enhancing the physique. In 1992, it added that” we are aimed to
strengthen the physical and healthy education and enhance the students’
physique and promote the students’ development on both physique and
mentality and cultivate the socialist builders with high comprehensive quality
on moral, mentality and physique”. We can see that the aim of the physical
education changed and adhered that the students are the center. The one-
hundred-year history of the physical education’s development in China
confirmed that only if the physical education conforms to the students’
physical and mental development, it will have strong vitality to survive and
develop.
Since the modern times, the western physical education along with the
invasion on culture and education of the Imperialism countries had been
into and spread in China, taking roots, sprouting and growing up in the
certain environment of China, which made the traditional Chinese physical
education changed with the development of history gradually. After the
contradictions, conflicts and fusion with the western physical education, the
modern Chinese physical education patterns have formed with Chinese
characteristics. We are required to analyze the present situation of the
development of physical education in China by inspecting the development
trace in the past one hundred years and absorbed the experience and lessons
on the purpose of establishing a new system of physical education.
AS A RESULT OF THE DECENTRALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT
DURING of the dark ages, the period of feudalism come into being
between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. The feudalistic period
appeared because people needed protection and since strong
monarch and government that could supply this protection were
rare, the people turned to noblemen and others who built castles
had large land holdings and made themselves strong. Feudalism
was  a system of land tenure based on allegiance and service to the
nobleman or lord. The lord who owned the land, called his assail, in
return for the use of this land the assail owed allegiance and
certain obligations to this lord. The largest part of the population
however was made up of serfs, who worked the land but shared
little in the profits. They were bound to the land and as it was
transferred from vassal they were also transferred.
▪ Two careers open were to sons of noblemen during feudalistic times. They might enter
training for the church and became members of the clergy, or they might became
knights. If they decided in favour of the church, they pursued an education that was
religious an academic in nature if they decided in favour of chivalry the pursued an
education that was physical social and military in nature. To the average boy, chivalry
had much more appeal than the church.
▪ That training that a boy experienced in becoming a knight was long and through. Physical
training played a major role during this period . at he age of 7 years a boy was usually
sent to he castle of a nobleman for training and preparation for knight hood first, he was
known as a page, and his instructor and teacher was usually on of the women in the lord
castle. During his tenure as a page, a boy learned, court etiquette, waited on table an
errands and helped with household tasks. During the rest of the time he participated in
various forms of physical activity that would serve him well as knight and strengthen him
for the arduous years ahead. He practiced for events such as boxing, running, fencing,
jumping, and swimming.
At the age of 14 years the boy became a squire and was assigned to a  knight his studies
included keeping the knights weapons in good condition caring for his horses , helping him
with his armour attending to his injuries and guarding his prisoners. During the time the
boy was a squire, more and more emphasis was placed in physical training. He was
continually required to engage in vigorous sport and exercise such as hunting scaling
walls, shooting with bow and arrow, running, climbing, swordsmanship, and horsemanship.
If the squire proved his fitness he became a knight at 21 years of age the ceremony was
solemn and memorable. The prospective knight took a bath of purification, dressed in
white, and spent an entire night in meditation and prayer in the morning the lord placed his
sword on the knight’s shoulder a ceremony known as the accolade this marked the
conferring of knighthood. Jousts and tournaments were two special events in which all
knight engaged several times during their lives and that were tests of their fitness. These
special events served both as amusement and as training for the battle. In the jousts two
knights attempted to unseat one another from another from their horses with blows from
lances and by skill in horsemanship. Many knights participated in tournaments, programs
designed to exhibit the skill and showmanship amid during their long period of training.
They were lined up as two teams at each end of the list, as the grounds were called and on a
signal they attempted to unseat the members of the opposing team
They were lined up as two teams at each end of the list, as the
grounds were called and on a signal they attempted to unseat
the members of the opposing team. These mele continue until
one team was declared the victor, many knights wore their
lady’s colours and their armour and attempted with all their
strength and skill to uphold her honour. During these
tournaments death often resulted for participants. In these
exhibitions a knight had the opportunity to display his
personal bravery, skill, prowess, strength, and courage.