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Home / History of Football / Origins of Football / The Chinese and Tsu Chu The Chinese and Tsu Chu The Chinese are credited with the earliest form of football, commonly recognised as approximately 255 - 206 BCE. However as mentioned previously there are a number of opinions on the dates involved - some go all the way back to 5000 BCE! The game was called Tsu Chu (sometimes spelt as cuju) and records show mention of this game in military manuals dating back to the Tsin Dynasty (255 - 206 BCE). Tsu Chu was part of the physical education programme used to train soldiers at the time. The game was played extensively during the following period of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). Tsu Chu literally means football as tsu may be translated to 'kicking the ball with feet' and chu meaning 'a ball made of leather and stuffed'. Quite specific for a term that is over 2000 years old.
The Han Dynasty Emperor Wudi (156-87 BCE) was also a
great fan of the game. After conquering Central Asia, he ordered that all good
ball players move to the capital so that he could watch them play. Emperor Wudi
would spend many a day watching a game of Tsu Chu and quite often he couldn't
help but play a few games as well! |
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