Introduction to Chuiwan - Ancient Golf Game in China

　　Literally, “chui” means “to hit”, while “wan” means “ball” in Chinese, and so Chuiwan means “to hit a ball”. Chuiwan is one of the ball games in ancient China, and its emergence and prevalence is closely tied to the ball games in the Tang Dynasty. During that time, besides Cuju, which was played by kicking with the feet, and polo, which was played by striking with a stick (club) on horseback, a kind of game which is played by striking a ball with a stick (club) on foot appeared on the scene, called Budaqiu. It is a game where the players hit the ball with a stick (club) while moving around on foot instead of riding a horse. Budaqiu later evolved gradually into a new ball game in the Song Dynasty, which was called Chuiwan.
　　Chuiwan, known also as the “Chinese golf”, was formed in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it developed and prevailed in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It evolved from Cuju to polo, then to Ludaqiu (which literally means playing balls on donkey’s back), and finally to Budaqiu. In the modern society where the Chinese Chuiwan has declined and the game of Golf is continually evolving, Mission Hills has rapidly built a strong foundation of golf with a scale that’s not been seen before and helped create a new era of this sport in China and the World.
　　In the short animation about Chuiwan, we will describe the process of playing Chuiwan by officials in the Yuan dynasty in The Picture of Chuiwan in the Yuan Dynasty, which is divided into six sections---selecting the proper time, determining the tee box, deciding the order of play, selecting the proper stick (club), striking the ball and calculating the scores. It elaborates on the field, instruments and competition methods of Chuiwan in ancient China to show the similarities between Chuiwan and the modern game of golf visually, thereby helping us gain a new understanding of the origin of modern golf.

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Choose the right time to play chuiwan. “When the weather is sunny and clear with soft breezes, people who are free after a good meal will go to a lush, tranquil garden with some open space to play chuiwan with several good friends.”
Players marked out a base to start the game. Once the base was confirmed and drawn, a ball was placed on it. “The base cannot be a radius of more than one foot. Choose the right spot to put the ball on and mark it as the tee point.”
After the base was determined, the players would toss the ball to decide the order of play. “Once the tee point is fixed, the ball will be pitched to determine the sequence of play. The player with the ball farthest from the hole will play first and the closest to play last. If two balls are of equidistance, the one on the left will play first, followed by the one on the right.”
There were three types of clubs in chuiwan, namely, pubang (扑棒), shaobang (杓棒) and cuanbang (撺棒). Shaobang was used when players needed a long and high shot. Clubs were carried in a leather bag or a basket.
At the tee point, the player would stand to drive the ball. When making an approach shot, the player would squat and strike gently for accuracy. “Stand and squat when making long and approach shots, and strike with appropriate force.”
According to the scoring rules of chuiwan game, chou was the instrument made of bamboo chips and used to mark score for the competition. “Big, medium and small chous represent 20, 15 and 10 marks res-pectively. The winner will get prizemo-ney from the runner-up, who will win prize money from the second runner-up, and so on.”