Simultaneous Development of Technique and Tao: Rethinking the Orientation and Value of the Chinese Art of Archery—Comments on Zen in the Art of Archery

The contemporary inheritance of Chinese Art of Archery is faced with such dilemmas as confusion of concepts, lack of culture and limitation of orientation. In order to deeply explore the cultural value of Chinese Art of Archery and determine its future development orientation, attempts are made to rethink the inheritance and development of Chinese Archery in the cultural collision, based on the Japanese experience of "Zen in the Art of Archery" written by a German philosopher. It holds that under the influence of the epistemology of "unity of body and mind" of Chinese philosophy, the technique of archery has the characteristics of both internal and external cultivation, and its value pursuit of "the art of no art" for mind training introduces archery into the spiritual level of "Tao".The compatibility of art and Tao make Chinese Art of Archery become a life practice of people's understanding of Tao.The development orientation of "simultaneous development of technique and Tao" will make it possible for people to find the rationality of value in Chinese Art of Archery and this will provide a spiritual dimension for the cognition of Chinese traditional sports beyond instrumental rationality.