The Game of 'Pot Toss' 投壶

'Pitch Toss,' Qing Dynasty Painting (from here)

...In addition, some scholars think 'pot toss' was originally the same thing as the rite of archery, a civic activity fashioned by the sages that was suited for building civic feeling in both small communities and for the whole kingdom. The goal was to "bring the hearts and minds of the people back to fairness (zhong zheng)." The great Song dynasty Confucian Sima Guang explained the relation between 'pot toss' and the cultivation of the self as follows: "Now with pot toss, not putting out there too far nor putting out there too short is what we mean by 'zhong.' Not knocking it down and letting it spill out all over the place is what we call 'zheng.' ...when we observe carefully the location the arrow must strike to approach the pot, our natures are silent yet without secret, we add to our attention without becoming too excited, our will approaches closely to fairness. Even if for just a brief time, we can accustom ourselves to it. Isn't that the Way of cultivating hearts and minds?" This explanation had a great influence: Sun Chuanfang's 'pot toss' theory comes from this. (--- hi.baidu article)

Click here to watch a clip from Red Cliff that features this game.

Sun Chuanfang was a warlord whose advocacy of 'pot toss' was something both Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren found obnoxious, and I suppose that they take the view of the character at the end of the clip, that a petty warlord with little chance of winning the battle to unify China should not try to imitate a rite from ancient high culture. Maybe Zhou Zuoren was angrier, because he cared about high culture. Maybe Lu Xun was able to simply dismiss it as a benighted peasant demagogue with the usual passion for a no-less benighted high culture of antiquity.