Touhu xinge 投壺新格

Touhu xinge 投壺新格 "New standards for the pitch-pot game" is a handbook written by Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019-1986) in order to rectify current practice and rules to be consistent with the original rules (li zhi 禮制) of antiquity, as expounded in the ritual Classics Liji 禮記 (ch. 37/40), and the Da Dai Liji 大戴禮記 (ch. 78). Sima Guang was convinced that the practice of the game, enshrined in a framework of social encounters and etiquette, could serve to cultivate one’s mind. He criticized that transmitted versions of the game did not reflect how it was originally designed.

The oldest bibliographical entry with book on the pitch-pot game is found in the Suishu jingji zhi 隋書•經籍志, which lists two books with the title Touhujing 投壺經, one consisting of one fascicle, and one of four juan, and enriched by the texts Touhubian 投壺變 by Yu Tan 虞潭 (c. 263-c. 341), Touhudao 投壺道 by Hao Chong 郝沖, and the anonymous Jirangjing 擊壤經 (already lost at the time). The bibliographical chapter of the official dynastic history Jiutangshu 舊唐書 lists a one-juan book Touhujing, written by Yu Tang and Hao Chong. The same is listed in the Xintangshu 新唐書, but the latter also includes a Touhujing written by Shangguan Yi 上官儀 (608-665). The book catalogue in the encyclopaedia Wenxian tongkao 文獻通考 (Jingji kao 經籍考) lists Shangguan Yi's book, and Sima Guang's revision of the book Touhuge 投壺格, called Wengong touhu xinge 溫公投壺新格 with the full title. The bibliographical treatise in the history book Songshi 宋史 mentions Sima Guang's book, that of Shangguan Yi, as well as Bu Shu's 卜恕 Touhu xinlü 投壺新律, and Wang Yue's 王趯 Touhu lige 投壺禮格. The bibliographer Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (mid-12th cent.) (1104-1162), author of the catalogue Tongzhi yiwen lüe 通志•藝文略, created an own sub-section for books on the game, and lists Hao Chong's and Yu Tan's Touhujing, Hao Chong's Touhudao, Yu Tan's Touhubian, Shangguan Yi's book, as well as two new texts, namely Touhutu 投壺圖 by Zhang Chengbin 張承斌, and Qinghuji 傾壺集 by Liu Renmin 劉仁敏.

Sima Guang's text, finished in 1072, is included in the series Shuofu 說郛, Xinshangbian 欣賞編, Jujia biyao 居家必要 and Xuetang yunshi 雪堂韻史.

More elaborated books on the pitch-pot game are Touhu yijie 投壺儀節 by Wang Zhi 汪禔 (1527), and Touhu kaoyuan 投壺考原 Ding Yan 丁宴 (1856).