The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is underway, with billions of people across the globe tuning in to watch the world's most popular sporting spectacle.
So what are the origins of soccer?
Soccer has a contemporary history that spans more than 100 years. Yet its roots can be traced so far back as 2500 B.C.
According to FIFA, the earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise from a military manual dating back to the second and third centuries BC in China during the Spring and Autumn Period 2,500 years ago.
Chinese soccer was initially called 蹴鞠 (cuju), literally meaning “kicking a ball”. It was played in a wide variety of forms across China for centuries.
Records of the Grand History (史記·蘇秦列傳) by Han historian Sima Qian (司馬遷, 145BC-87BC), and The Strategies of the Warring States (戰國策), a Han Dynasty book containing original anecdotes from the Warring States period, contain a passage mentioning the popularity of soccer game when describing the scene in Linzi (臨淄), the capital of Qi Kingdom in today’s Shandong Province in China’s east:
“People in the city all love to play flute, harp and zither, watch cook fighting and dog fighting, and take part in chess and soccer games.” (其民無不吹竽、鼓瑟、彈琴、擊築、鬥雞、走犬、六博、蹋鞠者）
A few ancient paintings also recorded how Chinese people enjoyed playing soccer over the centuries.
2022年世界杯賽事熱烈進行中，就連足球的起源也成為球迷津津樂道的話題。現代足球賽成形約有百年歷史，不過，最早有關足球的文字記載是在春秋時代的中國山東。
足球在中國古代被稱作蹴鞠，亦稱「蹋鞠」，翻譯為現代漢語就是「踢球」，其中蹴是「踢」的意思，鞠是「球」，蹴鞠就是一種以腳擊球的運動。
相傳蹴鞠最早是中國的黃帝為了訓練士兵而發明，文字記載可以上溯至戰國時代，大部分學者認為蹴鞠起源於戰國的齊國（現今山東臨淄），本為軍訓之用，進而演變為遊戲。
中國最早記錄蹴鞠的古籍可以追溯到春秋戰國時期的《戰國策》。 《戰國策·齊策》記載：二千三百多年前的山東臨淄「甚富而實，其民無不吹竽、鼓瑟、擊築、彈琴、鬥雞、走犬、六博、蹋鞠者……」蹴鞠運動之所以能在齊國流行，推測其主要原因可能是，戰國時代兼併劇烈，城市居民也要應徵從軍，蹴鞠運動可增強體力，配合軍事的需要，自然得到了統治者的大力提倡。
而在另一部古籍《史記·蘇秦列傳》中，也同樣印證了當時齊國的「蹴鞠熱」：臨淄城有七萬戶，人民富庶殷實，其民無不以「吹竽鼓瑟，彈琴擊築，鬥雞走狗，六博蹋鞠」為樂。
我們從古畫中，也可看出中國歷代君王、貴族、仕女、兒童熱愛足球的寫照。
