According to Historical Records of Zhou Benji, "Chu Youyang, who is good at shooting, is also good at shooting willow leaves, shooting it with a hundred steps." There is also a record in the Warring States Policy and Western Zhou Policy: "Chu has Yang and is good at shooting; Go to the willow and shoot it. " Yang mentioned here is a sharpshooter of Chu State. It is said that he competed with another sharpshooter, Tiger Pan, and Tiger Pan could hit the bull's eye from 50 paces away. Yang, on the other hand, can shoot the leaves of willow trees from a hundred paces away, so it is called "piercing Yang with a hundred paces", which also greatly laments.
So the hundred steps in this book are different from those we have now. 100 of the hundred steps is our current 200 steps. We usually take a step of about 70 cm to 80 cm, so if we take a hundred steps, 100 step is about 80 meters, which is not particularly far. But in ancient times. 100 step should be160m, which can accurately shoot willow leaves around160m. It's really amazing.
According to the types of bows and arrows in the Song Dynasty, the maximum range of bows is generally about 200 meters, but its effective range should be within 150 meters, so I think the distance of hundred steps through Yang 1560 meters should be authentic, so the hundred steps are about 150 meters 160 meters. Therefore, those sharpshooters in ancient times still have a high level, which deserves our admiration.