Chui Wan (strike pellet), one of the colorful ball games in ancient China, is believed to be the origin of golf, a modern outdoor game.

Chui wan was originally called bu da(walk and hit), a game in which the player scored points by hitting the pellet into a socket in the ground. The game was developed from cu ju, or the ancient football game.

Wang Jian, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, describes the game in one of his poems: “Stands have been set up on both sides of the palace hall, during the Hanshi festival court people play the bu da ball. They walk and kneel in competition, and the champion thanks the emperor when he wins.” This proves that bu da, a game similar to golf, had been popular more than 1,000 years ago.

Evidence from Chinese paintings and books makes a strong case for the Chinese sport. Paintings from the Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties lay out scenes of an emperor waving what looks like a golf club and striking what appears to be a golf ball into a hole.

A Ming painting, Ming Xuanzong Xingle Tu(Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming on the spree), shows the emperor, in plain clothes, striking the pellet in the field. It shares lots of similarities with modern golf in terms of balls, clubs, courses, even the rules and etiquettes.

Two books from that time about Chui Wan also present evidence that a form of modern-day golf was played.