Physical education is an interesting phrase. It may remind us of a certain athletic person, a certain competition that you lost or won, or annoyingphysical fitness tests. Physical education can also be associated with sports, exercise, running, bodybuilding, andweight loss. The original intention of physical education is nothing special, just the same as that of moral education and aesthetic education. Sports and exercise we can think of are all vehicles for such an educational method and later even become synonymous with physical education.

In a sense, physical education is serious, as it aims to train people. Thus, it should not be treated with slackness. Teachers often associate physical education with "health", "willpower and quality", "exercise", and "training", given that it is for both physical and mental health. Bodybuilding is beneficial toone’shealth; to be trained for enduring fatigue helps strengthen one’s willpower. We believe that a whole person should be equipped with comprehensive knowledge. Yet, body and willpower are also integral to people. Therefore, the boundary between physical and intellectual education may not be so well-defined.

Of course, it is boring if we talk about physical education in this way becausealthough the course might be suffering, sports are fun. Those who love sports seem to be interesting, and even seemingly stern physical education teachers are no exception. The teachersat Tsinghua Universitywho ride bicycles and do triathlons I know are unparalleled by students like us in wit and humor. We often joke that Tsinghua University is "de facto" Wudaokou Sports School and we train ourselves to serve the country healthily for another five to10 years.Those who hate sports might never understand the joke.But even they, despite bad performance in sports probably, may enjoy or want to join in some sports games. No one would hate knowledge.Likewise, they may not hate sports, but just dislike being not good atphysical fitness tests.

When talking about sports, I always want to explain how funthey are first. Classmates and I played table tennis, withthe podium asa table and chalk boxes asa net, during the last class for self-study in the evening in the last semester of high school. As it happened, many of the best players managed to get into Tsinghua University. I didn't intend to impose the connection with the result of the college entrance examination on table tennis. It's just that the college entrance examination always reminds me of the game we played back in high school. We allowed ourselves to snatch relaxing moments from the intense study.

The joy of sports lies in not victory or competence but inthemselves. To throw ourselves in sportswill simply make us happy no matterwe do it alone or together. We do often feel the pressureor get stuck in a tight schedule. To put on sneakers and do a marathon while listening to musicis a good way for clearing the headandrelaxing.Just kidding. A marathon costs several hours and might make us miss a deadline. So, we usually just run for a while. Sports certainly include both exercise and competitions. The victory after a fierce competition is worth celebrating, while the failure following great efforts can also bring inner contentment. Those competent can enjoy competitions, whilethe incompetent can also find them fun. Fast runners may try their best for trophies and exult at the winning, while slow ones can just revel in the scenery along the way.

Enjoy it, and it's worthyour while.

Besides the interesting part, sports can also be dull — willpower is what should come into the spotlight. Sports are sports even if they are not dull, but it is not the whole story. Pleasure-oriented sports can only be called games, or say, they are just physical but not educational. Runners are the most commonly seen on the campus almost frommorning to night. It is not too early for a runner to be seen at four o'clock in the morning on the western playground or Tsinghua Road. It is either not late for a runner, who may just finish experiments or papers,to be seen at2:00 a.m. Reading hundreds ofpagesof first-hand references can be dull, and so is finishing a 42-kilometer-long marathon on a 400-meter track.Toleranceto dullness indicates at least admirable willpower if not necessarily superiority in intelligence or physique. Life on and beyond the campus would be inevitably boring sometimes. The sports that will exhaust and starve the body seem to be the best way to cultivate oneself, at least a better way to protect the eyes than reading literature. Of course, willpower is not all about durability, but also courage and a pioneering spirit.

But isn't dullness the opposite of fun? I believe that joy will definitely come after dullness. I don't want to differentiate between higher- and lower-quality pleasures or refer to the concept of delayed contentment. I just want to say that it is worth embracing and getting used to dullness.

With willpower, you candevelop intelligence and then become a whole person. Sports are not simply a matter of moving muscles and the body. They arealso about intelligence. They are a separate field of science and also related to other disciplines.When immersing ourselves in a sport, we will find too much to be studied although it seems just about movements. I will not illustrate in detail here. In short, there may be persons with"strong limbs and yet a simple mind". Physical education, however, requires plenty of brains as well as brawn.

A whole person must have had a thorough knowledge of arts and sciences, mastered both Chinese and Western cultures, and received general education and specialized education. General education, like that in literature, history, philosophy, art, mathematics, physics,biology,and chemistry, is related to theinner world, thinking, and vision of a person. What about physical education? It stresses the strength of the body and the tenacity of willpower and is thus related to people too. To cite a somewhat metaphysical example, there are four types of meditation in Buddhism: walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. There is a walking style of meditation based on martial arts. I would not dare to say much without the relevant knowledge, but at least, this kind of meditation is an approach to Zen.

Physical education serves to cultivate people. I'm convinced that a person whocan read thousands of pages of references just for refining a few sentences will surely be able to challenge a sport as boring as a marathon. A person willing to try to solve new academic problems surely dares to scale new heights. Conversely, a person long engaged in a sport can concentrate on study, and a person who dares to explore outdoors can achieve innovation in other areas. The former needs a healthy body, and the latter a solid foundation of knowledge. A strong body and intelligence, together with a tough mind and the liveliness and fun acquired from study and sports, constitute a whole person.

Finally, with regard to sports, especially on the campus and during school days, health is the most relevant and needs to be taken care of. Injuries and diseases, inevitable in youth though, can be cured through treatment and rehabilitation. Still, more serious and regrettable things may happen around us. Therefore, I sincerely hope that all get involved in sports in order to better understand Jane Austen and Shakespeare.

Sports will pay off.

Written on the campus of Tsinghua University in August 2018