The Manchu banner men of those days often led dissolute lives; the seventh generation of Ju Yuan Hao's founder was no exception. Finally he became an opium addict and hardly had the willpower left to do any business. In the end, he had no choice but to sell off the family business.

Yang Wentong's father Yang Ruilin was a craftsman who was infatuated with bow and arrow making when he knew the seventh-generation inheritor of the Ju Yuan Hao shop wanted to sell it, he immediately collected the money and bought it.

In prosperous times, the "bow and arrow courtyard" could produce more than 500 bows a month. However, with the changes of time, Yang Wentong, the ninth-generation of Ju Yuan Hao makers, gradually left the practice of making bows.

His fortune began to reverse itself in 1998, when Yang took his bows to an international archery competition. There, the coach of the national archery team took a fancy to his traditional bow, and from then on, Yang Wentong began to make bows again in his spare time, and also encouraged his sons to learn the ancestral craft.
Ⅱ. Status Quo

Alongside the development of science and technology, the traditional technique of bow and arrow making is facing permanent extinction.

Yang Wentong is more than 70 years old. His son, Yang Fuxi, is worried that the tradition could wither and die in his hands, so in order to pass on the technique, Yang Fuxi took on the responsibility of saving it.

When Yang Fuxi first learned how to make the bow and arrow, he was already 40 years old. To master this craft, Yang Fuxi resigned from his work, and worked as a taxi driver for four years. During this time all the money he saved was used to purchase materials. Starting from 1998, Yang Fuxi devoted himself to making the bow and arrow.

There are many processes for making one bow. Even some original professionals have a mastery of only one or two working procedures.

Besides the complex procedures, traditional arrow manufacture needs many materials, like silk, bamboo, horn, tendon, wood, rubber, lacquer and skin. These materials are hard to find today.

Yang Fuxi said making traditional bows was too hard. Generally, it would take him three to four months to make only 10 to 12 bows. This is because there are nearly 200 steps for making a single bow. For making a superior bow, the techniques are even more complicated.

Many traditional crafts like bow and arrow-making are faced with the prospect that once the old craftsmen pass away, the technique will be forever lost. Yang Fuxi said he wants to have an apprentice, but so far he has been unable to find one. Bow making is hard work that doesn't earn much money, so many young people do not want to learn it.