Gao Ruchang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

His family tradition runs deep: his great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all members of the Hua Bo Da Gu association. In 1954 he became a disciple of Hao Yanfang, the head of the association. Within the regional tradition and school record of Drum Dance in Changping, Beijing: Chinese drum dance takes many forms, is widely distributed, varies greatly in dance posture, and differs enormously in kind. Among the more typical forms are waist-drum dance, the crouching drum dance (biaogu), flower-drum (flower-lantern) dance, wooden-drum dance, long-drum dance, flat-drum dance, bronze-drum dance, dragon-drum dance, fan-drum dance, yellow-clay drum dance, elephant-foot drum dance, monkey drum dance, flower-whip drum dance, bamboo-drum dance, bell-drum dance, sheep-skin drum dance and many others. The Huayuan great drum (flower-cymbal big drum) arose during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1736–1795); it is a folk children's dance in which drum, cymbals and dance are highly unified. The Huayuan great drum has long been transmitted in Beijing. After the second convening of the society in the first year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1875), the heads of the society (huishou) for five successive generations were, in order, Hao Wenliang, Gao Yi, Hao Chunfang, Hao Chunlin, Gao Ruichang and Hao Weidong.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1945, a native of Beijing. In 1957 he represented Beijing at the Second National Joint Performance of Folk Music and Dance, and he has also taken part in theatrical performances welcoming foreign heads of state visiting China. He has a thorough command of the three core skills of drum, cymbals and dance. Through careful study he standardized and unified the basic movements of the large drum on the basis of the traditional routines, making them more scientific and rational and the performances even more striking. Since 2005 he has actively transmitted and promoted the art of Hua Bo Da Gu; his students number more than a thousand, of whom nearly three hundred are able to take part in formal performances. Within the documented technical tradition of Drum Dance in Changping, Beijing: Chinese drum dance is distinguished by rich drum patterns, ardent emotion and deep cultural reserves; it spreads across the whole country and its influence reaches the entire world. The Book of Changes (Yijing), in its chapter 'Appended Statements', has the phrase 'the drums are danced to, so as to bring the spirits to their fullest' (gu zhi wu zhi yi jin shen); it vividly reflects the long history of Chinese drum dance while also summing up, in a nutshell, its principal function. From the primitive 'striking stones and clapping stones, the hundred beasts all dance' (ji shi fu shi, bai shou shui wu) to later times when its influence spread everywhere south and north of the Yangtze, Chinese drum dance has remained one continuous, unbroken tradition. The Huayuan great drum is also called 'the flower cymbals of the Lei Yin Sheng Hui', popularly known as the 'Huayuan great drum'. It is transmitted in Houniufang Village, Xiaotangshan Town, Changping District, Beijing. In the Huayuan great drum, drum, cymbals and dance all proceed from a single source, so that sound, emotion and appearance are highly unified. The drum serves both to give the signal and as an accompanying instrument; the cymbals take part in the accompaniment and at the same time function as dance props. In performance the drum leads the cymbal sound and the cymbals follow the drumbeats; the musical rhythm is based mainly on triple metre with variations, bright and lively, natural and nimble. The dance is run through from beginning to end by the pulsing tremor of the knees; the movements flow like drifting clouds and are completed in one unbroken sweep, expressing the naive and lively character of young children. The Huayuan great drum is highly flexible and varied in performance form; its vocabulary of dance movements is rich, and multiple performance routines can be composed. The performing troupe is extremely flexible, from as few as two people to as many as a thousand; the order of performance follows no single pattern, the duration may be long or short, and the site is not fixed — it can be performed on open ground, on a stage, or while moving along a route. However much it varies, the different performance routines can be joined closely together, achieving natural flow and complete unity. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Leiyin holy assembly's flower cymbals": The full name of the flower-cymbal drum, a children's dance of cymbals and drums from Houniufang village in Changping. "Drum leading, cymbals following": Drum and cymbals are one with the dance: the drum commands and accompanies while the cymbals both accompany and serve as props. "The trembling knee": A continuous tremor of the knees runs through the whole dance, giving it the flow and liveliness of childhood. "The five generations of heads": The tradition long kept in Beijing was revived in 1875, and its heads since then have passed through five generations of named men.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Drum Dance (Hua Bo Da Gu), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Gao Ruchang · National Representative Bearer Archive