Li Jianzhong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He was born into a family long devoted to xuantai shehuo, the suspended-platform community fire performance, and both his grandfather and his father were accomplished hands at assembling the tableaux. He received authentic instruction in facial painting from his father, Li Junfang, and thereby solved the difficulty of retouching make-up during the processional performance. Within the regional tradition and school record of Minjian Shehuo Performance in Yang, Shaanxi: Yang County suspended-platform shehuo, also called Yang County high-core-frame shehuo, is a Spring Festival folk activity peculiar to the towns and villages of Yang County in southern Shaanxi; locally it takes a place name rather than the name of a trade. Within the county, the high-core-frame form has dramatic characters standing on tall platform frames as its performance form and relies on people carrying it on their shoulders for transport; the frames usually have five or six storeys and stand about twelve metres high, carried along by several dozen people, looking mighty and imposing as they advance. This apparatus is not the exclusive property of any single family: from the late Qing and the Republican era to the early years of the People's Republic, Yang County suspended-platform shehuo reached its height, and in the period after the Republican era and before the 1960s the table societies and fire associations of every village all marched within the same set of rules for carrying and bearing; Yang County shehuo has long been said to gather the finest elements of all kinds of folk shehuo, with the special skills of every school brought together in one place, the competition being precisely who can blend stage make-up and the high platform together. The gongs and drums are divided into procession drums and stationary-ground drums, each with its own routines, so that when the carrying stops at a stationary ground a passage can at once be beaten to warm up the scene. Folk shehuo is a popular self-entertainment activity performed during the Spring Festival; it originated in the ancient worship of the earth god and the fire god. It originated in the Shang and Zhou eras and, through long development, emerged by the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty from among the many varieties of local shehuo to become the most influential branch of Yang County shehuo, with a history of more than three hundred years to the present day. From the late Qing and the Republican era to the early years of the People's Republic, Yang County suspended-platform shehuo reached its height; after the 1960s it entered a period of tortuous development.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1966 in Yang County, Shaanxi Province. Influenced by his family, he loved xuantai shehuo from childhood and became thoroughly versed in the musical patterns of its gong-and-drum accompaniment, attaining considerable mastery of both the processional drumming and the stationary performance drumming of xuantai shehuo. He has actively improved the traditional shehuo: on the premise of ensuring safety, he boldly designed and assembled four-tier shehuo, so that performers and props are linked tier by tier and interlocked with one another to form an integrated whole, whose visual effect is all the more precipitous, thrilling and ingenious. He has directed the training of eight xuantai shehuo core assemblies, more than thirty table-mounted shehuo and a performing team of over one hundred people, which gives regular performances; the team has taken part many times in events staged by the province, the city and the county and has been warmly received by the general public. He is dedicated to transmitting the craft of xuantai shehuo and currently has three disciples. Within the documented technical tradition of Minjian Shehuo Performance in Yang, Shaanxi: "She" refers to the god of the earth; "huo" is the ancestral founder of fire, the legendary fire god. Historically a country founded on agriculture, China used its land for cultivation and its fire for cooking food and keeping warm; both were the material basis of people's survival and development. In antiquity, primitive thinking led people to believe that fire too had a "spirit," and they came to worship it as a divine object of special significance, thus forming the idea of venerating fire. From the ancient worship of the earth god and the fire god grew the custom of sacrificing to she and huo. As society developed and people's understanding deepened, elements of entertainment were gradually added to these sacrificial rites, which in the end developed into a folk entertainment activity of great scale and rich content. By performance form, shehuo falls into two categories: tableau shehuo and performance shehuo. Tableau shehuo includes the procession forms of cloth shehuo, back-carried shehuo, horse shehuo, cart shehuo, core-frame shehuo, mountain shehuo and mask shehuo, which mainly display character modelling and craftsmanship; performance shehuo includes ground-platform shehuo and stilt shehuo, which mainly stage combat performances in courtyards. Shehuo draws on folk legends and dramatic stories for its themes; one or a group of figures presents one story, and one story constitutes one "turn" of shehuo. The performers paint shehuo facial make-up, wear shehuo costumes and carry shehuo staffs. In a shehuo procession a scout on horseback goes first, followed by the shehuo association banner, the firearm (cannon) squad, the flag squad and the shehuo troupe, with the gong-and-drum band bringing up the rear. Reform and opening up brought new vitality to the art of folk shehuo; under the new conditions the traditional art has been carried forward and has become a folk cultural activity that the masses greatly enjoy. Yang County suspended-platform shehuo, also called "Yang County high-core-frame shehuo," is a Spring Festival folk activity peculiar to the towns and villages of Yang County in southern Shaanxi. Yang County shehuo gathers the finest elements of all kinds of folk shehuo; its performance form has dramatic characters standing on tall platform frames, and it is transported mainly by people carrying it on their shoulders, with the frames having five or six storeys and standing about twelve metres high, carried along by several dozen people in a mighty and imposing manner. The facial make-up of suspended-platform shehuo uses exaggerated artistic techniques, and the pigments used in the make-up are specially made by folk methods and do not harm the skin. In the processions, suspended-platform shehuo prizes competing in height and swapping play scripts, going to every length to be as fiery and lively as possible and drawing everyone out of their houses, which is why it has become the folk art activity with the largest number of participants. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xuantai, also called high-core shehuo": Also known as high-core shehuo, it is a Spring Festival custom particular to Xianyang county's towns, staging opera figures on tall frames. "Lifting five- or six-storey frames": Carried on shoulders by several dozen porters, the frames stand five or six storeys and about twelve metres high. "Judging by height and changing plays": Villages compete on height and swap plays to stir the largest possible crowd, drawing thousands into the street. "Pigment mixed to spare the skin": Faces are painted in exaggerated style with a home-made pigment that does not irritate the skin through repeated performances.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Minjian Shehuo (Yang County Xuantai Shehuo), a fifth-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. Li Jianzhong · National Representative Bearer Archive