Peng Qiusheng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Peng Qiusheng, Male, Han, from Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Nuo Dance (Ⅲ-7). The tradition is documented in Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Nuo Dance in Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong: The nuo dance is widely transmitted throughout the country, and is distributed most densely in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui in the Yangtze River basin, and in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hebei in the Yellow River basin. The masks of the Zhanjiang nuo dance are very outstanding: among them are wooden masks, masks made of a tough net-like material, cowhide masks and painted cold-makeup faces, all nuo masks with strong local character, as well as Leizhou nuo masks that have been preserved for more than six hundred years. According to legend, in the Zhou dynasty there were already the terms 'great nuo' and 'villagers' nuo'; after the Han dynasty nuo gradually became an important component of the state's orthodox system of ritual law. Ancient Zhanjiang lay in the region of the Baiyue; before the Qing dynasty it belonged to Leizhou Prefecture and Gaozhou Prefecture.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Peng Qiusheng is anchored in the documented technical standards of Nuo Dance in Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong. Within the documented technical tradition of Nuo Dance in Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong: The nuo dance is a primitive dance of a sacrificial-ritual nature in traditional society, and has a long history. The nuo dance takes driving out plague and pestilence and praying for peace and safety as its principal aim, and involves a very strong degree of mass participation. In performance the dancers wear masks, shout as they drive things away, and attract a large crowd of followers and onlookers, so the scene is very lively. Among the many ethnic minorities of the southwestern region there also survive numerous nuo rituals and nuo dances of diverse form and complex function, with strong ethnic character. The Zhanjiang nuo dance is a traditional dance through which the people of ancient Zhanjiang sacrificed to the Thunder God to send off calamity and prayed to the gods for safety; it is popularly known as 'walking the Qing generals', 'examining the soldiers', 'dancing the six generals' and 'dancing the two Zhen', and is transmitted in Huguang and Taiping of Mazhang District, Zhanjiang City, in Nanxing, Songzhu, Leigao, Yangjia, Baisha, Fucheng and Shentang of Leizhou City, and in Huangpo and Bopu of Wuchuan City. According to the Gazetteer of Leizhou Prefecture: 'From the twelfth day it is called lighting the lanterns, and it continues through to the night of the fifteenth. Each night three or four hundred coloured lanterns form one troupe, or five or six hundred form one troupe; firecrackers are let off, fireworks burned, ghost-judge plays and other miscellaneous dramas are staged, strings and pipes and gongs and drums alternate in playing, and visitors come in great numbers until dawn. The city has the most, and each township and market town has them too; this is called nuo, termed sending off calamity, and some also perform nuo up to the twenty-eighth day or the twelfth day of the second month.' The Zhanjiang nuo dance is performed in the activities of sacrificing to the Thunder God and sending off calamity to ensure safety from the thirteenth to the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month or on the twelfth day of the second month, with the activities of the Thunder Chief and the five directional Thunder Generals as the main content. The nuo ritual is conducted by a Daoist priest who sets up an altar in front of the temple, lighting candles, burning incense, burning paper treasure and offering the three kinds of living offerings to the deities. Next the order is proclaimed and talismans are distributed, and the five-coloured flag troupe, the eight treasures, the floating colours, the gong-and-drum band, the nuo dance troupe and the other troops of all the various hosts are respectfully summoned to set up camp and drill before the altar, and then go from household to household chasing ghosts and warding off evil to guarantee peace and safety. Afterwards comes the procession of the deities, a grand procession that travels to the territories under the jurisdiction of the local Earth Gods of the villages and towns to make offerings. After the procession of the deities the troupe returns to the square in front of the temple and the rite of sacrifice to the deities is held once more until it ends. The mask designs are bold and uninhibited, rugged and fierce for the martial figures, and dignified, refined and noble for the civil figures; they carry on the culture of the people of the ancient Leizhou Peninsula in revering and honouring the Thunder God, and are folk art of distinctive character. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The local names of Zhanjiang Nuo dance": A traditional dance for worshipping thunder and averting disaster, known locally by four different names and spread across Machang, Leizhou and Wuchuan. "The Lantern Festival and disaster-expelling entry in the Leizhou gazetteer": The Leizhou gazetteer describes lantern processions of three or four hundred to five or six hundred from the twelfth to the fifteenth night, with firecrackers, fireworks, ghost-judge plays and continuous music — the occasion called Nuo, or expelling disaster. "The thunder chief and the thunder generals of the five directions": Performed between the thirteenth and twenty-eighth of the first month or on the twelfth of the second, the dance centres on the thunder chief and his generals of the five directions. "The full ritual sequence": The full sequence: an altar before the temple, then orders and talismans issued, the flag, treasure, float, drum and Nuo teams mustered, house-to-house exorcism, a procession to each earth god's bounds, and a final sacrifice in the temple square.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Peng Qiusheng was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Nuo Dance, with Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Nuo Dance in Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong as its declared area, and Zhanjiang Mazhang District Culture Zonghe Service Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Pengqiusheng (Zhanjiangshimazhang, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Pengqiusheng · China ICH Official Archive