Qianfuquan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Qianfuquan, Male, Tibetan, from Jinchuan, Sichuan, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Guozhuang Dance (Ⅲ-20). The tradition is documented in Jinchuan, Sichuan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Guozhuang Dance in Jinchuan, Sichuan: According to the region in which it is popular, guozhuang dance can further be divided into categories such as Ganzi guozhuang and Manai guozhuang. Manai guozhuang is passed on mainly in the upper Dadu River valley around Manai in Jinchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Yongzhong Lading Monastery (later called Guangfa Monastery) is an important place for local Bon and Tibetan Buddhist activity. Manai guozhuang is sung in the local Tibetan spoken dialect, and both its melodies and its lyrics are markedly different from the guozhuang of the Ganzi area in melodic contour and in step patterns. Men and women form teams and make a circle, facing inward, and dance gracefully. Manai guozhuang has long been passed on within Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province. It originated in the period when the Bon religion built Yongzhong Lading Monastery in Jinchuan (the Earth Dog year of the Tibetan calendar), and to this day it has a history of more than a thousand years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Qianfuquan is anchored in the documented technical standards of Guozhuang Dance in Jinchuan, Sichuan. Within the documented technical tradition of Guozhuang Dance in Jinchuan, Sichuan: Guozhuang dance is a type of folk dance popular in Tibetan-inhabited areas. It changes continually as the social history of the Tibetan people develops. There are songs and dances reflecting labour such as threshing highland barley, twisting wool, feeding livestock and brewing wine, and there are songs and dances portraying Tibetan customs and performed at weddings, house completions and when welcoming guests and entertaining visitors. Guozhuang dance is divided into old-style guozhuang and new-style guozhuang. Old-style guozhuang is sacrificial in character: only its set lyrics may be sung and no alteration whatsoever is permitted, and the dance is generally slow, steady, archaic and solemn. New-style guozhuang mostly reflects farming and herding production and commercial and trading activity; both its lyrics and its dance movements are relatively free and flexible. An ordinary guozhuang dance is not limited in the number of performers; it may be danced by one person or by many. Its dance steps fall into two main categories, 'guozhuo' and 'kuzhuo'; the former is walking dance, the latter turning dance. Manai guozhuang was originally a sacrificial activity of the Bon religion. Elements of Bon culture are woven into the performance, forming a set of special procedures; for example, before the performance a Bon lama is invited to chant scriptures and to make a Weisang offering (burning cypress branches) in worship of the sacred Meterdo mountain. Before a Manai guozhuang performance begins, precious animal hides, antlers and other gifts must be presented to the tribal chiefs and tusi leaders, or a khata is offered to relatives who have gone off to war, wishing them an early victorious return. In more recent times this was changed to have the female leader present a khata and a pazi (silk handkerchief) to the male leader as a mark of respect, in the hope that he will lead the dance troupe in a good performance of guozhuang. In recent years, through continuous reinvention, one or two jars of zha wine are first placed in the middle of the ground before the performance; a highly respected artist recites words of blessing to open the jars, and cypress branches are lit at the same time. When Manai guozhuang is performed, the men's and women's troupes sing a long, melodious song together, and the male and female lead dancers come to the centre of the ground following the singing. The female lead dancer, holding a khata in both hands, performs the ritual of three bows and then presents the khata to the male lead dancer, who likewise performs the three bows, and the performance formally begins. The dance movements of Manai guozhuang combine movement and stillness, alternating suddenly between the two, a feature comparatively seldom seen among minority dances. The metrical pattern of the lyrics is strict, with lines in seven-syllable and eight-syllable forms. The tunes use a pentatonic-derived heptatonic scale in the jue mode; the melody is beautiful and flowing, with little rise and fall. The costume of Manai guozhuang consists of three layers and is entirely unlike that of other guozhuang: the outermost is a cape 1.8 metres long and 1.3 metres wide in alternating black and white, changed in modern times to alternating red and white; the second is a Tibetan robe with a large overlapping front panel; the innermost is a long pleated skirt in white with coloured decoration. As the times have changed, people's feeling for guozhuang has grown steadily more indifferent. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Cloak, Tibetan robe and pleated skirt": Its costume is a unique three-piece set: a black-and-white cloak 1.8 m by 1.3 m, a front-buttoning robe and a pleated skirt. "Lama chanting and juniper offering to Mount Merdo": Originally a Bon rite, the dance keeps a special protocol: a Bon lama chants and juniper is burned to Mount Merdo before dancing. "Offering scarves and three prostrations": The two lead dancers meet at the centre; the woman offers a scarf after three prostrations, the man answering in kind, and the dance begins. "Opening the jar of wine and burning cypress": Today jars of barley wine are set out and opened with a blessing while cypress burns; formerly pelts and antlers were offered to chieftains.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Qianfuquan was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Guozhuang Dance, with Jinchuan, Sichuan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Guozhuang Dance in Jinchuan, Sichuan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Jinchuan, Sichuan as its declared area, and Jinchuan County Cultural 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. Qianfuquan (Jinchuan, Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Qianfuquan · China ICH Official Archive