He Junyi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He Junyi, Male, Unspecified, from Suide, Shaanxi, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Yangge Dance (Ⅲ-2). The tradition is documented in Suide, Shaanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yangge Dance in Suide, Shaanxi: It is distributed mainly in Yulin, Yan'an, Suide, Mizhi and other places in Shaanxi; it has a long history, rich content and diverse forms. Yangge absorbs artistic elements from such local forms as the water boat, the donkey run, stilts, the lion dance and "ti changzi", and so forms mighty columns of yangge dancers. It can also be divided by movement style and content into "wenchangzi" (civil field), "wuchangzi" (martial field), "ti changzi" (kicking field) and "chouchangzi" (clown field), and so on; of these, "ti changzi" is a duet depicting the love life of men and women, with fairly difficult dance movements that require the display of such demanding techniques as "ruan yao" (soft waist), "er qijiao" (second rise of the foot), "sanjiao bu luodi" (three steps without touching the ground), "longzhao chuanyun" (dragon claws through the clouds), "jinji duli" (golden rooster standing on one leg) and "jingou daogua" (golden hook hung upside down). Yangge has a long history. Among the folk dance troupes described by Zhou Mi of the Southern Song in his Wulin Jiushi (Old Events of the Wulin) there is already a record of cuntian le ("village field music"); the Xinnian Zayong Chao (Selected New Year Verses) by Wu Xilin of the Qing dynasty states explicitly the lineage between the yangge that survives today and the Song-dynasty cuntian le. Suide can be called the centre of northern Shaanxi yangge. The villages there still retain traditional yangge performance procedures, ritual customs and stylistic features; among them are both the ancient villagers' exorcism dances "shenhui yangge" and "ershiba su lao yangge" (old yangge of the twenty-eight mansions), and the new yangge that only arose after 1942. Northern Shaanxi yangge became the star of the 1942 new yangge movement in Yan'an, was endowed with a new spiritual character and contemporary content, and spread throughout the country as the revolutionary situation developed.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He is a representative figure of the Nanlu (Southern Route) yangge, the martial style known as wuchangzi, within northern Shaanxi yangge. From the age of nine he toured the villages with the yangge troupe of a neighbouring village every Spring Festival, and at thirteen he began performing independently the baotou (female-role) part in the two-person scene, erren changzi, of northern Shaanxi yangge. He chiefly inherited the performance style and repertoire of Liu Peixiong, a celebrated local baotou performer. He performs mainly the female-impersonation pieces of the two-person and three-person scenes, and is also skilled at leading the troupe as santou (umbrella head) and singing yangge songs. Building on traditional performance techniques, he discarded the coarse and retained the refined and constantly innovated, heightening the formal beauty of movements such as Pu Mian Zhao Jing (Facing the Mirror), Yao Shan Yi Bu (Fan-Waving Steps), Dou Shan Shan Yao (Fan-Shaking Waist) and Da Shan Han Xiu (Fan-Open Shyness). Within the documented technical tradition of Yangge Dance in Suide, Shaanxi: Yangge is a collective term for a highly popular and representative genre of Chinese folk dance (chiefly in the north); different regions have their own names, styles and forms. In folk usage the term divides into two: the version performed on stilts is called "gaqiao yangge" (stilt yangge), and the version performed without stilts is called "di yangge" (ground yangge). The term "yangge" as used in modern times usually refers to "di yangge". In most places today yangge takes the form of a yangge troupe; a troupe numbers at least a dozen or so people and at times as many as a hundred. There are group dances as well as two-person and three-person dances and many other performance formats; according to the needs of the role the performers hold the appropriate props — handkerchief, umbrella, sticks, drum, coin-whip and the like — and dance freely to the accompaniment of gongs, drums, suona and other wind and percussion instruments. The dancing methods, movements and styles of yangge differ from place to place: some are imposing and heroic, others gentle and charming — a dazzling variety that never fails to delight. Yangge is one of the most representative folk dance genres in northern China. It is at once performative and self-amusing, entertaining the performers as much as the audience, and is deeply loved by ordinary people. Every region has produced some representative folk yangge artists, and many folk artists have played an important part in building the dance undertaking of the People's Republic of China. Northern Shaanxi yangge is a traditional dance with broad popular and representative character circulating on the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi. It is also called "nao honghuo", "nao yangge", "nao shehuo", "nao yangge" and so on. Of these, Suide yangge is the most representative. A yangge performance commonly involves several dozen performers and sometimes nearly a hundred; led by the "santou" (umbrella head), they stamp to the resounding gongs and drums and match their steps to the piercing suona, twisting, swaying, walking, jumping and turning in abandon. Northern Shaanxi plateau yangge performance is extremely lively when immersed in a joyful and celebratory atmosphere. In the traditional old yangge and shenhui yangge are preserved the sacrificial customs of "qi chang" (raising the field), "ye miao" (paying respects at the shrine) and "jing shen" (worshipping the deity); the performance also includes activities such as "baimen" (also called "yan menzi", greeting along the doors), "da caimen" (erecting the coloured gate), "cai dachang" (treading the great field) and "zhuan jiuqu" (turning the nine bends). A yangge troupe ranges from several dozen to a hundred people. The performance includes movements such as "yuan diu" (twisting on the spot), "zou shizi bu" (walking a cross-step), "san bu yi tiao" (one leap in three steps), "xie shen bu" (slanting-body step) and "dou jian bu" (shoulder-shaking step). Northern Shaanxi yangge is divided into the "dachang" (large field) and the "xiaochang" (small field); the large field has richly changing formations, with several hundred arrangements such as "long baiwei" (dragon swishing its tail), "juan baicai" (rolling cabbage), "shizi meihua" (cross-shaped plum blossom), "erlong tushui" (two dragons spouting water) and "shier liandeng" (twelve lotus lanterns); the small field includes "shuichuan" (water boat), "pao lu" (donkey run), "gaoqiao" (stilts) and "bawang bian" (overlord's whip). Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Opening the ground, visiting the temple, honouring the gods": The sacrificial protocol preserved in the old and temple-fair Yangge, alongside door-to-door greetings, decorated arches, ground-stamping and the nine-bend maze. "Large-field formations": The formations of the large-field section of northern Shaanxi Yangge, numbering several hundred patterns including Dragon Sweeping Tail and Cabbage Roll. "Small-field items": The small-field items of northern Shaanxi Yangge, which together with local lion dances and kicking-field dances form the great Yangge troupe. "Ti Changzi (the Kicking Field)": A duet depicting courtship, demanding difficult feats such as the soft waist, double kick, three feet never landing, dragon claw piercing the clouds and golden hook hanging upside down.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He was a man of Han ethnicity, born in January 1939 in Suide County, Shaanxi Province, and died in September 2012. He was a national representative bearer of Northern Shaanxi Yangge, a third-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. He Junyi · National Representative Bearer Archive