Liulangzhuangwuhugun
01 · Historical Records
The village was founded in the Ming dynasty and has always had a tradition of esteeming martial arts and artistry. Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff has 108 sets of martial-arena routines; as of the early 21st century 72 sets remained. It evolved out of martial arts routines and is presented in dance form. According to tradition, the item took shape during the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, when villagers organised performances on their own initiative.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff is a traditional folk performance form inherited in Liulangzhuang Village, Haidian Town, Haidian District, Beijing, for more than 200 years. It integrates historical narrative, dance, opera and music, and is an important part of the devotional offerings and performances at Beijing’s traditional temple fairs. Liulangzhuang Village lies at the foot of Yuquan Mountain in the northwest of Beijing, with the Wanquan River to the south, Kunming Lake to the north and Changchun Garden to the east, situated among the famous “three hills and five gardens”. Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff takes the folk legend of “Zhao Kuangyin fighting the five tigers of the Dong family” as its blueprint, adding two roles, the groom and the cart-puller, to the original eight performers. The martial-arena weapons include the brow-height staff, the whip staff, long sticks and short sticks, all of them made of wood, as well as the distinctive rattan shields and double crutches. In performance the martial-arena performers are skilled in technique, coordinate tacitly and fight fiercely. The item now has 15 sets of civil-arena routines. Alongside the martial arena, the civil ensemble plays music suited to each performing routine, sometimes compact and sometimes relaxed, and is very rich. Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff is deeply loved by the villagers and has a broad popular basis. During the Qianlong reign the performance troupe received the honour of an imperial association and was renamed the “Society of Boundless Longevity, Eternal Life and Ten Thousand Goodnesses, Filial and Childish Staff Society”; it has always been famed for the refinement of its staff work. By taking part in traditional temple-fair flower exhibitions such as the Miaofeng Mountain temple fair and the Yaowang temple fair, the social visibility of the item has steadily increased. The routines of Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff have been preserved systematically and intact. Its drilling methods combine the technical features of the sabre, spear, sword and halberd and are broadly called “drill” and “formation”, indicating a close relation to military drill. At the same time its development is inseparable from Beijing opera. Though it draws on folk stories, it was influenced by court performance culture and carries some features of Beijing opera, and the face-painting designs of its ten roles still retain main characteristics of the historical development of Beijing opera.
Zhao Kuangyin against the five Dong tigers
The piece dramatises the legend of Zhao Kuangyin fighting the five tigers of the Dong family, with an added groom and cart-puller.
Brow-high staff, flail staff, cudgel, rattan shield and crutches
All the weapons are of wood, from brow-high staff and flail staff to the distinctive rattan shield and paired crutches.
One hundred and eight martial routines
Of one hundred and eight martial routines seventy-two survived into the present century, named drills and formations after army practice.
Fifteen musical sets and Peking-opera faces
Fifteen musical sets accompany the fighting, while the face painting of the ten roles preserves features of early Peking opera.
The imperially recognised club name
Ennobled as an imperial club in the Qianlong reign, the troupe was famed for its staff technique and performed at the great temple fairs.
The primary-school elective
The village primary school has run the elective for five years, while villagers remain its unpaid transmitters in music and legend.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Liulangzhuang lies at the foot of Yuquan Mountain in the northwest of Beijing, with the Wanquan River to the south, Kunming Lake to the north and Changchun Garden to the east, situated among the “three hills and five gardens” and within the jurisdiction of Haidian Town; Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff has been inherited here for more than two hundred years. The earliest verifiable written record of the item dates no earlier than the twenty-second year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1896); it has since been transmitted through ten more generations, with more than two hundred named inheritors in total, and family inheritance and community inheritance are the main ways it has survived to the present day.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Family inheritance and community inheritance are the main modes of transmission of the item. There is no written record of its transmission before the twenty-second year of the Guangxu reign (1896 CE); it was subsequently transmitted through 10 more generations, with 210-odd named inheritors in all. At present the item is in good condition, its body of inheritors keeps growing and transmission through education is valued. Liulangzhuang Primary School has offered Five-Tiger Staff as an elective course for five consecutive years, and more than thirty pupils are gradually becoming a new force in performance. In civil-arena rehearsals and the related cultural legends, the villagers of Liulangzhuang have always been voluntary disseminators and inheritors of the item. With its long history and refined technique, Liulangzhuang Five-Tiger Staff is an important form of folk physical culture and dance, and is of significant reference value for studying the regulations and historical trajectory of Qing-dynasty imperial fair performances. Protecting this cultural heritage well plays a positive role in carrying forward traditional culture, developing nationwide fitness sport, enriching the leisure life of the people and promoting social harmony.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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