Zhuang Dabiandan
01 · Historical Records
Zhuang pole-beating has a long history, with relevant records in Liu Xun's Lingtable Luyi of the Tang dynasty, in Zhou Qufei's Lingwai Daida of the Song dynasty and in the Baishan Sizhi compiled during the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhuang pole-beating, called "da lu lie" in Zhuang, is a traditional Zhuang dance that uses shoulder poles, benches and similar objects as props and imitates agricultural production and labour. Zhuang pole-beating has a broad popular basis; men, women, old and young can all perform it. At every Spring Festival and on the third day of the third lunar month, the Zhuang men, women, old and young of Du'an County cheerfully take up the pole-beating dance under the eaves, in the public square and on the threshing ground. The dance movements are plain and unadorned, with lightness and heaviness, strength and weakness, fast and slow well contrasted; there are set forms such as the two-person dance, the four-person flower-crossing and the multi-person flower-crossing, and movements such as standing, squatting, the bow step and turning to strike; the dancers are mostly in even numbers. In performance the dancers hold shoulder poles and gather around a long bench, striking the ground, the top and side edges of the wooden bench with the poles, or striking the poles against each other, and dancing to a set rhythm, accompanied by percussion made up of bamboo tubes, skin drums, gongs and small cymbals, which produces a bright rhythm that rises and falls with vigour, in a lively atmosphere. The dance movements of pole-beating depict the labour processes of the Zhuang people — harrowing the fields and transplanting rice, drawing water and weeding the fields, harvesting and threshing, pounding rice and tasting the new harvest, spinning and weaving — and fully express the joy they feel in celebrating a good harvest.
Striking the ground, the bench and each other
Known in Zhuang as dalulie, the dance strikes the ground, the bench top and side, or the clappers against one another in set rhythms.
Duets and threading patterns
The set figures run from duets to four- and many-person threading, with standing, crouching, bow-stance and turning strikes.
From ploughing to tasting the new rice
The dance mimes the whole farming year, from ploughing, planting and bailing water to harvest, hulling rice and weaving.
The supple wrist
The technique lives in the wrists, which must stay flexible and taut by turns so that the blows fall light and springy.
Bamboo tubes, drum, gong and small cymbals
Bamboo tubes, a skin drum, gong and small cymbals supply the bright, rising and falling accompaniment.
Records from the Tang to the Qing
Tang and Song travel records and the Daoguang-era Baishan gazetteer all note the form, showing a millennium of farm-tool dancing in Lingnan.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhuang pole-beating is widely current in Du'an, Mashan, Shanglin, Dahua, Donglan and Nandan counties of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with Du'an Yao Autonomous County of Hechi City as its core area of transmission, and the Zhuang villagers on both banks of the Hongshui River basin are its main inheritors. At every Spring Festival and on the third day of the third lunar month the Zhuang of Du'an, men, women, old and young, dance pole-beating under the eaves, in the public square and on the threshing ground, striking the top and side edges of the long bench with the poles and keeping a bright rhythm with percussion such as bamboo tubes and skin drums.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Zhuang pole-beating is widely current in Du'an, Mashan, Shanglin, Dahua, Donglan and Nandan counties of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with Du'an Yao Autonomous County of Hechi City as its core area of transmission. The striking technique of the shoulder pole is expressed chiefly in the wrists; both wrists must remain flexible and supple and well measured in tension and relaxation, and only then can the strokes be free and easy and full of elasticity. The Zhuang pole-beating dance originates in farm labour and is rich in content, edifying as well as entertaining; the Zhuang villagers on both banks of the Hongshui River basin in Guangxi are the main inheritors of this heritage, and in their spare time and in festival activities they, through family, master-apprentice and group transmission, ensure that the project is handed down from generation to generation. At present, with government support, the protecting unit has adopted a number of measures, organising pole-beating teams throughout the county, carrying the project into schools and holding related publicity and demonstration activities, increasing the intensity of protection and transmission and achieving good results. Zhuang pole-beating is the artistic generalisation and summation that the Zhuang people living in the mountains make of production and life and of the relationship between human beings and nature; it is an important vehicle for the historical culture of the Zhuang and for humanistic spirits such as their outlook on nature and their view of life. It is of value in removing estrangement between people and in promoting cultural identity, and it also plays a positive role in meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the Zhuang people and in strengthening their cultural confidence and cohesion.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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