Shahetengpaizhen
01 · Historical Records
Shiliipu Village in Shahe lies at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, south of the old city of Xingtai, and in ancient times lay on the post road running from north to south. Local oral tradition holds that at the end of the Ming dynasty troops of Li Zicheng who had been routed took refuge in the village, passed the rattan shields and their formations on to the villagers, and left behind the injunction "passed to men only, not to women; passed within, not outside". Qi Jiguang's New Book of Discipline and Training of the Ming dynasty already records the rattan shield troop system and its equipment in detail, which shows that this type of combat method has an earlier origin. Because the clan rules were severe, this formation was for a long time taught only to a few families within the village, and it still preserves a fairly complete original form of the formation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Shahe rattan shield formation has a long history. Tradition holds that at the end of the Ming dynasty, after Li Zicheng's army was routed at Beijing and retreated southward, one of its men slipped away secretly to Shiliipu Village and taught the villagers the rattan shield formation, to be used in guarding the village and in self-defence, leaving behind the injunction "passed to men only, not to women; passed within, not outside". When a rattan shield drill goes into action it is led by war drums, with the large sieving gong, nao cymbals, cha cymbals and bacha cymbals providing accompaniment and atmosphere. In a demonstration of the formation, the attacking and defending sides each field at least four men: the rattan shield fighters hold the shield in the left hand and a short saber in the right, and fight in turn according to the formation against four men gripping three-pronged forks, broad-bladed sabers, long spears or wooden clubs. In actual combat the rattan shield formation is endlessly variable. The common formations include the single-line long snake formation, the eight-trigram linked formation, the plum blossom five-direction formation, the four-gateway bewildering formation and the eight-gateway heart-piercing formation; the ranks can be expanded to thousands upon thousands of men to meet the needs of actual combat. The principal material for making a rattan shield is the thorny rod (jingtiao) common in the Taihang Mountains of northern China. After being soaked until soft and tough, it can be used to weave the shield; when the shield has been completed, a piece of canvas or raw cowhide painted with a tiger's head is fitted over its top. At the same time, dance and music are woven into the scene of the rattan shield formation; it can enrich the cultural life of the masses and give people artistic enjoyment.
The battle formations
Common formations include the single-line snake, the eight-trigram chain, the plum blossom five-way, the four-gate maze and the eight-gate heart-piercing array.
Making the shield from soaked vitex
The shield is woven of soaked vitex with a tiger-head canvas or hide facing, the older military version padded with cotton and hemp.
Drum command and gong accompaniment
A war drum directs the fight while gongs and cymbals accompany, giving the array both dance and musical quality.
Shield and short sabre against the three-pronged fork
Shield bearers armed with short sabres trade blows in turn with men carrying three-pronged forks, broad sabres, spears or staves.
Twelve generations of a male-only lineage
Obeying a rule that bars women and outsiders, the village has passed the array down for twelve generations and now teaches it in the primary school.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The rattan shield formation is a combat project from ancient Chinese battlefields; today it survives only in Shiliipu Village, Shahe City, Hebei Province, where the locals call it "playing the rattan shields". For more than three hundred years the villagers have followed the injunction and handed the rattan shield formation down from generation to generation; it has now been transmitted through twelve generations, with more than 200 people practising it regularly, and locally it has been included in the primary school physical education curriculum. For more than three hundred years the Shahe rattan shield formation has played a positive role both in self-defence against enemies and in enlivening the cultural life of the local people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The rattan shield formation combines attack and defence and is unpredictable; study of it in depth will further enrich the content of ancient Chinese military combat methods. The three surviving inheritors of the rattan shield formation are 80 years old on average and of advanced age. The inheritors are not only few in number, but are also rusty in tactics and technique, their movements are stiff and have been simplified, their formations are untidy, and their competitive level declines day by day. The transmission of the Shahe rattan shield formation is already in danger and urgently needs rescue and protection. Hu Daozheng (official file record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in 1927, a native of Shahe, Hebei. The Shahe rattan shield formation was originally a real combat method of ancient military art. Because the rattan shield is light, strong and durable, and cannot be cut by a blade nor pierced by a spear, the rattan shield fighter was used in ancient battle formations chiefly against the enemy's cavalry. The rattan shields used in ancient warfare were woven chiefly of rattan strips, with a tough frame lined with cotton and hemp fibre, and a pointed top covered with raw cowhide painted with a tiger's head. The rattan shields of today have come to be woven from thorny rods (jingtiao); they are used mostly for artistic performance, and can also build the body and serve self-defence. The contemporary transmission of the Shahe "rattan shield formation" is still carried out through oral instruction and personal demonstration. The linked attack-and-defence routines of the rattan shield formation lock into one another ring by ring and are endlessly variable; their practicality in attacking an enemy and defending oneself is extremely strong, and every move and posture is as firm as a nailed board, unchanged for several hundred years. There is also the ancestral injunction that it is passed to men and not to women, and passed within and not outside. Representative inheritor of the Shahe rattan shield formation, the first national-level intangible cultural heritage project. This has made the range within which the rattan shield formation is taught very narrow, and gives it something of mystery. In order to hand down the skills of the rattan shield formation, Hu Daozheng has departed from established practice, and has up to now trained more than 200 disciples; his rattan shield formation has won awards many times in sports competitions, arts festivals and similar events.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hu Daozheng 01-0047
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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