Manchu Zhenzhuqiu
01 · Historical Records
The Songhua River that flows through the Ula region produced pearls of the finest quality, known as 'Eastern Pearls' (dongzhu). Under Qing regulations, the Dasheng Ula office was required to collect pearls each year and present them as tribute to the imperial court.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qing government once established the Dasheng Ula Superintendent's Office in the Ula region, charging it with collecting and presenting various local products as tribute. This was arduous labor performed by special tribute collectors (dashengding), carried out each year in late autumn when the river mussels were mature. The divers had to plunge more than 15 meters below the surface to reach the giant mussels and extract the pearls, and every year men died in the process. During the pearl-collecting season the divers could not go home for half a year; to pass the lonely, hard days they found amusement in their toil, creating the pearl ball game. Pearl ball imitates the labor of the pearl collectors. In a match, players in the 'water zone' may pass, throw, scoop, or roll the 'pearl' (the ball) at will, striving to have the teammate who stands in the scoring zone holding a scoop net capture the 'pearl'. On the court attack and defense ebb and flow, the silver ball darts back and forth, the four clam-shaped rackets open and snap shut, and the pair of scoop nets strive to make a catch. The whole contest is tense and fierce, dazzlingly brilliant, and hard to take in at a glance. The pearl ball court is made up of three parts: the water zone, the restricted zone (the clam zone), and the scoring zone. Each team fields seven players: four in the water zone pass, receive, throw, scoop, and roll the 'pearl'; two, holding clam-shaped rackets, block the opposing team's throws in the restricted zone; and one, holding a scoop net, stands in the scoring zone and tries to catch the pearls passed by his teammates. Scoring is based on the number of pearls the scoop nets catch within the allotted time; balls blocked out or knocked down by the rackets score no points. The game therefore tests both running and feinting, as well as the rapport between the net-player and the blockers.
Reservoir, restricted and goal zones
The court divides into the reservoir, where the ball is passed and shot, the restricted zone with its clam-paddle blockers, and the goal zone with the net.
The net and the clam paddles
The gear mimics pearl diving: a scoop net for the scorer and clam-shaped paddles that open and close in the restricted zone.
Eastern pearls and the Ula office
The Songhua river yielded the finest eastern pearls for the court, gathered under the Qing office of the Ula hunting and fishing service.
Half a year away from home
Divers had to reach fifteen metres down for the giant mussels and spent half the year away, and the game grew out of that idleness.
Transmission in Ula Street
Dating back three centuries, the game originates in Ula Street town of Jilin city and is now taught in local schools and community groups.
Seven-a-side teamwork
Players may pass, shoot, tap or roll the pearl within the reservoir, all to let their own net bearer make the catch.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
For more than three hundred years, pearl ball, as a traditional Manchu sport unique to the Ula region, has been highly esteemed by local people. It is a living fossil of the Manchu fishing-and-hunting way of life and holds profound historical significance for the transmission of Manchu culture. In Jilin City, pearl ball takes Wula Street Manchu Town in Longtan District as its place of origin and is practiced mainly in Wula Street and the Manchu-inhabited townships of Dakouqin, Jiangmifeng, and Jinzhu, as well as in primary and secondary schools and communities in the urban districts. In the Qing dynasty Wula Street was the seat of the Dasheng Ula Superintendent's Office, which was charged with harvesting tributes such as Eastern Pearls and Huso sturgeon; remains of the superintendent's office and official residences can still be found in the street today. Local people include pearl ball, together with traditional Manchu sports and fishing-and-hunting folk customs, in cultural displays and school sports activities, and the distribution of pearl ball here shares a common origin with that of Yitong and other places while following a different course.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Manchu Zhenzhuqiu.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Pearl ball is one of the competitive activities that the Manchu people have kept alive without interruption for more than three hundred years; its place of origin is Wula Street Manchu Town, Longtan District, Jilin City, Jilin Province. Today Manchu pearl ball activities have fallen far short of the scale they should attain, and the sport urgently needs to be carried forward and expanded.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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