Minjian Shehuo Performance
01 · Historical Records
Folk shehuo is a popular self-entertainment activity performed during the Spring Festival; it originated in the ancient worship of the earth god and the fire god. Later, to commemorate this battle, the local people organised themselves carefully and rehearsed hard, performing publicly in the form of painted-face shehuo, a tradition that has been handed down for more than six hundred years. The performers of Taolinping shehuo possess outstanding martial skill. During the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty they were appointed by the court as the imperial-standard guard, and so the annual Zhaozhuangling imperial standard of Jingxing has always been escorted by Taolinping shehuo, which is why it is called the "escort-the-standard shehuo."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"She" refers to the god of the earth; "huo" is the ancestral founder of fire, the legendary fire god. Historically a country founded on agriculture, China used its land for cultivation and its fire for cooking food and keeping warm; both were the material basis of people's survival and development. In antiquity, primitive thinking led people to believe that fire too had a "spirit," and they came to worship it as a divine object of special significance, thus forming the idea of venerating fire. From the ancient worship of the earth god and the fire god grew the custom of sacrificing to she and huo. As society developed and people's understanding deepened, elements of entertainment were gradually added to these sacrificial rites, which in the end developed into a folk entertainment activity of great scale and rich content. By performance form, shehuo falls into two categories: tableau shehuo and performance shehuo. Tableau shehuo includes the procession forms of cloth shehuo, back-carried shehuo, horse shehuo, cart shehuo, core-frame shehuo, mountain shehuo and mask shehuo, which mainly display character modelling and craftsmanship; performance shehuo includes ground-platform shehuo and stilt shehuo, which mainly stage combat performances in courtyards. Shehuo draws on folk legends and dramatic stories for its themes; one or a group of figures presents one story, and one story constitutes one "turn" of shehuo. The performers paint shehuo facial make-up, wear shehuo costumes and carry shehuo staffs. In a shehuo procession a scout on horseback goes first, followed by the shehuo association banner, the firearm (cannon) squad, the flag squad and the shehuo troupe, with the gong-and-drum band bringing up the rear. Reform and opening up brought new vitality to the art of folk shehuo; under the new conditions the traditional art has been carried forward and has become a folk cultural activity that the masses greatly enjoy. Painted-face shehuo is a folk performance held every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in Taolinping Village, Xiaozuo Town, Jingxing County, Hebei Province. Legend has it that more than eight hundred years ago a fierce battle was fought in Jingxing County, in which several generals fought bloody engagements and defeated the invaders. Taolinping painted-face shehuo presents battle scenes from stories such as those of the Three Kingdoms and Liangshan, in sixteen turns; each turn tells one story. The first fifteen turns depict the battles of famous generals of past ages, while the sixteenth was created by Zhao Weihai, an old artist of Taolinping Village. Taolinping painted-face shehuo involves no singing and no speech; the identity of the characters and the content of the story can only be distinguished by careful observation of the performers' facial shapes and movement patterns.
The sixteen turns of the painted-face show
Sixteen turns enact battle scenes from the Three Kingdoms and Liangshan tales; the sixteenth was created locally by the old artist Zhao Weihai.
A show without song or speech
With no singing or narration, identities are read purely from face shapes, moves and formations.
The fifteenth-day performance
Once each year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the troupe marches village to village in a fixed order.
The old escort of the imperial standard
The troupe was once made escort of the imperial standard in the Jiajing era and thereafter annually escorted it, earning its present title.
Formations and painted faces
Formation drills and face painting are the core skills, learned from childhood; Yang Fengshan started at six and performed with the troupe by ten.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The shehuo of Taolinping village alone is performed on a fixed date, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month each year, and the villagers call it painted-face shehuo. The troupe arranges sixteen turns in programme order, each turn forming one story scene. Taolinping lies in Xiaozuo Town, Jingxing County, and belongs to the Zhaozhuangling area; in former days the shehuo of this area was appointed by the court as the imperial-standard guard, and once a year the standard was escorted by Taolinping shehuo, which is how it came by the name "escort-the-standard shehuo." The village also has an old rule centring on the military-style escort: at each festival the troupe first performs the sequence for receiving the standard, and only then opens its own sixteen turns. Transmission has largely circulated within the village: Zhao Xiwen received the true teaching of the artists among his ancestors, and the mixing of pigments, the painting of facial make-up and the drills of the "running formations" are all family traditions. Yang Fengshan began at the age of six studying under the old artist Su Laixi, taking in the strengths of Zhao Mingcheng and others as well; he thoroughly mastered both the facial make-up designs and the martial arts routines, and then passed them on to the next generation together with Zhao Xiwen.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Taolinping painted-face shehuo has a long history and deep roots. In performance its characters wear striking facial designs, its costumes and props are ancient, its performing troupe is large, and its performers possess superb skill. All of this makes Taolinping painted-face shehuo an important vehicle for the transmission of folk culture in Hebei, with research value in fields such as folklore studies. Zhao Xiwen (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in January 1935, a native of Jingxing County, Hebei Province. From childhood he was fond of martial arts and the arts; at the age of eight or nine he took part in village-organised performances of programmes such as "Da Ba Wang Bian" (Beating the Overlord's Whip) and "Dou Dizhu Fen Tian Di" (Struggling Against the Landlords and Dividing the Land), and he also sang in traditional period plays. Having received the true teaching of the artists among his ancestors, he has fully mastered such skills as mixing pigments and painting facial make-up, as well as the "running formation" drills. His direct disciples include Xu Wenwen, Yang Laihui, Yang Fengshan, Yang Chenghai and Yang Jie. He is a representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects — folk shehuo (Taolinping painted-face shehuo). Yang Fengshan (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in March 1964, a native of Jingxing County, Hebei Province. He began studying shehuo at the age of six under the old artist Su Laixi. At the age of ten he performed formally with the shehuo troupe in his own and neighbouring villages. Because of his fine performance skill, he has repeatedly been rated an outstanding performer. Building on his study and inheritance of the shehuo skills of the old artists Zhao Mingcheng, Zhao Xian, Zhao Ruyun and Su Laixi, he worked hard in practice, comprehensively mastered the facial make-up designs and martial arts routines of painted-face shehuo, and introduced innovations. Together with Zhao Xiwen, he has passed the entire body of skills on to the next generation. He is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects — folk shehuo (Taolinping painted-face shehuo). Every year he organises and takes part in painted-face shehuo activities, and has repeatedly received awards from cultural departments at various levels.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Du Tonghai 03-1470
- Zhao Xiwen 03-1471
- Yang Fengshan 05-2992
- Zhao Zhigao 05-2993
- Lvchunjing 05-2994
- Sun Shulin 05-2995
- Li Jianzhong 05-2996
- Pei Baolin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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