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.
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. Benxi shehuo is a traditional folk performance form. It originated in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, the birthplace of Western Zhou culture, and flourished in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong and Hebei; it is now mainly distributed in the Wolong, Niuxintai, Pieling, Xiaoshi, Quanshui and Nandian areas along the upper reaches of the Taizi River in Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province. Benxi shehuo activities are generally held during the Spring Festival. In them, performers use the eighteen kinds of weapons as props and fight in pairs, which is how the form earned the name "martial yangge," also called "martial shehuo." This "martial yangge" is very similar to the "ground-stall shehuo" among the walking shehuo forms; performers drew the essence from Peking opera and used it to enrich the performance form and content. Benxi shehuo has complex plots; at first there were only a few movements such as victory and defeat forms, which later gradually developed into complete sets of movements, while the performance procedure was largely influenced by local Benxi custom.
Martial duels with eighteen kinds of weapons
Performers fight in pairs with eighteen kinds of weapons, blades, staffs and spears alike, hence the name martial yangge.
From set moves to full routines
Beginning with a few victory and defeat moves, the art grew into full routines shaped by local custom.
Village societies along the Taihang tributary
The form is centred on villages along the upper reaches of the Tai River, including Wolong, Niuxintai, Pieling, Xiaoshi and Quan Shui.
Miming borrowed from Peking opera
Artists drew on Peking opera to enrich the form, giving the weapon work a more continuous sequence.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Benxi shehuo spreads along both banks of the upper reaches of the Taizi River, and is mainly distributed in the Wolong, Niuxintai, Pieling, Xiaoshi, Quanshui and Nandian areas. The village societies along this water route prize the martial over the literary: performers use the eighteen kinds of weapons as props and fight in pairs, handling blades, staffs and spears alike, which is how they came by the alternative names of martial yangge and martial shehuo. The stage is not set up on a theatre platform; courtyards, river beaches and the sides of mill tracks all serve as performance grounds. The ground-stall shehuo of the walking forms is close in form to the martial yangge; performers absorbed postures and combat sequences from Peking opera, turning singing, recitation, acting and fighting into paired practice without drums or flags. The routines were not fixed in a single pass either: at first there were only a few movements such as victory and defeat forms, which later gradually grew into complete sets, while the procedure followed local custom, most often the order of greeting at the gate, displaying the formation, joining combat and calling off the troops. The inheritor Lu Chunjing entered his village's shehuo troupe at seventeen, starting by playing the leading roles and mastering the whole set of ritual rules; in later years he turned to helping the village troupe restore its old routines and procedures.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lu Chunjing (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Manchu nationality, born in May 1945, a native of Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province. He entered his village's shehuo troupe at the age of seventeen, played leading roles in shehuo activities, and gradually mastered the complete ritual rules. He has a handsome stage appearance, knows many martial combat routines, and his moves are continuous and precise; he is proficient with all weapons such as blades, staffs and spears. He is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects — folk shehuo (Benxi shehuo). Owing to his advanced age, he now mainly engages in transmission work, organising and guiding his village's shehuo troupe in restoring the traditional routines and procedures of shehuo activities, and promoting the protection and transmission of Benxi shehuo.
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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