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. It takes the entertaining of gods and of people as its content and uses song-and-dance and sacrificial activities as its vehicle, containing such varied cultural content as history, religion, folk custom, art and commerce. For five days before and after, the streets are dressed up for processions, and the lively miscellaneous plays mounted include dry boats, bamboo horses, carried poles and yangge. Buying and selling are as thick as clouds and coming and going as constant as flowing water; even from several tens of li away people come by carriage and galloping horse, and the prosperity surpasses that of every other gathering in the county. The activities begin with monks and nuns chanting scriptures; after this a memorial tablet is raised in sacrifice to heaven, and then the association head leads all the members in praying to the heavens, wishing that the year will bring favourable weather and peace for the nation and the people; finally the various villages perform programmes before the temple, bringing the event to its climax. When the gathering is over, everyone shares a meal and then disperses. From costume and props to sung texts, Yixian shehuo bears the characteristics of the folk art of the northern ethnic minorities, displaying a distinctive folk character.
The Nine Dragons and Eighteen Associations term
Known as the nine-dragon eighteen-association rite, it is held from the twenty-first to twenty-fifth of April, with the twenty-third as the main day.
Chanting, the heaven-offering tablet and village performances
Monks open with chanting, a tablet is raised in sacrifice, members pray, and village troupes perform before the temple to a climax.
The parade of miscellaneous plays
For five days the streets fill with dry boat, hobby horse, pole and yangge performances, with crowds thicker than any other local fair.
The association recorded in the Yixian gazetteer
The 1928 Yixian gazetteer records that thirteen settlements around the eastern river held their association gathering on the twenty-third of April.
The closing shared meal
Afterwards all share a meal before dispersing, the final stage that carries the gathering from temple back to village.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yixian shehuo was originally called the "Nine Dragons and Eighteen Associations." It is a traditional folk cultural activity formed by the people of all ethnic groups in Yixian County, Liaoning Province, in the course of their long pastoral and agricultural life, and it circulates mainly in the Dayushubao, Zhangjiabao, Jiudaoling and Gaotaizi areas of Yixian County, at the confluence of the Daling and Xi rivers in western Liaoning. The "Records of Civil Affairs" chapter of the Yixian County Gazetteer (1928) contains an explicit record of the local shehuo: "On the twenty-third day of the fourth month, the thirteen settlements of Qijiazi, Goukouzi, Chefang and Yangfang, on either side of the Xi river east of the city, held their grand gathering. In Yixian, the term of the Nine Dragons and Eighteen Associations runs each year from April 21 to April 25, with the twenty-third as the main day, on which shehuo activities are held.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The underlying character of Yixian shehuo is that the entertaining of gods and of people go hand in hand: it uses song-and-dance and sacrificial activities as its vehicle and holds several layers of content — history, religion, folk custom, art and commerce. For five days before and after, the streets are dressed up for processions, and the lively miscellaneous plays mounted include dry boats, bamboo horses, carried poles and yangge; buying and selling are as thick as clouds and coming and going as constant as flowing water, and even from several tens of li away people come by carriage and galloping horse, so that the prosperity surpasses that of every other gathering in the county. The annual local shehuo activity opens with monks and nuns chanting scriptures; after this a memorial tablet is raised in sacrifice to heaven, and then the association head leads all the members in praying to the heavens, wishing that the year will bring favourable weather and peace for the nation and the people; finally the various villages perform programmes before the temple to a climax, and when the gathering is over everyone shares a meal and disperses. Throughout the whole process, from costume and props to sung texts, the art bears the characteristics of the folk art of the northern ethnic minorities. The protection work in Yixian is undertaken by the Yixian County Cultural Tourism Development Service Centre, which ensures that this folk custom, grown out of farming and sacrifice, always has a place to continue locally.
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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