Lantern Fair
01 · Historical Records
The Lantern Festival is also known as the Festival of Lights. The custom of lighting lanterns at Yuanxiao (the fifteenth night of the first lunar month) originated in the Han dynasty, developed further during the Tang and Song dynasties, and by the Ming and Qing periods lantern fairs across the country had reached their peak. In Dashao Village, the lantern is taken out for display only once every 18 years, and with each display a section is added, each section being 1.6 meters long; at present the Yangshe (Ocean Snake) Lantern has reached a length of 104 meters.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The lantern fair is a traditional popular festive celebration of the Chinese people. It is widespread throughout the country and is also quite prevalent in overseas Chinese communities. Lantern fairs are mostly held during the Lantern Festival period, though some places hold them on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month; the character of the fairs differs from region to region. According to traditional custom, on the night of the full moon on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people hang and light colorful lanterns of every kind, while holding celebrations such as viewing, admiring and competing with lanterns, in prayers for family reunion, longevity and abundant harvests. Centered on the lantern fair, localities have developed a series of distinctive Yuanxiao Festival customs, such as guessing lantern riddles, eating yuanxiao (sweet rice dumplings) and walking off the hundred ailments. Over time, Lantern Festival activities have grown ever richer, and in many places traditional folk performances such as dragon lantern dances, lion dances, stilt walking, land-boat dancing and yangge (rice-sprout song) dancing, Taiping drum playing and taige (carried platforms) have been added to the festivities, making the lantern fairs still more lively and exuberant. The Yangshe lantern originated in Dashao Village, Baogong Town, Feidong County, Hefei City, Anhui Province. Legend has it that at the transition between the Yuan and Ming dynasties, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Shao family in Dashao Village hid in a mountain cave to escape the Yuan soldiers; when the soldiers discovered the two and attempted to violate them, a white python several dozen feet long flew down the cliff and scattered the soldiers, so the two women were saved. The Shao family concluded that the great python was the 'snake spirit of the eastern sea', and in gratitude for its lifesaving deed the villagers made a snake lantern, naming it the 'Yangshe' (Ocean Snake) to signify that the great python was a snake spirit of the ocean. From that time on, the Yangshe lantern was passed down from generation to generation among the Shao clan members of Dashao Village. The making of the Yangshe lantern is a complex craft with a complete set of methods — binding, tying, chiseling, hooking, tilting, pressing and lining — transmitted through the oral instruction and personal demonstration of old artists. The snake's body is woven from bamboo strips into a scaly shape and covered with white cloth, without painted scales. When lit at night, the candlelight shines from inside the snake's belly and a scale pattern appears on the white cloth. The snake's eyes are also lit with candles, so that it looks vivid and lifelike, full of spirit and vigor. The Yangshe lantern performance includes dance movements such as 'the long snake goes to sea', 'walking the winding path', 'rocking the great cart', 'four pythons turn over' and 'coiling the pagoda', accompanied by gongs and drums and the folk ceremonial cannon known as the 'three-eyed gun'; the main musical pieces include 'Long Chui' (Long Roll) and 'Shifan' (Ten Variations). Today the Yangshe lantern has become an important activity for the residents of Dashao Village in celebrating the Lantern Festival; its distinctive snake dance has a unique charm and is deeply loved by the people of city and countryside.
Adding a section every eighteen years
In Dashao village the lantern is taken out only once every eighteen years, gaining a new section of 1.6 metres each time, until it reached 104 metres long.
Six binding and shaping operations
The lantern is built through a fixed sequence of binding, piercing, hooking, tilting, pressing and lining, transmitted orally from one craftsman to the next.
Scales appearing through white cloth
The body is framed in bamboo scales and covered with undrawn white cloth; when candles burn inside at night the scale pattern emerges through the cloth and the eyes appear alive.
The long snake emerging and four snakes turning
The dance includes the long snake emerging, turning along a path, rocking the cart, four snakes tumbling and coiling into a pagoda, accompanied by drums, gongs and the firecracker gun called the three-eyed gun.
Learning the lantern from the tail
Born in 1946, Shao Chuanfu learned from village elders at eighteen, first handling only the tail, before recording the binding methods, rites and movements until he mastered the whole craft.
The story of the Shao women and the sea serpent god
According to legend a great white serpent rescued two Shao women hiding from Yuan soldiers, and the family venerated it as a serpent god of the eastern sea, hence the lantern's name.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yangshe lantern is made in Dashao Village, Baogong Town, Feidong County, Hefei City, Anhui Province. Transmission is mainly among the Shao clan members, making it a family-style lantern of one village and one surname; performing the long snake requires twenty or thirty people, because when the body moves the front and rear must follow in sequence, so a single performance often has to scrape together helpers on the spot. The lantern is over a hundred meters long, so performing it requires choosing an open drying ground outside the village — houses and lanes cannot accommodate the coiling of this long snake. The making of the lantern begins in the twelfth lunar month as winter sets in, overlapping with the period when each family prepares New Year goods, so lantern making and the New Year are compressed into one stretch of time: purchasing, making and trial lighting all have to be completed within this one month or so. The rules for preserving the craft also stay within this one village: outsiders are not readily initiated, and apprentices begin by learning the snake's tail, gradually moving up to the head before they can take charge of the whole lantern. Today the colored-lantern crafts of other places can already handle all kinds of festivals and exhibitions, but this village's rule of one display every 18 years remains unique to the locality. Shao Chuanfu in his early years danced only the tail section; later he recorded and drew the methods of making, the ceremonial content and the dance movements, and since 2009 he has been leading performances in the province and guiding the younger generations of the village.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Shao Chuanfu (related inheritor; from official archival records): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1946, from Feidong County, Anhui Province. At the age of 18 he studied the making of the Yangshe lantern under the elders of the village and, when the lantern was performed, was responsible for dancing the tail section. He recorded and drew the methods of making the Yangshe lantern, the ceremonial content and the dance movements, and gradually mastered the full set of lantern-making techniques and lantern-dance ceremonies. Over the years he organized the Yangshe lantern troupe to take part in many major events, including the first Luzhou Lantern Festival, the 7th Provincial Games of Anhui and the China Crosstalk Festival. From 2009 to the present he has carried out transmission and performance activities for the Yangshe lantern in Anhui Province, and has conscientiously guided the younger lantern performers of the village. He is a representative inheritor of the Lantern Fair (Feidong Yangshe Lantern), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage item.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lin Wenyi 03-1474
- Shao Chuanfu 03-1475
- Kuang Huofa
- Niujunqi
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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