Folk Beliefs and Customs

Ⅹ-85Folk CustomsQinzhou, GuangxiBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Records of the Tiaolingtou dance are found in local gazetteers. According to the Jiajing-era Qinzhou Gazetteer of the Ming dynasty, in the eighth month at mid-autumn, under the pretext of the "ji bao" (reporting the harvest) sacrifice, people dress as gods and demons and dance on the ridge top (lingtou) — this is called "Tiaolingtou" (dancing on the ridge). The "ji bao" institution recorded in the gazetteer shows that at the time it was an autumn harvest-report festival held in the name of the village community, with the ridge top as the place where the altar was built; thereafter, the dance of dressing as gods and demons split into separate segments, becoming a regular practice held in rotation by each stockaded village. Today, the Tiaolingtou of the Zhuang and Han villages of Qinzhou still holds to two things: the season and the site. It rotates from the eighth to the tenth lunar month, the altar is set on a ridge top beside the village, the dancing before the altar lasts all night, and the order of sacrifice first and dance afterward remains unchanged.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Qinzhou City, located on the southern coast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at the head of the Gulf of Tonkin, still preserves the ancient custom of Tiaolingtou. This custom is a sacrificial activity held by the Zhuang and Han villages of Qinzhou to ward off evil, capture demons and dispel plague, pray for abundant harvests and the safety of people and livestock, and protect the cleanliness of the village; it is presented in the form of dance, and is one of the customary activities embodying cultural exchange and unity among ethnic groups. According to the Jiajing-era Qinzhou Gazetteer of the Ming dynasty: "In the eighth month at mid-autumn, under the pretext of the ji bao sacrifice, people dress as gods and demons and dance on the ridge top; this is called 'Tiaolingtou'." Each year from the eighth to the tenth lunar month is the season when the Zhuang and Han villages of Qinzhou take turns holding the Tiaolingtou festival. During this period, every village is astir, the liveliness even exceeding that of the New Year. Every household lays out lavish feasts to entertain guests; relatives and friends gather together, raising their cups and chatting cheerfully. Once hosts and guests have eaten and drunk their fill and night has fallen, people make their way in succession to the temple altar on the ridge top beside the village to watch the "shigong troupe" perform the Tiaolingtou. Tiaolingtou consists of two parts: dance and music. The dance masters, according to the roles they play in each segment, wear the corresponding costumes and masks and perform stylized dances with individualized characters; the performance is accompanied by drums, gongs, and other percussion instruments, presenting an overall beauty that is simple, vigorous, and natural. Judging from the characteristic movements of Tiaolingtou, postures such as the dance master's clapping and turning and the "mountain-shaped head" resemble the "mountain shape" and "frog hand" forms found in the Zhuang Huashan cliff-painting music and dance, preserving the characteristics of ancient Yue people's dance. As for the performance sequence, at dusk the troupe leader presides over the altar-opening ceremony, after which the dance masters perform in succession the segments "Pulling the Big Red", "Jumping the Three Masters", "Jumping Shilang", "Jumping the Loyal Minister", "Drilling the Troops", "Jumping the Four Commanders", "Tossing the Cloud Ladder", and "Jumping the Immortal Maiden". After a performance lasting all night until the next morning, the final segments are "Collecting the Demon" and "Driving the Dragon Boat". This segment symbolically gathers the demon head — representing evil spirits and plague — into a paper dragon boat, which is then carried to the riverbank and burned; the meaning is that disasters flow away with the water, announcing good fortune and well-being. With this, the Tiaolingtou sacrificial activity comes to an end. It originates in the indigenous culture of the Zhuang people while also absorbing Han festival culture; it is a crystallization of cultural exchange and integration between the Zhuang and Han peoples, and has practical significance for promoting ethnic unity and cultural exchange.

Opening the altar and the great red silk

After the leader opens the altar, dancers perform a set sequence of eight named segments, beginning with the great red silk.

The masters, the master-official and the loyal minister

Dancers take on roles through costume and masks, each segment with its own characters, songs and prescribed steps.

Feasting and the night-long performance

Households lay on great feasts and neighbours watch the all-night performance at the altar on the ridge.

Collecting the spirits and burning the dragon boat

After the night performance, the final segments gather the harmful spirits into a paper boat burned at the riverside.

The gestures inherited from ancient dance

Palm-clapping turns and mountain-shaped arm positions echo the shapes on ancient Zhuang rock paintings.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Today, Tiaolingtou is mainly distributed among the many villages of Qinbei District, Qinnan District, Lingshan County, and Pubei County in Qinzhou City; each village takes turns hosting the troupe — when a village's turn comes, that village sets up the altar, watches the opera, and prepares the wine. The shigong troupes of the Lingshan area mostly have fixed personnel and sets of gongs and drums; the program follows the flow of people, with one village's performance handing over to the next; if one household does not host, the year is unbroken. Villages compete over whose dance segments are complete and whose gongs ring loudest. Tiaolingtou integrates festival customs, belief customs, village-community customs, religious customs, and entertainment customs, among other elements; the "mountain shape" and "frog hand" forms of the Zhuang Huashan cliff-painting music and dance survive in the dance masters' clapping-turning and mountain-shaped-head postures, becoming a secret sign echoing across the ages with the Zhuang ancestors.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Today, Tiaolingtou is mainly distributed among the many villages of Qinbei District, Qinnan District, Lingshan County, and Pubei County in Qinzhou City. Tiaolingtou integrates festival customs, belief customs, village-community customs, religious customs, and entertainment customs, among other elements, and has considerable academic research value. Chen Jikun (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in October 1952, a native of Lingshan County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Through many years of practice, he has fully mastered the percussion accompaniment techniques, dance, and singing skills of Tiaolingtou, accumulated rich experience, and possesses a profound understanding of Tiaolingtou folk culture, which he is able to express well. He actively participates in intangible cultural heritage promotional activities and is dedicated to spreading the performance skills of Tiaolingtou. He is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Folk Custom (Qinzhou Tiaolingtou).

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

Wu Jishan 05-3019
Xu Shunwei 05-3020
Huang Guanghui 05-3021
Chen Jikun 05-3022
Sinapinchu 05-3023
Liu Shimei 05-3024
Zhang Qingming 05-3025
Zheng Quanguang 05-3026
Ye Da 05-3027
Li Yaohui
Luo Shengzong

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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