Taige
01 · Historical Records
The Song-dynasty work Wulin Jiushi (Old Affairs of Wulin) by Zhou Mi records in volume 3: "Using wooden beds and iron supports for immortals, Buddhas, ghosts and spirits and the like, flying and moving in the air — this is called taige (platform pavilions)." The Republican-era Yizhang County Gazetteer states: "Chengguan staged stories, which flourished most in the early Guangxu years of the Qing dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yizhang Night Stories is a form of raised-platform (taige) performance preserved within the traditional festive folk activities of Yizhang County, Hunan Province. "Staging stories" is the thematic content of the taige. From New Year's Day to the Lantern Festival, every night there were several dozen platforms; in recent years it has been at its most flourishing." The Yizhang Night Stories activity runs from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, with the Lantern Festival as its day of climax. Its form gathers folk legends, mythological stories, opera characters and the like onto a single carrying table. It is mostly mounted by individual households, and there are also forms in which several households join together, performed in the darkness of night. When the story procession tours, the lamps shine bright, firecrackers thunder and drums and music fill the air — an extraordinary liveliness, with spectators massed like a wall.
Nightly parades from the first to the fifteenth
It runs from the first to the fifteenth of the first lunar month, peaking at the Lantern Festival.
Stories assembled on one table
Legends, myths and opera figures are gathered onto a single carried table.
Single households and joint dressing
Usually one household dresses a table, sometimes several join forces, all performed after dark.
The Lantern Festival night of lights and drums
Lanterns blaze, firecrackers boom and gongs thunder as crowds pack the route.
Dozens of tables from New Year to Lantern Festival
From New Year's Day to the fifteenth, dozens of tables go out each night.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The project is an outstanding representative of local folk art; it has enriched the spiritual life of the local people and provides the general public with an effective form for expressing feelings and achieving self-adjustment.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yizhang branch calls the raised platform "night stories": in practice it gathers folk legends, mythology and opera characters onto a single carrying table, one table staging one episode; the days run from New Year's Day to the Lantern Festival, and on each of these nights several dozen frames are carried out, being at their most flourishing in recent years. Worthy of note is its mode of organization: most are dressed by a single household, while others are mounted jointly by several households; after nightfall they take one turn through the streets, lamps lit, firecrackers and drums and music sounding together, and the onlookers crowd both sides of the road. How high and how wide a frame is built depends on what the household has to show, so the route of the procession is also the order in which each family's craftsmanship competes. That single night gathers the skills normally scattered across the various households into one place; it is a way for villagers to express their feelings and give themselves release, and for this reason it has become an outstanding representative of local folk art, providing the general public with an effective form for expressing feelings and self-adjustment. In the written record, the form of the raised platform can be traced back to the taige (platform pavilions) noted in volume 3 of the Song-dynasty Zhou Mi's Wulin Jiushi: wooden beds and iron supports are used for immortals, Buddhas, ghosts and spirits and the like, flying and moving in the air. The Republican-era Yizhang County Gazetteer states that Chengguan staged stories, which flourished most in the early Guangxu years of the Qing dynasty. Taken together, these two records show that Yizhang brought the elevated tableaux of the taige type into its local festive programme, and in performances continuing night after night formed its own rhythm of half a month of consecutive staging; throughout those half-months the streets of Chengguan were almost never empty at night, and the pairing of raised platforms with lantern light has become part of the New Year memory of this region.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Yunshan 03-1478
- Zhang Genzhi 03-1479
- Liu Wenchang 03-1480
- Zhong Yuwen 03-1481
- Fu Hengyu 03-1482
- Deng Junchao 03-1483
- Liu Duanfu 03-1484
- Li Ming 03-1485
- Peng Niangyao 03-1486
- Chen Fanxing 04-1976
- Tan Haobin 04-1977
- Gongsun Xin 04-1978
- Li Fuxian 04-1979
- Gao Yumin 05-3029
- Hao Laixi 05-3030
- Yao Ruming 05-3031
- Li Yangbo 05-3032
- Liu Qiyue 05-3033
- Liang Erdun 05-3034
- Hu Liangang
- Chen Wenshan
- Sun Kangfu
- Zhou Xingguang
- Huang Xuejun
- Zhang Guoqin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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