Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
It appeared in the Beijing area as early as the Ming dynasty, and grew steadily more popular from the Qing dynasty onward, resting on a broad popular base. Early Jingxi Taiping Drum was a collective song-and-dance of Manchu women; men did not join until the early 20th century. Taiping Drum has circulated in Beijing since the Ming dynasty, and after the Manchus entered the capital it was tremendously popular both inside and outside the city. In the Qing dynasty the court also beat Taiping Drum on the eve of the Lunar New Year, seeking the sense of peace and stability, so in Beijing Taiping Drum is also called the "New Year Greeting Drum". The Taiping Drum of Guai Village in Wangzuo Town, Fengtai District, originates from the Qing imperial court and has a history of more than two hundred years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Taiping Drum is also called "fan drum", "single drum" or "goatskin drum", and is a distinctive folk festive dance of the Beijing area. Taiping Drum performances take place from the first day of the twelfth lunar month until the second day of the first lunar month of the following year, which is why the Beijing area also calls it the "New Year Greeting Drum". Beating the Taiping Drum symbolizes peace and ease throughout the land, and carries the special meaning of praying for blessings and welcoming the new year. According to elders of Guai Village, Taiping Drum was extremely popular there: every household had a drum and everyone could play one, and villagers were once invited to perform in Liangxiang, Tong County and other places in Hebei, which gave it a fairly high reputation. Its content is drawn mostly from the villagers' daily life, so the performances are steeped in the flavour of real life; the movements are simple and easy to learn, and the formations change richly and variously, making it a form of performance that local residents enjoy seeing and taking part in. The drums used as dance props in Guai Village Taiping Drum are made of mulberry-bark paper by a distinctive technique; they are sturdy and durable, and their sound is clear and pleasant. The music of Guai Village Taiping Drum consists of two parts, tune patterns and lyrics. The tune patterns are also called "drum points"; they are at once the names of set routines and musical tune patterns. Most Taiping Drum tune patterns are in 2/4 metre; during a performance the drummers beat one passage and sing one passage. The lyrics mainly include "Shengge" (Rope Song), "Ancient Names of the Twelve Months" and "Taiping Lyrics", of which at present only "Ancient Names of the Twelve Months" and "Shengge" can be collected.
San Ren Liang Tou Mang
One of the two most distinctive routines among the thirteen traditional sets still preserved in Guaicun village.
Wo Wa Wa
One of the thirteen preserved routines of Guaicun village, marked by small, restrained movements and bright rhythm.
Chuan Hua Li Ba; Si Fang Dou; Da Yuan Gu
Traditional routines inherited by Lü Cuiqin, representative inheritor of Guaicun village, who also developed new movements such as the shaking drum and jumping round drum.
Twelve Months of Ancient Worthies; Sheng Ge
The sung lyrics of Guaicun village, performed between drum passages; the drum pattern doubles as both routine name and tune, and today only two of the original items can still be collected.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Guai Village Taiping Drum circulates in Guai Village, Wangzuo Town, Fengtai District. It originates from the Qing imperial court; the drum heads are made of mulberry-bark paper, most drum patterns are in 2/4 metre, and the tune patterns serve both as the names of set routines and as musical tune patterns. It shares a common origin with the Mentougou and Shijingshan branches of Taiping Drum, but has since diverged.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance · Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The movements of Guai Village Taiping Drum are small in scale and its feeling restrained, with a lively rhythm, giving it a fairly high technical standard and artistic value. Guai Village Taiping Drum has many set routines, reaching several dozen at its height; thirteen sets are still preserved today, including "Round Drum", "Round Drum Substituting the Mill", "Four-Square Dou", "Six-Square Dou", "Eight-Square Dou", "Reclining Doll" and "Three Persons Busy at Both Ends", of which "Three Persons Busy at Both Ends" and "Reclining Doll" are the most distinctive. Guai Village Taiping Drum is a contemporary survival of traditional drum culture in northern China, and can provide a reference for research into the local history and culture of Beijing. In recent years, because the conditions of life have changed, Guai Village Taiping Drum has few successors and is in urgent need of rescue and protection. At present the villagers of Guai Village are working to train a reserve force of Taiping Drum performers, to excavate and organize precious materials on the verge of being lost, to draw up movement charts, and to hand down this folk art form so deeply loved by the people in its entirety. Lü Cuiqin (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in September 1950, native of Beijing. She began learning Taiping Drum from her mother Li Yunxiang at the age of five, mastering the traditional techniques and inheriting set routines such as chuanhua libao (Interlaced Flower Fence), four-square dou and the great round drum. Her performance movements are expansive and her steps light, her waist moves with the drum, her eyes follow the drum, and both shoulders rise and fall naturally with the drumbeat, which changes with the dance steps, fully displaying the flowing, trembling and soft rhythmic character of Jingxi Taiping Drum. On the basis of the tradition she developed movements such as the shaking drum, the new-style rooster dou and the stepping round drum, making the performance repertoire richer, more vivid and more imbued with the spirit of the times. From what she has learned and come to understand, she draws movement charts and music scores, enriching the written materials of the project. Besides performing, she is also devoted to transmitting the project, actively teaching drumming skills to the villagers. Representative inheritor of Jingxi Taiping Drum (Guai Village Taiping Drum), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fourth national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gao Hongwei 02-0331
- Lvcuiqin 04-1540
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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