Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DancePujiang, ZhejiangBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added Item

01 · Historical Records

Already in the oracle-bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty there are records of several people collectively sacrificing to the dragon and praying for rain; the record of Dong Zhongshu's 'Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn' in the Han dynasty already contains clear accounts of the various dragon dances used to pray for rain; from that time on, poems and prose of every dynasty recording dragon dancing at court or among the folk are found again and again. According to the Zhang clan genealogy of Xiazhang Village, Baima Town, Pujiang, from the Tang dynasty onwards 'dragons soaring and lanterns dancing to celebrate the Lantern Festival' became a folk custom in Pujiang, which the Pujiang county gazetteer calls the 'Lantern Festival'.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The most basic expressive means of dragon dance are its prop modelling, its compositional variations and its sequences of movement. According to the different materials used in binding the dragon props, dragon dance is divided into cloth dragon, gauze dragon, paper dragon, straw dragon, coin dragon, bamboo dragon, palm-fibre dragon, bench dragon, hundred-leaf dragon, lotus-flower dragon, fire dragon, chicken-feather dragon, flesh dragon and so on; northern dragon dance is generally tall and massive, simple and archaic in style and full of vigour, while southern dragon dance is exquisite and fine, lively and quick. The composition and movement of dragon dance generally have such characteristics as 'rounding', 'rolling', 'twining', 'interlacing' and 'leaping'. The traditional performance procedure of dragon dance is generally: 'inviting the dragon', 'sending the dragon out', 'performing the dragon' and 'seeing the dragon off'. Among the people there is a saying: 'at seven or eight one plays with the straw dragon, at fifteen or sixteen one plays with the small dragon, the young and middle-aged dance the big dragon'. The number of dragon dancers may be as few as one man dancing two dragons, or as many as a hundred men dancing one big dragon. The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation and the ancestor in which it believes; dragon dance is a symbol of the spirit of China. It embodies the spirit of the Chinese nation's unity and cohesion and its pioneering and striving spirit, and contains the cultural meaning of harmony between heaven and humanity and of bringing benefit to humankind. It is the most common form of entertainment for Chinese people on auspicious and celebratory occasions; its atmosphere is ardent and stirring to the heart, and it is an extremely precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. Pujiang County lies in the central-western part of Zhejiang Province, to the north of Jinhua City. The Pujiang bench dragon is prevalent in the villages of Pujiang County and is widely transmitted throughout the coastal region of Jiangnan. Structurally, the Pujiang bench dragon consists of three parts, the dragon head, the dragon body (sub-lanterns) and the dragon tail, popularly called the long lantern. According to the modelling of the dragon head, it can be divided into the sky-gazing dragon, the earth-bowing dragon, the great prawn dragon and other categories. Because the sets and modelling on the bench boards (the dragon body) differ, it also has eleven different forms such as the square lantern, the wine-jar lantern and the character lantern. On every festival or major celebration when the lanterns are set up, 'wheat cake ball', 'scissors hoop' and 'whipping the tail' are the principal performance formations. The Pujiang bench dragon, as its name suggests, is a moving dragon lantern made by linking individual benches one after another; it lets people fully feel the magnificent scale, the strength and the gentle beauty of the square folk dance, and, in an atmosphere of earth-shaking gong beats, horn blasts and gun shots and of one cheer rising after another, they receive and grasp the life custom of amusing oneself and others and the popular belief in revering heaven and following human nature. A single Pujiang bench dragon is almost an art complex in itself, integrating calligraphy, painting, paper-cutting, flower carving and sculpture art with the crafts of tying, binding and pasting, and fusing sport, acrobatics and dance in one. The bench dragon in motion combines styles that are rugged and bold, fine and delicate, unrestrained and strictly ordered; through this dance in which passion and philosophy, and entertainment and teaching, are united, people gain a double satisfaction of the senses and of the mind. The Pujiang bench dragon is genuine folk culture; its main characteristics are its square character, its universality and its daring, and the number of people it involves and the size of the performance space are indeed rare among comparable forms.

Head, body and tail

The three parts of the Pujiang bench dragon, composed of individual benches linked into a moving lantern dragon of imposing yet supple presence.

Head types

Categories of the Pujiang bench dragon by head shape, alongside eleven body types including square lantern, wine-jar lantern and character lantern.

Main performance formations

The principal formations used when the lantern is raised at festivals and great celebrations, amid gongs, horns and firecrackers.

Tang gestation, Song-Yuan maturity, Ming-Qing peak

The stages of the Pujiang bench dragon's transmission, from Tang gestation through Song-Yuan maturity and Ming-Qing peak to its modern revival since reform and opening.

Integrated crafts

The Pujiang bench dragon unites calligraphy, painting, paper-cutting, carving and modelling with binding crafts, and sports, acrobatics and dance into a single artistic complex.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Dragon dance, also called 'performing the dragon', is known among the people as 'playing the dragon', 'playing the dragon lantern' or 'dragon lantern dance'; it is widely distributed throughout the country and among all ethnic groups, and the diversity of its forms and varieties is beyond comparison with any other folk dance. In terms of colour, dragon dance is divided into yellow, white, azure, red, black and so on, of which the yellow dragon is the most noble.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Down to the present day, dragon dance is still one of the dance forms commonly present at folk festive and seasonal occasions. Viewed as a whole, in the transmission and development of the Pujiang bench dragon the Tang dynasty was its gestation period, the Song and Yuan its period of maturity, the Ming and Qing its period of greatest prosperity; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after the reform and opening up, was its period of renewed flourishing and transmission. The Pujiang bench dragon preserves the folk cultural tradition of 'dragon belief' in China, especially in central Zhejiang and the coastal region of Jiangnan; it merges the folk forms of calligraphy, painting, paper-cutting and other folk arts, carries on the artistic forms of mass sport and square dance, has folklore and historical research value and the function of transmitting folk crafts, and has produced deep and widespread influence in Pujiang, central Zhejiang and the coastal region of Jiangnan. But the shock caused by the changes of the times has inevitably fallen on the Pujiang bench dragon, plunging its transmission into a predicament, and rescue and protection are urgently needed.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Dragon Dance (Pujiang, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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