Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceMengzhou, HenanBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The fire dragon dance, also called the “five-colour fire dragon dance,” is passed down around the village of Longtai, Mengzhou City, Henan Province. Longtai village lies at the foot of Panlong Ridge in the northwest of Mengzhou; the ridge is also called “Five-Dragon Ridge” and is the highest point of the whole city. There used to be a Five-Dragon Temple to the northwest of the village, with statues of red, blue, green, yellow and white great dragons inside it, and five ridges rolling in undulation around the temple. Locally it is said that Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty feared that the “divine might of the five dragons” would overpower his “dragon might of the Son of Heaven,” and ordered that the five coloured dragons be bound tightly with iron chains to the “Dragon-Locking Pillar.” From then on droughts plagued the surrounding area and the people were poverty-stricken. The villagers of Longtai therefore specially made five “fire-spitting dragons,” and on the second day of the second lunar month, the day of “the dragon raising its head,” held a grand dragon dance and rain-praying gathering beside the Dragon-Locking Pillar; the five fire dragons spat fire at the same time and burned the Dragon-Locking Pillar down in one go, and blessed rain descended. Performing the “five-colour fire dragon dance” during festivals hence became a local custom.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The “fire dragon dance,” also called the “five-colour fire dragon dance,” is passed down in the village of Longtai, Mengzhou City, Henan Province. Longtai village lies at the foot of Panlong Ridge in the northwest of Mengzhou; Panlong Ridge is also called “Five-Dragon Ridge” and is the highest point of the whole city. To the northwest of the village stands a Five-Dragon Temple, said to have been founded in the Shang dynasty, with statues of red, blue, green, yellow and white great dragons inside it; around the temple five ridges roll in undulation, looking exactly like five gracefully dancing great dragons rushing into the temple. Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty feared that the “divine might of the five dragons” would overpower his “dragon might of the Son of Heaven,” and so ordered that the five coloured dragons in the temple be bound tightly with iron chains to the “Dragon-Locking Pillar.” From then on droughts came again and again around the Five-Dragon Temple, and the people were bitterly impoverished. In order to burn down the Dragon-Locking Pillar, the villagers of Longtai specially made five “fire-spitting dragons,” and on the second day of the second lunar month (the day of “the dragon raising its head”) held beside the Dragon-Locking Pillar a grand dragon dance and rain-praying gathering. At the appointed time the five fire dragons spat fire simultaneously, and after burning the Dragon-Locking Pillar down in one stroke, blessed rain fell and the people were able to live a good life again. From then on, performing the “five-colour fire dragon dance” during festivals became a local fashion and custom. The fire dragon dance has many performance routines such as five-dragon flower, five-dragon pillar, great coiled dragon, dragon threading the body, running the dragon circle and setting the dragon formation, as well as formations such as five dragons converging, pacifying the five directions, paying homage to the Dragon King, setting the fire formation, leaping the dragon gate and the great dragon flying.

Main performance routines

The routines of the fire dragon dance, matched to figures such as Five Dragons Converging and Welcoming the Dragon King to form a complete programme.

Five dragons converge and guard the five directions

Key figures in which five dragons of five colours correspond to the five directions, translating cosmological order directly into formation.

Rain-praying on the second day of the second month

The fixed occasion: on the dragon-raises-its-head day the village holds a rain-praying gathering beside the pillar, the five dragons spouting fire together.

The oil-soaked wick preparation

The technical crux: the inheritor Hao Tongzhou times the soaking of the oil wick so that the flame burns long and bright once fitted into the body.

The Five Dragon Temple and the pillar

The legendary topography: a temple said to date from the Shang with five coloured dragons and five surrounding ridges, and the story of the Sui emperor chaining them.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

According to local folk legend, in the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui the whole country suffered a great drought and the people could not live, yet only the area around the Five-Dragon Temple remained full of birdsong and flowers and luxuriant growth, with auspicious clouds curling round the temple and purple air rising from it.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In recent years several elderly performers have died one after another, and the dragon dancers have few successors. Hao Tongzhou (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han nationality, born in November 1958, native of Mengzhou City, Henan Province. He has fully mastered the making techniques and performance routines of the fire dragon; in making the fire-spitting material for the fire dragon he can accurately judge the soaking time for the “oil-soaked belly” (yougudu), so that when it is placed inside the dragon body and burned while dancing, the flames are long-lasting and bright. In performance he can change movements quickly in response to the drumbeats and cooperate closely with the other dragon dancers, achieving a perfect fusion of person, fire and dragon. Over the years, in order to protect and transmit the fire dragon dance, he has collected and sorted out more than one hundred thousand characters of historical and cultural material on the fire dragon dance together with photographs and video, and has organized teams to take part in large-scale folk dance exhibitions at national, provincial and municipal levels, producing an enthusiastic response throughout society. Representative inheritor of the dragon dance (fire dragon dance) inscribed in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He has also used his spare time in the farming season to take apprentices, and has trained a large number of young dragon dancers.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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