Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceChengbumiaozuzizhi, HunanBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The hanging dragon is passed down in the village of Xiatuan, Dankou Town, Chengbu Miao Autonomous County, Hunan Province; it is the traditional form in which Miao villages use the dragon lantern to pray for favourable wind and rain and abundant harvests. The Miao country of Chengbu has long had the custom of bringing out the dragon lantern by the unit of the nine dong and forty-eight villages; whenever the Spring Festival or a major celebration comes, the dragon lantern is danced, and the colour and image of the dragon lantern are distinguished according to the five directions of east, south, west, north and centre. Xiatuan village belongs to the western villages (the area of Dankou Town and Chang'anying Township) and chiefly performs the hanging dragon (locally also called the “golden dragon”). Through long practice its props and performance have developed their own line, forming a distinctive structure in which dragon sections are hung from long flat poles, bamboo slats and red cord, clearly different in form from dragons held aloft on the flat and from bench dragons.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The hanging dragon passed down in the village of Xiatuan, Dankou Town, Chengbu County, Hunan Province, is a dragon dance whose prop-making and performing method are unique: first a number of long and short flat bamboo poles and red cord are made respectively into “small hangings” and “middle hangings,” the small hanging is then hung on the middle hanging, dragon sections framed of bamboo splints and covered with cloth are hung on the small hanging, and then a “great lift,” made of a transversely raised long flat pole and a bamboo pole two metres high, is used to lift it up, six sets in all being produced. When dancing, the dragon head and the dragon sections are linked together, each dancer holds a bamboo pole high overhead, and to the accompaniment of percussion music the dancers, led by the one carrying the dragon pearl, begin to move, as though the “dragon” were coiling in the clouds — a truly magnificent scene. Whenever the Spring Festival or a major celebration comes, the nine dong and forty-eight villages of the Miao country of Chengbu County dance the dragon lantern to pray for favourable wind and rain and abundant harvests, distinguishing the colour and image of the dragon lantern by the five directions of east, south, west, north and centre. When a grand celebration or successive bumper harvests come, there are also villages of one direction performing the “five dragons bringing auspiciousness” together, but this must strictly follow the five directions and five colours of the villages. Whenever the village of Xiatuan, Dankou Town, holds a dragon dance, it is particularly insistent on etiquette: wherever the dragon dance team arrives it must hold the rituals of inviting the dragon, receiving the dragon and congratulating the dragon at the village entrance, the gate of the stockade and the main hall. The receiving party sets out an offering table and incense stand, offers the tablet of the divine dragon together with three kinds of sacrificial animals and fruit and cakes, and the dragon dancers and the people receiving the dragon perform three kneelings and three kowtows before the incense stand; then the dragon dance side delivers words of congratulation and the receiving side returns the courtesy. In the exchange of congratulation and reply between the two sides, the Miao “kuanci” (speech of congratulation) is used to praise the divine dragon and the ancestors, and praise for the weather, the terrain and human harmony is expressed in the form of singing poems and matching couplets. The two sides encourage one another; the warmth and harmony bring out both the Miao people's manner of courtesy and the rich depth of their national culture.

The three-stage suspension structure

The structure uses long and short bamboo carrying poles and red cord to make small and medium suspensions, from which cloth-covered body sections hang, all raised by a large two-metre hoist in six groups.

Five directions, five colours

The villages raise lanterns by the forty-eight stockaded settlements, colours and shapes assigned to the five directions; in great years five villages may dance the Five Dragons together.

Inviting, receiving and congratulating the dragon

The village observes strict etiquette: at village mouth, stockade gate and main hall the host sets an altar with the dragon tablet and offerings, and both sides kneel three times.

Miao kuanci toasts and replies

Host and guest exchange Miao kuanci verses praising the dragon and ancestors and matching couplets on heaven, earth and human accord, each encouraging the other.

Ding Zhifan's refinements

The inheritor Ding Zhifan mastered the whole art and the rites of raising and retiring the lantern, using new materials to make the dragon lighter and more flexible in colour and length.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The village of Xiatuan, Dankou Town, belongs to the western villages (the area of Dankou Town and Chang'anying Township) and chiefly performs the hanging dragon (locally also called the “golden dragon”).

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present all the elderly performers in the village of Xiatuan, Chengbu County, who master the making and performing skills of the hanging dragon have reached the age of seventy or more; while the young and middle-aged generation in the village enjoy watching the hanging dragon dance, they are unwilling to learn the skills of making and dancing the dragon, and the transmission of the Chengbu hanging dragon is not encouraging. Ding Zhifan (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of Miao nationality, born in October 1937, native of Chengbu Miao Autonomous County, Hunan Province. He masters the complete set of dragon dance skills as well as a series of procedures such as the sacrificial rite when the dragon comes out and the sacrificial rite when it is put away. On the basis of the traditional technique of making the hanging dragon, he has used new materials to make the hanging dragon lighter and more beautiful; his making technique has no fixed model and is extremely flexible, allowing the colours of the dragon to be changed and its length adjusted as needed. The dragon dance movements are highly skilled, the scenes grand, the images lifelike, and the loud instruments and suona have distinctive character. He has mobilized the villagers to set up dragon lantern teams, established a teaching base for the hanging dragon, and insisted on transmitting the skill. Representative inheritor of the dragon dance (Chengbu hanging dragon) inscribed in the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. In 2011 he led the dragon dance team to win the gold prize at the tenth China Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award Dragon Dance Competition.

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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