Dragon Dance

Ⅲ-4Traditional DanceHuangshishitieshan, HubeiBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

According to legend, in the third year of the Chongde reign of the Qing dynasty (1638 CE), Wang Qianqiu, a jinshi from Wangguizhuang, founded the Wangguiwu dragon lantern.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Wangguiwu dragon lantern is a large-scale collective folk traditional dragon dance mainly passed down in Tieshan District, Huangshi City, Hubei Province. It combines martial arts with dragon dancing — “cultivating the mind through culture, seeking technique through martial arts, creating the dragon within the technique” — and is therefore named “martial dragon lantern”; it is mainly performed at the Spring Festival and during other large-scale celebrations. Wangguizhuang of Huangshi and the area around Daye Lake form its core area of diffusion, extending gradually to the vast urban and rural areas of Huangshi City and Daye City and to the southeastern part of Hubei. The characteristic of the Wangguiwu dragon lantern is chiefly displayed in the word “martial”: it is a dragon dance that perfectly fuses the “martial achievement” of traditional martial arts with the “art of dancing” of dragon lantern performance. In every slack farming season the local people organize young and middle-aged labour to practise the Wangguiwu dragon lantern. The Wangguiwu dragon lantern team consists of three great dragons, one large and two small, performed by more than three hundred people. The great dragons have 105 sections in all, with a total length of 350 metres, and are accompanied by the lead cage, dragon gate, dragon and tiger placards, pearl play, sky lion, banner gong team, single staff, double staff, eight-immortal staff and so on. “Three dragons playing with the pearl” is the representative performing skill of the Wangguiwu dragon lantern. When the three dragons dance together, their entwining, wrestling, tumbling, contracting and expanding are all measured and their joining and separating skillful, forming a movement routine of “three entries and three exits.” The dance steps of the martial dragon lantern have the feature “the head leads, the ten tails follow”; in group dragon dancing they achieve the effect of “the head points, the tails sweep,” highlighting the characteristics of “showing ability in the midst of the rush” and “combining martial arts with dance”; at one moment like a flood dragon leaving the sea, at another gathering their heads and soaring into the air to coil, with thunderous gongs and drums, magnificent momentum, endless transformations and extraordinary excitement, and extremely strong visual appeal. From the late Ming and early Qing periods, because warfare was incessant, the people of Wangguizhuang took advantage of the slack farming season to practise martial arts, strengthen themselves and defend their homes, and this became a widespread fashion. Through its village processions and prayers and the blessings it bestows on all the people, it plays a positive role in the harmonious and stable development of society.

Three dragons and the pearl

Its signature feat: the three dragons entwine, contend, roll and expand in measure, separating and merging in the three-in-three-out routine.

One at the head, ten at the tail

The step characteristic of the dance, in which the head's one motion becomes ten at the tail, giving the effect of the head pointing and the tail sweeping.

A 350-metre dragon in 105 sections

The great dragon runs to 105 sections and 350 metres, accompanied by lanterns, gate, tablets, pearl, heavenly lion, gong band and staves, with over three hundred performers.

Martial Yangge lantern

It joins martial arts to dragon dance, hence the name martial dragon lantern, its character concentrated in the martial, fusing martial skill with dancing art.

Founded by the jinshi Wang Qianqiu

Tradition holds that in 1638 the village jinshi Wang Qianqiu founded the form; with warfare rife in the late Ming the villagers took up arms training in the slack season, and nine generations are recorded.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Wangguiwu dragon lantern is mainly passed down in Tieshan District, Huangshi City, Hubei Province, with Wangguizhuang and the area around Daye Lake as its core area of diffusion, extending gradually to the vast urban and rural areas of Huangshi City and Daye City and to the southeastern part of Hubei. In every slack farming season the local people organize young and middle-aged labour to practise the martial dragon lantern. The dragon team consists of three great dragons, one large and two small, performed by more than three hundred people; the great dragons have one hundred and five sections and a total length of three hundred and fifty metres, and are equipped with the lead cage, dragon gate, dragon and tiger placards, pearl play, sky lion, banner gong team, single staff, double staff, eight-immortal staff and so on, forming a complete and massive performing establishment.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Over several hundred years the project has been widely practised locally through family transmission and group transmission, and its recorded line of transmission has reached nine generations. Because Wangguizhuang lies in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, with Huangjing Mountain to the north and Daye Lake to the south, its barriers of hills and water have limited the transmission and spread of Wanggui dragon dancing. As the economy has continued to develop, transport has improved, living standards have risen and protection work has deepened, the project has entered cultural venues, and its reach is ever larger. In the course of its development the Wangguiwu dragon lantern has incorporated the production and life memories of the people of different eras, records the social development of Wangguizhuang, and has fairly high historical and cultural value. It pursues the combination and mutual infiltration of “martial” and “dance,” integrating entertainment, technique and artistry into one, and has fairly high artistic and aesthetic value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Dragon Dance (Huangshishitieshan, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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