Lion Dance

Ⅲ-5Traditional DanceBeijingBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Baizhifang great lion (tai shi) was originally a performance form within the ritual processions and fairs (xingxiang zouhui) and later gradually became independent, turning into a folk dance form warmly welcomed by the people of Beijing; it originated in the Great Lion Old Society (Taishi Laohui) of Baizhifang in Xuanwu District, Beijing. This famous folk flower society is said to have been founded in the fifth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1740). In the ninth year of the Tongzhi reign (1870), Li Tingpu and Chen Zihe, leading families of the Baizhifang district, came forward to reorganize the Great Lion Old Society, and the two of them served in turn as its society head (huishou). In 1956 the Beijing Banknote Printing Works, where Liu Dehai was employed, established a lion dance team and procured a full set of costumes and props, with Liu Dehai responsible for transmitting the great lion skills.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Lion dance, also called “shizi wu” (lion dance), “shi deng” (lion lantern), “wu shi” or “wu shizi”, is an important component of the traditional Chinese hundred-performances and acrobatics repertoire. Lion dance has a long history. It is widely popular in the Han areas of China and appears frequently in festival celebrations such as the Spring Festival, using lively and cheerful performance to express the Chinese people's good wishes for auspiciousness and the warding off of disaster. It is generally divided into two major types, the southern lion and the northern lion. The southern lion is agile and fierce and often performs high-difficulty techniques; the northern lion is playful and naive and usually performs teasing and frolicking movements. The lion dance of Beijing has two forms, the “great lion” (taishi) and the “young lion” (shaoshi). The small lion played by a single performer is the “young lion”; the large lion, in which one person plays the lion's head and one person plays the lion's tail, is called the “great lion”. Traditional performance comprises thirteen sets of routines and twenty set pieces, including “small three items” (xiaosanyang), “long five images” (changwuxiang), “single ball” (dantuanshi), “paired heads” (duitou), “dragon embracing the pillar” (longbaozhu), “censer horn” (xianglüjiao), “coin stamp” (jinqianzhangzi), “dry boat great chase” (hanchuandagan) and “playing in the water” (xishui). Chen Zihe was a fourth-rank official of the Gunpowder Bureau of the Ministry of Works. Referring to the stone lions in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, he redesigned the form of the great lion. The lion's body is about 1.2 zhang long from front to back and its head weighs more than seventy jin. It is mighty and fierce, with a broad forehead like a great stele, upturned nostrils, deep-set eyes and a blood-basin mouth, and seven large bronze bells hang on it. The Chen family later engaged a lion dance artist from Yong'an Bridge inside Yongdingmen, nicknamed “Shaizi Liu Wu”, to teach the performance skills, gathered followers widely, and repeatedly took part in the ritual processions and fairs held in various parts of the capital. At present, the main performance activities of the Baizhifang great lion are all carried out under the organization and leadership of the Beijing Banknote Printing Works. According to the folk saying “the yellow-maned lion roars with a blue mane”, when the Baizhifang great lion performs, one yellow and one blue great lion appear on the stage together. They are fierce and rugged, united in form and spirit, and display the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese folk “northern school” lion dance.

Great lion and small lion

Beijing lion dance has two kinds: the small lion played by one man and the great lion played by two, one at the head and one at the tail.

Thirteen routines, twenty tricks

The traditional catalogue of Baizhifang lion dance: thirteen routines and twenty tricks, forming a teachable and assessable system.

Named routines of the great lion

The named routines of the Baizhifang great lion, covering openings, duels, coils and play, the documentary basis of the northern great-lion repertoire.

Modelled on the Forbidden City lions

Chen Zihe, a fourth-rank official, remodelled the lion on the stone lions before the Hall of Supreme Harmony: a body some four metres long and a head of over thirty-five kilos hung with seven bronze bells.

A yellow lion and a blue roar

Following the saying of the yellow-maned lion and the blue roarer, a yellow and a blue great lion appear together, fierce and bold, distinctively northern.

Seven generations of transmission

From the 1866 reorganisation the line runs clearly through seven generations, from the first artist Liu Wu of the Sieve through He Jinyu, Ding Bingliang and Liu Dehai to Wang Jianwen.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The forms of lion dance differ from place to place across China, and their regional characteristics are very distinct. The Baizhifang great lion is a prominent representative of the northern-school lion dance art. It concentratedly embodies the folk customs and mores of Beijing, especially of the Xuannan area, and displays a strong regional cultural character.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Counting from the reorganization of the Baizhifang great lion in the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign (1866), its course of development and transmission is clear and orderly. The first generation of lion dance artists was “Shaizi Liu Wu”; the second generation inheritor was an artist surnamed Lu; the third generation inheritor was Lu's son; the fourth generation inheritor was He Jinyu, a worker of the former Baizhifang Printing Bureau; the fifth generation inheritor was Ding Bingliang; the sixth generation inheritor was the famous great lion artist Liu Dehai, a retired worker of the former Beijing Banknote Printing Works; the seventh generation inheritor was Wang Jianwen, a retired employee of the Beijing Banknote Printing Works. At present, the Baizhifang great lion has fallen into the predicament of ageing personnel and a shortage of successors. It survives with difficulty and urgently needs rescue and protection. Wang Jianwen (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1965, native of Beijing Municipality. An international judge of traditional lion dance and a national first-grade social sports instructor. He masters all the lion dance routines and techniques. His performance foundation is solid and his style is fine and lifelike; he portrays such lion movements as leaping, pouncing and roaring, and merriment, beauty, fear, fright and lying down, achieving unity of form and spirit. He took part in the performance at the Tiananmen Square celebration gala for the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and in the opening ceremony of the Second National Workers' Games, among others. He was engaged as coach of the lion dance teams of Beijing Sport University and the Shandong Oriental Martial Arts School; he compiled Prescribed Routines of the Northern Lion, co-compiled a Tutorial of Lion Dance Sport, and revised Treatise on the Great Lion. Representative inheritor of the third batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project Lion Dance (Baizhifang Great Lion). In 1997 he took part in the first National Dragon and Lion Championship held by the China Dragon Dance Association and won the title of “King of the Northern Lion”. Yang Jingwei (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1958, native of Beijing Municipality. He inherits and carries forward the fierce and valiant features of the lion dance, in tacit coordination with the lion's head, bringing out the effect of “conveying the spirit through the form, with stillness and movement depending on each other”. From 1987 to 1993 he won the championship of the folk art performance event of the Longtan Cup national folk flower society competition for seven consecutive editions. He took part in large-scale performance events such as the Tiananmen Square National Day gala for the thirty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the rejoicing celebration of Hong Kong's return. In 2011 he cooperated with others and raised funds on his own to video and preserve the lion dance routines and movements. In 2013 and 2015 he taught lion dance skills at the Communication University of China and the Beijing Shaolin Martial Arts School respectively. Representative inheritor of the fourth batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project Lion Dance (Baizhifang Great Lion). In 1997 he won the championship of the first National Dragon and Lion Championship. While serving as coach of the Baizhifang great lion at the Beijing Banknote Printing Company, he trained more than twenty lion dance performers.

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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