Lion Dance
01 · Historical Records
The Yao people have a cultural tradition of using the dynamic forms of the lion to signify the arduous process of their ancestors' migration and to express their longing for a better life. The Yao are an ethnic group that migrated relatively frequently in the course of history. It vividly represents the arduous course of migration and pioneering by the Yao ancestors, embodies the historical sentiment of commemorating the ancestors and carefully tracing one's roots, and reflects their longing for a better future and their striving and upward spirit; it has a positive effect on strengthening cultural identity and cultural confidence and on promoting social harmony.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yao 'Pinghuang Juan Die' records that after Pan Hu died the Ping emperor immediately issued this decree: 'Sons and daughters, do not violate the duty of filial piety; hold grief, make offerings, and choose a mountain for burial. Gather the men and women of one line, raw and cooked, scattered or together; with the wooden lion, the long drum, blowing of the sheng pipes, and the singing and music of sacrificial gatherings, make sure that people rejoice and the gods are pleased.' The cloth-bag wooden lion dance is performed mostly in the harvest season of the tenth lunar month and before the spring ploughing of the following year, on the threshing ground, in the ancestral hall and on the grain-drying floor. Before the performance, rituals of ancestor worship and of inviting the wooden lion are first held. In performance, one person inside the wooden lion dances the lion's head and another one to eleven people dance the lion's body, changing into various forms to the accompaniment of gong-and-drum music. The dance makes high demands on the mutual coordination of the dancers: the dancer of the wooden lion head opens, closes and swings it to the beat of the music, producing a rattling 'guagu' sound, and drives the other dancers inside the wooden lion to hold up the lion's body and change into various movements to the accompaniment of the gong-and-drum music. Each movement forms one scene, and there are seventy-two scenes in all. The whole performance is divided into seven categories according to the emotions it conveys: joy, sorrow, protection, longing, gratitude, form and reversal. The Yao cloth-bag wooden lion dance is accompanied by instruments such as the suona, large and small cymbals and the flute. When the dance is over, a man and a woman sing the moving-the-lion tune as they lead the wooden lion away. The moving-the-lion tune is sung, with three tune patterns and dialogue interspersed, mostly expressing the welcoming of guests and the celebration of marriages and new births.
The Pingshi scroll: wooden lions, long horns and reed songs
The Yao scroll records a royal edict after Panhu's death calling for gathering kin, blowing long horns and singing with reed pipes over the wooden lion — a textual clue to the dance's ritual standing.
The seventy-two scenes and the seven emotional categories
Each movement is one of seventy-two scenes, and the whole dance is divided into seven emotional categories, the structural mark that sets it apart from other lion dances.
The lion-departing tune and its three melodies
After the dance a man and woman sing the lion-departing tune to lead the lion away; largely sung, it has three melodies with spoken interludes, accompanied by suona, cymbals and flute.
One to eleven bearers of the lion skin and the guo-guo sound
One dancer works the wooden head while one to eleven others lift the skin; the head-snapping produces a guo-guo sound that cues the team to raise the skin into changing shapes.
Guabang hamlet and the cross-provincial Yao communities
The dance spans Sanshui and Yao'an in Lianzhou, Guangdong, and the neighbouring Yao townships in Lanshan and Linwu, Hunan, with Guabang hamlet of Yunwu village the most representative site.
The Sui-Tang southward migration and a four-generation genealogy
Moving south from the Xiang-Yuan region in Sui-Tang times, Yao ancestors carried the wooden lion dance into the Nanling borderlands; family and master-disciple transmission is documented to the fourth generation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yao cloth-bag wooden lion dance is also called 'dancing the dragon-dog lion'; it is a traditional dance handed down through generations among the Yao who crossed the mountains, and is distributed in Sanshui Township and Yao'an Township of Lianzhou City, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province, as well as in neighbouring Yao settlements such as Jingzhu Township and Ziliang Township of Lanshan County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, and Xiyao Township of Linwu County, Chenzhou City; the Guabang natural village under the Yunwu Village of Sanshui Township, Lianzhou City, is the most representative. Its vivid image shows the influence of the wooden lion dance among the local Yao communities. The Yao cloth-bag wooden lion dance has marked ethnic and local characteristics and a broad mass base.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
During the Sui and Tang dynasties the Yao ancestors began to migrate south from between the Xiang and Yuan rivers, entering the Wuling Mountains area that is now the junction of Guangdong, Hunan and Guangxi, and brought the Yao cloth-bag wooden lion dance to Lianzhou. Over the centuries the project has been carried on to this day through family and master-disciple transmission, with a documented lineage that has reached the fourth generation.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Lizhong 02-0345
- Li Dengshan 02-0346
- Wang Yueyou 02-0347
- Li Rongzai 02-0348
- Wang Jianwen 03-0905
- Yin Shaoshan 03-0906
- Li Dazhi 03-0907
- Yang Jingwei 04-1549
- Sun Bingxiang 04-1550
- Xie Daxiang 04-1551
- Li Jintu 04-1552
- Li Daohai 04-1553
- Wen Yansen 04-1554
- Tang Shouyi 04-1555
- Liu Guoping 05-2199
- Deng Yaming 05-2200
- Huang Qintian 05-2201
- Chi Hongqing 05-2202
- Sun Shuqiang 05-2203
- Deng Minghua 05-2204
- Huang Xingliang
- Zhao Xuelin
- Li Zhongchun
- Zhao Weibin
- Li Yongmao
- Mao Yunfeng
- Huang Zhengquan
- Ma Xinjian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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