Nuo Dance
01 · Historical Records
According to legend, in the Zhou dynasty there were already the terms 'great nuo' and 'villagers' nuo'; after the Han dynasty nuo gradually became an important component of the state's orthodox system of ritual law. The nuo dance transmitted in Qimen County, Anhui Province, originates in primitive shamanic dance; it was a rite for driving away ghosts and pestilence performed in the twelfth lunar month in China's remote antiquity. In Huizhou the names 'fangxiang dance' and 'twelve spirit dance' already existed in the Han dynasty. Nuo dance has existed in Qimen throughout history and flourished especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The nuo dance is a primitive dance of a sacrificial-ritual nature in traditional society, and has a long history. The nuo dance takes driving out plague and pestilence and praying for peace and safety as its principal aim, and involves a very strong degree of mass participation. In performance the dancers wear masks, shout as they drive things away, and attract a large crowd of followers and onlookers, so the scene is very lively. Among the many ethnic minorities of the southwestern region there also survive numerous nuo rituals and nuo dances of diverse form and complex function, with strong ethnic character. In the course of the nuo ritual people put on masks, dress themselves as nuo gods and leap into fierce, frenzied dances to drive away evil and calamity. Afterwards the meaning of nuo grew steadily richer: it added such content as eliminating evil and supporting good, praying for blessings and peace, sacrificing to ancestors and praying for a good harvest, and later also came to include the depiction of labour life and folk legends. Qimen had a 'nuo servant' system very early on; wealthy households kept nuo opera troupes, and whenever there was a temple fair, a sacrifice, the sending off of the Kitchen God, an autumn ritual or the welcoming of spring, they would perform nuo opera and nuo dance. In performance the dancers wear carved wooden masks, put on brocade robes and hold weapons such as the halberd and the axe, performing exorcism rites and stories of myth and legend to the accompaniment of forceful music and drumbeats. The nuo ritual of Luxi Village in Qimen preserves the original appearance of the ancient nuo sacrifice, moving through the village in procession and dancing as it goes. Every year the rite of inviting the gods is held first on the second day of the first lunar month, and then the nuo dance performance begins, with programmes such as 'the vanguard opens the way', 'the Earth God slays the general' and 'Liu Hai plays with the golden toad'. From the third to the sixth day they perform at the households in the village that have made a vow of peace; each household offers spirit money on a wooden tray, and when the performance ends the dancers pour the rice into cloth bags and take it away. None of the entire performance programmes has singing or spoken dialogue; everything is accompanied only by gong and drum. In Ximen and other villages such as Xianshanxia, Bishan Township, Xiwu Township, Yixian County, the Nuo God is welcomed every year on the third day of the first lunar month to pray against evil and disaster; this too is a form of performing nuo.
The Nuo servant system of Qimen
Qimen long maintained Nuo servants: wealthy households kept troupes that performed at temple fairs, sacrifices, the sending-off of the kitchen god, autumn rites and spring welcomes.
The Lusxi procession and the second-day invocation
The rite at Luxi village keeps the archaic form, processing through the village as it dances; the gods are invoked on the second day of the first month and households are visited from the third to the sixth.
Vanguard opening the way, the earth god slaying the general, and Liu Hai teasing the golden toad
The items performed after the invocation at Luxi; none of the pieces has singing or dialogue, being accompanied by drums and gongs alone.
Rewarding the gods with rice on a wooden tray
Households that vowed for peace reward the gods with rice on a wooden tray; after the performance the dancers tip the rice into cloth bags to take away.
No singing or dialogue, only drums and gongs
Masked in wood and robed in python-patterned gowns with shield and axe, the dancers enact exorcisms and legends to insistent drumming, without any song or speech.
Welcoming the Nuo gods in Yi county
Villages in Yi county invoke the Nuo gods every third day of the first month to pray away evil, another form of the procession, showing a shared Huizhou Nuo culture.
Wang Xuanzhi in the roles of Liu Hai, the general, the lion leader and harmony
Wang Xuanzhi began at eighteen, dancing locally and on tour in the roles of Liu Hai, general, lion leader and harmony, his bouncy and comic style full of naivety.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The nuo dance is widely transmitted throughout the country, and is distributed most densely in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui in the Yangtze River basin, and in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hebei in the Yellow River basin.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance · Nuo Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Qimen nuo dance is the vivid embodiment of traditional nuo culture, from which the religious consciousness, folk consciousness and aesthetic consciousness of the ancient ancestors can be observed, providing a reference for the study of folk customs and cultural character at different stages of Chinese history. The Qimen nuo dance is a precious ethnic cultural heritage; at present it faces various practical problems and difficulties such as ageing personnel, a shortage of inheritors and insufficient funding, is on the verge of being lost, and urgently needs rescue and protection. Wang Xuanzhi (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): at 18 he began to learn nuo dance performance, dancing nuo in his own village or touring to perform elsewhere every year in the twelfth lunar month, the first lunar month or in the slack farming season, and he introduced innovations on the basis of the performing skills of the older generation. He mainly plays the roles of Liu Hai, general, lion leader, tiao and he; in performance his movements are leaping, light, brisk and humorous, full of a rustic naivety. From the 1980s he assisted the local cultural departments in excavating the performance art and related material of the nuo dance, restored the nuo opera troupe, and passed on his knowledge to the younger generation without reserve, so that the ranks of local nuo performers grew steadily and the performance content became increasingly rich. Male, Han Chinese, born in August 1932, died in April 2015, a native of Qimen County, Anhui Province. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level intangible cultural heritage project Nuo Dance (Qimen Nuo Dance). Wang Shunqing (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): male, Han Chinese, born in December 1939, a native of Qimen County, Anhui Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level intangible cultural heritage project Nuo Dance (Qimen Nuo Dance). Since the 1980s he has led the Luxi nuo troupe many times to take part in major provincial, municipal and county festival celebrations and folk performance gatherings, and has been invited to various places to give shows, winning many awards. As the oldest inheritor of the Qimen nuo dance today, he now mainly teaches lion dancing skills and plays the drum-and-music role; the apprentices trained by him are basically able to perform independently.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Luo Huiwu 02-0353
- Hu Zhenkun 02-0354
- Chengzhangqing 03-0911
- Peng Yingfang 03-0912
- Yu Yangfu 03-0913
- Fan Tinglu 03-0914
- Han Fulin 04-1557
- Wang Xuanzhi 04-1558
- Gong Maofa 04-1559
- Cheng Jinsheng 04-1560
- Wang Shunqing 05-2210
- Zhou Guoping 05-2211
- Yulinji 05-2212
- Banyongming
- Xiao Yiping
- Peng Qiusheng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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