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. Ancient Zhanjiang lay in the region of the Baiyue; before the Qing dynasty it belonged to Leizhou Prefecture and Gaozhou Prefecture.
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. The Zhanjiang nuo dance is a traditional dance through which the people of ancient Zhanjiang sacrificed to the Thunder God to send off calamity and prayed to the gods for safety; it is popularly known as 'walking the Qing generals', 'examining the soldiers', 'dancing the six generals' and 'dancing the two Zhen', and is transmitted in Huguang and Taiping of Mazhang District, Zhanjiang City, in Nanxing, Songzhu, Leigao, Yangjia, Baisha, Fucheng and Shentang of Leizhou City, and in Huangpo and Bopu of Wuchuan City. According to the Gazetteer of Leizhou Prefecture: 'From the twelfth day it is called lighting the lanterns, and it continues through to the night of the fifteenth. Each night three or four hundred coloured lanterns form one troupe, or five or six hundred form one troupe; firecrackers are let off, fireworks burned, ghost-judge plays and other miscellaneous dramas are staged, strings and pipes and gongs and drums alternate in playing, and visitors come in great numbers until dawn. The city has the most, and each township and market town has them too; this is called nuo, termed sending off calamity, and some also perform nuo up to the twenty-eighth day or the twelfth day of the second month.' The Zhanjiang nuo dance is performed in the activities of sacrificing to the Thunder God and sending off calamity to ensure safety from the thirteenth to the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month or on the twelfth day of the second month, with the activities of the Thunder Chief and the five directional Thunder Generals as the main content. The nuo ritual is conducted by a Daoist priest who sets up an altar in front of the temple, lighting candles, burning incense, burning paper treasure and offering the three kinds of living offerings to the deities. Next the order is proclaimed and talismans are distributed, and the five-coloured flag troupe, the eight treasures, the floating colours, the gong-and-drum band, the nuo dance troupe and the other troops of all the various hosts are respectfully summoned to set up camp and drill before the altar, and then go from household to household chasing ghosts and warding off evil to guarantee peace and safety. Afterwards comes the procession of the deities, a grand procession that travels to the territories under the jurisdiction of the local Earth Gods of the villages and towns to make offerings. After the procession of the deities the troupe returns to the square in front of the temple and the rite of sacrifice to the deities is held once more until it ends. The mask designs are bold and uninhibited, rugged and fierce for the martial figures, and dignified, refined and noble for the civil figures; they carry on the culture of the people of the ancient Leizhou Peninsula in revering and honouring the Thunder God, and are folk art of distinctive character.
The local names of Zhanjiang Nuo dance
A traditional dance for worshipping thunder and averting disaster, known locally by four different names and spread across Machang, Leizhou and Wuchuan.
The Lantern Festival and disaster-expelling entry in the Leizhou gazetteer
The Leizhou gazetteer describes lantern processions of three or four hundred to five or six hundred from the twelfth to the fifteenth night, with firecrackers, fireworks, ghost-judge plays and continuous music — the occasion called Nuo, or expelling disaster.
The thunder chief and the thunder generals of the five directions
Performed between the thirteenth and twenty-eighth of the first month or on the twelfth of the second, the dance centres on the thunder chief and his generals of the five directions.
The full ritual sequence
The full sequence: an altar before the temple, then orders and talismans issued, the flag, treasure, float, drum and Nuo teams mustered, house-to-house exorcism, a procession to each earth god's bounds, and a final sacrifice in the temple square.
Wooden, pandanus and cowhide thunder Nuo masks
The masks are notable: wooden, pandanus-fibre and cowhide types plus painted faces, alongside thunder Nuo masks preserved for over six hundred years; the martial ones fierce, the civil ones dignified.
The villages of the Zhanjiang Nuo belt
The townships where the dance survives, spread across Machang, Leizhou and Wuchuan, form the geographical belt of the Leizhou peninsula's thunder worship.
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. The masks of the Zhanjiang nuo dance are very outstanding: among them are wooden masks, masks made of a tough net-like material, cowhide masks and painted cold-makeup faces, all nuo masks with strong local character, as well as Leizhou nuo masks that have been preserved for more than six hundred years.
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 Zhanjiang nuo dance is the oldest folk art of the Zhanjiang area; it reflects the custom of the ancient people of the Leizhou Peninsula of revering and honouring the Thunder God, and has research value in religion, folklore, history and culture. In recent years the transmission of the Zhanjiang nuo dance has been weak, which has affected the survival and development of the dance as a whole. At present the Zhanjiang municipal government is making great efforts to excavate, organise and study this ancient folk cultural form, in the hope of forming an atmosphere of social participation and joint protection, so as to achieve effective protection and promote transmission. Peng Yingfang (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): following her grandfather and father from childhood she learned to perform nuo, has more than half a century of experience in performing nuo, is thoroughly familiar with the basic movements and performance requirements of the nuo dance, and knows the making and use of nuo masks, performance costume and props like the back of her hand. Every year she leads the nuo dance troupe to perform nuo in many villages of the locality, or takes part in festival performances such as art festivals and folk culture festivals; over the long term she has taught and guided young people in many villages of Mazhang District to perform the nuo dance, so that the nuo dance is able to be transmitted and continued. Male, Han Chinese, born in June 1923, died in March 2014, a native of Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province. Representative inheritor of the third national-level intangible cultural heritage project Nuo Dance (Zhanjiang Nuo Dance).
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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