Nuo Dance

01 · Historical Records

According to legend, the terms “da nuo” (great nuo) and “xiangren nuo” (villagers' nuo) already existed in the Zhou dynasty, and from the Han dynasty onward nuo gradually became an important part of the orthodox ritual and legal system of the state. According to the ink inscriptions in the Bingling Temple Grottoes and the Ming-dynasty Gazetteer of Hezhou, in the Tang dynasty Yongjing had instances of “autumn defence soldiers” wearing false masks to guard against frontier tribesmen who came to seize the wheat harvest. As physical evidence, the old masks of the July Nuo Gathering reflect the cultural fashions of the Tang and Ming dynasties.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Nuo dance is a primitive dance of a sacrificial and ritual character in traditional society, and has a long history. Nuo dance takes driving away epidemics and praying for peace as its main purpose, and has a strong capacity for mass participation. In performance the dancers wear masks on their heads, shout as they drive things away, and attract a large number of followers and onlookers, so the scene is very lively. Among the many ethnic minorities of the southwest region there also survive a great many nuo rites and nuo dances of varied form and complex function, which are highly characteristic of the ethnic groups. Yongjing nuo dance is commonly called the “July Nuo Gathering”; it is transmitted in the Han Chinese villages of Yangta, Wangtai, Hongquan, Sanyuan and other townships in the western mountainous area of Yongjing County, Gansu Province. Archaeological excavation shows that altars and painted pottery designs had already appeared in Yongjing as early as the Neolithic period. The July Nuo Gathering is generally performed at a ceremony in which thanks are given to the gods and a vow redeemed after a good harvest, praying for favourable weather and the safety of people and livestock in the coming year. The whole nuo dance consists of links such as descending to the shrine, offering the tray, offering the sacrifice, the huishou dance, the fashen (spirit-sending) dance, the mask play and the altar contest. The nuo dance troupe consists of more than fifty people, including the jiuxia (head of the troupe), the paitou (standard leader), the flag-bearers and the gong and drum players. Two jiuxia lead the various standards and the huishou in prayers for blessings and auspiciousness; the jiuxia wear eight-trigram robes, hold broadswords and walk at the very front of the formation. The paitou, the huishou and the rest wear red-tasselled caps and shoes and long robes of bright colour, and shift with the changing orientation of the jiuxia; the gongs and drums play the prescribed music for the “dancing”. The formation changes of the flag-bearers include “three circuits and nine turns”, “running the great circle” and “performing the square formation”. The masks (commonly called “faces”) number more than thirty, including Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhou Cang, Cao Cao, Lü Bu, the three-eyed Erlang, A Yang, Zhong, Ma, and the red and green demons. The number of masks used by each temple varies: some have eighteen pairs, some thirty-six, and the most exquisite and most ancient are the masks of the Jiaohuo Temple at Yangta. The nuo dance play has a rich repertoire and varied forms. The song-and-dance type takes singing, dancing and gong-and-drum accompaniment as its mode of expression, and includes plays such as “Beheading Diaochan” and “Fang Si-niang”. The drama type unfolds its story in the spoken lines of the characters and simple vocal styles, and uses gongs, drums and cymbals to cheer the fighters in scenes of combat. Each play runs a long time and preserves the embryo of early drama. The principal plays are “Erlang Chasing the Mischievous Ghost”, “Five Generals”, “Li Cunxiao Fighting the Tiger”, “Passing the Five Passes” and so on. In the acrobatics the masks are comically fashioned, the characters crack jokes and banter, and the content is humorous and laughable, making the spectators hold their sides. The principal plays are “The Laughing Monk Driving off the Rain”, “The Farmer” and so on.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

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 valley and in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Hebei in the Yellow River valley. According to the Commentary on the Water Classic, in the rock halls of the Xiao Jishi Mountain around Yangta and Wangtai there were activities of “divine men” in “broad robes and feathered skirts”, which the Qiang people called “Tangshu Mountain” and “Tangshu Grotto”. According to the content of their performance they can be divided into three types: song-and-dance, drama and acrobatics.

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 Yongjing July Nuo Gathering is a typical representative of nuo culture in the northwest region; it embodies several thousand years of cultural accumulation and has a certain reference value for research into ancient religion, folklore, music and dance. At present, under the impact of modern forms of entertainment, the Yongjing July Nuo Gathering faces the crisis of being lost and urgently needs protection. Fan Tinglu (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): he began performing nuo dance in 1986 and devoted himself to studying the techniques of nuo dance performance; he became the jiuxia, or head, of the village's nuo dance, and is a master performer of nuo dance around Yangta Township. His representative works include “Cloth-Bag Lord”, “Ploughing”, “Five Officials and Five Brides”, “Li Cunxiao Fighting the Tiger” and “Fang Si-niang”. He frequently organizes the various temples to stage nuo dance performances, and has led the village's nuo dance troupe in more than two hundred performances. He has often discussed and exchanged nuo dance performing techniques with folk artists from outside the village, and has more than ten disciples. Male, of Han ethnicity, born in August 1935, died in November 2015, a native of Yongjing County, Gansu Province. Representative inheritor of the third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project nuo dance (Yongjing July Nuo Gathering).

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

1. Nuo Dance (Yongjing, Gansu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Fan Tinglu · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗