Yongxindunpai Dance
01 · Historical Records
According to the Yongxin County Gazetteer and the Wu clan genealogy of Nantang Village, the shield could already in the Ming dynasty be "provided for practising martial arts and defending oneself"; the shield dance that evolved from this has a history of more than two hundred years to the present.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yongxin County, Jiangxi Province, lies in the southwest of the Gan River region, in the middle section of the Luoxiao Mountains. The shield dance is a folk dance transmitted in Yongxin. The shield dance chiefly depicts scenes in which two armies face each other, break the opposing formation, and attack and defend in bitter combat. It is performed collectively by men: two men with iron tridents and a number of shield-bearers (more than eight) execute a series of rolling, striking, pawing and evading movements, forming eight formations, namely the four-corner formation, the single-row long snake formation, the eight-character formation, the hornet formation, the joined-shield formation, the dragon gate formation, the pouch formation and the flower-patterned shield formation. The layout of the formations is ingenious and rigorous, and the plastic forms are each distinct in bearing. Its movements are characterised by stances that never collapse, a fusion of hardness and softness, and speed without disorder. The music of the shield dance chiefly absorbs the suona tune patterns "luo qiang" from lantern-and-parade music, the "southern sanban" of long tones ornamented with passing notes from Chinese opera, and the fast gong-and-drum pieces from martial arts music; added to these are the ringing short-saber sounds that ring out continually during the performance and the shouted "he he" of the performers, all of which do much to create a lively atmosphere. The Yongxin shield dance is a microcosm of the folk customs and ethos of the mountainous southwest of the Gan River region; it embodies a most primitive national cohesion, team spirit and fighting spirit.
The eight battle formations
Two fork-bearers and eight or more shield-men form eight formations through rolling, striking, staking and dodging moves, each laid out with cunning precision and its own bearing.
The fork bearers and shield men
The basic casting of the men's ensemble, staging two armies breaking formations and trading attack and defence with unbroken stances, firm yet supple, swift yet orderly.
Rolling, striking, staking and dodging
The shield men's core movement series, matched to the eight formations and partaking of both martial art and acrobatics.
The suona melodies and southern loose-board
Its music draws on the suona tune gong qiang from lantern art, the long-note southern loose-board of opera, and the fast drumming of martial arts.
The ringing shield rings and the he-he shouts
The clang of rings on the short knives and the dancers' he-he shouts do much to create the piece's fierce atmosphere.
The county gazetteer and the Wu genealogy
The county gazetteer and the Nan Tang Wu genealogy record shields used for martial training in the Ming, the main documentary basis for dating the dance over two centuries.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The shield dance is known to every household in the Yongxin area; there was a saying that "a man who does not practise with the shield is no true man", and it is especially indispensable when the lanterns are sent out at the Lantern Festival. It is deeply cherished by the local people and enriches their cultural life. The Yongxin shield dance circulates in Nantang Village of the Heshui river basin and in the villages around the county seat of Yongxin County, Jiangxi Province. Yongxin lies in the middle section of the Luoxiao Mountains in the southwest of the Gan River region, has been a corridor between Jiangxi and Hunan since antiquity, and martial arts have been widely practised among the people; the villages established martial arts halls, and people of the same surname formed teams to practise with the shield. There was a saying that "a man who does not practise with the shield is no true man", and the dance is especially indispensable when the lanterns are sent out at the Lantern Festival. According to the Yongxin County Gazetteer and the Wu clan genealogy of Nantang Village, the shield could already in the Ming dynasty be "provided for practising martial arts and defending oneself"; the shield dance that evolved from this has a history of more than two hundred years to the present.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dunpai Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In terms of artistic value, it integrates martial arts, acrobatics, dance and plastic form into one, and has become a typical representative of local culture. The rapid changes in cultural life and the successive deaths of old performers have brought the shield dance to the brink of being lost, making salvage work urgent. Wu Sangui (recorded in the official archives of associated inheritors): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1947, native of Yongxin County, Jiangxi. Representative inheritor of the Yongxin shield dance in the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. To date he has taught close to one hundred disciples.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Sangui 02-0358
- Tian Zonglin 04-1546
- Xu Qiaoqing 05-2218
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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