Tujia Hand-waving Dance
01 · Historical Records
The Enshi Waving Dance unfolds along the Youshui River basin. In former times in the area of Baifusi Town, Laifeng County, every settlement of a hundred households built a waving hall, with a spirit tablet of the Tujia king set up inside. Before the dancing began, the presiding ritual master would conduct the sacrificial rite, then drums would be beaten and gongs sounded and the dancing would start; the dance troupe unfolded in turn following the order of the rite.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Waving Dance, also called 'Shebari', is a ritual collective folk dance performed by the Tujia people in front of the Temple of the Tujia King during the Spring Festival; it is transmitted in the Yongshun, Longshan and Baojing areas of Hunan Province and in the Tujia-inhabited regions along the border of Hubei and Sichuan provinces. The Waving Dance is divided into the 'big waving' and the 'small waving'. The big waving is held once every three to five years, lasts seven or eight days and draws tens of thousands of participants; the performance contains complicated military and hunting content and requires set routines and formations to be displayed. The small waving is held every year in Tujia villages; it takes farming as its main content, and during the dance the participants form several concentric circles, one person leading and the others following, and it is highly improvisational. In the Tujia language the Waving Dance is called 'Sheba' or 'Sheba Gechi', meaning dancing to honour the gods; it is a sacrificial dance transmitted among the Tujia people of the Youshui River basin on the Hubei-Hunan-Chongqing border. In the past every settlement of a hundred households had a waving hall, and some also built gate towers and opera stages. In Shemihu, Dahe and other places of Laifeng County, remains of waving halls survive to this day. The account in the Gazetteer of Huguang of the Five Dynasties story of 'the Waving Dance and the Pushu Tree' vividly depicts the scene, more than a thousand years ago, of Tujia people dancing the Waving Dance around the Pushu tree; this is the earliest record of the Tujia Waving Dance of Laifeng in the historical texts. On a broken stele at the waving hall of Miaobao near Shemihu Village is carved the inscription 'alive, one is a hero; dead, one becomes a spirit', the best footnote to the Tujia dancing the Waving Dance to honour their ancestors. The small Waving Dance of Shemihu Village has primitive characteristics and is relatively completely preserved. When dancing, men and women alike gather on the earthen flat in front of the waving hall, beating drums and sounding gongs as they perform the waving. Its characteristic is the waving of the hands on the same side, the bending of the waist and the crouching of the knees, with the twisting of the body driving the swinging of the hands; the performance content consists mostly of movements of production and daily life. The Waving Dance takes hunting, farm work, military affairs and social life as its main expressive content. In performance, song, music and dance are fused into one, interspersed with gong-and-drum accompaniment and the singing of Waving Dance songs. The feature that most distinguishes the Waving Dance from other dances is that it throws the hand on the same side and steps with the foot on the same side; its dance movements are rugged and vigorous, its postures flow freely and it is steady and dignified. The waving movements mainly include 'single waving', 'double waving' and 'waving with a turn', with 'following the beat, bending the knees, trembling and sinking' as the essentials of the movement. The Waving Dance is a spiritual treasure handed down through generations among the Tujia people, and it has great influence among the people of the Hubei-Hunan-Chongqing-Guizhou border region; it has social functions of sacrifice, entertainment, education and social intercourse.
Sheba Ri (the god-honouring dance)
The Tujia name of the dance, meaning 'dance to honour the gods', performed along the Youshui river across Hubei, Hunan and Chongqing.
The great hand-waving held every few years
The great hand-waving is staged every three to five years over seven or eight days with tens of thousands taking part.
Eagle wheeling, bow drawing, digging, sowing and spinning
Named routines handed down by the inheritor Peng Chengjin, covering hunting, farming and household work with an archaic flavour.
The hand-waving hall of Shemihu village
Hall ruins survive at Shemihu and Dahe in Laifeng county, where the small hand-waving dance keeps its most archaic form.
Same-side arms and same-side feet
Its key distinction from other dances is that arm and leg swing on the same side, with bowed back and bent knees.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Enshi Waving Dance is a mass cultural activity widely practised in the Tujia residential area of the Enshi region of Hubei Province; it is popular in the Youshui River basin of Enshi.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tujia Hand-waving Dance · Tujia Hand-waving Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In a society that is accelerating towards modernization, the Enshi Waving Dance has begun to decline and faces the danger of having no successors and of its techniques being lost; effective protection must be strengthened. Peng Chengjin (associated inheritor, as recorded in the official file): Male, Tujia ethnicity, born in December 1967, native of Laifeng County, Hubei Province. In the 1970s he learned the gong-and-drum beating and the movements of the Waving Dance from Peng Changsong, the third-term and fourth-term National People's Congress deputy from his village. The dozen or so dance routines he transmits, namely grinding the eagle and spreading its wings, drawing the bow and shooting the arrow, digging earth, sowing seed, spinning cotton, weaving cloth, planting rice seedlings, carrying water, contesting the feet, shaking off the dust and rubbing the back, are vigorous and powerful, with an ancient flavour. Representative inheritor of the Tujia Waving Dance (Enshi Waving Dance), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national batch. Devoted to the transmission and protection of the Waving Dance, he has repeatedly promoted and introduced the Tujia Waving Dance inside and outside Hubei Province, and has received the praise of the Tujia people and the endorsement of the local government. In 2009 he was awarded the title 'King of the Tujia Drum' by the Laifeng County government.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tian Renxin 02-0363
- Zhang Mingguang 02-0364
- Tian Jingren 03-0918
- Tian Jingmin 04-1564
- Peng Chengjin 05-2223
- Tian Weizheng 05-2224
- Tian Zhixin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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