Guozhuang Dance
01 · Historical Records
Men and women form teams and encircle a ring, facing the centre of the ring, and dance gracefully. According to the Tibetan book Lineage of the Kings of Ladakh, long before the rise of the Tubo kingdom, during the period known as the Deqiao Gong, the guozhuang of the Tibetan region had already developed; after more than a thousand years of development and change it had formed several major schools. The Garze guozhuang took shape in the Garze Prefecture region. After 1978, guozhuang activity in Garze became more active, and it had already become an indispensable mass recreational activity at festivals. During the period of the Republic of China the lyrics mostly praised the gods and Buddhas and the tusi and headmen; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, while part of the traditional lyrics was retained, new lyrics were created praising the socialist system, singing of the Communist Party and extolling the diligence and courage of the people.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The guozhuang dance is a type of folk dance popular in Tibetan-inhabited areas. It changes continuously with the development of the social history of the Tibetan people. There are songs and dances reflecting labour conditions such as threshing barley, twisting wool, feeding livestock and brewing wine, as well as songs and dances expressing Tibetan customs and performed at weddings, the completion of new houses and when welcoming guests and entertaining customers. The guozhuang dance is divided into old guozhuang and new guozhuang. Old guozhuang has the nature of sacrifice: only its special lyrics may be sung, and no alteration whatsoever may be made; the dance is generally slow, steady, archaic and solemn. New guozhuang mostly reflects agricultural and pastoral production and commercial and trading activity; its lyrical content and dance movements are both fairly flexible. The number of performers in a guozhuang dance is generally unlimited; one person or many may take part. Its dance steps include two major categories, “guozhuo” and “kuzhuo”; the former is walking dance and the latter turning dance. The word guozhuang means “circle dance”; it is an ancient traditional form of song and dance. The Garze guozhuang is one of them. During the period of the Republic of China, Garze organized a guozhuang team every year (men and women alike) to perform at temples for the tusi and headmen; a “dance service system” (wuchazhi) gradually formed, and it was not abolished until after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The performance mode of the Garze guozhuang is: men and women form a circle, or men and women each form a small circle. Men and women each have a “zhuoben” (lead dancer) who is skilled in singing and dancing. Before dancing begins, the men's team and the women's team each sing a sannban-type “introductory piece” once, and then the dancing starts in the clockwise direction. When the men's team sings and dances, the women's team only dances and does not sing; when the women's team sings and dances, the men's team only dances and does not sing. While dancing, men and women either link arms or dance without linking arms; the rhythm changes from slow to fast, and it ends in the climax at a fast tempo. According to traditional custom, the lyrics and tunes of the Garze guozhuang follow a certain fixed procedure and may not be changed at will: first singing of happy reunion, second singing of prayer, third singing of praise, fourth singing of jest, fifth singing of marriage, and sixth the extolling of the Buddha's teachings. Usually ten tunes must be sung and danced before one guozhuang comes to an end. In terms of dance style, the Garze guozhuang is archaic and expansive, especially in its fast-tempo section, where the melody is passionate and bright. The tunes and dance postures of the Garze guozhuang were basically the same before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The lyrics have changed somewhat with the development of the times. The lyrical form of this kind of folk song usually belongs to antiphonal songs or long epics; the most common is a three-section form, with each section ranging from two to eight lines, and most lines having eight syllables. Musical notation in 2/4 time is the most common; in addition, some parts use relatively more complex metres such as 3/4 and 6/8. The common modes are the yu mode and the shang mode.
Gozho and Kuzho
The two families of steps: Gozho, walking dance, and Kuzho, turning dance.
First gathering, second prayer, third praise
The order of songs is fixed: gathering, prayer, praise, jest, marriage and finally the dharma, ten tunes closing a session.
Zhuoben, the lead dancer
Men and women form circles, each with its own Zhuoben; each side sings a free-rhythm prelude before circling clockwise.
The dance-service levy
In the Republican period each year a troupe was sent to the monastery to perform for chieftains, a levy abolished only after 1949.
Yu and Shang modal melodies
Lyrics are usually stanzas of two to eight lines in eight syllables; the 2/4 measure dominates and the common modes are Yu and Shang.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
According to the different regions in which it is popular, the guozhuang dance can further be divided into categories such as the Garze guozhuang and the Manai guozhuang. Male dancers move ruggedly and robustly, female dancers are graceful and lively, and it has distinctly local characteristics. Shiqu County lies in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River at the junction of the Sichuan, Qinghai and Tibet provinces and regions. Within the county there are stone scripture cultural relics such as the Bage Mani stone scripture wall and the Songge Mani stone scripture city, and the guozhuang of the pastoral area is closely related to the religious activities of the monasteries.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance · Guozhuang Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Kham Tibetan area, which includes Chamdo of Tibet, Yushu of Qinghai and Diqing of Yunnan, is an important component of China's second largest Tibetan area, and Garze Prefecture is an important region for the inheritance and practice of the Khampa culture, which has deep foundations.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Dazhenqupi 02-0369
- Xuguilian 02-0370
- Songjizhaxi 02-0371
- Luosongjiangcun 02-0372
- Angjiacuo 02-0373
- Ade 03-0919
- Bai Manimai 03-0920
- Caiwa 03-0921
- Buzhaxi 03-0922
- Abu 05-2229
- Zerennima 05-2230
- Cideng
- Zhaxicairen
- Qianfuquan
- Tugazeren
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。