Guozhuang Dance
01 · Historical Records
Men and women form teams and make a circle, facing inward, and dance gracefully. Manai guozhuang has long been passed on within Jinchuan County, Sichuan Province. It originated in the period when the Bon religion built Yongzhong Lading Monastery in Jinchuan (the Earth Dog year of the Tibetan calendar), and to this day it has a history of more than a thousand years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Guozhuang dance is a type of folk dance popular in Tibetan-inhabited areas. It changes continually as the social history of the Tibetan people develops. There are songs and dances reflecting labour such as threshing highland barley, twisting wool, feeding livestock and brewing wine, and there are songs and dances portraying Tibetan customs and performed at weddings, house completions and when welcoming guests and entertaining visitors. Guozhuang dance is divided into old-style guozhuang and new-style guozhuang. Old-style guozhuang is sacrificial in character: only its set lyrics may be sung and no alteration whatsoever is permitted, and the dance is generally slow, steady, archaic and solemn. New-style guozhuang mostly reflects farming and herding production and commercial and trading activity; both its lyrics and its dance movements are relatively free and flexible. An ordinary guozhuang dance is not limited in the number of performers; it may be danced by one person or by many. Its dance steps fall into two main categories, 'guozhuo' and 'kuzhuo'; the former is walking dance, the latter turning dance. Manai guozhuang was originally a sacrificial activity of the Bon religion. Elements of Bon culture are woven into the performance, forming a set of special procedures; for example, before the performance a Bon lama is invited to chant scriptures and to make a Weisang offering (burning cypress branches) in worship of the sacred Meterdo mountain. Before a Manai guozhuang performance begins, precious animal hides, antlers and other gifts must be presented to the tribal chiefs and tusi leaders, or a khata is offered to relatives who have gone off to war, wishing them an early victorious return. In more recent times this was changed to have the female leader present a khata and a pazi (silk handkerchief) to the male leader as a mark of respect, in the hope that he will lead the dance troupe in a good performance of guozhuang. In recent years, through continuous reinvention, one or two jars of zha wine are first placed in the middle of the ground before the performance; a highly respected artist recites words of blessing to open the jars, and cypress branches are lit at the same time. When Manai guozhuang is performed, the men's and women's troupes sing a long, melodious song together, and the male and female lead dancers come to the centre of the ground following the singing. The female lead dancer, holding a khata in both hands, performs the ritual of three bows and then presents the khata to the male lead dancer, who likewise performs the three bows, and the performance formally begins. The dance movements of Manai guozhuang combine movement and stillness, alternating suddenly between the two, a feature comparatively seldom seen among minority dances. The metrical pattern of the lyrics is strict, with lines in seven-syllable and eight-syllable forms. The tunes use a pentatonic-derived heptatonic scale in the jue mode; the melody is beautiful and flowing, with little rise and fall. The costume of Manai guozhuang consists of three layers and is entirely unlike that of other guozhuang: the outermost is a cape 1.8 metres long and 1.3 metres wide in alternating black and white, changed in modern times to alternating red and white; the second is a Tibetan robe with a large overlapping front panel; the innermost is a long pleated skirt in white with coloured decoration. As the times have changed, people's feeling for guozhuang has grown steadily more indifferent.
Cloak, Tibetan robe and pleated skirt
Its costume is a unique three-piece set: a black-and-white cloak 1.8 m by 1.3 m, a front-buttoning robe and a pleated skirt.
Lama chanting and juniper offering to Mount Merdo
Originally a Bon rite, the dance keeps a special protocol: a Bon lama chants and juniper is burned to Mount Merdo before dancing.
Offering scarves and three prostrations
The two lead dancers meet at the centre; the woman offers a scarf after three prostrations, the man answering in kind, and the dance begins.
Opening the jar of wine and burning cypress
Today jars of barley wine are set out and opened with a blessing while cypress burns; formerly pelts and antlers were offered to chieftains.
Seven- and eight-character lines in the jue mode
Its texts are strictly metred in seven- and eight-character lines, set to a smooth melody in the jue mode.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
According to the region in which it is popular, guozhuang dance can further be divided into categories such as Ganzi guozhuang and Manai guozhuang. Manai guozhuang is passed on mainly in the upper Dadu River valley around Manai in Jinchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Yongzhong Lading Monastery (later called Guangfa Monastery) is an important place for local Bon and Tibetan Buddhist activity. Manai guozhuang is sung in the local Tibetan spoken dialect, and both its melodies and its lyrics are markedly different from the guozhuang of the Ganzi area in melodic contour and in step patterns.
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 rescue and protection work related to it still has a long way to go. In earlier times the opening of a Manai guozhuang was presided over by a village elder: first a Weisang offering with words of blessing, then the presentation of a khata. After the ritual was simplified, the female lead dancer instead presents a khata to the male lead dancer and the two exchange the ritual of three bows. In recent years the locality has organized Manai guozhuang performances at festivals such as the Jinchuan Pear Blossom Festival, and has invited old artists to teach jar-opening, the three bows and the basic dance steps to young people and school students.
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。