Miao Lusheng Dance
01 · Historical Records
Legend has it that in remote antiquity the Miao ancestors made a great migration; the road was rugged and thorns covered the ground, and the brave Miao young men, in order to open a passage for their elders and fellow villagers, rolled their own agile bodies to force a way through the thorny brush. To commemorate the deeds of these young men, people imitated the way in which they had rolled down the thorns with their bodies, composed it into a lusheng dance, and named it "Earth Dragon Rolling Through Thorns".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lusheng dance, also called "stepping on the lusheng" or "stepping-song hall", is so named because it uses the lusheng to accompany the dancing and because the dancers both play and dance at the same time. Judging from the excavated bronze lusheng music-and-dance figurines of the Western Han dynasty, lusheng dance has a history of at least more than two thousand years. Lusheng dance is mostly performed at festive moments such as the New Year, gatherings and celebrations, and mainly takes three forms: self-amusement, competition and ritual. The Miao lusheng dance Gunshanzhu was originally called "Earth Dragon Rolling Through Thorns" and is called "ziluoduo" in Miao. It is transmitted in Zhuchang Miao and Yi Township, Nayong County, Guizhou Province, and is one of the lusheng dances handed down through generations among the Miao people. "Gunshanzhu" is a Miao folk dance that integrates lusheng playing, dance performance and acrobatic art in one. In performance, six iron javelin heads about 20 centimetres long are used, their points inserted upward into the ground to form a circle about 0.7 metres in diameter; alternatively, six rice bowls placed rim against rim and filled with water may be arranged in a circle in place of the javelins. The performers hold lushengs, and blowing while leaping, roll around the javelins or the bowls of water; the performance is highly technical and extraordinarily perilous. "Gunshanzhu" gradually incorporated various techniques and continually refined itself in the course of its long development. By 1989, the lusheng dance "Gunshanzhu" had developed from solo performance into a dance performed simultaneously by six to eight people. The performers hold six-pipe lushengs, wear caps decorated with bamboo-pheasant feathers, and are dressed in embroidered white jackets, playing lusheng melodies handed down through generations as they dance around the javelins or the bowls filled with water; at times they use the head as feet, and the difficulty of the lusheng dance steps and the use of techniques keep increasing as the performance proceeds, presenting the thrilling scene of Miao compatriots who feared no hardship on the migration road, pressed forward indomitably and overcame all difficulties. The Miao lusheng dance "Gunshanzhu", with its bold and unrestrained style, its highly difficult and thrilling movements and its deep cultural connotations, has become a rare wonder of minority folk art, spreading far and wide and renowned at home and abroad. It has repeatedly taken part in art festivals at home and abroad, and has won high praise from Chinese and foreign people and from compatriots of all ethnicities. The tenacious and indomitable national character contained in this dance form is a precious spiritual treasure; it inspires and guides people to keep advancing and never be crushed by difficulties.
The ring of spears or water bowls
Six spearheads some twenty centimetres long or six brimming bowls set point to point form a ring about seventy centimetres across, around which the dancer leaps and rolls.
The earth-dragon rolling through thorns
Originally called the earth-dragon rolling through thorns, the dance recalls young men who rolled a path through brambles during the Miao migration.
Swallow, inverted post and human pyramid
Combining lusheng playing, dance and acrobatics, its most inventive feats are the Roll, Twin Swallows, Inverted Post and Human Pyramid.
From solo to six or eight
By 1989 the solo had grown into a dance for six to eight performers in plumed caps and embroidered white jackets around the spears or water bowls.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It is transmitted in the Miao, Dong, Bouyei, Shui, Gelao, Zhuang, Yao and other ethnic groups' inhabited areas in Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan and elsewhere; it is the folk dance most beloved by the southern ethnic minorities and the most widely distributed among them.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Lusheng Dance · Miao Lusheng Dance · Miao Lusheng Dance · Miao Lusheng Dance · Miao Lusheng Dance · Miao Lusheng Dance · Miao Lusheng Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wang Jingcai (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, Miao, born in 1968, from Nayong, Guizhou. Gunshanzhu is a performance form that integrates lusheng playing, dance and acrobatic technique, in which "Gunshanzhu", "Shuangfeiyan", "Daozhaizhuang" and "Die Luohan" are the most innovative and highest-difficulty movements, of considerable aesthetic value. From 1981 to 1984 Wang Jingcai served as lead performer and instructor, and from 2000 to the present he has trained a number of skilled performers of Gunshanzhu in his home area. Representative inheritor of the second-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project Miao lusheng dance (Gunshanzhu).
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Jinying 02-0379
- Yu Guizhou 02-0380
- Wang Jingcai 02-0381
- Lanheng 05-2234
- Li Guangde
- Zhu Ying
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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