Drum Dance
01 · Historical Records
The Huayuan great drum (flower-cymbal big drum) arose during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1736–1795); it is a folk children's dance in which drum, cymbals and dance are highly unified. The Huayuan great drum has long been transmitted in Beijing. After the second convening of the society in the first year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1875), the heads of the society (huishou) for five successive generations were, in order, Hao Wenliang, Gao Yi, Hao Chunfang, Hao Chunlin, Gao Ruichang and Hao Weidong.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Chinese drum dance is distinguished by rich drum patterns, ardent emotion and deep cultural reserves; it spreads across the whole country and its influence reaches the entire world. The Book of Changes (Yijing), in its chapter 'Appended Statements', has the phrase 'the drums are danced to, so as to bring the spirits to their fullest' (gu zhi wu zhi yi jin shen); it vividly reflects the long history of Chinese drum dance while also summing up, in a nutshell, its principal function. From the primitive 'striking stones and clapping stones, the hundred beasts all dance' (ji shi fu shi, bai shou shui wu) to later times when its influence spread everywhere south and north of the Yangtze, Chinese drum dance has remained one continuous, unbroken tradition. The Huayuan great drum is also called 'the flower cymbals of the Lei Yin Sheng Hui', popularly known as the 'Huayuan great drum'. It is transmitted in Houniufang Village, Xiaotangshan Town, Changping District, Beijing. In the Huayuan great drum, drum, cymbals and dance all proceed from a single source, so that sound, emotion and appearance are highly unified. The drum serves both to give the signal and as an accompanying instrument; the cymbals take part in the accompaniment and at the same time function as dance props. In performance the drum leads the cymbal sound and the cymbals follow the drumbeats; the musical rhythm is based mainly on triple metre with variations, bright and lively, natural and nimble. The dance is run through from beginning to end by the pulsing tremor of the knees; the movements flow like drifting clouds and are completed in one unbroken sweep, expressing the naive and lively character of young children. The Huayuan great drum is highly flexible and varied in performance form; its vocabulary of dance movements is rich, and multiple performance routines can be composed. The performing troupe is extremely flexible, from as few as two people to as many as a thousand; the order of performance follows no single pattern, the duration may be long or short, and the site is not fixed — it can be performed on open ground, on a stage, or while moving along a route. However much it varies, the different performance routines can be joined closely together, achieving natural flow and complete unity.
The Leiyin holy assembly's flower cymbals
The full name of the flower-cymbal drum, a children's dance of cymbals and drums from Houniufang village in Changping.
Drum leading, cymbals following
Drum and cymbals are one with the dance: the drum commands and accompanies while the cymbals both accompany and serve as props.
The trembling knee
A continuous tremor of the knees runs through the whole dance, giving it the flow and liveliness of childhood.
The five generations of heads
The tradition long kept in Beijing was revived in 1875, and its heads since then have passed through five generations of named men.
From two performers to a thousand
The formation is elastic, from two performers to a thousand, on level ground, on stage or on the march, yet the routines still join seamlessly.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Chinese drum dance takes many forms, is widely distributed, varies greatly in dance posture, and differs enormously in kind. Among the more typical forms are waist-drum dance, the crouching drum dance (biaogu), flower-drum (flower-lantern) dance, wooden-drum dance, long-drum dance, flat-drum dance, bronze-drum dance, dragon-drum dance, fan-drum dance, yellow-clay drum dance, elephant-foot drum dance, monkey drum dance, flower-whip drum dance, bamboo-drum dance, bell-drum dance, sheep-skin drum dance and many others.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Huayuan great drum is an indispensable characteristic branch of folk drum-dance art. It has research value for the study of folk drum-dance art and folk culture, and can provide a basis for innovation in national art. In recent years the Huayuan great drum of Houniufang Village has fallen into a crisis of transmission, because the technical repertoire has not been systematised and the heads of the society and elderly performers are of advanced age; it urgently needs rescue. Gao Ruichang (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1945, a native of Beijing. In 1957 he represented Beijing at the Second National Folk Music and Dance Performance Conference, and also took part in the gala performances welcoming visiting foreign heads of state. He is thoroughly versed in the three core skills of drum, cymbals and dance. Through careful study, and on the basis of the traditional routines, he standardised and unified the basic movements of the great drum, making them more scientific and reasonable and the stage effect all the more dazzling. Since 2005 he has actively transmitted and disseminated the skills of the Huayuan great drum, training more than a thousand pupils, of whom close to three hundred are able to take part in formal performances. Representative inheritor of the drum dance (Huayuan great drum) item of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Mairemuhan Adili 02-0402
- Li Chengyuan 03-0925
- Yang Menyuan 03-0926
- Daisanhai 03-0927
- Gao Ruchang 04-1570
- Wang Qiren 04-1571
- Qi Xuede 05-2243
- Zhang Hongnian 05-2244
- Chen Defu 05-2245
- Zhang Lanqing 05-2246
- Zhang Jifu 05-2247
- Su Anfu
- Wang Chengde
- Liu Xueguang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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