Qilin Dance
01 · Historical Records
Among the people of Daliuzhai it is said that the qilin dance originally belonged to the entertainment programme of the Ming court. When the Ming dynasty fell, Feng Wei, a Wenlin Lang official in charge of court cultural entertainment, returned to his home town in retirement and brought a pair of qilin hides (props) to the Feng clansmen of Daliuzhai in Suixian County, and personally taught them the art of dancing the qilin. The qilin dance is a historical microcosm of the folk customs of the Central Plains, and provides a precious historical source for later generations to understand deeply the local popular customs, social changes and historical evolution.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Suixian qilin dance is transmitted in Daliuzhai Village, Suixian County, Shangqiu City, Henan Province, in eastern Henan. From then on, the qilin dance took root in Daliuzhai. The performance of the qilin dance is divided into three sections: the first is "coiling the gate"; the second is a performance on level ground; the third is a performance on tables. The dance movements of the qilin dance are technically difficult and the steps cover a wide span, and most of them are martial arts movements; in particular, high-difficulty techniques such as chuanzhuo guoqiao (vaulting across tables and over a bridge), cat-diaowei (flicking the cat's tail) and dengshan wangyue (climbing the hill to gaze at the moon) cannot be achieved without a solid foundation in martial arts. The transmission relationships of the Suixian qilin dance are rather special: in teaching from generation to generation no apprenticeship ceremony is held at all. Transmission rests mainly on the Feng family line, while also taking in close relatives of villagers who are fond of the qilin dance, so as to form a performing group that continues from generation to generation. For this reason the Feng clan of Daliuzhai is known as the "qilin family".
The three sections: men-opening, ground and tabletop
The dance falls into three sections - opening the gate, ground performance and tabletop performance - each raising the difficulty and the demands on space.
Tabletop leaps, cat's tail and gazing at the moon
The most demanding routines of the Sui county qilin dance, drawn largely from martial arts and requiring a solid grounding in boxing.
The Feng family transmission
Transmission runs mainly within the Feng family of Daliuzhai, which also absorbs the relatives of village enthusiasts; no formal apprenticeship rite is held.
Feng Wei brings the qilin skins home
Village tradition holds that the qilin dance came from the Ming court: when the dynasty fell the court entertainer Feng Wei retired home and taught the dance to his clan.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Suixian qilin dance is transmitted chiefly in Daliuzhai Village, Suixian County, Shangqiu City, eastern Henan. The Feng clan in the village forms the main trunk of transmission, and neighbouring villagers join the troupe through marriage and neighbourly ties; over a long period no second independent troupe has been formed. Its transmission holds no apprenticeship ceremony but passes on naturally as the family's children grow up, and it is performed on New Year and festival days at the village threshing floor, in front of the ancestral hall and in the streets of Suixian town. Martial arts and boxing society traditions of the Central Plains area provide the source of its technique, and skills such as chuanzhuo guoqiao are mostly taught by performers who are also versed in boxing. Daliuzhai lies on the eastern Henan plain, and the village has long had a custom of practising martial arts; the first section, "coiling the gate", accordingly carries a martial meaning of opening the formation and guarding the ground. When the performance reaches the section on the tables, the dancers have to move between square tables temporarily built and stacked up by the villagers, and the size of the troupe is increased or reduced according to the size of the site. The pair of qilin hides that Feng Wei brought back from Beijing was treated by the villagers as a family heirloom and was repaired many times by later generations. Local researchers, relying on genealogical records and oral accounts, date the introduction of the Suixian qilin dance to the late Ming dynasty, and study it in connection with the history of migration in eastern Henan and the music-and-dance system of the Ming court. Over the past decades the cultural department of Suixian County has made systematic surveys and records of the dance movements, gong-and-drum patterns and prop dimensions of Daliuzhai; Feng Minyi is the only old performer able to command the complete three sections, and these records have become the main basis for restoring the dance.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance · Qilin Dance.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present Feng Minyi, an old performer in Daliuzhai Village past the age of eighty, is the only person able to command the full set of dance movements, and the Suixian qilin dance is in danger of being lost.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Yinhai 03-0928
- Zhang Xishan 05-2248
- Songzhang 05-2249
- Liu Jintang
- Hanzhiyong
- Xie Yuqiu
- Zhang Zhiming
- Liu Weituan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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