Lantern Dance

Ⅲ-45Traditional DanceWuwei, AnhuiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

In folk legend, in the Northern Song, after Bao Gong had distributed grain in Chenzhou and returned to court, he issued a general call for lantern offerings to be made to the court from all over the country. At that time the people of Wuwei offered eight fish (fish lanterns) and were praised by the court. At the end of 1955 the Wuwei fish lanterns took part in the first folk music and dance performance-concert of Anhui Province, and in 1956 they went to the Huairen Hall in Beijing for the national folk music and dance performance-concert, where they were well received. The exact date of the origin of the Wuwei fish lanterns can no longer be ascertained; locally their origin is traced back to the legend that after Bao Gong distributed grain in Chenzhou he called on all under heaven to offer lanterns, and the number eight in the eight fish lanterns was chosen as an auspicious figure and is also often read as meaning 'peace in all eight directions'. After the two performance-concerts of 1955 and 1956, the Wuwei fish lantern moved from a lantern-festival activity for the village's own amusement into the sequence of provincial-level and national-level folk art performance and exhibition.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Wuwei fish lantern is a traditional lantern dance transmitted among the people of Wuwei County, Anhui Province. Every year, from the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to the thirtieth day of the first lunar month, the people play with fish lanterns. From the first day of opening the lanterns, an offering table must be set up, with the whole village responsible for the sacrificial rites and a Taoist priest engaged to hold the Daoist rite, and this continues right through until the lantern playing ends. If an infectious disease is spreading in the village or the crops are struck by insect pests, people play with fish lanterns to make a vow and to redeem it, treating the fish lanterns as 'divine spirits' in order to drive away evil, repel monsters and pray for peace. ...regards the fish lanterns as the lanterns of auspiciousness, of peace and of happiness. The Wuwei fish lantern has a long history and a distant source. In this way the Wuwei folk dance of the fish lantern was preserved. The Wuwei fish lantern takes eight fish lanterns as one set; the lantern bodies are framed with split bamboo, covered with paper and coloured, candles are lit inside, and dancers dressed as fishermen each raise one lantern and move in formation. Before the lanterns are raised the offering table must be laid out at the village entrance, the whole village publicly appoints a lantern leader to take charge, and a Taoist priest is invited to set up an altar and hold the Daoist rite, which is not dismantled until the day the lanterns are put away. Locally the fish lanterns are called the lanterns of auspiciousness, of peace and of happiness; when disease or pestilence occurs in the village, people play with the lanterns to make vows and redeem them, and on that occasion the lantern team must make one circuit of the village, which is called 'one circuit of the red lantern'.

Opening and closing the lanterns

Local custom calls the first day of the lantern play opening and the last day closing; the lanterns are danced from the fifteenth to the thirtieth of the first lunar month.

Eight fish lanterns to a set

A set consists of eight fish lanterns built on bamboo frames, papered, painted and lit from within, each carried by a dancer in fisher's dress.

The altar, the rite and the vow

From the opening day an altar is laid and a Daoist rite held until the play ends; against epidemic or crop pests the lanterns are danced as a vow and its fulfilment.

The legend of Lord Bao and the lantern tribute

Tradition holds that after Lord Bao's grain mission to Chenzhou the court called for lantern tributes, and Wuwei presented eight fish lanterns to imperial praise.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In local folk custom, the first day of playing with fish lanterns is called 'opening the lanterns', and the last day is called 'putting away the lanterns'. A local folk saying goes: 'burning incense and holding a jiao rite cannot compare with one circuit of the red lantern.'

Other submitting regions for the same item: Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance · Lantern Dance.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Ren Juntang (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of Han ethnicity, born in July 1943, a native of Wuwei County, Anhui Province. He has since then taken part continuously in organising and planning the fish lantern performances of successive family lantern festivals, and is thoroughly familiar with the making of the fish lanterns, the custom of playing with them, the dance movements and the performance techniques; the dance movements he transmits are vivid and free, and they can show in a concrete way the shape of a fish swimming in the water. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item Lantern Dance (Wuwei Fish Lantern) in the fifth national batch. Over many years of transmission and practice he has trained a large batch of young and middle-aged lantern players, and has led the fish lantern team to take part in performance and exhibition activities at municipal and county level, promoting the inheritance, development, publicity and popularisation of the Wuwei fish lantern.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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