Lantern Dance

Ⅲ-45Traditional DanceShiyanshiyunyang, HubeiBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Yunyang phoenix lantern dance is popularly known among the folk as "playing with the phoenix". Its origins are bound up with the old Chu tradition of revering the phoenix. In the early years of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, the old town of Yun County already had well-known "playing with the phoenix" troupes such as the Jin Family Lane (Wang family), the Salt Shop Lane (Geng family) and the East Tea Lane (Chai family). These troupes were mostly organised by family or by lane; the person who handled the phoenix head had to be skilled in both martial arts and dance, the accompanying musicians and lantern bearers were paired in fixed combinations over long years, and the phoenix head, the phoenix body, the sun lantern and the cloud lantern were made by the paper-modelling craftsmen of the local town.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Yunyang phoenix lantern dance is a traditional festive lantern dance form transmitted in Yunyang District of Shiyan City, Hubei Province, popularly known among the folk as "playing with the phoenix". In the early years of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty, the old town of Yun County (today Yunyang District of Shiyan City) already had well-known "playing with the phoenix" troupes such as the Jin Family Lane (Wang family), the Salt Shop Lane (Geng family) and the East Tea Lane (Chai family). As people came to love the phoenix lanterns, "playing with the phoenix" gradually spread throughout the county. The phoenix lantern dance is performed by young and middle-aged men: one handles the phoenix head and one handles the phoenix body, imitating the various forms and postures of the phoenix of legend. There are also four fresh-flower lanterns, two peony lanterns, one sun lantern and two cloud lanterns, which are raised on poles and stand around the four sides of the performance ground, serving to accompany and set off the main action. The performance proceeds according to set routines such as "the phoenix calls", "leaving the nest", "roaming the garden" and "seeking the peony". When the performance reaches its climax, a designated person "scatters buckwheat fire" in order to intensify the atmosphere. Its forms of performance embody the character of the phoenix: it loves stillness, loves the peony that is the queen of flowers, and loves the sun, the spirit of all things. The dance movements encompass local dance techniques such as the taiji line, the half-short-steps, the half-cloud-steps and the half-bow-steps, and follow the "cross" art formula in which the feet, hands, eyes and body methods are joined to the heart, liver, spleen, lungs and spirit. The music accompanying the phoenix lantern dance is collectively called "phoenix dianzi" (phoenix tune patterns); it is drawn from local flower drum music, folk xiaohe minor tunes and folk wind-and-percussion pieces, and the main melody is expansive and elegant, clear and pleasant to the ear. The suona tune patterns customarily used are phoenix call, rising the tent head, great opening, the single-stroke tune, wandering the field and climbing the ridge; the gong-and-drum patterns include one stroke, the lifted stroke and the muted gong drum. The accompaniment changes on the spot and is applied flexibly according to what the movements of the phoenix head require. The overall shape of the props used in the Yunyang phoenix lantern dance is as described in the Shuoyuan: "broad before and scaled behind, with a serpent's neck and a fish's tail, dragon markings and a turtle's body, a swallow's chin and a rooster's beak, stretching its neck and beating its wings, with all five colours in full brilliance." With its distinctive totem culture and its lofty ideological content, the Yunyang phoenix lantern dance reproduces the continuation and the development in the Chu homeland of the legacy of "the Chu people revering the phoenix"; through cultural imagery of auspiciousness and happiness it expresses the Chu people's veneration of and delight in the "phoenix", as well as their pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. The phoenix lantern dance is one of the forms in which the phoenix totem culture of the Chinese nation is expressed, and it contains cultural connotations on many levels, political, religious, ethical and aesthetic. The images used in the lantern dance, including the sun, the divine fire, auspicious clouds, floral crowns and many kinds of birds and beasts from nature, together with its performance routines, its musical system and the related folk customs and activities, fully express the humanistic pursuit in which all things flourish together and all people live in harmony, and it has high historical, philosophical, artistic, social and cultural value.

Call, leaving the nest, garden stroll, seeking the peony

The programme proceeds through the phoenix's call, leaving the nest, roaming the garden and seeking the peony, with buckwheat fire thrown at the climax.

Throwing buckwheat fire

At the high point a helper scatters burning buckwheat to heighten the atmosphere, the flames answering the phoenix and sun lanterns.

The ten-character mnemonic

A ten-character mnemonic links hands, feet, eyes, body and method with heart, liver, spleen, lungs and spirit, alongside local steps such as the half-squat and half-cloud walk.

The phoenix tunes

The accompaniment, called the phoenix tunes, draws on local flower-drum opera, folk songs and wind-and-percussion music, with shawm melodies and drum patterns named individually.

The supporting lanterns

Two young men handle head and body while four flower lanterns, two peonies, a sun and two cloud lanterns stand around the ground as framing.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

A semi-professional art troupe has been established locally, and there are several dozen phoenix lantern dance peasant performance teams within the county, which regularly carry out outward exchange performance activities.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

This heritage project is transmitted mainly through families and through the wider community. Shi Qing (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1962, a native of Yun County, Hubei Province. Immersed in folk art from childhood, he received instruction from veteran folk artists while learning the phoenix lantern dance and deeply received their authentic transmission; combined with his own love of learning, capacity for reflection and hard practice, after many years of artistic experience he was able to master skilfully the "cross" art formula handed down by his masters and the essentials of performing with hands, eyes, body, method and steps, and he renders the postures and movements of the dancing phoenix with vivid lifelike accuracy. Over more than thirty years in the art, he has taken part in more than one hundred national, provincial and municipal showcase performances, has trained and tutored more than thirty core successors in the phoenix lantern dance, and has become the leading figure of the Yunyang phoenix lantern dance. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the national intangible cultural heritage project Lantern Dance (Yunyang Phoenix Lantern Dance).

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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