Paoweizi Dance
01 · Historical Records
According to legend it originated in the Spring and Autumn period. It was originally a sacrificial activity in which the soldiers of the State of Qi commemorated Wei Nu, a concubine of their ruler Duke Huan; it gradually took shape during the Qin and Han dynasties and later evolved into a large-scale folk square dance, and it has been transmitted down to the present for more than two thousand six hundred years. The ritual character of the Pao Weizi comes from the old story of the Qi soldiers commemorating Wei Nu, the concubine of Duke Huan; among the items in its formations, names such as "relieving Wei by besieging Zhao", "bombarding the Fragrant Smoke City" and "Li Yuan persuading the generals" all draw on history and on storytelling tales, and these are matched with the four ritual segments of "deliberation, performing antiquity, welcoming the escort of the sovereign and seeing off the officials". For a long time this dance has been carried on without interruption by oral teaching and bodily demonstration in the villages of Baiying, Huying and Dongxilong east of Tangyin county town; the villages set up a dance headman to preside over rehearsals and over the sending out of the teams, and the required props, such as the weizi banners and the twisted drums, were jointly bought and repaired by the members of the association.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Pao Weizi has the dual characteristics of ancient warfare and folk sacrificial activity; compared with other dances, its dance steps, formations, props and musical accompaniment are all distinctive, and it possesses unique artistic charm. It is performed by seventy-two sturdy young men, each holding a long wooden pole dyed in two colours, red and black, with a curtain-like "weizi" banner formed of coloured ribbons at the top of the pole. In performance the dancers form up in ranks and advance at a rhythmical jog with knees bent in a slight crouch, forming various different formations such as "relieving Wei by besieging Zhao", "bombarding the Fragrant Smoke City" and "Li Yuan persuading the generals", and these are matched with the rituals of "deliberation, performing antiquity, welcoming the escort of the sovereign and seeing off the officials". The Pao Weizi is closely bound up with the folk activities of the local Tangyin area; participation by the masses is broad, the organisation is strict, the ritual character is strong, and the performance scene is grand and magnificent, presenting a distinctive artistic style within which are embodied prayers for favourable weather, bountiful harvests, and thriving livestock and people; it has research value in folklore studies and in other fields. For a long time the Pao Weizi has been passed on without interruption by oral teaching and bodily demonstration. The long poles of the Pao Weizi are hewn from wood and dyed in two colours, red and black; coloured ribbons at the top of the poles are tied out into the curtain-shaped "weizi", so that when the troupe travels the poles stand upright with the ribbons hanging down and look from a distance like a continuous expanse of tent curtains. The seventy-two dancers jog forward with knees bent in a slight crouch, their steps changing with the drumbeats, and the formations change through the rotation and interweaving of the pole positions; within the formation a "twisted drum" keeps the rhythm, and the dragon-head props and the formation diagrams are kept by veteran artists as the basis for drilling the formations.
Seventy-two men and the two-colour poles
Seventy-two young men each carry a wooden pole dyed in red and black, topped with ribbons that form the curtain-like wei.
The named battle formations
Advancing in a crouched half-run the dancers form such patterns as relieving Zhao by besieging Wei, bombarding the incense city and Li Yuan admonishing his generals.
Deliberation, legend, welcome and farewell
The formations are matched by four ritual passages - deliberation, enacting the past, receiving and escorting the official - which give the whole performance its strict order.
The crouched jogging gait
The basic gait is a rhythmic jog in a bent-knee crouch, the poles upright and ribbons hanging, stride strictly matched to the drum as formations change on the move.
The Lady Wei rite and its Han formation
Said to begin in the Spring and Autumn period as a Qi army rite for Lady Wei, it took shape under the Qin and Han and became a large square dance over 2,600 years ago.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Pao Weizi is an ancient folk dance that is active in the area of Baiying Village, Huying Village and Dongxilong Village east of Tangyin county town in Anyang City, Henan Province.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today the veteran artists have passed away one after another and there is a shortage of successors, which has caused the overall level of the performance to decline; urgent rescue is needed. Hou Jun (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1946, a native of Tangyin County, Henan Province. He systematically organised the traditional formations and the drum notation of the Pao Weizi, and holds and preserves precious objects and materials such as the weizi banners, the twisted drums, the dragon heads, the traditional dance diagrams and the formation diagrams, and he has trained more than one hundred and fifty new team members. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the national intangible cultural heritage project Pao Weizi.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hou Jun 05-2260
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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