Yi Lingdang Dance
01 · Historical Records
Its history can be traced back to the 8th century BCE, to the era when the Yi forebear Duerdi enfeoffed the Six Marquises.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
At that time every branch of the feudal clans put all its people under arms and formed bodies of cavalry; when the king or chief held sacrifices in honour of departed forebears, his subordinates had to organise a troop of 120 horsemen together with a song-and-dance company of several dozen people to display the bearing of their knights on the sacrificial dance ground. In the dancing the hand bells have to be shaken to control the rhythm, and from this the “bell dance” gets its name. The bell dance is magnificent and tragic, bold and rough; two lines of dancers advance toward one another as if galloping horses and snapping whips, well ordered yet full of unforeseen change. The dancers sing first and then dance, song and dance being one and the same; what the dance presents is the traditional production and life of the Yi people, its content plain and wholesome. The dance takes its beat from drums and bronze bells, the ringing sometimes like a sudden downpour and sometimes like quiet talk. The dance contains many movements of great difficulty, light as a startled swan and sinuous as a dragon, and it renders to the full the bloodied valour of the Yi men of the mountains on the battlefield. When dancing the bell dance, the dancer holds a horse bell in the right hand and a coloured ribbon in the left, and dances with pleasure. In the past the “kenhebei” allowed only young men to dance, and the number of performers was generally four or six. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China and following adaptation, the performance form of the bell dance became more varied, with substantial adjustments to the staging and the interweaving of formations and some change of content, now chiefly presenting the national development history of the Yi forebears, who survived tenaciously in their struggle against nature, with men tilling and women weaving, living and multiplying from generation to generation. From that point on, women were also able to take part.
The origin in the six marquisates
The dance traces to the eighth century BCE, when mourners paraded 120 horsemen and dance teams before the king.
Horse bells and coloured ribbons
Dancers hold horse bells in the right hand and ribbons in the left, shaking the bells to keep time.
Kenhebei as a funerary dance
Called kenhebei in Yi, it was once danced only by four or six young men at funerals, opened to women after 1949.
Drum and bronze bell beats
Drum and bronze bells set the beat, sometimes like downpour, sometimes like whispering, as two teams charge like horsemen.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yi bell dance, called “kenhebei” in Yi, is a traditional folk dance by which the Yi people commemorate the dead; it circulates mainly in Zhushi Township of Hezhang County in northwestern Guizhou Province, and is also distributed in Caishen Town, Zhijie Township, Hezhen Township, Shuangping Township, Anle Township and other townships.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yi bell dance preserves its primitive appearance and is the most completely preserved, the highest in artistic value and the most widely circulated of the Yi folk dance forms; it vividly reflects the national character and aesthetic taste of the Yi people and enjoys enormous influence throughout the whole of northwestern Guizhou. Besides this, the Yi bell dance is living material for understanding Yi funeral customs and the beliefs, rituals and customs of the Yi forebears, and a model for carrying forward ethnic folk culture; it has research value in many fields. At present, because the cultural and ecological environment has changed, the ranks of artists are ageing, and the transformation of the wider environment together with the shortage of talent has brought the “bell dance” to the brink of being lost; it urgently needs rescue and protection. The Hezhang County Cultural Centre is the protecting unit for this project. In recent years it has organised bell dance troupes to perform at the Torch Festival and other festive occasions, and has invited elderly artists to teach the drum patterns and dance steps to young people.
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)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。