● Wang Yongwu
Due to the new crown epidemic and the need to participate in the winter Olympics support task, I have not been able to return to my hometown of Shandong Xia Jin and my hometown for three consecutive Spring Festivals to celebrate the New Year with my fathers and villagers in my hometown, nagging at home, talking about wine, and not being able to listen to and appreciate the unique drum inspiration on the spot, but the agitated drum beat and the time and space that can travel through 350 kilometers of time and space, always echoing in my ears, and the energetic dance posture often lingers in the sweet sleep.
Li's hometown Xiajin is located in the northwest of Luhuangpan alluvial plain, north of Dezhou, south of Liaocheng, east of Jinan, west of the Grand Canal and Hebei Province Qinghe, east of the Majie River and Liaocheng Gaotang adjacent, the middle of the territory has a southwest-northeast direction of the Yellow River Ancient Road ancient causeway - Chen Gong Causeway, the county is divided into two parts: on the embankment and under the embankment. My birthplace, Liu Xinzhuang, xinshengdian town, is in the depression west of the ancient causeway of the Yellow River, while my primary and secondary schools are spent in Houtun Village in the sand dunes on the east embankment. At that time, almost every village had its own drum team, every Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, the two villages would carry out "drum competition", that style is like two armies against each other, the drums are more and more intense, the two sides do not give in to each other, they all want to use the drums and drums to suppress each other, in order to achieve a good lottery in the next year, until one side of the lineup chaos "desert and flee", only to put an end to the drum, the victorious side is triumphant, the loser is not convinced, invite each other to compete again in the next year, to win back the face.
According to the "Chronicle of Xiajin County", the Xiajin Drum was formed in the 25th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1392 AD), and has a history of more than 600 years. At first, whenever there was a long drought or other natural disasters, people beat drums to pray for disasters, and then gradually developed into one of the local forms of folk entertainment, and with gongs, cymbals and other percussion instruments, the current percussion group, its expression with majestic momentum, cheerful and changeable rhythm, stretching, rough dance, people like to hear. Its musical score is said to be based on the compilation of the Heavenly Dry Earth Branch, the Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, and the Bagua Diagram, so it is called "Bagua Compilation". Its structure is roughly divided into three major sections, consisting of more than a dozen drum cards such as introduction, flower drum cavity, old bird dengzhi, random chopping wood, etc., the interspersed and connected drum cards, drum gang drum body and other multi-party application, forming a set of strict structure, staggered, rhythmic, short and long percussion movements. Because most of the ancestors could not read the spectrum, it was passed down through dozens of generations by oral teaching. I have always firmly believed that although the Yellow River has seized the river into the sea several times in history, far away from the Xiajin Old Road, and the once rushing river has solidified into a bed, the people on the Yellow River Old Road have left a heroic and unrestrained temperament in their blood and bones, and they will miss the rushing endlessly, use the warm form of encouragement to express their emotions, and vent their attachment to the roaring Yellow River waves in the distance.
Xia Jin drum, ancient called "Qi Drum", also known as "Air Drum", also known as the family drum, diameter of 48 cm, circumference of 146 cm, drum body center circumference of 160 cm, drum height of 24 cm, purchased by each household, usually placed in their own homes, every New Year's Festival unified to carry concentrated in the village hollow together to rehearse. Because it is a group art, the participation of the masses is also one of the reasons why the inspiration can be widely circulated.
The activity method of drumming is generally surrounded by dozens of drummers in a circular field, ranging from as few as a dozen sides to as many as nearly 100 sides. In the formation change, the circle is the mainstay, the middle lead dancer is called "spinner", there are 1 to 5 skilled old artists, holding a flag or a hand gong, the other participants are reasonably grouped, by three drums with a gong or a gong and a cymbal or three drums and a gong, a cymbal organizational form, the three can not be arbitrarily changed, groups and groups can not be arbitrarily exchanged, the formation of a large cymbal and gong, gong step drum, drum with a gong, hand gong to follow the performance law of the flag. When playing, the drums and gongs are struck together, the gongs and cymbals are staggered, the order is prohibited, and the rhythm is clear.
Frame encouragement activities are mostly held during the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, a village or several villages freely combined, less than a dozen sides, more than a hundred sides, some teams also prepared a diameter of 1.2 meters drum, by 3 to 5 drummers to beat, single team performance is generally only carried out in the village jurisdiction, although everyone is interested, but more look forward to two teams or several teams of "drums" and "drum fighting" of the fierce and spectacular.
On March 2, 2018, I had the honor of being invited to return to my hometown to observe the first drumming competition held in Xiajin County, and according to the information provided by the organizing committee at that time, there were more than 150 drum teams in the county, and nearly 10,000 drummers. The townships first organized drum competitions between villages, and the winning drumming team competed with the drums in the precinct and adjacent townships, and the competition lasted nearly three months, and after layers of selection, finally 6 outstanding teams stood out from the 23 preliminary teams and obtained the qualification for the county town to tour the drums.
On that day, tens of thousands of people gathered in the citizens' square of Xiajin County, and everyone watched the 6-bracket drum team show their skills. Each bracket encouragement team consists of three parts: honor guard, band, and drum team. The honor guard has a banner flag and a number of bunting flags, the band is a large percussion, with at least 30 drums, up to more than 100 sides, each drum with a gong and a cymbal, the gong striker is tied to the upper end of the dragon head bow frame, placed on the chest, the lower end is tied to the back waist, and the drum is tied to the front of the abdomen. The performance procedure is divided into three parts: kneeling, standing, and walking. Kneeling: Arranged in the order of drums, gongs and cymbals, surrounded by a circle, the drummer places the drum on the ground, plays 72 drum beats, and spins are improvised in the center. Standing: The circle does not move, the drummer stands up, and plays 72 turning the drum. Line: Honor guard, the band is in front, and the drum team is in an oval shape while walking, dancing, and beating drums. The scene is grand, the climax is repeated, the heart is moving, hundreds of large drums are beating at the same time, the sound vibration is several miles, there is a great trend of "drunken and golden armor dance, beating the drums and stirring the mountains and rivers". A jury composed of experts, well-known veteran artists and spectators scored on the spot, and the team that won the best place won the winning pennant and material reward, and recommended them to the city to participate in the parade. After fierce "drum fighting" competition, the Houtunjia Drum Team and the Xinshengdian Drum Team, with their unique style and varied rhythm, won the qualification to participate in the Dezhou City Parade, and were included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Dezhou City.
On February 14, 2022, I sent a WeChat message to Yang Chunzheng, a comrade-in-arms of the recruit company and now the executive deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Xiajin County CPC Committee, to inquire about the situation of the Lantern Festival, and he told me that due to the impact of the epidemic, in order to avoid the large-scale gathering of personnel, the DrumMing Contest has been suspended, but in the "Our Chinese Dream" - Culture into Ten Thousand Homes theme of the Dezhou City 2022 Lantern Festival Folk Art (Intangible Cultural Heritage) Exhibition and Performance Activity, you can see the Xiajin Houtun Drum Team participating in the video. Turning on the video link he sent, the haunting audio and video swirled across my face, impacting my eyes and eardrums, and sending me into a state of fascination.
Only to see in the Yellow River Gudao Forest Park Square, the drummers are dressed in uniform costumes, three people on one side of the drum, tie up the horse step to present a standing posture, follow the rhythm change, the three people or go hand in hand to beat the unified drum, or the horizontal drum along the close drum face division of labor and cooperation, or intermittently struggle to ring the center of the drum, in the ever-changing rhythm, the drummers continue to change their posture, up and down, left and right, showing the beauty of the combination of strength and beauty of the dance, the size of the drum and the bass gong, the big and small drums, the big gong, the big gong, the hand gong, etc. Forming a complete percussion group, the whole performance is magnificent, the momentum is huge, the height is cheerful, and the rhythm is beautiful, showing the hometown people's yearning for a better life and the expectation of hope for the future.
Shandong Xia jinjia encouraged the cultural self-confidence of the prosperous world with the magnificent drum sound, played the uplifting spiritual outlook with cheerful and changeable drum beats, and expressed the heroic feelings of the old Taoist people of the Yellow River with a rough dance posture, which became one of the most precious scenes in my memory, and became a kind of nostalgia that has been passed down from generation to generation and has never stopped. I really want to return to my hometown in Shandong after completing the winter Olympics support task and under the condition that the new crown epidemic is fully controlled, and once again experience the visual and audio feast brought by the encouragement of my hometown.
About the author: Wang Yongwu, pen name Wu Ding, born in 1976 in Xiajin, Shandong, joined the armed police force in 1992, and has published more than 3,000 works of various kinds in newspapers and periodicals such as People's Daily, People's Liberation Army Daily, People's Armed Police, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art, and China Armed Police, including "Green Olives" and "Moss And Grass Color". He is a member of the Chinese Essay Literature Association, a member of the Shandong Essayists Association, and a director of the Beijing Haidian District Writers Association.
One Point Is a Native of Shandong (Wuding)