□ Wang Huaqi
Every year, I go back to the town of Kanmen to spend the Spring Festival with my old mother, and all I see is the old scenery and old customs of my hometown related to the New Year.
The vicissitudes of the world, the old scenery has a new atmosphere, and the old customs have a new look. With the growth of the years, the mood changes, these old landscapes and old customs have become a new year painting worth cherishing, layered on top of each other, backlogged like a mountain, woven into a long silk thread, entangled, stretched like a cocoon, becoming a local complex that is constantly cut and chaotic.
There is a Zhenwu Temple on the edge of the house, dedicated to the god of the north, "Xuantian God". "Xuantian God", also known as "Zhenwu Emperor", is the great god of the Taoism of the North, the North belongs to the water in the five elements, and the "Xuantian God" can rule all water tribes and water things, so it is called the water god or the sea god. 400 years ago, the fishermen of Kanmen Xitai migrated from Dongshan Island in Fujian Province, built the Zhenwu Temple by inheriting the incense of southern Fujian, and also brought a unique Aolong fish lamp. For more than 400 years, the temple site has not changed, and the custom of the dragon fish lantern dance has not changed. The "Local Chronicles and Customs of the Yuhuan Hall", which was usurped during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, records that the Lantern Festival Customs text has this description of the Aolong fish lamp: "... Making animals and fish scales, all kinds of flower lanterns into people's string acting arrays... Looking around like a blockage..." The Aolong Fish Lantern has danced lively for 400 years in the front and backstage of the God Temple as a base, but there is also a difference between the fish lights in the front and backstage, the front desk fish lantern dancers are boys, and the backstage fish lantern dancers are girls. - There is no reason, just custom.
The dragon with the body of the dragon head is also called the fish. The Book of Han has a note: "The fish dragon, the beast of relics, plays first in the court pole, but before entering the temple, it is stirred up, turned into a flounder, jumps into the water, acts as a fog barrier, turns into a yellow dragon, and plays in the court, showing off the daylight." "There is no such dragon species in nature, the image of the dragon is a spiritual product created by the people, but it is the head of the ten thousand fish in the imagination of the fisherman, the embodiment of the fish king who guards the aquarium and lives in the sea, and the fisherman firmly believes that the head of the ten thousand fish will one day turn into a dragon and take off into the sky." I think this should be the most simple and sincere imagination of fishermen who are wandering in the vast sea when they look up at the Heavenly Sea!
In addition, the folk have long praised the strong and the winners "dominate the top": whoever bases himself on the top of the top is the first, that is, the strong. The Aolong also has an innate king's spirit, and the imagination of the Aoyu also reflects the spirit of the fishermen who dare to fight and compete for the sea.
Fear the dragon, fear the sea, compete for the head, and control the sea. ——This should be the essence of the folk dragon dance. Kanmen fishermen have been cultivating the sea for generations, and the way of survival that breaks through the sea and waves has created a tenacious and tenacious group character. The Aolong Fish Lantern Dance vented a warm and exciting emotion, exalted a tenacious and tenacious character, and stirred up a brave and high spirit.
The head of the dragon is hemispherical, surrounded by colorful and auspicious clouds, strange flowers and grasses, big red mouth exaggeration, long forehead extension, I always feel that the image of the lion's head is transplanted to the dragon head, which is also the creation of folk artists, but also increases the mighty momentum of the dragon, and the fisherman's awe is integrated into the shaping of the image of the dragon.
In addition to the dragon lamp, there are dolphins, yellow fish, catfish, squid, shrimp and other fish lamps. Every year, folk craftsmen have to tie up fish lamps, "T" shaped wooden frames with bamboo grates tied into the shape of various marine fish, and then covered with color, all kinds of fish are both realistic and deformed, the most adorable is the dolphin, bulging, cute. The design and production of Aolong lanterns and various fish lamps, all rely on the experience of craftsmen, the appearance of image stereotypes, detailed line outlines, color rendering performance, all show the artistic creativity of folk craftsmen and the skillful sophistication of painting techniques. In shaping the image of different fish species, the craftsmen skillfully use deformed and exaggerated artistic techniques to highlight the characteristic parts of different fish species to make the appearance image more realistic and more imagely. The details of the fish body's back ridge, tail and shark fin scales are simplified into irregular symbolic patterns with abstract and generalized artistic techniques, so that their meaning is real and in place, and they are rich in decorative art effects. Craftsmen are also very imaginative and creative, transplanting and grafting common folk flowers, birds and animals to dragons and fish, with brilliant colors and warm celebrations.
The so-called finishing touch, the good fish lamp to go through the "finishing touch" process, Aolong fish lamp also inherits the "finishing touch" this ancient traditional ritual. The Aolong fish lamp, which has been "lit", is regarded as attached to the deity in the fisherman's subconscious, and a sense of awe arises. This kind of reverence for the gods is often more vividly reflected in the fishermen who cultivate the sea and herd fish, and the fishermen, because of the uncertainty of life and lack of a strong grasp of fate, place their souls in the sacred. The fishermen are all pantheists, the temple is the spiritual refuge of the fishermen, and the dragon fish lamp that relies on the temple also has the consciousness of soul sustenance. In the fisherman's collective imaginative thinking, the dragon dance is preset as a warm and joyful mysterious ocean world under the protection of the dragon god, and this thinking implies the fishermen's desire for peace and freedom, so it naturally derives the internal driving force that unites people's hearts.
In terms of form, the Dragon Dance should be a folk ritual of the ancestors to sacrifice the sea, and the message conveyed by the body language of the Dragon Lantern Dance is the wish for peaceful survival and a prosperous life. The overall performance style of the rough, powerful and high-profile dance still retains the imprint of the stirring fishing and hunting culture, which is different from the relatively quiet farming culture.
At the end of the year, the Zhenwu Temple began to rehearse the Aolong Fish Lantern Dance. Taking the dynamic of the dragon fish leaping in the sea, the beautiful portrait, the dragon fish lamp shakes its head and tail, and flaunts the exuberant look of the public, which is precisely the publicity of the fisherman's spirit of daring to fight and compete for the sea... The Aolong Fish Lantern Dance consists of two queues, each led by a dragon head, followed by an aquarium fish lamp. Dancing to the accompaniment of a blowing band, two dolphin fish lanterns opened, followed by two Dragon Ball bearers leading two dragons out. The theme of the whole lantern dance is "AoLong Grabbing The Pearl", the Dragon Ball leads the dragon team, the dolphin protects the Dragon Ball, the two dragons chase the Dragon Ball and run, tumbling, rolling, soaring, jumping, the action is rough and domineering, the aquarium fish lamp moves with the dragon head, the dancer holds the fish lamp gently swinging, imitating the posture of the fish swimming in the water, cross the loop, the fish runs through, the movement is gentle and gentle. The climax of the dragon fish lamp is that the dragon dancer and the dragon ball dancer lie on the ground, rolling on the ground to make the final action to hold the dragon ball, and the dragon dancer has to ignore the firecrackers that ignite. The "Dragon Ball" section in the Dragon Fish Lantern Dance has an intriguing meaning: the dancer wields the Dragon Ball with skillful and playful body movements to tease the Dragon Ball. At first glance, it is a dragon play bead, in fact, it is also a person playing the dragon, which vividly shows the beautiful artistic conception of harmonious coexistence and joy between people and dragons, highlights the concept of integration and entertainment of people and gods, highlights the optimism and self-confidence of fishermen, dares to dance with the dragon, and breaks into the sea, which shows the courage of fishermen without fear of bad wind and waves.
The dancers of the aquarium fish lantern are mainly teenage boys and girls, and the innocent and pure children transform into the aquatic people on which fishermen depend, bringing a playful and cheerful atmosphere, and the game contains a festive and auspicious atmosphere. All the water tribes will roll around the two dragons to show their admiration and encouragement, the onlookers will throw lighted firecrackers into the formation, and the dolphin-led "water tribes" will pick up the firecrackers and throw them to protect the dragon until the dragon's title is over. The whole scene is moving, and the lively and festive atmosphere reaches its extreme.
- Fishermen collectively create the Arowana Lantern Dance to pray or celebrate a good harvest. Their emotional memories of the sea and the experience of living and living are abstracted into dance body language, making this original group dance with a strong island cultural color. If you want to ask what is the highlight of the Kanmen Ao Dragon Fish Lantern Dance, it is that in the warm dance of people, fish and dragons, it shows the pride of the fisherman who runs into the sea and the full return.
There are also many vivid rituals about the Arowana Lamp. For example, other dragon lanterns come to the temple, fish lanterns go to meet it, and there is also a dance, called "Dragon Three Connections". The received dragon lantern should be performed in the temple, there are pillars in the temple, so the dragon lamp should perform the "panlong pillar", and the dancers of the dragon fish lantern dance should play to the fullest, both to show enthusiasm for visitors and to show their various skills, and the dancers should use their spirit to interpret the heroism of the seaside people. Different from the Dragon Lantern Team, the confident dance steps of the Aolongyu Lantern Dancers, the bright and fiery dress, and the folk painting art of big red and green, the warm and cheerful folk gong and drum music and the whistle-blowing music are closely combined with the dance of turning, rolling, soaring and jumping, which can create a warm and cheerful atmosphere, thus tightly attracting the attention of the audience.
The dragon fish lamp Chinese New Year's Eve began to send posts to each household to pray for the New Year, and the recipients prepared firecrackers for sacrifices. This dragon of the king's breath leads "... All kinds of flower lanterns of scaly fish enter the family to string up a drama array...", sending wishes for a happy new year and a good harvest of fish and shrimp, and sending a blessing of abundance (fish). As a result, the dragon has become a fisherman's mascot, and everywhere it goes, it is widely popular. Every family receives the dragon, every household feasts on fish lanterns, and the Fisherman's Spring Festival is spent in the lively and joyful Aolong Dance.
The Dragon Dance was enthusiastic to the Lantern Festival. On the night of the eighteenth day of the New Year, the fish lanterns are incinerated on the beach where the fishermen return to the sea (called "Ao Na" in Minnan), known as "HuaLong", and families are not allowed to go out that night, and the lights are silenced. At this point, the annual Aolong fish lamp will be considered the end.
——The sea worship and pantheistic culture of the fishermen in southern Fujian gave birth to this kind of dragon lantern dance, which is different from the dragon lantern dance based on agricultural civilization, is the most primitive and simple expression of survival of fishermen, is the sacrifice ceremony of sea worship, and is the activation of the fish and dragon totem.
Now the taste of the year is getting weaker and weaker, and only drinking and eating are left. The procedures and rituals of the Fish Lantern Dance have been simplified, and rituals such as "Rolling Dragon Ball" and "Coiled Dragon Pillar" have also been difficult to see because of the disappearance of the courtyard of the residence. Chinese New Year's Eve, I talked to my classmates who were secretaries in the community about the Aolong Fish Lantern, hoping to protect this cultural heritage well, hoping that the Aolong fish lantern dance would not become the memory of a generation...
The holidays are finally coming to an end. Leave my hometown and return to the city where I live. In the bustling streets of this city, I often heard the sound of firecrackers and blowing music, and I often saw the scene of the dragon leading the aquarium fish into a formation and dancing.
Look, the scales flicker, the feet ring, that is the hometown people are showing the colorful ocean world to the extreme...
About author:Wang Huaqi is a middle school Chinese teacher.
This article is the original work of Qianjiang Evening News, without permission, it is forbidden to reprint, copy, excerpt, rewrite and carry out network dissemination of all works of copyright use, otherwise this newspaper will follow judicial channels to pursue the legal responsibility of the infringer.