Source: Taiwan Straits Network
According to a report by Fujian Daily on July 23, at Yangxia Beilin Primary School in Fuqing City, a yì dance team of 36 students was earnestly training and preparing to participate in the 44th World Heritage Conference held in Fuzhou. The reporter saw the "Dance Culture" wall at the entrance of the school, and the display panels showed the thousands of years of inheritance history of the dance. "As a demonstration site for the inheritance of dance in Fuqing City, the school makes full use of various conditions to pass on the knowledge and inheritance information of dance to the students." Chen Xudong, principal of Yangxia Beilin Primary School in Fuqing City, told reporters.
The dance is the first of the five ancient ceremonies in China, with a long history of inheritance, is an important national ceremony of the ancient trinity of poetry, ceremony and music, is an official act of the exclusive inheritance of the state, the highest state ceremony presented to distinguished state guests in ancient times, and an important ceremony of public sacrifice to heaven and earth, sheji, and the first saints.
In recent years, Fuqing City has taken advantage of the long-standing tradition of the dance culture to start the protection and inheritance of the dance. On June 10 this year, "Dance" was included in the list of traditional dance protection in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects announced by the State Council.
Fuqing Longhua Vocational Middle School dance team performance
A thousand-year-old liturgical culture that has been revitalized
On June 12, 2021, the series of activities of "Cultural and Natural Heritage Day" in Fuzhou City, the performance of the "Prosperous Liturgy • People's Sharing" attracted the attention of the public. Fuzhou Drum Tower Experimental Primary School Third Grade Dance Team 40 students, dressed in Hanfu, holding Zhai Gong, slowly entered the room amid the solemn and quaint music of the Northern Song Dynasty, the pace of the team was graceful and neat, the momentum was rigorous and majestic, and people were shocked.
At the main venue of the event, Li Zonglin, 52-year-old president of Fuqing Lidakong Society, as the representative inheritor of Fuqing Dance, who has just been selected into the national intangible cultural heritage list, accepted 300,000 yuan of support funds for the inheritance and development of the fuqing dance project issued by the Fuzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.
"Fuqing is the only city in the mainland that restores and continues to inherit the dance according to the Ming Dynasty's "Gong Li Le Shu" and the dance map and dance score, which enriches the connotation of the foreign exchange of Silk Road culture in our province. We will continue to work hard to shoulder the historical mission of carrying forward the tradition of the dance. Li Zonglin said.
In recent years, with the emphasis on traditional culture, the dance has begun to appear in the public eye. Unfortunately, the fully regulated dance is on the verge of being lost on the mainland. Due to the lack of in-depth connotation research and inheritance, the performances of the dances performed in various places "have their own characteristics", and the connotation of etiquette, the regulation of etiquette, the dance movements, and the use of props are completely inconsistent with the ancient system, and even contradict the connotations expressed by the dance itself.
"It is imperative to establish a system for the inheritance of the dance, but it is not possible to make a modern version of the dance in a new way, which damages the cultural dignity and is not conducive to the cultural rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." Li Zonglin said.
The dance originated on the mainland, but has been nearly lost due to historical evolution and war, as well as the erosion of Western culture. In the 1970s and 1980s, a group of people of insight in Taiwan gradually restored the Ming Dynasty Han-style dance according to the atlas and dance score of the "Gong Li Le Shu" introduced to Taiwan at the end of the 19th century. However, due to geographical and spatial limitations, it is still in a corner. It is urgent to save the ongoing dance.
Under the guidance of Mr. Jiang Yizi, former director of the Confucius Administration Office of Taiwan, and the full support of the head coach zhuang Wenxun, the inheritor of Taiwan's dance, in July 2012, Li Zonglin initiated the establishment of the Fuqing Municipal Dadakong Society, with the inheritance of the dance as the starting point, to sort out the maps, dance scores and discipline theory classics of the scientific and technological ability of the dance, and rescue the eight-tone music and ancient poetry chanting of the ancient Northern Song Dynasty.
"The original dance has been preserved in the Confucius Temple in Taipei, but the dance is not unique to Taiwan, it is a cultural heritage of the Chinese nation." Zhuang Wenxun said, "The dance requires dancers to present it to the public with an introspective and introspective manner, which is the real Chinese dance of truth, goodness and beauty." ”
The style of a big country and the depth of elegance, that is, the prestige of the country and the demeanor of a gentleman, are prominently manifested in the ceremony of the dance and the ceremony of interpretation. The participants 'sincere in the heart, shaped in the outside', expressed solemn and respectful feelings, which became an important evidence of the State of Etiquette in China. This is to express noble sentiments and noble status in the form of music and dance, with special indoctrination function and aesthetic value. Lu Meisong, former director of the Fujian Provincial Research Institute of Culture and History, said.
The cross-strait dance has been passed down from generation to generation
Many people do not know that the pure, complete and elegant Chinese dance regulations and etiquette norms will be preserved in Fuqing, and the Zhou Li dance has a long history in Fuqing.
"The dance inherits the music ceremony of the Zhou Gong, and the Great Success is sacrificed to the Kong Music Dance in later generations." During the reign of the Han Ming Emperor, local shrines were opened, and the dance was popularized to states and counties across the country. The dance developed during the Huizong period of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the "Da Sheng Le" presided over by the Northern Song Dynasty Fuqing musician Liu Yi was designated as the national orthodox music by the Song Huizong and promulgated in the world. Dai Xianqun, a professor in the History Department of Fujian Normal University, said that "Da Sheng Le" systematically sorted out and summarized the music theory and music system of the country since the Tang and Song Dynasties, including the procedures and movements of the dance, and became a model for the liturgical music system of later generations.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Wang Yuanxiao, a native of Minxian County (present-day Fuzhou), Fujian Province, was ordered to go to Taiwan to give a ceremony, and he hired one Fujian ceremonial musician each to teach at the Confucius Temple in Taipei.
In 2012, through the unremitting efforts of the Fuqing Municipal Dakong Society, with the help and teaching of Zhuang Wenxun, the heir of the Taipei Chinese dance, the inheritance practice of the Ming Dynasty Han-style dance was re-fed from Taipei to Fuqing and revived. From a historical point of view, since 1893, the Fuqing dance has been clearly preserved in the historical records and has survived in the practical exchanges between Fujian and Taiwan, and has a history of 128 years.
In 2013, the Fuqing Municipal Government launched a conservation plan to restore the heritage of the dance. As a heritage protection unit, Fuqing Lidakong Society actively organizes the inheritance of the dance into the campus, and gradually forms a cultural driving force that radiates primary schools, surrounding vocational colleges and universities. In 2014, the Fuqing City Dance Troupe was established. In 2015 and 2016, the Fuqing Dance Troupe was organized by the Fujian Provincial Government to participate in cultural exchange activities in Thailand and Cambodia respectively, which was widely praised by various groups and people from all walks of life at home and abroad.
Li Zonglin, the representative inheritor of the Fuqing dance, corrects the students' movements
Show the profound cultural heritage of Mindu
Xi Yi and the dancers are collectively referred to as "twins", and they are usually official students who are officially selected by Mei Qingmuxiu, quick in thinking, excellent in character and learning, and selected on merit, that is, Confucian students.
The reporter saw from the materials displayed at the Lin Zexu Memorial Hall on Macao Road in Gulou District, Fuzhou City, that the national hero Lin Zexu was selected as a twin at the age of 12. It can be seen that the ancient dance curriculum has been incorporated into the education system, and it is hoped that the elite class of the society at that time will develop the habit of knowing etiquette and abiding by the rules from an early age and become a model for all classes.
"Dance, which means to present a courtesy, is divided into three offerings: the first offering, the sub-offering, and the final offering. Each gift of the dance has 32 movements, and the raised hand throws enough to use the arc as the benchmark of the moving line, encouraging students to be harmonious and ambitious; its left and right symmetrical phalanx formation symbolizes the peace and broad-mindedness of the people. Li Zonglin explained.
At present, the intergenerational inheritance and practice of the dance is centered on Fuqing City, and its influence spreads throughout Fuzhou City, Zhangzhou City, Longyan City, Nanping City, Ningde City and other cities, and the inheritance practice population also extends to Guangdong and other provinces.
Although it is a summer vacation, the students of the dance team led by Yang Yue, a teacher of Fuzhou Drum Tower Experimental Primary School, still insist on training at home and punching cards in the WeChat group. "In May this year, the dance into the campus activity was launched, and nearly 80 students participated. In fact, at the beginning we were very nervous, today's children like anime, sports activities, can the traditional dance students accept it? But I didn't expect it to be very popular. Yang Yue told reporters, "The dance is very connotative, we can not only understand from the surface, but to enter its world, to let the child feel the most traditional culture of China." ”
"In the next step, we will continue to inherit the guqin, gong, flute and flute of the Dance Soundtrack Dasheng Music (Eight-Tone Gagaku), actively carry out community activities such as classic reading and chanting of ancient poems, and display the profound cultural heritage of Mindu with perfect Dance Andyal, and jointly create cultural highlights with The characteristics of Mindu." Teacher Lin Miao, director of the Fuzhou Drum Tower Experimental Primary School, said.
"Inheriting the culture of dance and ritual music has broad application value and practical significance." Li Zonglin said, "We can carry out lectures on liturgical music culture, including the dance, hold the rite of passage of the weak crown, greet the lunar festival, and combine the online inheritance teaching of the dance with the offline practical experience of the cultural tourism activities." At the same time, it can also promote the integration and development of other intangible cultural heritage projects, so that the inheritors also have a wide range of employment space. ”
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Add luster to The Chinese Lilly
The successful application for the national five batches of intangible cultural heritage, thanks to the fact that the dance is a bright pearl in the crown of Chinese liturgical music, highlighting the unique role of Fuqing's non-conformity and construction in the major proposition of Chinese liturgical music civilization, and also providing historical background and academic support for international communication work, contributing "Fujian color" to grasping the leading right and discourse power in the field of world liturgical music.
The dance carries the long-standing achievements of Chinese civilization such as the ritual music system, Confucian thought, traditional philosophy, literature and art, astronomical calendar, etc., and reflects the traditional Chinese humanistic spiritual values with benevolence, righteousness, and wisdom as the core.
Fujian has unique advantages in jointly inheriting traditional Chinese culture on both sides of the strait. Under the guidance of the living inheritance of the dance, the two sides of the strait have begun to interact, which is a major achievement of Fujian's role as a bridge and link for the dance, and will also play a positive role in the joint inheritance and promotion of Chinese liturgical music culture on both sides of the strait.
Today, court music and dance no longer exist, and the Shi Dian Yu dance is still active on stages around the world, has long been spread overseas, and has become a historical echo of East Asian civilization exchanges and mutual learning, beauty and commonality. It will not only help consolidate the foundation of people-to-people exchanges and enhance people-to-people ties, but also help to tell Chinese stories well and promote dialogue between different cultures. (Reporter Lin Zhilan)