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"Carved wood for the head and tail, gold plated eyes silver teeth. Fenxun sweater swings his ears, like coming from quicksand. ”
This is a vivid depiction of the lion dance scene at that time by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi after settling in Luoyang in his later years.
As one of the outstanding traditional folk arts in China, the lion dance has a deep heritage in Heluo and is widely circulated. According to legend, during the reign of Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the countries of the Western Regions sent envoys to the dynasty to bring lions to Luoyang as tributes, and since then there have been lion performances. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism flourished, from the royal family to the people worshipped The Buddha, and there were countless people who gave up their homes to enter the temple. Therefore, Luoyang City is lined with Buddhist temples and Sanskrit sounds, which have become holy places in the Buddha's country. The lion is not only a beast of auspiciousness, but also has a special status, that is, the mount of Manjushri Bodhisattva, so it is more respected.
The early lion dance, which mainly appeared at temple fairs, was not only an expression of warding off evil spirits and blessings, but also an excellent folk acrobatic performance and entertainment.
Today, Luoyang has more than 500 lion dance teams and more than 4,000 lion dance artists. But in June 2010, one of the lion dance teams was listed as an intangible cultural heritage of Henan Province, that is, the Dali Wang Lion Dance.
The Dali Wang Lion Dance is a typical Northern Lion Dance, which appears stable in the free and generous, and there is no lack of delicacy in the generosity.
When performing the lion dance, one person "tops the lion's head" in the front and one person "arches the lion's tail" in the back. The lion dancer wears "lion skin" all over his body, pants of the same color and golden claw hoof boots underneath, and his appearance is very similar to that of a real lion. The compact form factor is both realistic and easy to perform a variety of difficult moves. Usually two or more "lions" play together, and occasionally perform alone. Lion fighters "huihui" are mostly skilled in martial arts or have opera martial arts kung fu, dressed as ancient samurai, holding a rotating hydrangea ball, and teasing lions through stunts such as "walking scorpion tails", "hanging hair", "fluttering tigers" and so on.
The 78-year-old Wang Tiewa is the thirteenth generation of the Dali Wang Lion Dance, who began to learn to perform with his father and uncles at the age of 9, and his lion dance skills are also quite famous in the village. When talking about the most distinctive place of the Dali Wang Lion Dance Club compared with other lion dance clubs, he said: "The lions they play must pay attention to the 'truth', and people must not show their 'bones' (performers) after wearing lion skins, first of all, they must be like lions to play lions well!"
Luoyang Lion Dance is divided into two categories, namely "Wen Lion" and "Wu Lion". Wen Shi loves to play, good at tickling, licking hair, rolling, playing balls and other actions, looking funny and pleasant. Wushi is a heavy kung fu, and there will be difficult actions in the performance, such as walking plum blossom piles, which looks thrilling.
From the performance project, there is no obvious demarcation, it shows "wu" in "wen", "wu" in the "wen", first play the stall, and then go to the sky, both culture and martial arts, which is a must in Heluo.
In The village of Dali Wang, almost all men play lions, and most of them start practicing simple martial arts movements from the age of seven or eight. The villagers of Daliwang Village have maintained the tradition of dancing "lions" on special days such as New Year's Festivals and ancestor worship for generations, and have continuously explored and innovated the form, content and techniques of lion dances.
For example, "Lion Crossing the Ring Rack", "Lion Jumping Strips", "Male Lion Drilling Fire Circle", "Lion Dance Stool", "Lion Jumping Square Table" and other contents have been reported by the central and provincial and municipal news units for many times, and the performance photos of "Double Lion Disc Chair" have appeared on the cover of "China Youth" magazine. Since the 1950s, as a representative of the Luoyang Lion Dance, it has participated in competitions in other places many times and performed for many Chinese and foreign leaders, winning many honors for Luoyang.
Nowadays, the Luoyang Lion Dance has become a reserved program that Chinese must appear every New Year's Festival. It is rooted in the folk and is blooming with new brilliance in the inheritance of future generations.
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