Zeng Weizhi, Yang Chengxi, Wu Zehai/Wen Zeng Weizhi/Tu
YueboChang, originally belonging to Yuebo Township, Xuzhou District , Yibin City ( formerly Yibin County ) , was later merged into Nixi Town , and is an ancient town built on the edge of the Fu River (the name of this section of the MinJiang River) and thriving on water transport and declining due to water transport.
Moon Wave, a poetic name. Legend has it that Huang Tingjian stayed here overnight on the way from present-day Yibin City along the waterway to present-day Leshan City. It was one night in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the wind was clear and the moon was bright, he saw the moonlight sprinkled on the scales of the river, and he felt it in his heart, so he wrote the word "moon wave".
Later generations carved it on the shore wall of the river, and it was originally named "moon wave field". Due to the age and weathering of the handwriting, these two words have disappeared now.
Today's moon tron. (Aerial photo)
Whether the legend is true or not, there is no way to verify, but it can be known that Yuebo was already an important transportation hub in the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court set up a post here, so it was also called YueboYi. Later, due to years of war, the town was abandoned.
After the Qing Dynasty, immigrants from the southern provinces migrated here successively, and the culture they brought from their original hometowns revitalized this ancient field town, and the Moon Wave Lion Lantern is one of the outstanding representatives.
The first lion lantern of the Fuhe River, the epitome of the prosperity of the town
The lion lantern in Sichuan originated from the southern lion and was introduced by immigrants from southern provinces during the Qing Dynasty migration activities. The Yuebo Lion Lantern is no exception, and was brought into Yuebo by Cantonese Hakka people from their hometown during the Yongqian period.
Since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, water transport in the middle and lower reaches of the Min River has continued to develop, and the status of Yuebo as an important transportation hub has become increasingly prominent.
The merchant ships that came down from the upper pleasure mountain and Qianwei area, after a day of sailing, arrived at the moon wave in the evening to stop overnight. Merchant ships that swim upstream from downstream Yibin also dock here at night.
As a result, the moon wave lion lamp accompanied by merchants from the south to the north, rose with the prosperity of the town, reached its peak in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, and later developed a new form - the robe brother lion lamp.
A team of folk artists played an ancient lion lantern in the Wu Family Ancestral Hall of Yuebo.
The Lion Lantern of the Robe Brother is organized by the Lion Lantern Society inside the Moon Wave Brother, hence the name.
Brother Robe, also known as the Brotherhood of Elders, in the early years of the Republic of China, the political situation was chaotic, the soldiers were in chaos, and the Brother Robe organization took advantage of the situation and became an important local force.
According to the recollection of the local elderly, the Baojia of Yuebo Township at that time was only responsible for collecting taxes, and other social relations affairs were handled by the local brothers, which showed its importance.
Yuebo Brother is also known as the Siwei Society, during the Republic of China period, Brother Robe distributed in Yibin County, Ren, Li and Yi 3 tangkou. Renziqi is the lobby entrance of brother Pao, the hall is located in Fern Creek Town, Yibin County, Yuebo is a branch, and the chief helmsman is Wu Zihua, who is the father of Wu Kaifeng, a member of the county CPPCC committee and colonel.
In the past, the hauler pulled the fiber, and did not have a piece of silk. One day, the porter who came up downstream saw several women washing clothes by the river, and he flirted with them.
The women cried to the brothers in the field, and the brothers immediately had a big fight with the porters and held the salt boat.
In order to calm the incident, the Wutong Bridge Salt Gang sent someone to make reparations and promised: In the future, the Salt Gang Tracker must wear pants after passing through the moon wave field. For a time, this incident became a "special case" along the Fu River, which shows the strength of the Yuebo Brother at that time.
Just like the powerful brother at that time, the lion lamp was the most important feature of the grandeur, and it was called "the first lion lamp in Fuhe".
Moon Wave Lion Lantern Show.
When the pao brother lion lantern is starred, it is generally preceded by 36 square rows of lamps with a height of 5 feet, and the lamp surface is written with large characters such as "Xiangrui Ankang". After the row of lights is in place, a hundred colorful flags surrounded by a dazzling golden retriever appear.
Along with the lions, there are two "laughing monks" wearing laughing monk masks and robes, one holding a broom and the other holding a hydrangea ball.
In addition, there is a funny-looking aunt (a local matchmaker, a character in the lion lamp). At this moment, drums, cymbals, gongs and other musical instruments sounded in unison, and the drum music was noisy for a while.
According to tradition, when the lion lantern comes out, a memorial ceremony is held first.
With offerings and incense and paper, all members should participate in the worship: one is to commemorate the grandfather, and the other is to worship the lion king.
After the ceremony, the "tea picking" activity begins. "Picking tea" is also called "singing mountain songs", which is similar to the praises recited by the lion lantern leader in other parts of Sichuan before the lion lantern is performed. The difference is to sing instead of speaking, and the people involved in "picking tea" are not limited to lion lantern members, and those who can sing a few words in the field town can participate.
When singing, a cup of piping hot tea must be poured, and the lyrics are eclectic, ranging from old words that are followed to new works that artists have whimsy, especially outstanding new words that will be sung locally. "Tea picking" is highly involved and interesting, and often lasts a long time.
After the "tea picking", it is the lion lamp that comes out. Moon wave lion lamp belongs to the "ground prodigal lion lamp", the moves are changeable, there are closed eyes, fan ears, itching, ascending, leaping, slapping, sitting legs and other more than 20 kinds of actions, dressed as a lion, two monks and one sister, this lion lamp has two "laughing head monk" appearance, unique in Sichuan.
The second monk teased the lion with props, and the lion deliberately caused a counterattack, and the sister-in-law was teasing and gaging on the side.
The members cooperated with each other and staged 24 sets of moves one by one, such as lion dance worship, hydrangea glory, hugging and tumbling, carp crossing foot, golden lion phoenix, stacking luohan, rolling hydrangea ball, and male lion ascending to the top.
In addition to the traditional lion lantern technique, it also combines elements such as Sichuan opera, harmonic opera, martial arts, and dance, of which bench boxing is particularly unique.
According to legend, the bench fist was introduced to Yuebo by Liu Jiaogu, a remnant of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Shi Dakai, in the late Qing Dynasty, and was later carried forward by his disciples, Chen Wending and Qian of the Yuebo Field, as Wang Mazi of Xinmin Town.
This style of boxing was mainly popular in the Republic of China period, with the bench as a weapon, the fist method is soft and rigid, a total of 78 styles, is an important folk martial arts category in the middle and lower reaches of the Min River at that time, and is loved by the xiwu people.
Yuebo's robe brother lion lantern successfully integrated the bench fist into the lion lamp, which greatly enriched the performance form of the moon wave lion lamp.
This martial spirit also adapted to the harsh social environment at that time.
According to Mr. Wu Zehai of the Moon Wave Field, in 1929, the Moon Wave Lion Lantern went to Yibin County to participate in the competition, and the group came out on top.
On the way home, he encountered a group of bandits robbing at Dengtou Creek. The lion team, led by Wu Zihua, the uncle of the brother in the robe, and Wu Jiezhang, the head of the religion, defeated the bandits. Since then, the Moon Wave Robe Lion Lantern has become more famous.
The lion array is also the main content of the lion lantern performance.
In the old days, the moon wave lion array had a wide range of contents, and the props of the pendulum array were mostly daily necessities, such as bench swing array, table swing array, couplet swing array, etc., as well as the form of the main family saying four words and eight sentences, and the lion member guessing the bottom of the puzzle.
The Moon Wave Lion Array is vivid and lively, and it is very rural and slangy. Wu Zehai had seen a lion array in his childhood: the main family set up a square wooden table with 3 items on it: watercress sauce, white thread and a bowl of white rice. The lion was puzzled, and finally the dexterous aunt guessed the mystery, which was actually the "Fan Gong Smith" (鏾 xiàn, meaning castration) who lived in the town.
Moon wave lion lanterns can usually be lit by people who are married and bereaved, and the pomp and circumstance are especially large during important festivals, such as the Spring Festival, lantern festival, Dongyue Temple Fair, the first seven days of July, etc.
The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month, commonly known as the Great Year, is the most grand lion lantern on this day.
As soon as dawn came, the lion and dragon lanterns began to light up. At night, every household in the town of Yuebochang lights up the eaves lamp in front of their homes. At that time, the moon wave field was brilliantly lit and the human voice was boiling.
The Lantern Lion Lantern performs all 24 moves, ending at dawn the next day.
Secondly, the Dongyue Temple Fair on the eighteenth day of the first month should last for 10-15 days. Tens of thousands of believers and merchants from surrounding counties gathered in Yuebo, and the lion lantern should be held 3 times:
The first scene is the beginning of the Asaga Temple Fair, the midfield entertains the public, and the tail court is to celebrate the successful conclusion of the temple fair.
It is worth mentioning that the first seven days of July are different from other places, the local Hakka people call the first seven days of July a ghost festival, this day out of the lion lantern, July half for the haunted festival, the day to wear a wooden pole to wear oranges (grapefruit) to make an orange dragon dance, it is said that this unique custom originated from the hometown in Guangdong.
Wang Shifa, 60, performs upside down on a bench with one foot in the air.
The cultural products of immigrants share the fate of the rise and fall of the town
Why did the small moon wave give birth to the moon wave lion lamp of the "Crowned House River"?
Yuebo has a long history, and the Yanggong Creek that flows through here is called Zhuó Creek in ancient times.
Jiaqing's "Yibin County Chronicle" records: "Xunxi, there are Ahun people living in its vicinity, hence the name. This month Wave Station is. It can be seen from "Ah Hun" that there have been tribal activities here for a long time.
In the Ming Dynasty, Yuebo became an important station. The Ming Dynasty official Cao Xueqi once stayed overnight at YueboYi and left a poem in the "Shuzhong Guangji": "Yu Yizi stayed in this yi in the autumn of the twilight of the book: The moon wave came to stay overnight, and the moon was like Boming." When the scenery is together, the air chats about the reunion. The cold cicada groans like laziness, and the water birds go how light. Borrow yuzhou road, return home for a few trips. ”
By the Qing Dynasty, Yuebo had developed into a cargo distribution center in the middle and lower reaches of the Minjiang River. Bulk goods around Muchuan, Qianwei and Yibin are all traded in The Moon Wave.
During the Republic of China, He Jian, the leader of the largest horse gang in Yuebo, had 3 teams of horse gangs under his name, with hundreds of horses.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Yuebo had formed a pattern of four palaces (Nanhua Palace, Wanshou Palace, Yuwang Palace, Chuansheng Palace), nine temples (Dongyue Temple, Niangniang Temple, Feishan Temple, Xiaogong Temple, Land Temple, Ancient Emperor Temple, etc.) and five piers (Jiang Wharf, Upper Wharf, Lower Wharf, Sugar House Wharf, And Dry Wharf), with 38 businesses, strong financial resources, and densely populated people.
This is an important background for the birth of the moon wave lion lamp.
During the Republic of China, the Yuebopao GeShi Lantern was directly organized by Tangkou in Renzitang in Fern Creek Town, and the person in charge was the chief steward in charge of internal affairs.
Because Brother Pao was operating the most important ginger sugar tea and other commodities at that time, its Lion Lantern Club had sufficient funds to organize a professional lion lantern team.
Wu Zehai recalled that at that time, the lion lamp, the lion was woven with gold wire, and the lion's head was decorated with silver ornaments and five colored threads. It is enough to prove the grandeur of the moon bopao brother lion lantern at that time.
The rise of the moon wave lion lantern is also inseparable from the special local immigrant culture.
During the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, immigrants from Hunan and Hubei arrived here first and reclaimed wasteland. During the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, the Hakka people in Guangdong migrated here again.
The Hakka brought the cash crop tobacco, and they worked hard to control it, and gradually gained the upper hand economically, buying fields from the Huguang people and eventually taking root.
More than 90% of the residents on the Boba this month are mainly from Xingning and Wuhua in Guangdong, especially Wu, Mao, Huang, Zhang, Gu and other surnames, all of whom are Hakka. The Moon Wave Lion Lantern was brought in by them, and its prominent performance form of "Laughing Head Monk" and lion cooperating with each other is very similar to today's Fujian-Cantonese Lion Dance.
The Yuebo Hakka family, led by Wu, used convenient land and water transportation to accumulate wealth and built a number of large-scale and complex Hakka houses and ancestral halls.
The Hakka people have always been known for respecting traditional culture, and the rise of the moon wave lion lamp is inseparable from the moon wave Hakka family.
Wu Zihua, the helmsman of the Yuebo Renzitang during the Republic of China, came from the Wu clan of Yuebo, and it was with his support that the Paoge Lion Lantern Society was carried forward.
Wu Zehai said that his father, Wu Jiachun, the second manager of the Red Flag of Renzitang at that time, was directly involved in the establishment and operation of the Lion Lantern Society.
Wang Shifa, 60, performs an upside-down on the bench.
Inheritance and protection, or the end of the curtain
Today, the moon wave field after the decline of water transport has gradually become obscure.
The once prosperous robe brother lion lamp has long become a cloud of smoke in the past. However, the pace of cultural inheritance has never stopped.
It was in the summer of one year that a team of folk artists played an ancient lion lantern in the Wu Family Ancestral Hall of The Moon Wave, and the trance was a glimpse of the historical shadow.
Wu Gaoxiang, 75; Chen Yongchao, 61; Chen Anhua, 52; Mao Congbing, 72; Wang Guihua, 63; Zhu Zixu, 62; and Wang Shifa, 60.
From left to right: Wu Gaoxiang, 75; Chen Yongchao, 61; Chen Anhua, 52; Mao Congbing, 72; Wang Guihua, 63; Zhu Zixu, 62; Wang Shifa, 60.
This is a list of members of the Lion Lantern Team that are still active in the area of Tsukiwa field and Ganwei County's Xinmin Town.
Wu Gaoxiang, who plays the "laughing head monk", is 75 years old this year. Although the body is still very strong, the jump is not inferior to the prime, but after a 45-minute complete performance, the beads of sweat on the face are still clearly written with fatigue and tiredness.
Wang Shifa, 60, is the leader of this lion lantern team. He studied martial arts with his uncle at the age of 13, excelled in bench boxing, and played "Sun Wukong" in the Lion Lantern.
The lion lanterns are different now than they were in the past. The "Laughing Head Monk" changed from the previous two to one, and the sister-in-law also disappeared, giving birth to the appearance of "Sun Wukong".
There is no "Sun Wukong" in the traditional Moon Wave Lion Lantern, which is a character that Wang Shifa joined to attract the audience and combine the characteristics of team members.
The appearance of the moon wave lion lamp "one lion, two monks and one aunt" is now only "one lion and one monk", and the appearance of "Sun Wukong" has been added.
The "tea picking" activity also disappeared, because few people could sing mountain songs. Chen Yongchao, 61, the most capable mountain singer in the team, said that young people now sing popular songs, and with the exception of traditional labor, mountain songs are even less singed.
The lion lantern still retains the essence of the sacrifice before the lamp, some formations, bench fists, etc., and the whole performance includes martial arts, acrobatics, dance, music, harmony and other elements. Musical instruments are still traditional gongs, drums, horse gongs, cymbals and so on.
After 200 years of changes, the lions of the Moon Wave Field are very different from the lions of their original hometown of Guangdong, with a small body size, cute and well-behaved, and humorous and witty performances.
Wang Shifa's biggest worry at present is that this is a lion dance team with an average age of 63.6 years old, and many actions dare not be done or cannot be done; lion dance requires a certain martial arts foundation, young people learn martial arts less, and fewer are willing to learn to play lion lights, because they can't make money.
Lion Lantern earns money, mainly by performing during the New Year's Festival, with few performance opportunities, and the income is not enough to maintain daily training and purchase costumes and props.
In the performance, "Sun Wukong", played by Wang Shifa, accidentally fell to the ground when he stood upside down on the bench. In order to pursue perfection, he ignored the dissuasion of the audience and had to complete this action and do it well.
"I've studied kung fu, and I don't have to do anything." Wang Shifa touched the braincase in embarrassment.
His determination to complete every action is as determined as he wants to inherit and protect the Moon Wave Lion Lantern, perseverance and courage.
(Author Affilications:Chengdu University of Information Science and Technology)
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