Dictation | Soybeans
Anchor | Zhang Yuliang
Produced by | Materialism FM
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Soybean Bean, dancer
I think for me, there are many precious and special objects. In recent days, one of the hardest things that I have felt for myself is the mask used when dancing the Gagaku dance "Lanling King".
The Gagaku dance is actually a very important part of the court music and dance formed in the ancient Chinese court. After the formation of the System of Ritual Music in China from the Zhou Dynasty, it has gone through the various dynasties of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States, and has been passed down in this way, and in the Tang Dynasty, it has developed into the largest court dance in the world at that time, and has its own cultural attributes and characteristics.
"King Ranling" dance performance at Itsukushima Shrine in Japan
I first knew that "Lanling King" was at a performance of friendly exchanges between China and Japan. When I saw the Gagaku dance "Lanling King", I was thinking, isn't Lanling King Chinese, and how is it that the Japanese are dancing? And we ourselves seem to have only some traditional records. Later, after understanding the background, I learned that many Chinese court dances at that time had a deep impact on the surrounding countries, so many countries sent envoys from the Tang Dynasty to study.
The dance "Lanling King" is very important for Gagaku dance. Because at the beginning it was a kind of military music and dance danced in the army to praise the great achievements of King Lanling. Later, he gradually entered the court. Especially in the early Tang Dynasty, "Lanling King" was a very important work in the liturgical music of the Tang Dynasty court. But there is also a rumor that after the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the dance itself was performed less and less for various reasons.
Japan sent a large number of Envoys to the Tang Dynasty to spread Chinese culture to Japan
According to the limited information now, more than 1300 years ago, among many international students who came to Datang, there was a monk who studied abroad, who learned this dance, brought this dance back to Japan, and was valued and welcomed in Japan. Later, during their most important festival of the year, Nara's famous shrine, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, stipulated that the first dance that opened each year must be "King Ranling". Therefore, the work "Lanling King" should be said to be the most representative male dance in today's gagaku system.
At that time, I had an idea, since I myself was engaged in traditional Chinese dance performances, if I had the opportunity, I especially wanted to learn this dance back. So six years ago, when the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee selected a batch of cultural projects funded from all over the country, I myself was in the mood to try it out and filled in my own project - to bring home chinese living cultural relics that had been lost overseas.
Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara
Because I have seen many reports before that many cultural relics that have been scattered overseas, our country has brought them back one by one through many ways. But I think that dances like "Lanling King" have been broken in China for more than 1,000 years because of historical reasons, and it is not too much to call these dances living cultural relics, so as a person who learns traditional dances, I also do my best to bring back these living cultural relics that have been lost overseas.
Five years ago, I didn't expect that this project project was actually approved. After passing, the organization also gave me a very considerable fee - nearly 600,000 yuan. I thought about a lot of methods at that time, and finally contacted a Japanese Gagaku teacher named Hideki Higashi. He is a great heir to Gagaku.
Japanese Gagaku musician Hideki Higashi
Our meeting was also very interesting, first of all, nearly ten years ago, we launched a dance work called "Mulan". In the work "Mulan", Mr. Hideki Dongyi is responsible for composing the music, and I am the choreographer of the Chinese side, so our initial cooperation was as the creator of a play. Because the first round of performances was very successful, when it came to the second round of performances, he said that he not only had to compose music, but also went on stage as a lead actor, so he played my master in the play.
After the performance, everyone was very happy, so when everyone was particularly happy, I said to him: "In the creative team, we are the relationship between composer and choreographer, and on the stage we are the relationship between master and apprentice, so is there a possibility to continue this master-apprentice relationship in reality?" He was also surprised at first, but then I said: "I know that one of the works of your family's Yale culture is "Lanling King". I know you're going to jump, can you teach me? ”
A group photo of Huang Doudou and Dongyi Xiushu during the performance of "Mulan"
At first, DongYi Hideki did not reply to me very clearly, and after three or four years, he finally said that he was moved. Around 2015, I went to Tokyo to study with him. At that time, when the first performance was performed, the costumes were still rented, because there was no way to make a costume so quickly, especially the mask, and its production process was very exquisite and elaborate.
After the first performance, we used the government's support funds to make costumes in Japan, from clothes and shoes to masks, as well as all the accessories for the show. Exactly 10 days ago, the Japanese Shosoin Temple exhibited the Chinese five-stringed lute there. In order to celebrate such a thing, we also mobilized all the forces and organized a performance, and after this performance, we finally got the costumes that were customized there a few years ago.
After Huang Doudou performed "Lanling King" for the first time, he told the audience about his "master-apprentice friendship" with Dongyi Xiushu.
When I arrived in Kyoto, after all the preparations had been completed, I came to the garment factory in the morning and they packed the whole set of costumes into 7 boxes and handed them to me. I was still not at ease, I said can I try it on here once? Because there are three layers of outer three layers in this dress, how to tie each knot, how to wear each accessory, there is a lot of exquisiteness, so when trying on it, we recorded the process at the same time on the side. One is to count all the pieces, and the other is to remember how the details of each part of the costume are operated. Because when performing, a person cannot independently complete such a three-layer costume wearing inside and three layers. After all the trials, we were ready to take the Shinkansen back. And the local rules are also very strict, each person is not allowed to have more than a few pieces of luggage, so we also went through a lot of hardships, and brought this costume from Kyoto back to Tokyo to perform.
After the performance, that night, for the first time, I was around without a teacher and without a costumer, I had to put all the costume accessories from head to toe in the three outer three layers, as small as the belt tied to the penultimate layer on the waist, including socks, and had to repack them back according to my own memory, so a very dramatic thing happened that day.
Muromachi period "Ranling King" mask
When I first went to sort out the costumes, there was a makeshift powder room with a temporary partition next to it. I was very careful when I folded the clothes, trying to recall in my mind how every detail should be done, and the staff next to me began to dismantle the temporary powder room. And when I was concentrating on sorting my clothes, I had forgotten all the time. When I packed all seven boxes back, I looked back and saw that all the simple powder rooms had been dismantled, leaving the table where I was tidying up my clothes, and people were embarrassed to drive me away, which was really dramatic. When you start packing, the whole area is a simple powder room made of partitions, and when you are all sorted out, there is a huge empty space behind you, and all the partitions are gone. So, the process is really interesting.
And the next morning was even more dramatic, as soon as I woke up as if I heard the sound of rain hitting the glass window, I quickly and reflexively pulled open the curtains, and when I saw that it was raining heavily outside, I was really dumbfounded, because the seven boxes containing the clothes were all boxes made of cardboard, but these clothes must not be wet with water. At that time, there were still more than 40 minutes to leave for the airport, what to do? I couldn't hold those seven boxes alone. I bought a large box at Kyoto Station that I could drag, and I could only hold six of the seven boxes, and I had to hold one in my hand.
Huang Doudou dressed in the costume of Lanling King with Japanese gagaku players
Later, I couldn't say that I was improvised, and I was forced to be anxious, so I ran to the front desk downstairs and asked: "Can you find me the seven largest plastic bags?" "As a result, the staff couldn't find it underneath, and a box couldn't fit in." In the end, they were also in a hurry, so they found someone who cleaned the room, and they had a large plastic bag for garbage, and found me seven new ones. I sealed all the cartons of these costumes with transparent tape on the spot and took them to the airport in the heavy rain.
After arriving at the airport, I found a professional packing service, and at that time I thought that it might not be possible to make seven bags one by one, so I recombined the large and small boxes, turned the seven boxes into three, and then let them pack all the clothes with rainproof materials, and finally the luggage exceeded the standard, and all the boxes were checked in.
Among them, I definitely don't dare to check in the mask, because the mask is very fragile, and it is also the soul of the costume part of this dance. As we all know, it is said that King Lanling was a very handsome general, but because he was too handsome, his opponents would laugh at him every time he fought. Later, in order to better improve morale and express his determination to fight, he made himself a particularly heroic mask, put on a mask to command his troops, and repeatedly won battles.
In 1992, at the invitation of Ma Zhongli, an archaeologist from Handan, Kanichi Kasashi, a professor at Nara University in Japan, led the Orchestra to perform in front of the tomb of King Lanling in Ci County
This is also in the Gagaku dance "Lanling King", the mask is the core of this character, because all the cultural connotations and symbols of the character behind him are concentrated on his mask. When I got on the plane, as soon as the luggage rack above was put down, I put the cardboard box where the mask was placed, just enough to fill the space, just to close the door, this thing is not so accurate.
When the plane was about to reach the sky over Shanghai, I saw that the sky was clear and the weather was very good. Later, I recalled that it took seven or eight years to prepare to learn this dance, from the first time I borrowed costumes to perform, to now I received a costume performance, it took five years, and it took me all the way back, and it was by train, and it was flying, and it was raining heavily, in fact, the middle process was very difficult.
I thought about giving up in my heart, but I was thinking, think back to more than 1300 years ago, so many Envoys sent to China to study, people did not have planes and trains at that time, but these things they had to take away, why take them? Because that's all good stuff, it's the good stuff that condenses the wisdom and culture of our Chinese ancestors. So I have to bring them back against all odds.
Now this costume has been brought back by me, which is also the only set of Gagaku dance "Lanling King" in China, from beginning to end, all the costumes, headdresses, masks and shoes. So I want to protect it too. At present, the preservation environment of the costumes of our Shanghai Song and Dance Troupe is not enough, because the costumers have repeatedly told me that this set of clothes cannot be washed for life, and must be placed in a dehumidified environment, especially in places like Shanghai, because there are more rainy days, and there is a yellow plum rainy season every year, although we make a lot of preparations every year, there are still clothes mold every year, which is really no way.
Huang Doudou performs the dance music "Lanling King"
Such a valuable set of clothing, it must not be easily put into the clothing warehouse in the basement. I inquired around, and finally someone told me that when the Shanghai Library protects some important books, it has a dehumidification environment, so I have contacted the Shanghai library many times, and now it has basically been negotiated, and the library has made room for our gagaku costumes and placed them in a dehumidifying environment, so that we can protect such a set of costumes as much as possible.
I think, for myself, danced so much. This study of the "Lanling King" dance, including these costumes, especially the mask of the Lanling King, seemed to me to be the biggest surprise of my time, and it was also the story behind the dance that I was most willing to share with you at the moment.