Yuanshi County is located in the south-central part of Shijiazhuang City, bordering Jingxing County to the west, Zanhuang County to the southwest, Gaoyi County to the south, Zhao County and Luancheng District of Shijiazhuang City to the east, and Luquan District of Shijiazhuang City to the north. Every year on the 18th day of the third month of the lunar calendar, it is the day of the temple fair in Dongzheng Village, Yuanshi County, and "raising the flower bar" is a traditional performance project of Dongzheng Village.
"Raising the flower bar", also known as "lifting the emperor bar", is a long-established regional folk flower meeting form, which originated in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and has a history of more than 1,000 years. "Flower lifting bars" are very popular in north China, and these folk flowers will involve the entire Yuanshi County and the villages around Cangyan Mountain, which is highly ornamental. In 2007, the "flower-raising bar" was included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Hebei Province.
One
The Flower Bar Club in Dongzheng Village
Dongzheng Village is located in Dongzhang Township, Yuanshi County, and is a village with abundant people and abundant materials and clear sky and blue water. Guo Jishu (deceased), Guo Qinghai, and Guo Dongjie had three generations of grandchildren, born in Si and grew up in Si. Guo Qinghai's father, Guo Jishu, was the first organizer of the "flower lifting bar" in Dongzheng Village, and on the eighteenth day of the third month of the lunar calendar in 1989, Dongzheng Village held a temple fair, and the revived flower bar club was the first time to go out, and a total of six bars were dispatched. At that time, Guo Qinghai was only in his 30s and was still working at the Agricultural Machinery Bureau. In Guo Qinghai's memory, from the time he remembered, his father was inseparable from the "bar".
Temple fair performances
The early history of the Hanabakai in Dongzheng Village cannot be traced because there is no written record. Guo Qinghai's family handed down an ancient book left over from the Qing Dynasty, "Records of flower bars", which can be called the earliest written record of the Flower Bars Society in Dongzheng Village. "The 'Flower Bar Record' records the records of the Flower Bar Guild for more than 100 years from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China." The book in Guo Qinghai's mouth is a yellowed booklet, which can no longer be turned over, and it records the rules of the Flower Bar Society, the composition of the "bar" and the people who carried the "bar" and the places they have been, and so on.
The book records that in the second year of Daoguang (1822), Qi Yuzhen, the xiucai of Dongzheng Village, rebuilt the bar meeting, and the momentum was huge. All this evidence can show that, at least in the Qing Dynasty, the performance of raising the flower bar already existed in Dongzheng Village. Guo Qinghai said that "raising flower bars" not only exists in the Yuan clan, but also in Jingxing, Luancheng and Nanhe counties, and there is also the custom of "raising flower bars", and due to different regions, the origin of legends is also different. In history, the "flower-raising bar" of Yuanshi County was shared by Dongzheng Village and its six nearby villages, and it was the "leader" of various flower societies such as martial arts, flag clubs, gun clubs, drum clubs, and big knife clubs in these villages, which were collectively called "Three Mountains (Jingxing Cangyan Mountain, Yuanshi Wanhua Mountain, and Zanhuang Wuma Mountain) Holy Society".
The Ancient Book of the Flower Bar Record
The "Flower Lifting Bar" is named after the dancers carrying the statue of the Three Emperors' Aunts on their shoulders, "Driving Over", mainly for the sacrifice of the Three Emperors' Gu (commonly known as the "Three Grandmothers"). Regarding the legend of the "Three Emperors", the plots include "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves Against the Father Emperor", "The Three Emperors' Nuns Became Nuns", "The Imperial Forest Army Burned the Hundred Grass Temple", "Treading all over the Green Mountains to Choose the Best Land" and so on. According to the custom of Dongzheng Village, a grand temple fair is held every year on the 18th day of the third month of the lunar calendar, carrying the sacred elephants of the Three Emperors, accompanied by various flower performances such as lifting flower bars. "The Three Emperors do not have a fixed temple, and every year they will choose the virtuous, influential, and enthusiastic villagers in the village to take turns to make offerings, which is where the flower bar in Dongzheng Village is different from other places."
Folklore is formed in the folk, and its historical inheritance is also deeply hidden in the folk. Today, the "flower-raising bar" has weakened the ritual of sacrifice and become a folk group dance for the villagers to entertain themselves, and the villagers pray for a good harvest through temple fairs. At present, the Dongzheng Village Huabar Association is mainly distributed in 3 villages in Dongzhang Township, Yuanshi County, namely Dongzheng Village, Xizhang Village and Shangzhang Village.
Two
The flower bar looks like in the years
The "raised bar" is composed of levers, bar boxes, bar blocks, barbells, bunting flags, gangs, etc., the lever is 4 meters long and 12 cm in diameter, and is made of hardwood (locust or elm).
"The bar is an ancient means of transport, and the team it composes is called 'gang'. The bar box is in the middle of the pole, weighing 40 pounds, and the bar box is painted with flowers, birds, gods and beasts around it, with iron rings hanging on both sides, and two strings of brass bells tied to the lever. The barber moves the lever as he travels, and the iron ring makes a 'popping' sound as the lever rhythmically vibrates, and the barbell also clangs. Guo Qinghai spoke in a colorful voice, opening the floodgates of memory, and the vivid scenes of lifting the bar in his youth came like a tide.
Dongzheng Village, Yuanshi County, now has 18 pairs of flower bars (also known as imperial bars), and they are all old bars collected from various places. "In the 1980s, all the old bars were used, there were only 4 pairs of old bars at that time, and later they bought old bars from Xingguo, Luancheng, Wucheng and other places. The old bar patterns in different regions are also different, but they are more exquisite, not only paintings but also carved patterns. The bar box is often painted with exquisite and meticulous patterns of bats, green dragons, white tigers and other sacred beasts, which means auspicious. Guo Qinghai's home also has a pair of bars, two thin ends, thick in the middle, painted yellow, about 4 meters long. The bar box is made of elm wood, coated with tung oil and decorated with paintings. The pattern on the bar box is a tiger's head on the front, and there are two dragons on the column, which is exquisitely and meticulously made. The bar head is wrapped in red cloth, which means that the fortune is the head. Above the bar box is an arched bridge-style hollow bar tower with flags of various colors inserted on it, and the levers are interspersed with them. "During the performance, the flower bars are arranged in order, divided into the first bar, the second bar, the third bar... And so on. Now there are as many as 18 pairs of bar performances in the village. There are no certain rules when lifting the bar, the more people are more lively, we want to string 3 villages, and those who will lift the bar can change shifts. There are many people, and there are heads to watch. ”
Once a year, the flower lifting bar is carried out, and people are riveted. Children down to teenagers, up to the elderly in their 80s, want to lift the "bar". "Whoever is responsible for the levers, these levers are preserved by each family, and the family is hereditary. Only those who pay for the lever are eligible to carry it. For the villagers, raising the flower bar is an extremely glorious thing. "In addition to the main props such as levers and bar boxes, gongs, drums, flags, cards, umbrellas, fans, golden melons, axes, stirrups are accompanied by the performance of the flower bars... These Taos have been preserved for decades and centuries, leaving behind the growth marks of generation after generation, carrying the memories of generations of people.
The older generation carries the bar to pass on the art
Three
Once a booming flower bar
In 1995, the "flower lifting bar" in Dongzheng Village ushered in a highlight moment. In the Spring Festival folk art performance in Yuanshi County, the "flower lifting bar" in Dongzheng Village ranked first among many folk art categories and won the first prize.
"In the early 1990s, the 'flower lifting bar' was booming, and there were many people carrying people, 400 to 500 people. At that time, in the first month, I began to practice the bar every day until the Spring Festival. The day before the guild, we would gather the entertainers of each bar to meet, arrange the next day's affairs, and plan the route of the guild. Speaking of the Spring Festival performance in 1995, the tall figure of his father Guo Jishu clearly appeared in Guo Qinghai's mind, and Guo Jishu, who was more than 60 years old at the time, was the commander-in-chief of the "flower lifting bar". The performance of dozens of flower bars is all under his command, and if there is an order, it is done, and if it is forbidden, it is stopped.
The "flower-raising bar" begins at about 7:00 a.m., with two signal lines in front of and behind the line, usually with their guns fired, and then the leader raises a blue flag with a dragon pattern on his hand and gives orders, leading the whole team to start from the home of the person who respects the statue of the "Three Emperors" to "step on the street" (also known as the cross-street). "At that time, the line was very long, about a kilometer, and we had to go around seven villages, and the beginning and tail of the team were known by the sound of gunfire."
On the day of the guild, the wide country roads were densely packed with villagers who came to see the liveliness. The alleys are bustling with gongs and drums, the voices of people are boiling, and every household hangs rows of brightly colored "color seeds" ("color seeds" are a kind of paper decoration, beautiful shape, bright colors, meaning auspicious). The flower bars sway rhythmically from side to side with the noisy bells, and the rolling crowds rush forward along the street.
At the top of the line is the flower bar meeting, a pair of flower bars carried by two people, at least 4 pairs of flower bars, more unlimited. They planted the bar box with colorful bunting flags, making it very eye-catching. The flower bar will do various movements and various formation changes (also perform a flower bar performance) for the villagers to watch and enjoy. When performing, the bar hand can not use the handrail, only rely on the shoulders, head, neck and waist to cooperate with each other, maintain the balance of the bar, complete a variety of dance moves, very test the skill.
The bar lifting team pays attention to the pace, and the forty or fifty-pound flower bar moves flexibly in the neck, shoulder, back, and chest of the barman, sliding from the left shoulder to the back, from the back to the right shoulder, and from the right shoulder to the chest, obediently blending with the bar. At each fork in the street and at an intersection, the "Blue Flag" will make a command to make the flower bar do "upside down" and other actions to change the formation. Some villagers will put a table or stool on the top of the three forks of the street or at the intersection, and put tea on it for the entertainers to drink and quench their thirst. At this time, the flower bar will make some formation changes such as "flower bar plate table", "three-bar core", "five-bar core" for villagers to watch and enjoy.
"The dance movements of the flower bar dance are rough and bold, with overhead bars, shoulder turning, shoulder changing, turning back, trembling back, squatting and other movements. There is also a trick to the dance movements: the footsteps are heavy, the knees are slightly bent, the small throws are thrown away, the big swings are turned, and the soles of the feet are trembling all over the body. Guo Qinghai said that the elderly bar kung fu is old enough to not only walk "two-way front", "double pair of shoulders", "double pair front" and "double face", but also can put the bar high on the top of the head, lower the hips, free to perform, no matter how the body shakes, the bar head is not moving, quite skill and skill, without years of diligent practice can not be done.
The music of the flower bar dance is mainly accompanied by a waist drum, also known as the "flower drum meeting". The "Flower Drum Festival" consists of 2 gongs, 2 cymbals and 8 drums, which together cheer for the flower bar dance. "Because of the large number of bars performed, the team was huge, and two big drums were added last year." Guo Qinghai introduced that more than a dozen pairs of flower bars regularly change their formations, and when the left and right are interspersed with each other, the flower drum team also begins to perform at the same time, and the two sides of the drum line are played while playing drums, and the gongs are on the gong and the cymbals and the four people cross the face to stand in the middle, and then with the rhythm of the drums, they begin to play the gongs around the cymbals to walk single 8 characters, walk double 8 characters and other performances. After the performance, it will be repeated at the next intersection until it reaches the large area outside the village, and the roller bar team will make all the movements and formation changes again for the villagers to see.
The walking route of the "flower bar" is fixed, and the "flower bar" team with the top bunting flag is like a colorful dragon flying in each village, and the rhythmic flower bar and brass bell make a burst of sound, which is spectacular. During long performances, there will also be a two-shift rotation of four people.
Four
A commitment to heritage
With the increase of age, the 50-pound bar box gradually made Guo Qinghai feel powerless. At this year's temple fair, Guo Qinghai handed over the "bar" on his shoulder to his son Guo Dongjie. "I'm older and can't lift it, so it's time for young people to lift it." Guo Qinghai's eyes revealed ardent hope for his son.
Guo Dongjie, born in 1980, is currently the youngest performer of the Dongzheng Village Flower Bar Club, and a young man who loves to lift the flower bar. From watching his grandfather and father lift the bar at the age of 8 or 9, to now he has also started to lift the bar, Guo Dongjie has an emotion for the "bar" that ordinary people can't understand. "When I was a child, my grandmother took me to the temple fair to see my grandfather raise the flower bar, and my grandfather led the bar in the front, but it was very powerful." Perhaps at that time, Guo Dongjie's heart planted the seed of lifting the flower bar.
Since the reconstruction of the Dongzheng Village Flower Bar Association, with the changes in the social environment, the survival of the Flower Bar Club has also encountered a great crisis. "The staff of the Flower Bar Club is aging, the oldest is already eighty-six years old, and most of the young ones are in their fifties, so I am the youngest." At the beginning of March this year, Zhang Yanju, Guo Qinghai, Guo Xixian, Qi Zhanke, Geng Changlin, Geng Zhiguo and other main representatives of the Flower Bar Association discussed and with the consent of the village committee, it was decided to let Guo Dongjie serve as the heir of a new generation, reorganize young people to study and practice flower lifting, and better pass on the intangible cultural heritage performance of Dongzheng Village.
Like many folk dances that cannot be widely disseminated, the shortage of funds, the lack of young people and the difficulty of lifting the "bar" all put the folk dance art such as "raising the flower bar" at risk of disappearing. "It is not easy to let young people participate in learning to raise the flower bar in a short period of time, although there are many young people who want to participate, but due to work and economic reasons, many young people are discouraged." In this case, I can only go to the elderly in the village who participate in raising the flower bar, let them do the ideological work of young people to win the participation of young people; or let the young people who want to participate find a partner by themselves, and through the village loudspeaker, WeChat group and other vigorous publicity, widely recruit young people to participate. ”
Guo Dongjie thought of many ways to actively win the participation of young people, and even found many women in the village to participate in the "flower lifting bar". "At this year's temple fair, the ratio of men to women is half of each. More than 40 pounds of flower bars is a great challenge for women, some beginner women often due to uncoordinated cooperation and lead to excessive leverage fluctuations, before lifting for a while to feel shoulder pain, can not stand. The performance of the flower bar is a manual work, and some high-skilled actions such as 'shoulder change', 'squat crotch step', 'overhead bar' and so on, or men are more attractive. ”
The Dongzheng Village Flower Bar Club has now recruited more than 20 new young people to participate, and every Saturday and Sunday, they invite the older generation of good performers to perform in the village committee compound and teach young people to learn to lift the flower bar hand in hand.
In the long history of folk art, the folk dance of "raising the flower bar" originated in the folk township in its unique form, grew in the field village, developed in social life, and reflected the spiritual outlook of the working people. With the footsteps of the times and the baptism of the years, "Raising the Flower Bar" blooms in the forest of Chinese art with its unique and distinctive personality.
"'Raising the flower bar' is something left by the ancestors and cannot disappear into the hands of our generation." This is the goal that Guo Dongjie set for himself, and it is also his commitment to his father and other older generations to carry the "bar".
(Yan Durong media reporter Zhang Sisi)