The origin and significance of the Tujia hand-waving dance
The Tujia hand-waving dance is a dance to pray for happiness and reward ancestors. It is the large-scale dance that most affects the Tujia people and has a sacrificial color. It shows the Tujia's myths, wars, life and so on. The waving dance must also be held in the waving hall. It can be seen that this dance is extremely important in Tujia culture. Let us take a look at the origin and significance of the hand waving dance.
The hand-waving dance is an activity of sacrifice and prayer of the Tujia people. It is usually held on New Year's Day and has developed into comprehensive folk activities such as sacrifice, prayer, singing and dancing, social interaction, sports competitions, and material exchanges. There are different sizes of "waving hands". Held every three to five years, it's called the "Big Wave." "Big Hands Waving" is large in scale, has many sets, and lasts for seven or eight days. It is held in front of the "Waving Hands Hall" together with market trade, cultural and sports activities. "Waving Hands Hall", in Tuwang Temple. "Small waving hands" is small in scale and has a small number of sets. It usually lasts for one to three days and is mostly held in the clan's ancestral hall. In the hand-waving activity, the Tujia people recalled the hardships of their ancestors' entrepreneurship, cherished their ancestors' achievements, and displayed the life scenes of the Tujia ancestors. The entire activity has strong traces of ancestor worship.
"There is a nest of brocade in Fushi City, and the water is rippled by the Tuwang Palace. There are thousands of red lanterns and thousands of people waving their hands and singing." After reading the classic work handed down by Peng Shiduo, a Tujia poet from the Qing Dynasty, it is amazing. I can't help but think back to the magnificent scenes of Tujia singing and dancing that were very popular in western Hubei, western Hunan, and eastern Chongqing.
The hand-waving dance is the most influential large-scale dance of the Tujia people, with a strong sacrificial color. It is a dance that prays for happiness and rewards ancestors. It shows the production, life, war, myths and legends of the Tujia people. Songs are born with dances, and dances are named after songs. It originated in ancient times and became popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the Tujia people's sacrificial ceremony, drums and gongs are beaten, the "Tima" or altar master leads the crowd into the waving hall or waving terrace to dance and sing waving songs, which is majestic and touching.
Tujia dance - hand waving dance is divided into two types according to its activity scale: "big hand waving" and "small hand waving"; according to its dance form, it is divided into "single swing", "double swing" and "whirlwind" "Pull", etc.; according to the time it is held, it is divided into "Zhengyue Hall", "February Hall", "March Hall", "May Hall", "Jiuyu Hall", etc. Waving dance is divided into big waving and small waving. The big hand-waving activity is large-scale, mainly to worship the "Eight Great Gods", and performs the origin of mankind, ethnic migration, resistance to foreign invasion and agricultural activities; the small-scale hand-waving activity is smaller, to worship Lord Peng, Xiang Laoguan and Tian Haohan The main characters are local kings from various places, who perform some agricultural activities.
The big wave of hands is held in the hand-waving hall. In the center of the Hall of Waving Hands, there are statues of the eight great kings and their wives "Papa". There is a 24-meter-high flagpole erected in the middle of the large terrace of Waishou Hall. Two dragon flags on it flutter in the wind, and a white crane on the top of the flagpole flutters its wings.
According to the traditional custom of waving twice every three years, the Big Hand Waving event is held from the ninth to the eleventh day of the first lunar month. During the ceremony, each village forms a waving "platoon" based on surnames or clan houses. Each "platoon" is a waving team. The number of people in each "platoon" varies. Each "platoon" has a waving team, a sacrificial team, a flag team, a band, and an armor team. , firecrackers.
The first team is the Dragon and Phoenix Flag Team. Dragon flags and phoenix flags are made of red, blue, white and yellow silk materials and are triangular flags with one color on each side. The flag is more than ten feet long and has a cockscomb-shaped lace on the edge. With the White Dragon Flag and the Red Phoenix Flag as the ascendant, they walked side by side at the forefront of the team.
The second order is the sacrificial team. It is composed of more than 20 respected old men in the village. They wore soap-colored gowns and held props such as eyebrow sticks, magic knives, and court tubes. One of them held a wine jar with the word "福" on it, and led the team to carry grains, game, cakes, dumplings, and tofu. Those waiting for the sacrifices will perform sacrifices and sing sacrificial songs with the master in charge.
Behind the sacrificial team is the dance team. Men, women and children of all ages can participate. They all dress up in festive costumes and line up to enter the ceremony holding a chariot tube or an evergreen tree branch in their hands.
Following the dance team is the small flag team. On the ordinary side, the colors are colorful, including rectangular and triangular shapes, and are also decorated with ruffles. Dedicate it to the altar of the "Eight Parts King" to express your gratitude to your ancestors.
Then came the band, the armored team, and the firecrackers.
The band is divided into two types: drums and gongs. Together with the horns, horns, wild trumpets, dongdongquin, etc., they play the unique melody of Tujia festivals. The armor team is composed of young adults wearing colorful "Silan Kapu". The Tujia people are naturally brave and martial. They use brocade as armor in the hand-waving dance to show their majesty.
The firecrackers are composed of bird cannons and three-eyed cannons. Each team enters the hand-waving hall according to the above procedures. After entering the hall, first sweep away evil spirits and then calm the nerves. Master Zhangtang holds a broom in his hand and uses a high-pitched and passionate voice to strongly condemn those exploiters who "do big things in and small things out"; with the iron broom of morality, he sweeps away those who "have the intention to harm others and do evil deeds". The national scum of "stealing for *" fully demonstrates the Tujia people's virtues of hating evil and being simple and kind-hearted.
During the sacrifice, the priests, led by the headmaster, kneel down on their left feet in sequence. The dancers also kneel down devoutly and join the leader of the sacrifice team in singing sacred songs with euphemistic and profound lyrics. The atmosphere is solemn and solemn. After the song is finished, each row presents its offerings to the sacred table, with words such as "Fu Lu Shou Xi", "Good Luck and Good Luck", "Fruit Grain" and "Good Weather" written on it.
After the sacrifice, three cannon salutes were fired, shaking the heaven and earth, making people dance, and the whole place was boiling. Under the command of the master, people change their dance movements neatly, sometimes with a single swing, sometimes with a double swing, and sometimes with pirouettes. The dance is graceful, the movements are lifelike, hard and soft, rough and vigorous. The content of the hand-waving dance shows various artistic pictures rich in national characteristics and life atmosphere, such as ethnic migration, hunting and conquest, farming, mulberry harvesting and weaving.
Small hand waving is a cultural custom activity that is widely popular in Tujia residential areas. In the past, every village with hundreds of households had a hand waving hall, and some also built pavilions, stages, etc. There are ruins of the Waving Hand Hall in Laifengshemi Lake, Dahe and other places. During the dance, men and women gather together on the earth dam in front of the waving hall, beat drums and sound gongs and wave their hands. It is characterized by placing the hands on both sides, bending the waist and knees, and using the twist of the body to move the hands. The content of the performance includes hunting actions such as dragging the pheasant's tail, jumping toads, flicking wings of the wooden eagle, and rhinoceros looking at the moon, as well as production and life activities such as chopping fire residue, digging soil, burning ashes to accumulate fertilizer, planting buds, pulling grass, transplanting rice, cutting grain, and weaving. action. ;