Chapter 14 Section 7 Temple Fair and Lion Dance

During the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, due to the prevalence of Buddhism in China, temples were built in many places. Luoyang alone had hundreds of Buddhist temples in the Northern Wei Dynasty.Before the Buddhist temple, temple fairs are often held.At temple fairs, one is to practice deeds and expand the influence of Buddhism; the other is to have a big gathering, buy and sell goods, and perform a variety of operas.The rise of temple fairs provided new and more convenient venues for acrobatics and illusion performances, and promoted the development of acrobatics and illusions. produce greater economic benefits.

The lion dance in my country is influenced by primitive music and dance in ancient times. At that time, "hit the stone and beat the stone, and the beasts lead the dance", which is a kind of dance that imitates animals.However, there are written records of the appearance of lion dance in the Han Dynasty, and it was more popular in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Later Wei Yangxuan's "Luoyang Jialan Ji" recorded the lion dance in the temple fair at that time.Luoyang Changqiu Temple commemorates the birth of Sakyamuni Buddha on the eighth day of April every year.During the Buddha Bathing Festival, a white elephant carries a statue of Buddha decorated with gold and jade. Topping the colorful pole, climbing the big rope, etc. "fly for a while", and the spectators around are like a wall, because "jumping and jumping one after another, there are often dead people".The Buddha Bathing Festival is a very lively season for all major temples, and temple fairs are held to celebrate grandly.Not only the sound of Sanskrit music and Dharma music has been rumored for a long time, but also there are moving acrobatic performances, so that there are many people watching the excitement, the scale is very large, crowded with each other, and sometimes people die.The early lion dance mainly appeared in temple fairs, and it was a very important performance item.

Lion dance is an important music and dance of Buddhism.It is made of people dressed as lions, with a string of bells hanging around its neck, ringing the bells and dancing, very majestic.In fact, lions were not born in China. They are mainly produced in Africa and Brazil in South America. They are seven or eight feet long, with round heads and slender tails, and yellowish-brown fur.The male lion has a very mighty and beautiful mane, and its roar can be heard for miles, which is very frightening.It is said that all the beasts are intimidated when they hear it.Buddhism takes its ability to shake the world loudly as a metaphor for the divine power of Buddhism, so it pays attention to the "lion's roar".According to the "Puyao Sutra", when Shakyamuni Buddha was born, he "enlarged his wisdom and light to illuminate the world in the ten directions", and "divided his fingers into the heaven and the earth, making a lion's roar".In the "Buddha Says Prince Ruiying Sutra", it is also said: "When the Buddha first came out, five hundred lions came from the snow-capped mountains and waited in front of the door, so the lions are the guardians of the Dharma." The fearless lion calls his seat "Leo".In ancient my country, under the influence of such classics and legends in Buddhism, the lion dance came into being.In the lion dance performed at temple fairs, lions are dressed up by people, usually two people, sometimes several people. It is not only a symbol of evil spirits and auspiciousness, but also an excellent acrobatic performance and entertainment.

The lion dance became more popular in the Tang Dynasty, and it was officially named "Wufang Lion Dance" in "New Book of Tang Music History". "Book of Rites · Li Yun" Kong Yingda said: "The five colors are blue, red, yellow, white, and black, according to the five directions." The five directions are east, south, west, north and central.Because the five colors are the symbols of the five directions, each of the five lions is decorated with one color. The performance is colorful and eye-catching, and the music club composed of more than 100 people accompanies "Taiping Le", which adds to the celebration of singing and dancing. atmosphere.Later, this kind of entertainment was divided into southern lions and northern lions due to different regions and customs. The southern lions "picked green", and the northern lions "rolled hydrangea balls" and "treading balls", each with different unique skills.During the lion dance performance, two or more people are combined into one body, and the movements should be coordinated and vivid, which shows a relatively difficult group skill.This acrobatics has continued to this day, and has not only become one of the forms of entertainment popular with the general public, but also a performance that often appears on big cities and big stages today.