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Chapter 20 Section 6 Sword Weapon, Hu Xuan

ancient chinese acrobatics 刘荫柏 2567Words 2018-03-20

The origin of the sword dance is very ancient. It should have been inherited and developed from the "Ganqi dance" in the late primitive era in ancient legends, which reflects the life of ancient wars. "Gan Qi Dance" is recorded in "Yabu" in "Le Tu Lun" Volume 168 of "Book of Music", and it is also called "Dry Dance". Holding a shield and a dagger, they dance vigorously to sacrifice mountains and rivers.Tao Yuanming, a great poet of the Jin Dynasty, said in his poem "Reading the Classics of Mountains and Seas": "Xing Tian dances with relatives, and fierce will is always there."According to Wang Su's "Confucius Family Talk" in the Han Dynasty, Zilu once wore a military uniform to visit Confucius, and danced with his sword drawn. "Historical Records: The Benji of Xiang Yu" records that at the Hongmen Banquet, Xiang Zhuang danced the sword first, and then danced with Fan Kui, which is the sword dance.In the Tang Dynasty, this story was transformed into a song and dance drama "Fan Kuai Pai Jun Nan", and some people think it is the sword dance.Unearthed in Sui County, Hubei Province, on the Yuanyang box of dancing swords in the tomb of Zenghou Yi in the Warring States Period, there is a picture of dancing swords, a dancer next to a drum, and a short sword hanging from his waist. Sword dance was also known as health dance in the Tang Dynasty. There is "yellow deer" which represents the bloody battle against Khitan in the yellow deer valley, and "Dharma branch" which represents the event of Bodhidharma passing on his skills.As for how to perform the sword dance, because the records in the ancient documents are too brief and not specific enough, there are big differences in the academic circles.There are generally three explanations: First, dancing with two swords, see Bai Juyi's poem "Li Bu Ji". Second, dance with colored silk.Gui Fu's "Zappu" in the Qing Dynasty recorded a female acrobat who danced "like a shooting star" with "more than ten feet of colored silk knotted at both ends", which evolved from the development of sword dance. Third, empty-handed imitation dance.In Yuan Dynasty Ma Duanlin's "Tong Kao of Documents", he believed that the sword dance of the Tang people "danced with female prostitutes, and danced with bare hands in male costumes."Zhang Lie of the Ming Dynasty also used this statement in "Zheng Zi Tong". In the Tang Dynasty, there was a famous artist, Gongsun Da Niang. On the basis of inheriting the sword dancing skills of her predecessors, she innovated and transformed it into a pure dance "sword dance", which became famous for a time.According to the poem "Sword Weapon" written by Sikong Tu of the Tang Dynasty: "Downstairs, Gongsun used to be good at playing, and he taught women to love military uniforms." It can be seen that Aunt Gongsun was wearing military uniforms when she performed "Sword Dance".Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, when he saw Li Shiriniang, a disciple of Gongsun Da Niang, performing a sword dance in Kuizhou, Sichuan in the second year of Zong Dali (767 A.D.), recalled that when he was young, he watched Gongsun Da Niang dance "Sword Dance" in Yancheng. Huntuo" scene vividly depicts the situation of the performance:

Aunt Gongsun's astonishing skills caused a sensation in all directions, and even Zhang Xu and Huai Su, famous cursive calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty, were inspired by it and made their calligraphy more exquisite. In the Tang Dynasty, not only tricksters performed "sword dance", but also many literati and warriors also loved this skill, and there were some amazing "unique skills".Li Bai, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in "Song of General Sima": "The general dances his long sword by himself".The poet Cen Shen's "Jiuquan Taishou's Drunk Work" says: "Jiuquan Taishou can dance with swords".Pei Man, the general under Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was a master of sword dance. His sword dance, Li Bai's poems, and Zhang Xu's cursive script were collectively called "three wonders" ("New Book of Tang·Li Bai Biography").It is recorded in Li Rong's "Duyizhi" in the Tang Dynasty that Pei Min lost his mother in the first year of Kaiyuan, and asked the great painter Wu Daozi to paint some murals in Tiangong Temple to save his mother's soul.Wu Daozi had heard for a long time that Pei Min was good at dancing swords, so he asked him to dance swords to increase his spirit of painting.Therefore, Pei Min "take off his fringe clothes, if he often adorns himself, he gallops like flying horses, turns left and right, and throws his sword into the clouds, tens of feet high", then the tip of the sword faces down, shooting down like a flash of lightning from high altitude, Pei Min holds Hold the scabbard to receive the sword calmly, so that the sword body can be inserted into the sheath accurately, without any difference. Wu Daozi was deeply inspired after viewing the sword, and he painted with a brush.There are not only solo dances in sword dance, but also group dances. There is "Three Poems of Sword Weapons" in the Dunhuang scroll, one of which says:

Accompanied by the sound of music, the crowd formed in layers, dancing flags and swords, and the shouts were earth-shattering, as if they were dancing in the army. Sword dance developed into court scripts and dramas in the Song Dynasty. For example, in Zhou Mi's "Old Stories of Wulin", Volume 10 "Number of Official TV Dramas", there is "Sick Master Lao Jian Qi" (there is no word "old" in Chen Jiru's engraved version in Ming Dynasty), It is a pity that it has been lost now, and its content cannot be seen.Sword dance was introduced to North Korea during the Song Dynasty, but it gradually lost its style in China in the Tang Dynasty, but some people still used it as entertainment in the Qing Dynasty.Chen Ruisi from the Qing Dynasty praised General Ding as "the number one sword dancer" in his poem "Guan Ding's Old Sword".Poet Qian Liangze described a folk female prostitute in "Watching the Sword Dance of Juanjuan", who dances with a lotus-shaped sword in her hand. , Shi wrap around and intertwine", after a short while, I saw a cold light flashing, which made the "strong man" fall in love and feel ashamed.Sword dance is rare today, but there are still some traces of ancient sword dance in the acrobatics such as long silk dance and meteor dance that are popular on the stage today. Hu Xuanwu, "New Tang Book" says: "Hu Xuanwu, the dancer stands on the pole, spinning like the wind." The Tang Dynasty Duan Anjie's "Dongfu Miscellaneous Records Haiyou" records in detail: Feng Yan had watched Hu Xuanwu, and based on its characteristics, he called it "The Play of Talu".Artists perform a whirling dance on the "painted wooden ball one or two feet high", stepping vertically and horizontally, and rotating forward and backward. Because the wooden ball rolls on the ground, it makes a "bone" sound from time to time, so people imitate the sound Call it "Bone Deer Dance".Duan Anjie included Hu Xuanwu in the two categories of "Dancer" and "Haiyuu". , "Lengda" is listed as healthy dance.There may be two different ways of performing Hu Xuanwu: one is to highlight the dance posture, and the other is to perform acrobatics.This kind of dance originally originated in the Western Regions, so it was named "Hu" before "Xuan Wu".Bai Juyi's poem "Hu Xuannv" says: "Hu Xuannv came out of Kangju." Kangju is the ancient state of Kang, located in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.Hu Xuanwu became more popular during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty.Hu Xuanwu has the bold and healthy national character of the nomadic people in the Western Regions, and shows the agile, lively, lively and handsome style. Wang Kefen's "History of Chinese Dance" Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties) During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Hu Xuanwu became popular from the court to the localities, reaching the point of fascination.Not only Tang Xuanzong and Concubine Yang are experts in Huxuan dance, but also noble relative Wu Yanxiu (the grandnephew of Wu Zetian and husband of Princess Anle), Jiedu envoy An Lushan and others all love this dance.Bai Juyi's "Hu Xuannv", Yuan Zhen's "Hu Xuannv" and Cen Shen's "Tian Shijun's Beauty Dances Like a Lotus Flower Beiying [Chan Tang] Song" all describe Hu Xuanwu, but they only describe the spinning dance of a trickster , did not mention the dance of "Ta Lu", probably because the concept of "Hu Xuan" was relatively vague at that time, so Yuan Zhen said in the poem "Hu Xuan's meaning is unknown to the world".The more detailed description of Hu Xuanwu is Tang Dynasty Wang Yong's "Ode to the Wife": It can be seen from Wang Yong's Fu that the "taping" in Hu Xuanwu is not only sports movements and dance movements, but also contains a lot of acrobatic movements. , good at strange ability and peerless".Hu Xuanwu is accompanied by the sound of drums and music, and dances in response to the festival. It spins thousands of times on the wooden ball with rapid and changeable dancing postures, and whirls around like a whirlwind.The dancers wear soft and close-fitting dance clothes, belts around the waist, light gauze scarves, and shiny ornaments. They dance and spin beautifully, showing amazing skills. Hu Xuanwu is originally a kind of difficult acrobatic dance art, which has nothing to do with the rise and fall of the country, but since the "Anshi Rebellion", some people have added the crime of deceiving the emperor and the country to this acrobatic art. In terms of dance art, it is believed that "Tianbao wants to end up in chaos, and the barbarian presents a woman who can play around. The king of Xuan is not aware of the fascination, and the demon is in the palace of longevity" (Yuan Zhen's "Hu Xuannv"); eyes", "the noble concubine Hu Xuan bewitches the king's heart" (Bai Juyi's "Hu Xuannv").In fact, the "Anshi Rebellion" was caused by the sharp class contradictions in society at that time and various factors such as politics, military affairs, and economy. It is not in line with historical reality to attribute it to Hu Xuanwu.

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