What is the earliest dance in China?The question is beyond words. In the autumn of 1973, a painted pottery basin with dancing patterns was unearthed from a tomb in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province.On the upper part of the inner wall of the pottery basin, three groups of dancing figures are painted, five people in each group.The picture vividly depicts a group of young men and women holding hands, singing and dancing beside the clear water.They all have small braid-like decorations on their heads, and there seems to be something like a tail dragging from their waists.Their steps are rhythmic, it seems that this is a customary dance that everyone can dance.The grouping of the same number of people and the same dance movements reflect a unified format and the same spirit, indicating that the dance is quite mature.

According to the identification of archaeologists, this painted pottery basin belongs to the type of Majiayao culture in the Neolithic Age, about 5000-5800 years ago.This is the oldest original dance picture that can be dated in unearthed cultural relics so far.In fact, the emergence of Chinese dance was much earlier than the era of this pottery basin. Dance is one of the earliest art forms produced by mankind.Its production is almost synchronized with the formation of human beings. Dance sprouted in the infancy of human beings, and it is one of the earliest art forms used by human beings to express emotions.It grows along with the growth of human beings and has experienced the whole process of human social development.In primitive society, dancing is the behavior of the whole clan or tribe, and it is almost a necessary skill for every member.

About 15-10 million years ago, Ramapithecus was able to walk upright.Their forelimbs already use natural sticks and stones to get food.Due to the division of labor between forelimbs and hindlimbs, the ancient ape evolved into a tool-making person about two to three million years ago after a long period of labor training.In a sense, when humans officially bid farewell to the animal kingdom, they gradually met the basic conditions for "dancing with hands and feet". About 1.7 million years ago, human activities began on the land of China.In Yuanmou, Yunnan, Lantian, Shaanxi, Zhoukoudian, Beijing and other places, the remains and relics of primitive humans have been found.The history of Chinese dance also has to start from that era.

China has a written history of less than 4,000 years.Before that, the situation of the long primitive age can only be investigated from myths and legends, archaeological excavations, and the lives of ethnic groups that still retain some traces of primitive culture. An interesting phenomenon is that Chinese myths and legends, whether they belong to the Han nationality or ethnic minorities, often contain music and dance. Pan Gu is a hero who created the world.It is said that after Pangu's death, he automatically became the universe.His breath turned into wind and clouds, his voice into thunder, his left eye into the sun, his right eye into the moon, his limbs into "four poles and five mountains", his blood into rivers and lakes, his muscles into fields, and his teeth and bones into metals. and rocks...

Pangu wrote "Panhu (huhu)" in ancient books.According to research, "Panhu" is a gourd.Many ethnic groups in China have a history of worshiping gourds, believing that men and women come out of gourds.The Yi people in Ailao Mountain, Chuxiong, Yunnan have a grand ceremony of "giving away the ancestor spirit", that is, cremating the "ancestor spirit gourd".When the gourd sheng is blowing, the witches dance lightly.Picking gourds with both hands, chasing wild animals by jumping with both feet, and hoeing the ground by picking up sticks. This kind of dance lasts all night, performing a history from hunting, gathering to farming.The traditional "Pangu Dance" (also known as "Panwang Dance") of the Yao people in Guangxi shows that under the leadership of Pangu, the ancestors climbed mountains and ridges, overcame thorns and thorns, lit fires for warmth, and dug soil for planting. It is also a primitive agricultural performance expressed by dance. history.

According to legend, Fuxi and Nuwa are the ancestors of human beings.There is a legend in the Zhuang nationality that the ancient floods submerged the world.Brothers and sisters Fuxi and Nuwa buried a tooth given to them by King Lei in the soil in advance, and a big gourd grew out.The siblings got into the gourd and survived.After the flood receded, Fuxi and Nuwa became the only remaining races in the world.There are similar legends among the Miao and Yao nationalities. Fuxi's music and dance is called "Fu Lai", which praises Fuxi's achievements in inventing net fishing and hunting.

There is also a myth that Nvwa created human beings out of clay and taught them to marry, so people respectfully call her "Gao禖 [Mei Mei]".Later generations will offer sacrifices to Nuwa every February in February.At that time, young men and women gathered in front of the "Gan Palace", singing, dancing and having fun.It is said that Nuwa invented the "Shenghuang", which is the gourd sheng.This musical instrument is widely popular in Southwest China, and it is an excellent wind instrument for accompanying dances of Yi, Wa, Dai, Nu, Lahu, Naxi, Miao, Yao and other ethnic groups. "Lusheng Dance" is also one of the favorite dances of some ethnic groups in Southwest China.

Yandi Shennong, the ancestor of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, invented the agricultural tool Leisi and taught the people how to farm.Emperor Yan also taught his courtiers to create a piece of music and dance called "Helping the Plow".During the dance, they beat the "earth drum" and sang the joy of harvest. Another ancestor of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the Huangdi Xuanyuan family, also had music and dance called "Cloud Gate Scroll", praising the Yellow Emperor's merits of creating all things and reuniting all peoples.According to legend, the Yellow Emperor once trained six beasts, bear, 罴 (pipi), pi (pipi), xiuxiu, (Zhiqu) (chuchu), and tiger, to fight against Emperor Yan.It may have been about six clans with beasts as their totems, or it may have been about the use of sorcery in the battle—dancing teams wearing beast masks to intimidate the enemy.The Yellow Emperor created the dance, but also formulated the rhythm and cast the chime bells.When the Yellow Emperor and the Chiyou clan were fighting in Zhuolu, they blew the horn to make the sound of a dragon's cry, scaring Chiyou away.

As for Chi You, he is also great, he is the leader of Jiuli.There are 72 brothers, each with a bronze head and iron forehead, a human body and a cow's hoof, four eyes and six hands, beards like swords and halberds, and horns on their heads.When fighting against the Xuanyuan clan, Chi You attacked them with horns.Later, there was a kind of music and dance called "Chi You Opera" in Jizhou.During the performance, people are in twos and threes, wearing horns on their heads to offset each other.The dance symbol of Chiyou Opera is , which depicts a dancing posture wearing a mask of animal horns, which is considered to be the predecessor of the Chinese character "Ji".Chiyou is the ancestor of some ethnic groups in southern China.To commemorate "Grand Chi You", the Yao people in Mashan, Guangxi dance a "Chi You Dance" to express his achievements in leading the tribe to open up mountains and cultivate land.

Chinese ancestors had a relationship with cattle very early.It is said that in ancient times, there was the joy of "Ge Tianshi", which expressed agricultural life.During the performance, all three of them played with ox tails in their hands, stomped their feet on the ground, and sang while dancing. The lyrics were divided into eight stanzas. The late period of China's primitive society is called the Neolithic Age in history, which is the era of Yao, Shun and Yu in the legend.At that time, people invented pottery and were able to make exquisite stone tools, including musical instruments such as stone chimes that could produce musical sounds.With the advancement of productivity, the dance art of the ancestors became more brilliant.

Yao's music and dance is called "Da Zhang".Its author was a courtier of Yao.It is said that Zhizhi imitated the sounds of mountains, forests and valleys to compose a tune, and used pottery drums and stone chimes to accompany the dance.At that time, there was also a blind man who changed the five-string harp into a fifteen-string harp.Together with the sound of music, all the "beasts" danced. Shun's music and dance is "Da Shao", also known as "Jiu Shao", "Xiao Shao", or "Shao" for short.Its content is to praise Yao's merits.During the performance, "hit the stone and strike the stone, and all the beasts lead the dance".That is to say, while beating musical instruments made of stone, dancers dressed in various animal skins dance together.Since it is called "Xiao Shao", there may be some wind instruments in the band. Yu is a hero in water control.He once ordered Gao Tao to compose the music and dance "Xia Yu [yue Moon]".When dancing, people hold this musical instrument in their hands.Later, when people in the Zhou Dynasty performed "Xia Yan", the dancers wore leather hats on their heads, their upper bodies were bare, and their lower bodies wore white skirts. At the same time as Yu, there was Fangfeng's music and dance.The Fangfeng clan was killed by Yu in Tushan, and his descendants passed down a custom to commemorate him. Whenever he pays homage to him, he blows a three-foot-long bamboo tube and makes a sound like a wolf howling.At the same time, three people with loose hair dance together. Myths and legends are, after all, myths and legends.Archaeological discoveries have provided us with more specific and reliable image data for exploring the traces of primitive dances. In addition to the above-mentioned dance pictures on Datong painted pottery pots in Qinghai, there are many rock paintings in the north and south of China, depicting dance images from ancient times to the Warring States Period. Many petroglyphs have been found in the Yinshan Mountains of Inner Mongolia. The images carved on the rocks show the scene of primitive ancestors dancing.The Yinshan Mountains stretch across the south-central part of Inner Mongolia, stretching thousands of miles from east to west.Ancient Chinese nationalities such as Beidi, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic, Huihe, Dangxiang, Mongolian, etc., have all been active here.The Yinshan rock paintings are the historical imprints left by these ethnic groups in the wilderness.According to the research and identification of archaeologists, the rock paintings of Yinshan began 10,000 years ago in the early stage, and ended in the Ming and Qing Dynasties at the end.The people who chiseled paintings on the rocks included not only the primitive primitive peoples, but also many northern nomadic peoples.They are either hunters or herders, as well as wizards and lamas.Dance scenes can be seen everywhere in Yinshan Rock Paintings, including solo dance, duet dance, four-person dance, and more group dances. The Yinshan rock paintings have aroused great interest of cultural historians.Some dance historians classified Yinshan rock paintings, pointing out that there are hunting dances, sacrificial dances, war dances, entertainment dances and so on. Some petroglyphs are vividly depicted.For example, this picture of a group dance carved on the rock painting of Beishan in Tuolingou, northwest of Dengkou County, is considered to be a hunting dance scene performed by a group.On the left are two hunters, one with his hands on his hips and a tail ornament, and the other as if pretending to be some kind of bird, dancing.The four people in the middle hook shoulders and arms, forming a semicircle. They are naked and wear long tails (some also have headgears), as if they are holding hands and dancing with long tails.The movements are neat and full of rhythm.Above the four dancers, there is a dancer who draws his bow into a full moon shape, and his movements are extremely exaggerated.On the upper right, there are some figures with tail decorations, with their arms and legs in a dance shape.One of them raises his arms up in a circle, and the other raises his arms up and his legs into a lunge.The one on the right is dancing with his arms raised.The whole picture is full of strong interest in life.Some commentators believe that hunters used dance forms to perform hunting exercises. On the Ulanqab Grassland north of the Yinshan Mountains in Inner Mongolia, archaeologists discovered another center of petroglyphs comparable to the Yinshan rock paintings.Among the more than 10,000 petroglyphs that have been discovered, there are also many images of dancers with tail ornaments and bent arms and legs.Most of the rock paintings in Ulanqab reflect animal husbandry. In addition to rock paintings found in Inner Mongolia, rock paintings have also been found in Southwest and Northwest China.There are also dancing scenes in the petroglyphs. In the deep mountains and dense forests of Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, Yunnan, 11 petroglyphs have been discovered one after another.The picture is ocher red, and archaeologists believe that it was painted with hematite powder mixed with animal blood.There are hunting, war and other scenes on the screen, as well as dancing scenes.Some human figures wearing feather ornaments or wearing feather ornaments have a sense of dance with their legs and arms stretched out.There is also an image of five people dancing around a circle with their arms raised.Some scholars believe that Cangyuan rock paintings are works of the Neolithic Age, with a history of more than 5,000 years ago.Some scholars believe that some dance images imitating birds and animals wearing feather decorations in Cangyuan rock paintings can confirm the records in ancient books that "a hundred beasts lead the dance" and "the phoenix comes to the ceremony". More than 50 petroglyphs have been discovered in Ningming, Longzhou, Chongzuo, Fusui and other counties of Guangxi.Because the Huashan rock paintings in Ningming have the largest area, the most figures and are the most representative, people collectively call the rock paintings in this area "Huashan rock paintings".In the rock paintings of Huashan, there are music and dance scenes of the ancient Luoyue ancestors, the ancestors of the Zhuang nationality.All the portraits, large and small, have quite uniform movements and postures.The hands are raised in the same way, and the feet are spread apart, resembling the image of a frog standing up and jumping.This image is very similar to the movements of the "Maguai Dance" (frog dance) danced by Zhuang masters.Some scholars believe that this "frog dance" originated from the "frog sacrifice" of ancient reproductive worship. In 1972, many petroglyphs were also discovered in Heishan, northwest of Jiayuguan, Gansu.They were chiseled into the shiny black-purple rock.Among them is a picture of 30 people dancing, which is very eye-catching.In Xinjiang, many petroglyphs have also been found.In the depths of the Tianshan Mountains in Hutubi County, Xinjiang, there is a large-scale cliff carving painting of more than 120 square meters, covered with hundreds of figures of different sizes, dancing in a fairly regular manner. For thousands of years, the ancestors of various ethnic groups in China have carved and depicted dance images with stone tools, metal and other materials, distributed all over the world, revealing the vivid information of primitive dance. Related to primitive dances, primitive musical instruments are being discovered all over China. In the mid-1980s, a group of wind instruments made of raptor limb bones were unearthed from primitive society tombs in Jiahu Village, Wuyang County, Henan Province.Some people call it "bone flute", while others call it "bone chip".It was a musical instrument played by the ancestors of the early Neolithic Age about 7000-8000 years ago.According to the determination of musicians, the "Wuyang Bone Flute" has a scale structure, accurate pronunciation, and can play melodies.The same wind instrument is made of bone, and a bone whistle was unearthed in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province in the Yangtze River Basin.Primitive ancestors also used clay to make wind instruments and percussion instruments.In Banpo Village, Xi'an, Shaanxi, a pottery whistle was unearthed.A pottery whistle was also unearthed in Liuwan, Ledu, Qinghai.These pottery whistles made of clay can be controlled with lips to produce different high and low sounds.In Jingcun, Wanrong, Shanxi, a Neolithic pottery Xun (xun Xun) was unearthed.These pottery whistles and pottery xuns are representative works of Fuxi's "burning earth into xun" in the legend.There are musical instruments made of clay, and Neolithic pottery drums unearthed in Xinmin County, Qinghai Province.The drumhead is small at one end and flared at the other end.The body of the drum is thin and round, and there are two rings on the drum that can be hung on the body with a rope to play. The primitive dances of Chinese ancestors range from the ground-beating festival of "throwing feet and singing", to the stone tool beating of "hitting stones and stones", to the use of earthen drums (pottery drums), pottery xuns, pottery whistles, and bone flutes. The invention of stone chimes and the emergence of silk and bamboo musical instruments such as qin, se, xiao, and 龠 have shown the great creativity of the ancestors of the Chinese nation in music and dance culture. Chinese primitive dances revealed by Chinese myths and legends and proved by archaeological discoveries are closely related to the lives of primitive ancestors.The prey of the ancestors, whether it was animal skins or bird feathers, became the first dance costumes.Long-term observation in hunting life has made people very familiar with the appearance and movements of birds and beasts.When the ancestors celebrated the harvest of labor, they naturally imitated the movements of birds and beasts. This is the meaning of "birds and beasts staggering", "phoenix coming to ceremony", and "a hundred beasts dancing together" in ancient books. The dance of primitive ancestors simulating birds, beasts, insects and fish has been passed down endlessly.The lion dance, dragon dance, cow dance, horse dance, deer dance, etc. among the folk dances of various ethnic groups in China that survive today can remind people of hunting, animal husbandry and primitive beliefs in ancient times. Some primitive dances reflect productive labor, some reflect tribal struggles, some reflect the love between men and women, and some express totem worship.A noteworthy phenomenon is that most of the primitive dances depicted in myths and legends or historical relics are collective activities of people. The dance activities performed collectively by the primitive ancestors, and the rich and colorful images displayed in the cultural relics handed down have aroused various associations among dance historians.For example, in the painted pottery basin unearthed in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province, a group of five people circled their hands together, and three groups circled the basin for a circle, forming an image of dancing in a circle.Some scholars believe that this is "a kind of special bonfire dance of the ancestors" (see Zhang Hua's "Chinese Folk Dance and Farming Belief", p. 31).Campfire dance is the most common and primitive form of collective dance for human beings, and the "circle" moving around the campfire is the most basic and purest dance scene for human beings.Some dances with primitive meaning existing in various ethnic groups in China all show this truth.The Ewenki people on the snowfields of the northern country often dance around the bonfire after hunting. Seven to twenty people hold hands, slowly and quickly, and gradually shrink from a large circle to a small circle, accompanied by singing and dancing.Most of the folk dances of the Yi, Tibetan, Qiang, Naxi, Lisu, etc. in the southwest are also performed in the form of circle dance.The Qiang people have legends about their ancestors who first danced around fire.The Tibetan dances "Zhuo" and "Zhuzhaisha" both mean "dancing in a circle".During the "Torch Festival" of the Yi people, girls in costumes dance "Du Huo" in circles one after another."Dage", which is popular among ethnic minorities in Yunnan, is also a bonfire dance.This kind of circle dance is not just dancing around the bonfire. With the development of primitive beliefs, most of the circle dances are surrounded by some kind of worship object, some kind of sacred symbol, and are no longer limited to fire.In areas where Shamanism is practiced, such as Inner Mongolia, people dance collectively around the "fluffy tree".The "Guozhuang" where the Qiang people sacrificed surrounds Baishi.Wa people's "head offering dance" surrounds the wooden drum house.When the Miao people "step on the flower slope", they play the Lusheng and dance around the flower pole. If the meaning of the group dance images on the pottery pots unearthed in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province is just an association, then there is a fact that can be firmly believed, that is, in primitive societies with extremely low productivity, tribal members Solidarity and cooperation are crucial.In a group of common blood, the common dance embodies the common will and trains everyone's cooperation.In the infinite repetition of the same dynamic and simple and unadorned rhythm, the primitive clansman interacts with each other and acts for the same purpose, thus entering into a higher atmosphere of overall life.