Chapter 2 Chapter Two

Xia Yu's son Qi established the first hereditary dynasty in Chinese history.Since then, the primitive society of "the world is the public" has ended, and the slave society of private ownership has entered. Slave masters dominate everything their slaves create, including the art they create.Watching music and dancing is a special enjoyment for slave owners, so there appeared music and dance slaves who performed music and dance for people to enjoy and entertain.Dance and music in the slave era began to break away from the group self-entertainment of the original ancestors' singing and dancing, and developed into performing arts.Music and dance slaves have singing and dancing skills that ordinary people can't master, and can perform music and dance that ordinary people can't perform. They are the earliest professional music dancers in Chinese history.

Music, dance and enjoyment are an important part of the slave owner's luxurious life.The slave owner's possessive desire for music and dance is astonishing.According to legend, Jie, the last tyrant of the Xia Dynasty, kept 30,000 "female musicians" who sang, danced and played music for him in the palace.In the morning, they "make noise in Duanmen, and hear about it in Sanqu", and the sound of singing and dancing spreads all over the streets and alleys. Later, Cheng Tang overthrew the Xia Dynasty and established China's second slavery dynasty, the Shang.The Shang Dynasty was a splendid era of slavery culture in China.The rulers of the Shang Dynasty were also obsessed with music and dancing.When the slave owners were alive, the slaves were required to perform exquisite music and dances for their entertainment.After the slave owners died, the music and dance slaves were buried for them.A large number of sacrificed human bones were unearthed from the large tomb of slave owners in the Shang Dynasty and their accompanying pits in Wuguan Village, Anyang, Henan.A large stone chime, a beautifully carved musical instrument, was also unearthed from the tomb.Next to the skeletons of 24 young women on both sides of the coffin chamber, there are small bronze dance tools, which prove that they were a group of music and dance slaves during their lifetime.

The oracle bone inscriptions unearthed from the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province contain records about the dances of the Shang Dynasty, which is the earliest written record in the history of Chinese dance.From it, we can see the connection between the music and dance activities at that time and life, production, war and even theocracy, and understand the status and role of dance in Yin Shang society. In addition to the performance direction of music and dance in the Shang Dynasty for the entertainment of slave owners, another feature was the prevalence of sacrificial dances.The host of the sacrifice is a witch.The witchcraft in the Shang Dynasty was pervasive, and witch dance became an important part of the dance of the Shang Dynasty.

In ancient times, the harsh environment caused by natural disasters such as floods, fires, severe droughts, and earthquakes, as well as diseases and plagues that endangered humans, filled the hearts of primitive ancestors with fear and confusion.They attributed all this to the role of the gods.People reverence and worship the gods, deify the heaven, earth, sun and moon, rocks, trees, water, fire, mountains and rivers, and pray to them. This is primitive religion.From the primitive era to the slave era, various sacrifices, including the singing and dancing of sacrifices, belong to this primitive religious activity.

In order to predict the will of the gods, someone needs to pass messages between gods and humans.People also fantasize about controlling and influencing ghosts and gods with the help of some mysterious supernatural power, so witchcraft and witchcraft came into being. As an intermediary between ghosts, gods and humans, witches play an extremely important role in witchcraft and primitive religious sacrificial activities.Singing and dancing are the specialties of witches and the main content of witchcraft. "Shuowen Jiezi" explains the word "witch" as: "Women can do things invisible, and they can also dance to descend the gods." The word "dance" in oracle bone inscriptions is like a person dancing with two oxtails or the tails of other animals. look.And "Witch" is written as "clamp" or " ", it also looks like a person dancing with an oxtail or a bird feather. It can be seen that "witch" and "dance" are originally the same word.

The rulers of the Shang Dynasty were superstitious about witchcraft and sacrifices.They believe that there is a God in the sky who can rule everything in the world; dead ancestors can also interfere with the activities of living people;Therefore, witch songs and dances became popular for a while. "Shangshu Yixun" said such a thing: When Taijia came to the throne in the Shang Dynasty, Yi Yin seriously taught Taijia, saying that the former king had warned his officials: "Dare to dance in the palace and sing in the room, and it is called witchcraft." ’” The former king also said that if the nobles had this kind of witchcraft, their families would die; if the king had this kind of witchcraft, the country would surely perish.It can be seen that the "witchcraft" featuring singing and dancing has become a very serious social problem in the Shang Dynasty, so virtuous ministers like Yi Yin used it as a topic for teaching the monarch.But discipline belongs to discipline, this kind of witchcraft of "permanently dancing in the palace and singing heartily in the room" cannot be corrected at all.Because in fact the "previous kings" of the Shang Dynasty themselves were the leaders of the "Witch Wind".

This kind of witchcraft has been very popular since the founding of the Shang Dynasty.Legend has it that when Cheng Tang, the first monarch of the Shang Dynasty, was in power, there was a severe drought for seven years.According to Tang's divination, it is said that it will rain only when people are sacrificed.Tang couldn't bear to sacrifice a living person to heaven, so he put on sackcloth clothes, covered with dry thatch, drove a white horse-drawn cart, and used this kind of asceticism to pray for rain in the mulberry forest where the ancestor spirit was.Sure enough, before he could finish his prayer, it began to rain heavily.The people were ecstatic and danced.This dance has been preserved and is called "Mulberry Forest".When dancing "Mulberry Forest", people fly flags with five-color feathers, and they also wear colorful feathers on their heads.After Tang destroyed Xia Jie, he ordered Yi Yin to organize this dance, which was "Da Lu [shen Shen]", which became the music and dance for worshiping the ancestors of the Shang Dynasty.During the performance, the tao (tao), chimes, and bells are played, the pipes are blown, and the chorus sings. The atmosphere is majestic and solemn.

Judging from the contents of oracle bone inscriptions, people in the Shang Dynasty used dance very frequently, especially when performing sacrifices and praying for rain, witch dance was almost indispensable.For example, the inscriptions include "Geng Yin divination, Xinmao Li dance, rain. Kou Renchen Li dance, rain. Geng Yan divination, Guisi Li dance, rain. Geng Yin divination, Jiawu Li dance, rain." (see "Yin Ruins Text Series A" 3069) is a record of doing the "Li" dance to pray for rain.Oracle's "Li" character writing " In the Shang Dynasty, there was also a dance for praying for rain called "(Rain on the Emperor) [Huanghuang]".When dancing "(Shang Yu Xia Huang)", the dancers should wear bird feathers on their heads.

From the oracle bone inscriptions, we know that in the Shang Dynasty, there were still five-color feathers used to sacrifice to the gods of the four directions, such as "Yu Wu". The dancers of these dances are mainly witches.Sometimes, the king of Shang also performed dances himself.As mentioned earlier, the Shang Dynasty started from Chengtang, and the emperors of all dynasties were quite witchy.The inscriptions on oracle bone inscriptions include "Wang Zhapanli" (4.16.6 of "Yinxu Shuqiqianbian"), "Wuzizhen, Wang Qiyu Wu, Ji" ("Yinxushuqiqiqianbian" 60.20.4), etc., which are Shang Wang's dance " Records of Li dance and Yu dance.

All these dances belonging to primitive religious ceremonies were included in the sacrificial rituals of the rulers of the Shang Dynasty.This kind of sacrifice continued into the Zhou Dynasty.Although the sacrifices in the Zhou Dynasty were not held every day like in the Shang Dynasty, and everything was divination, the ceremonies during the sacrifices were also very grand, with music and dance.Witches still play an important role. Folk witchcraft was also very popular in the Zhou Dynasty.In Chu State, which is located in the Yangtze River Basin, witchcraft is particularly popular.The people of Chu State called the witches originating in ancient times "spirits".When the great poet Qu Yuan was in exile between Yuan and Xiang, he saw local witch songs and dances, and modified its lyrics to become the fantastic and magnificent "Nine Songs" in "Chu Songs".The lyrics of the song are "Lingyan is in trouble, and the house is full of fragrance and beauty" ("East Emperor Taiyi"), "The spirit is curled up (quanquan) and it is still there, and the death is clear and it is Weiyang" ("Yun Zhongjun"), etc., describing It is the image of witches wearing gorgeous clothes, smelling fragrant spices, holding beautiful flowers, singing and dancing.

Part of the witch dance developed into a folk custom dance after the brewing of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. "Wax [zha]", "Yu [yuyu]" and "Nuo [nuo]" are the national customs that prevailed in the Shang Dynasty and passed down to later generations, which contain rich and colorful witch dances. "Wax" is a folk festival to celebrate the harvest and thank the gods. It is held in December every year.It is said that the wax festival started in the Shennong era, and has maintained its original style throughout the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.There are eight kinds of gods for wax offerings, all of which are related to agriculture: Xianxi - the ancestor of agriculture, that is, Shennong; Si Sie - the god in charge of farming, that is, Hou Ji; Nong - the god of farmers; post, watch, 畷〔zhuozhuo〕—thatched shed, field, well god; Cats, tigers - cat gods, tiger gods; Square - Di God; Shuiyong - God of the river; Hundred species - the insect god. During the wax festival, the band plays the piccolo (piccolo), earth drum, qin and zither, performs "Bing Wu" and "帗〔Fu Fu〕 Dance", and sings: