Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Dance Scores in Ancient China

There is no "score" in dance.Primitive dance is just a self-entertainment for people to express their feelings by dancing with their hands and feet, and there are no rules for raising their hands and feet.When the dance art has a satisfactory pattern from formation to movement, people think of imitating each other and passing it down from generation to generation.At the beginning, it was only oral instruction, but gradually, people asked to record the dance body movements, postures, and formation scheduling in a certain way, so as to facilitate memory, promotion and dissemination, so dance scores came into being.

The earliest dance score handed down to the present in ancient China is "Dunhuang Dance Score Remnants".This "remnant" is now in the British Museum.Liu Bannong collected it in the book "Dunhuang Tuosuo".Luo Yong, Ye Yuhua, Ren Erbei and others have all studied the remnants of this dance score.From the remnants, we can see 13 terms about dance rhythm and figure: ling, send, dance, move [rou rub], according to, shake, (Qiu Xiake), about, pull, head, 掯 (ken), with, please. This dance score was written in the late Tang and Five Dynasties more than 1,000 years ago.It is hundreds of years earlier than the 15th century symbolic dance notation first used in Western countries.

In the Song Dynasty, there was "Deoksugung Palace Dance Spectrum".It was the court dance score of Emperor Gaozong of Song Dynasty more than 800 years ago.It is a teaching material for the basic skills training of dancers. It records nine dancers, such as hanging hands left and right, turning between big and small, playing mandarin ducks, Bao Laoduo, drop sleeves, five flowers, wild goose wings, turtle backs, and diligent steps. There are 63 postures or formations of similar actions. Ancient Chinese dances were often combined with religious activities.Dancing used to be a specialty of witches.After the formation of Taoism in China, Taoist priests still maintained the true qualities of wizards.There is a considerable amount of dance content in the ritual of fasting and offering sacrifices for Taoists.

Taoist priests have a "wreath" method of "stepping gang (gang cylinder) stepping on the bucket", which is said to be able to "send gods and summon spirits".In fact, it is just a dance footwork.That kind of footwork comes from primitive witchcraft. It is said that it was learned from the ancient water control hero Dayu, and it is called "Yu step".Taoists said that it has "three steps and nine traces", which corresponds to the "three elements and nine stars" in the sky.Taoism's "Real Man Yubu Dougang Method" says: Use chalk to draw nine stars, and the distance between the buckets is three feet.Starting from Tiangang, Yu followed suit, one at a time.In front of Kui (star), step backwards.

It is said that when a Taoist priest "steps up and steps on the fight", he first draws nine stars on the ground with white lime, and the distance between the stars is three feet.Starting from the Tiangang star, it is necessary to walk "Yu step", step by step.When you get to Kuixing, turn around and walk in the opposite direction. The specific walking method of Yubu is: Move forward to the left, right over the left, left to right; second to the right, right to the left, left to right; second to the left, right to the left, left to right. Walk in this way for three cycles, a total of two feet and one foot, leaving nine footprints behind.

If it is said that this "Yu step" was handed down during the time of Dayu, then its history is really old enough. There are also dance scores of this kind in some existing folk religious "scriptures".In Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, when folk wizards perform Nuo, they usually have a dance called "stepping on the gossip", and there is a picture handed down from generation to generation, which is a kind of dance score. Mongolian Lamaism has a dance called "Chama".Lamas who dance "Chama" have strict dance training.In order to facilitate memory, write movements, footwork, etc. on paper, wood or sheepskin.This kind of dance score is called "Chama Sutra".

The Naxi people in Yunnan are descendants of the ancient Qiang people.The Naxi people believe in Dongba religion.Dongba wizards also dance when performing rituals.Dongba dances include god dance, bird, beast and insect dance, utensil dance, war dance, kick dance and other types. The library of Lijiang County, Yunnan Province has two scriptures that record in detail the Dongba wizards' dances, describing the types of ancient music and dances of the Naxi people and their dancing methods.It is recorded with picture-like words and symbols, and has a standardized description of the dance's posture, rhythm, scene, route, special movement skills and usage of musical instruments.This is a very peculiar dance notation."Naxi Ancient Dance and Dongba Dance Nerve Book" written by Yang Dejun (yunyun) and He Fayuan gave a vivid introduction to this.

There are many words about dancing in Dongba script.Such as: This kind of special text is used to record dance in "Dongba Jing".For example, the makeup and formation arrangement of "Bronze Lantern Flower Dance" are: The steps and movements are: According to this scripture, after the action is restored, it will look like the picture below.Translating it into Chinese is: a. Shake the banbell once, shake the bangu three times; b. Stamp twice;

c. Lift the foot once.Stamp the foot twice, hook the foot backward; d. Take two steps to lift the leg once, take two steps to hook the foot backward; e. Rotate in all directions; f. Reverse; g. Lift the left foot up once; h. Take a step with your left foot, then lift your left leg up and your right leg to stomp the ground; i. Hook the right foot back once. Dongba wizards conduct dance training according to this kind of jumping nerve book - a special dance score. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, some literati drew up some ancient dance scores based on historical records and their own understanding and imagination of ancient dances for the purpose of "retrospective".

Yu Zai, a member of the Yuan Dynasty, compiled a dance score for the long-lost "Shao" dance.Based on the theories of "Hetu" and "Luoshu", he used the changes of yin and yang, odd and even to design costumes, formations, and changing directions for the team dance of 64 people. Zhu Zaiyu, a famous musicologist and historian in the Ming Dynasty, believed that "the past cannot make the present, and the joy of the present is like the joy of the past."It is believed that without the ancient music and dance, there would be no music and dance today.Today's music and dance is the inheritance and development of ancient music and dance.Today's music and dance are, to some extent, like ancient music and dance.Proceeding from this understanding, Zhu Zaiyu carefully studied the historical materials of music and dance, and on the other hand, studied the traditional music and dance that was still popular in the Ming Dynasty, using the present to prove the past, and compiled a set of imitation ancient dance scores by combining ancient and modern methods.And by combining the ancient "ci Zhang" (lyrics) with the popular "syllable" (tune) of the Ming Dynasty, these imitative ancient dance scores are matched with dance music.These dance scores have dance names, dance posture designs, scene diagrams of movement scheduling, and rich text descriptions.Today, three or four hundred years later, Yitu can still dance.This was the creative work of scholars in the Ming Dynasty aimed at reviving ancient dances.

The imitation ancient dance scores compiled by Zhu Zaiyu include "Human Dance Score", "Six Generations of Small Dance Score", "Lingxing Xiaowu Score", "Lingxing Temple Yale Tianxia Taiping Character Dance with Omens", "Eryi "Zi Zhao Tu" and "Xiao Wu Xiang Music Score".These dance scores are completely preserved in the "Complete Book of Rhythms". "Human Dance" is said to be one of the "Six Little Dances" of the Zhou Dynasty, in which dancers dance with bare hands.Zhu Zaiyu believes that human dance is the foundation of dance, and one should first learn human dance when learning dance.He designed a whole set of dance movements for "Human Dance", and added explanations for each movement in line with feudal ethics.For example, the "four postures" in "Human Dance" - turning up, turning down, turning outward, and turning inside, are interpreted as turning upward to symbolize "benevolence of compassion", turning downward to symbolize "righteousness of shame" and turning outward It symbolizes the "wisdom of right and wrong", and the inner turning symbolizes the "gift of resignation". Zhu Zaiyu combined "Six Little Dancers" and "Six Generations of Dancers" to draw "Cloud Gate" with Zhiyan (colored silk), "Xianchi" with bare-handed sleeves, "Dashao" with Zhiyan, Yu's "Big Xia", Zhiyan's (dancing utensil decorated with oxtail)'s "Da □", Zhigan's (Shield)'s "Da Wu" and other six dance scores, called "Six Generations of Small Dance Spectrum". "Ling Xing Xiao Wu Pu" is a redesign of the farming dance performed in honor of Houji, the God of Agriculture in the Han Dynasty.It is stipulated that the dancers are 16 boys, "dancing in pairs".What they hold in their hands are sickles, hoes, shovels, branches, poles, flails and other agricultural tools, and their movements imitate farming labor.The band is composed of bells, drums, drums, boards, double pipes, etc., with the ditty "Douye Huang" as the accompaniment music. "Lingxing Temple Yayue Tianxia Taiping Character Dance with Omens" is a dance notation for thanking the gods after the performance of "Lingxing Xiaowu". 16 people danced with bare hands, and the dance team arranged the words "Tianxia Taiping" one after another. "Two Pieces of Signs" draws from the different drawing methods of the shoes of the dancers in the two dance teams, indicating the steps and movement directions of the left and right feet of the dancers, whether the soles of the feet touch the ground or the toes touch the ground, and the positions of the main legs and non-main legs; Indicate the direction and magnitude of the rotation with up, down, out, in, unrotated, first, around, over, around, etc.;The signs of the dance are precise and clear. "Xiaowu Township Music Score" is a dance score with words but no pictures.These quasi-ancient music and dance scores compiled by Zhu Zaiyu three or four centuries ago are clearly recorded in terms of movement changes, formation trends, and footstep directions.It also combines music (lyrics, percussion, rhythm, etc.) with dance to become a ceremonial ritual dance score with practical value.Zhu Zaiyu’s method of making dance scores was imitated by later generations, so dance scores dedicated to Confucius appeared in the Qing Dynasty, such as "Wen Wu Wu Pu", "Que Li Xin Pu" and "Confucian Temple Ding Ji Pu" from the Confucian Temple in Qufu, etc.People have not forgotten that Confucius himself attached great importance to music and dance. Music and dance are important subjects in Confucian education, so worshiping Confucius music and dance is very serious.Even in Nanxiong, Guangdong Province, far in the south, there is also a Wenwu dance notation for worshiping Confucius, which is basically the same as Zhu Zaiyu's dance notation. These dance scores made by the ancients may not be scientific, accurate or practical in the eyes of modern people.However, they are all meaningful explorations and constructions made by ancient dance experts to explore dance norms, strengthen dance dissemination, and engage in dance training. Their historical value cannot be underestimated.