Stilts, dancers feet tied to the long wooden stilts for the performance of the form, strong skills, lively and diverse forms, because the actors on stilts than the average person high, easy to watch from near and far, and flow conveniently is no different from the activities of the stage, so by the masses loved.
On the origin of stilts, scholars believe that the primitive clan totem worship, and coastal fishermen's fishing life. According to historians, the Danzhu clan, which used the crane as a totem during the Yao and Shun eras, danced on stilts to imitate cranes in their rituals. (See Sun Zuoyun, "Speaking of Danzhu".) Archaeologists believe that there are already characters in the A-ancient script that resemble the image of dancing on stilts. (Fang Qidong, "Oracle Bone Dance in the Shang Dynasty") The two can be mutually corroborated.
The ancient document "Classic of Mountains and Seas" has an account of "Long Shares Country", and according to the ancient commentaries, it can be known that "Long Shares Country" is related to stilt walking. From the "long-footed people often bear long arms into the sea fishing also" this note, it is not difficult for us to imagine a foot tied to the long wooden stilts, holding a long wooden made of primitive fishing tools in the shallow sea fishing image. What is even more interesting is that the Jing fishermen living in Guangxi Fangcheng coast today still have the custom of casting nets on long wooden stilts to catch fish in the shallow sea.
Today's stilts, mostly wooden, perform on double stilts and single stilts. Double stilts more tied to the calf, in order to show skills; single stilts with both hands to hold the top of the wooden stilts, easy to go up and down, dynamic and interesting. Its performance and "cultural stilts", "martial arts stilts" points, cultural stilts heavy play like and twisted tease, martial arts stilts emphasize personal skills and tricks, stilts, have formed a distinctive regional style and national colors.
Shanxi Province, the height of the stilts varies from place to place, stilts as low as a few inches, as high as seven or eight feet high, in Shanxi Ruicheng, Xinjiang and other counties, the height of the stilts up to one and a half feet or even one and a half feet eight feet. Usually, the stilts are about four feet in height.
The stilts have a long history in Shanxi, and the stilts and acrobatics can be seen on the Northern Wei Dynasty sarcophagus unearthed in Yushe County, Jinzhong, although there is no written record of the stilts, but it should be started from the Northern Wei Dynasty at the latest. In Shanxi performing stilts in the ranks, divided into two kinds of stilts and martial arts stilts. Wen stilts focus on twisting and stepping, martial stilts to perform stunts.
Wu stilts in Fushan County, the head stilts for the conductor, the second stilts is the leader, the theater characters in the middle, and finally by the ugly man pressure. Performances first twist a variety of field charts, and then perform "over the immortal bridge", "jumping table", "jumping double stools", "big splits "The show includes a variety of difficult maneuvers.
Wakiqiu County, the territory of Hu Village area, stilts are mainly performing stunts. The stilt show here, not only have qaibiao, touch abduction, back abduction, falling fork, jumping table, heeling and other skillful actions, but also lift two sections, lift three sections, sitting lift, standing lift, combination lift and other difficult lift method, and can form a "horse-drawn cart", "over the sky bridge" modeling. The stilts of this county, the most difficult is "on the tiger stairs".
The "Butterfly Puffing" in the village of Berbi in Xinjiang County and the town of Shuangchi in Jiaokou County is a stilt show that has both a storyline and many difficult movements. This program is performed by three people, female youth playing the role of Dan, picking butterflies forward, male youth playing a young man, holding a fan to pounce on butterflies, clowns shaking rattles playfully chasing, very lively, vivid, fun is very strong. These three people in the performance, there are "squatting away", "jumping table", "harrier flip", "more head jump", "back roll", "one-legged jump" and other skillful movements.
Jishan County and Youyu County's "walking animal stilts" is performed by two people on stilts. Stilt performers feet tied to wooden stilts, the waist tied to the animal skin, the front tied to the head of the animal, the upper body to play with the corresponding characters, forming a group of shapes, in the music and gongs and drums, while dancing and moving forward.
Xia County and other places in the three people step on the four stilts, four people **** tied five stilts "legs stilts", for the performance of the requirements of tacit understanding, the difficulty is great.
The stilts in Yuanping, Pingding and Dingxiang counties, while twisting the rice-planting steps, changing the formation, and then commenting and singing, called "rice-planting on stilts". In Xi'an County's Ganjiazhuang, there is also in the stilts leg articulation tied to a small bell block "ringing bell stilts" way of performing.
Shanxi Province, stilt performances in a variety of forms, a variety of eclectic. These stilts performance time, generally in the first month of the lunar calendar around the fifteenth of the alarm "red fire" activities, stilts is a form of performance in the whole activity. This kind of activity content mobility, action is relatively free, can be performed in a large field, can also walk the streets and alleys.
Shandong stilts are often stacked up three layers (two or three layers without stilts) to play the role of opera characters, the upper layer of people stepped on the shoulders of the lower layer of people traveling as usual.
Beijing and Tianjin stilts, actors often perform "one-legged jump", "splits", "over the barrier" and other difficult skills; some use one foot to perform a leap from four high tables and other stunts.
The stilts are prevalent in the Northeast, and the "Liaonan stilts" are the most famous, with a complete form and standardized performances, which start with "taking the elephant" (stacking up two layers of shapes) and singing a rice-planting song, which signifies "peace and prosperity", and then running a big race. The performance is complete and standardized. At the beginning, it starts with "building an elephant" (stacking up two layers) and singing the rice-planting song, which means "peace has an elephant", and then it runs a big field to change the pattern of the team, and then performs in groups, such as dancing in pairs, "pouncing on butterflies", "fishing with a fisherman", as well as playing a folk opera.
The stilts of the ethnic minorities, the actors are dressed in their own costumes, the performance is unique. For example: the Buyi have both double stilts, and single stilts (also known as dolomite stilts), both hands are holding stilts, easy to make, its dolomite stilts are especially loved by children; Bai "stilts play horse", the actors are also stepping on wooden stilts, dressed in horse props performance; Uygur "double stilts "the folk dance into it, it is refreshing.
Records on stilts -- the ancient document "Liezi. Said Fu chapter" recounts a person called Lanzi, he performed stilt skills for Song Yuanjun, calves tied to two wooden sticks (stilts) twice as long as the body, fast running and jumping and to the air cycle discard seven short swords, five often in the air, Yuanjun looked very surprised. This story shows that stilts in the Wei and Jin Dynasties has been a kind of acrobatics, and have higher skills. Today, unearthed in the Northern Wei Dynasty tombstone on the "Hundred Plays" also have the "Joe" image, can be known as the stilts of the long history of the origin.
On the origin of stilts, the late historian Sun Zuoyun (1912-1978 AD) in his "said Dan Zhu - China's ancient study of the Crane Clan - said that stilts out of the totem dance theater," the first stilts originated from crane The argument of totem worship, and based on the "Mountains and Seas" ancient documents: "long stock of the country in the Xiongchang north, was hair, a said long feet". Jin Guo Pu note for: "or that there is a Joe country, today's Kabuki family Qiaoren cover like this body", Qing Wu Renchen note for: "Joe people, double wooden renewed foot play, now said xi (with shoes) stilts". Both notes that the long shares of the country that is, with wooden stilts tied to the feet of the long-footed people. Dan Zhu said: stilts originated from primitive totem beliefs, used in religious rituals, and evolved from acrobatic performances to play the role of opera characters in the form of dance. Yao and Shun Dan Zhu was a clan with crane as totem, and the stilt play was directly out of the dance of the ancient crane totem clan. Recently, some scholars believe that there is a word in the oracle bone inscriptions that can be interpreted as "like a man dancing with both feet on a stick", and if this is true, the unique folk dance form on stilts was already introduced in the late Shang Dynasty at the latest. This is another addition to the totem worship. Not only that, Africa Zaire cochokwe (tchokwe) tribal religious ceremonies, there are stilts performance, a sorcerer's legs tied to the long wooden stilts, slowly walking, two hands slowly dance. This should be "totem worship" "religious rituals," another evidence.
The origin of the stilts said labor, can be based on the Jin Guo Pu's another note: the long arm of the country in the east of Chishui, the body is like a normal person, but the arm length of three feet. "Or that the long-footed people often carry the long-armed people into the sea to fish." This is a reminder that the long feet are tied to wooden stilts, and the long arms are holding fishing tools made of long wood, which depicts the image of the Jing fishermen living in Fangcheng, Guangxi, "Three Islands of the Jing Clan," casting nets and fishing in the shallow sea with their wooden stilts. It was also recorded in the 1930s in the magazine "Art Style" that "Chopsticks Street and Hoop Cage Street in Wuchang were often flooded due to their low humidity, and the residents there almost always stepped on stilts to and from the street whenever it was flooded. This is another stilts from the labor life records.
The evolution of stilts from acrobatics to theater - the names of stilts in different eras show the evolution of stilts from acrobatic performances to playing the role of opera characters. Before and after the Wei and Jin dynasties "Qiaoren" is the transition from totem worship to acrobatics, superb and amazing skills, although with a mysterious color, but is already a form of performance. Sui and Tang Dynasty stilts from the name called "long stilts" in the name, it can be seen that it has been a form of entertainment performance. The Southern Song Dynasty Lin'an Lantern Festival, "stilt walking" and "village music" "butterfly fluttering" appeared together, indicating that it has become a folk dance. Ming and Qing documents, stilts often combined with rice-planting songs to play opera characters, called "rice-planting songs on stilts". For example, "Kyoto Customs Zhi" said: "Yangge, with several people dressed up as Toto, fisherman, woodcutter, fisherwoman, male, etc., with drums, gongs, feet are on the vertical wood, so-called 'stilts rice-planting song'". Now the stilts around Beijing and Tianjin are mostly of this kind, with 12 actors and actresses, who play the roles of dor, small erge, fisherman, woodcutter, cultivator, reader and other characters, or play the role of "Water Traveler", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Journey to the West" and other operatic characters. The performance is divided into cultural and martial stilts. Cultural stilts emphasize twisting, teasing, or performing small plays with simple plots. Martial stilts emphasize personal skills, such as "one-legged jump", "tiger pouncing", "splitting" and "over the barriers" and "jumping high table". "jumping over obstacles" and "jumping over high tables". Beijing Fangshan Zhang Xie village called "Deng Yun will" stilts, its wooden stilts 140 centimeters long, skilled actors can bend a leg back, only a single stilts from the four stacked high table jump down.
Other areas of the stilts have their own strengths, the stilts used in different heights, for skillful performances of more than l meters, the highest stilts up to 2 meters, but more for walking and simple performances. There are two types of accompanying instruments, one type of stilts, such as the Jingjin stilts, gongs and drums four pieces (waist drums, gongs, each two), knocking themselves out and dance and accompaniment for the whole team performance. The other type is accompanied by large drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments, with large volume and warm atmosphere, such as Hebei and Shandong stilts. Shandong stilts are often stacked up three layers for thrilling performances: the lowest layer of dancers on stilts, **** with the shoulders of two long wooden sticks, the middle layer of dancers do not stand on stilts on sticks, their shoulders also stood as the "White Snake Legend" of the three actors, or stood a small umbrella children, the lowest layer of the actors can move forward with slow steps. Song County, Henan Province, "Tuozhuang" is a combination of stilts and "elbow pavilion" performance form. The so-called "Elbow Pavilion" is a special prop made of iron tied to the body of the performer, and one or two children tied to the upper end of the props, as if lifted up by hand, forming a two- or three-layer modeling of various theatrical figures, with a variety of names, such as "Money Leopard", "Clown Three Fighting Chai", "Stilts" and "Stilts". There are many different kinds of theater characters, such as "Money Leopard", "Chou San Chai", and so on. The place "to suit" dancers feet on wooden stilts, above one or two children, its performance and props production difficulty, can be imagined.