Many programs in the acrobatic art are the refinement and artistry of life skills and labor techniques, and martial arts skills. Flying to the device" this program has been inherited in the folk activities, the annual "Naadam" event on the Inner Mongolia grassland, in horse racing, wrestling, jousting and other skills competitions, there is "flying to the device" competition, which is to throw the distance and hit the target of the degree of accuracy to assess the merits. The acrobats put the hunting skills of "Flying to and fro" to artistic processing, forming a kind of ingenious and magical art program, which is still loved by the audience in the stage performance. Because of the acrobatic art from a variety of colorful real life, "miscellaneous" has become its overall characteristics, so the "acrobatics" of the name in the long river of history has been determined.
770 BC to 221 BC is China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, when in China's vast land appeared many vassal states, like the city states of ancient Greece, these vassal states in the struggle for power and hegemony in the fight, pay attention to enlisting talent, these talents called the gatekeeper, some are the advice of the strategist, some are martial arts warriors. Spring and Autumn and Warring States period many acrobatic art creator is the vassal of the gatekeeper and martial arts, they are a skill, into the Secretary of State and the great, not entirely for the sake of the show, but the key time, but often with its skills to assist the master, to create some of the cause of the sensational, Zhu Shi good skills is the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of the characteristics. The annexation of the powers is fierce, the group of competitors, competing to raise soldiers, of course, these soldiers also have the mouth style, to plan and strategize, articulate lobbyist as a characteristic, but more is in possession of strange skills and tricks or the courage of overpowering the Hercules. These provide a technical basis for the formal form of the art of acrobatics.
The four princes of the Warring States period and the Qin prime minister Lu Buwei kept thousands of soldiers. Here warriors, armorers, and rushes all provided the conditions for the development of the acrobatic art. Shulianghe, the father of Confucius, was famous for his strength, and once held the jack gates of a city gate with both hands, ensuring the victory of the lords in their conquest of the state of Ban ["巾" for "亻"]yang in 563 B.C. He was also the first to fight in the battle of Dihu (狄虎) in the Warring States period, which was fought at the same time as Dihu in the battle of Dihu. Dihu [虎加 "厂 "字头], who fought at the same time as him, and Qin Xunfu, who was not only a warrior, but also had acrobatic skills. Dihu [虎加 "厂 "字头], who covered the wheels of a large chariot with armor, danced with one hand and attacked with a halberd with the other; and Qin Xunfu, who could pedal on a cloth rope hanging down from the battlements. Qin Xianfu was able to climb up to the city on a cloth rope hanging down from the battlements. Shulianghe's weight lifting, Di Hu [虎[虎加 "厂 "字头]弥's dancing wheel, and Qin Cunxun's climbing cloth are the precursors of the Han Dynasty's acrobatics, "Carrying the Tripods," "Dancing Wheel," and "Marginal Rope.
Meng Changjun, a prince of Qi, was invited by the king of Qin to be put under house arrest. Meng wanted to escape and return, and he asked someone to plead with the king's favorite consort, who wanted Meng to send her the famous white fox fur coat. Meng had only one coat, which he had already given to the king of Qin, so he was in a difficult situation. Luckily, one of his disciples, who was good at shrinking, crawled into the palace through a dog hole and stole the coat. This doorkeeper's skill can be called later acrobatics "drill circle drill tube" of the beginning. The princess got the white fox fur and persuaded the king of Qin to release Meng Changjun, but just after Meng left, the king of Qin regretted it and sent his soldiers after him. When Lord Meng Chang led his troops to the Qin border, he opened the door only after the rooster crowed, and in the middle of the night, the rooster naturally did not crow, so the pursuers came immediately, and the situation was very critical. Luckily, there was a ventriloquist among the gatekeepers, and his several exquisite chicken cries led to the crowing of the chickens in the four corners of the country, so the gatekeepers thought that it was time to open the gate, and opened the gate to release the people, and Lord Meng Chang was able to escape from the Qin state. This incident happened in 298 BC, and was recorded in "Strategies of the Warring States". Because of this karma, like the Peking Opera world that worships Emperor Tang Minghuang as its grandmaster, the grandmaster that Chinese ventriloquists worship is Lord Meng Chang.
Lie Zi - King Mu of Zhou, which reads, "When King Mu of Zhou was in power, the country of the West Pole had a man who was transformed into a human being." The so-called Hua Ren is an illusionist who freely enters and exits water and fire, penetrates through gold and stone at will, hangs in the air without falling and penetrates through walls, all of which are illusionist programs.
Liu Xiang's biography of the "Lian female" also records the recluse in the Warring States period: King Xuan of Qi once gossiped with Zhong Li Chun during a banquet, and Zhong Li Chun intentionally dazzled the skills of attracting the king, saying, "I often like to hide." "King Xuan of Qi said: 'Hidden, solid widow's wish. Try a line of it! Before he finished speaking, he suddenly disappeared. King Xuan was shocked ...... "This Zhong Li Chun is obviously a person who is good at the recluse of Fang Shi stream of characters. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States States period of the good skills for the Qin and Han Dynasty acrobatics heyday provides a unique condition.
The Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) is the history of more than 400 years, the Chinese nation in the history of human civilization has made outstanding contributions to the dynasty, the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty, Han Wu Di Liu Che, is an emperor with a great talent and strategy, and he is particularly fond of acrobatic art. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to boast of his country's affluence and vastness, in the spring of the third year of the Yuanfeng era (108 B.C.), summoned a number of foreign guests, set up a wine pool and a meat forest, and held a grand banquet and a reward ceremony. In the course of the banquet, an unprecedentedly grand acrobatic music and dance program was performed. In the program, there are all kinds of jiaojia opera performance, seven plates and fish and dragon Man Yan, and the lion and beast taming program. It is worth mentioning that in that event there are foreign acrobatic artists, the king of the Sabbath (ancient Persia) emissaries brought Li Xuan (i.e., today's Port of Alexandria, Egypt) of the illusionists, performed swallowing knives, spitting fire, butchery, cut off the horse's magic program.
These strange skills and tricks, the scene of the grand show, so that the four sides of the guests were greatly amazed, y convinced of the vastness of the Han Empire and the rich and powerful. To achieve the Han Wu Di boasted of the empire's prosperity and affluence, to attract the countries in the Western region to be good to the Han family, *** with the strong enemy against the Xiong Nu diplomatic and political purposes.
The Han Dynasty is the formation and growth of Chinese acrobatics, the Han Dynasty angle play quickly enrich the content, increase the variety, improve the skills, and finally in the Eastern Han Dynasty formed a kind of acrobatics as the center of a variety of performing arts in the Hall of the new varieties - "Hundreds of plays!
The Han Dynasty was the first time that the Chinese people had ever seen the "Hundred Operas".
The outstanding achievements of acrobatics in the Han Dynasty are firstly manifested in the fact that its various programs have become a series with the main contents of the acrobatic system of the later generations, which is feared to be unique in the performing arts of the countries all over the world. Han Dynasty unearthed in the portrait masonry on all kinds of programs have image records:
(a) force skills. The narrow sense of the angle of the angle is the angle of force, the fight with the sumo wrestling and so on to the strength of the main program, in the Han Dynasty plays an important position. Han paintings can often be seen in people and people, people and beasts, beasts and beasts between the corner of the image. Hundred theater performers in a category for the "elephant man", researchers believe that is a professional animal fighter. Nanyang, Henan Province, an unearthed Han tomb portrait stone, there are more than 20 "elephant fighting bulls", "elephant fighting tiger", "elephant fighting rhinoceros" and other drawings. "Carry pole" program also shows the strength of the performers, shandong anqiu han tomb hundred play figure "carry pole" a person lifting pole above 10 people perform, its strength can reach a thousand pounds.
(2) physical skills. Chinese acrobatics as early as in the Han Dynasty, the formation of "top work" as the center of the physical skills, top work requires a strong waist, leg work, inverted and heeling basic skills, this tradition has been to date. Han Dynasty performance of the top skills of painting masonry, Shandong Jiaxiang Wu Ancestral Temple of these two is very typical.
(C) juggling skills. Han Dynasty "jumping pills sword", "dance wheel" are often performed programs, Sichuan unearthed Han portrait brick "pills and swords music and dance banquet map" is a very famous one.
(4) aerial program: the han dynasty literature and cultural relics in the image of aerial program records, such as bumping skills, walking rope and play car, all aerial performance, edge of the rod of the skills in the han dynasty is very prevalent, there are basically two types: one is in the flat performance, one is in the car in the performance of the front of the "hundreds of play chart" in the play car to set up a double pole double platform, the performance of the young actors, is from the front of the bumping over the table. In the "Hundred Opera Pictures", a double-pole double stage was set up on the theater car, and the young actor was falling from the front to the small stage on the back. Today, acrobatics still retain such skills, "heel over the car" is one.
(E) circus and animal play: "circus" was first seen in the Han Dynasty literature, Huan Kuan in his treatise "Salt and Iron Theory - scattered insufficient thesis chapter", said: "embroidered clothes teasing, Pu people miscellaneous women, a hundred theater, circus ...... ". The circus and the hundred plays, visible at that time the prosperity of the circus. Yinan "hundred theater map", there are three circus performances, one of which will also be decorated with horses in the shape of a dragon.
The Han Dynasty circus in addition to the display of driving skills, but also the martial arts, dance and other national skills to use them, a hundred circus map circus performers, some of the halberd dance practice, some on the dance block. This is very different from the western circus. Henan songshan three que one of the dengfeng shaolu stone que portraits of two circus performers, one on the horse upside down, a dance on the horse.
Shandong Linzi Temple in the Han portrait stone carving shows the performance of the collective circus, can be mirrored with the Yinan hundred theater map of the theater car. Figure there are two horses, the first one on a person, behind a person flying to, just pull the rider's hand, another person stood up, hand-held horse tail, after a horse pulling a car, a person in front of the car flying in the air, the car in addition to the Royal, the rest of the characters are for the performance of the action, there is a person behind the car stretches to go on. It is these skills for the later generations of circus and flying trapeze performances provide the artistic basis.
Han portrait masonry also reflects a variety of animal-taming programs in the image, such as taming the tiger, taming the elephant, taming the deer, taming the snake. Haining, Zhejiang Province, East Han Dynasty tomb portraits in the "tamed beasts fighting snakes" and the Wu Ancestral Temple of the "water people get snakes," is clear evidence.
Shandong Jining East Han Dynasty tomb portraits of the upper part of the taming of birds, the lower part of the taming of elephants. Six people sitting on the back of the elephant, a man standing on the trunk of the elephant, which can be seen in the level of animal taming has been very high. There are also images of monkey taming, crane taming and bird taming. Han Dynasty circus and animal taming programs have reached a fairly high level.
(F) illusion. The Han Dynasty was an era of exchanges in the art of illusion between the Middle Kingdom and the western regions and even the western countries. At that time, China's native illusion has two categories, one is supported by the royal family and relatives of the large-scale illusion show, more than a huge props and devices and many actors **** the same performance, such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's corner of the General Assembly of the "fish and dragons in Man Yan," in fact, is a large-scale illusion of two connected to the performance.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao unified the north, and Cao Cao paid special attention to the collection of talents. For the stream of characters, he tried his best to search for their own side, fearing that these people use the illusion of the magic trick evil compulsion, advocating chaos or for the enemy to use. Therefore, once he heard that there is a different art that will be recruited, Lujiang's Zuo Ci, Gan Ling's Gan Shi, Yangcheng's Qie Jian and other famous fangshi were enlisted by his side, which objectively gave the illusion of the exchange of development to improve the conditions. The various performances of Zuo Ci contained in the Biography of Zuo Ci in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty indicate that the art of illusion had already been developed to a very high level at that time. The 68th episode of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "Zuo Ci Throwing Cups and Playing with Cao Cao," describes it very vividly. In the 21st year of Jian'an (216 A.D.), he performed three sets of tricks. "He took a large flowerpot and put it in front of the banquet, filled it with water, and in a few moments he sent out a peony plant with a double flower. Zuo Ci "taught to bring a fishing rod to fish in the fish pond under the hall, and in a few moments caught dozens of large perch, and put them on the hall." "Ci threw a cup in the air, turned into a white dove, flying around the temple." Drawing the crowd to look up and watch, he took the opportunity to disappear. These three sets of tricks, i.e. changing flowers, fish and birds, are also modern Chinese magic tricks.
After more than 160 years of great turbulence and the great integration of national cultures during the Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties (400-589 AD), the acrobatic art has become extremely mature until the Sui Dynasty unified China in 589 AD, and became a prevalent art in the court and the folk *** in the Tang Dynasty.
Acrobatic artists and music and dance artists with the court to perform, there are some acrobatic artists who have been praised for a while, for the poets and writers to sing.
The Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 ~ 907) is the more economically developed period of China's feudal society, music and dance acrobatic art is unprecedentedly prosperous, the Tang Dynasty poets and ink writers, many of whom have sung acrobatic art. Bai Juyi had the sentence of "Dancing double swords, jumping seven pills, curling huge rope, dropping long poles" ("New Lefu - five parts of the play"), and Yuan Zhen also had the verse of "A hundred plays in front of the head even ruffled, pills and swords jumped and threw the frost and snow floated". Zhang Chu Jin's "downstairs view rope skills Fu" vividly depicts the rope skills of people with superb and beautiful performance skills: "Yaiting beautiful women, and Huan Li Ren, Phi Luogu and beads and cui, catching the Qiong Feast and brocade Yin ...... across a hundred feet high hanging several zhang, under the curved like a hook, in the middle of the flat like a palm. The first nicknamed and oblique into, even Pan Shan and straight up, ......"
Tang Dynasty acrobatics appeared many highly skilled and beautiful and moving female acrobatic artists, before the poem in the female artist was called "Yaiting beauty", that she is the The female performer in the previous poem is called "Beauty of the Palace", indicating that she is a court entertainer. Feng's Records of Witnesses, written by the Tang Dynasty, also describes the court's rope skills, stilt walkers, and the superb skills of "stepping on shoulders and treading on top" and "stacking people on top of each other" to the extent of three or four weights. Many famous music and dance, such as "broken music", "Sheng Shou music", etc., are related to acrobatics.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin personally guided the ministers to rehearse the "King of the Qin broken music" is the Tang Dynasty is extremely famous music and dance, reputation spread far and wide overseas, one hundred and twenty people with halberds and armor, in front of the chariot, behind the line of battle, in which the martial arts and horsemanship that is, with the acrobatics. More Youzhou female artists stone fire Hu (may be a minority in the Tang Dynasty) to "break the music" into the acrobatic art of the top of the pole of the technique, her top of the 100-foot pole, supported by five bowstrings, five girls dressed in five-color clothes, holding a sword and halberd in the gaol bowstring performance of the "break the music". They are in tune with the beat of the music on the bowstring to and fro, as swift as a swallow. This performance is a blend of "song and dance", "walking rope" and "top pole" skills in a stove, is really innovative.
Tang people "pole" of the art is very high, there are "climbing pole", "top pole", "on the car pole drama There are different contents such as "climbing pole", "top pole", "pole play on car", "pole play in palm" and so on. The unique record of the record of a three original female artists can head long pole carrying eighteen people and walking back and forth. It is this kind of skill, the Tang Dynasty officials and dignitaries often carry pole acrobatic performances as a precursor to the traveling ceremonies. The most typical proof is the Tang Dynasty Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in the mural "Mrs. Song travel map" is to "carry pole" as a guide. Travel ceremonial acrobatic music and dance performances, both to show the luxury of the intention, but also with the people of the good, so the Tang Zhang Hu "Thousand Autumn Le" poem Yun: "August usual calyx building, ten thousand parties with the same music is a thousand years. The city of people watching the long pole out, a trick first Zhao to solve the sadness."
The Chinese streamer is the Tang Dynasty aristocrats, the royal family traveled in the ceremonial weapon, at that time is not the acrobatic performance of the project, advocating martial arts in the Tang Dynasty, some ceremonial soldiers in the exercise of arm strength in the juggling in the streamer, and then the folk welcome the Buddha to go in, but also the Chinese streamer to do the opening ceremonial weapon, acrobatic artists to further improve the skills of the Chinese streamer, embellishment of streamer cap decorations, it has become a very rich in the characteristics of the national culture of the acrobatic arts, and is still on the stage! The acrobatic art is still performed on the stage today.
Tang Dynasty circus and illusion are extremely developed, in addition to a variety of horse skills, there are taming the horse for the horse dance performances, the Tang Xuanzong dance horse five hundred riders. Tang Dynasty illusionist theater in the folk widely circulated, Tang Jiang defense "illusionist theater Zhi" contains: "(horse nature) is on the mat to tile soil planting melon, in a moment to lead to the vine flowers, fruits to eat, all the guests are said to be different from the usual melon aroma and beauty". This Mr. Ma will also purely acrobatic tricks: " and all over the body and socks to touch the money, out of the money I do not know how much, thrown into a well, call one of a fly out."
Tang Dynasty acrobatics will be a variety of skills combined together, fully demonstrating the acrobatics of the extraordinary, people can not be characterized. In addition to the aforementioned integration of "song and dance", "walking rope" and "top pole" skills in a furnace of stone fire Hu's pole on the "breakthrough music", equestrian also "punch" of superior skills. Narrow" and the integration of advanced skills: the Tang Zhao Lin's "In the words of the record" recorded "through the sword door Kabuki" one, said with sharp swords woven into a narrow doorway, the performer rode a pony from the forest of swords between the galloped through. If the skill is not fine, the mount is not well managed, touching the sword, the horse and horse immediately killed. This "through the sword door", in fact, is the development of the Han Dynasty "punch narrow", which combined with horsemanship, it became a cold-weapons era, excellent and useful skills.
Tang Dynasty acrobatics, court and folk **** with the development of the folk both street art, but also theater dedication, the viewer up to thousands of people. Some performances in the square, and some in the temple near the theater music shed. At that time, the capital of Chang'an, the large theater in the Ci'en Temple, small theater in the Qinglong Temple. Chang'an famous acrobats Xie Ruhai, sword - Dan - pills - beans, batting all skill, he and his two wives and several children's family class, every performance are thousands of people to watch.
The Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) was an era of developed urban economy and a strong civic class, and large-scale acrobatic performances organized by the royal family and the state like those of the Han/Tang Dynasty were rare, but on the contrary, there were various kinds of street performances in the prosperous cities, such as Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province), and Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province). Acrobatics, dance, martial arts, rap and various physical performing arts, the same field of performance, mutual observation, undoubtedly contributed to the formation of China's unique opera art.
The Yuan Dynasty (1206 AD - 1368 AD) was a large unified empire established by China's ethnic minority, the Mongols, which unified China for less than a hundred years but had a powerful impact on the artistic exchanges among the various ethnic groups in China. The wonders of Chinese art history - Yuan miscellaneous dramas, is in the Yuan Dynasty flourished and matured. "Miscellaneous Opera" so this name, researchers believe that is because the theater artists and acrobatic artists at the same time to perform, in the theater performances absorbed or interspersed with a number of acrobatic performances of the reasons. This can also be seen in the land and water paintings of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties preserved in Baoning Temple in Youyu County, Shanxi Province. One of the "57, in the past nine streams of hundreds of the Shi art crowd", "58, all the sorcerer goddesses and women scattered music actor clan cross the dead souls of the ghosts of the crowd," two, depicting acrobatics, illusions and the image of the characters of the theater, you can see that at that time, they were the same as the scene for the art of the situation. "the ancient nine streams of the hundred Shi art congregation" is divided into the upper and lower two layers, the upper layer of painting Shi, agriculture, industry, business, medicine, divination, astrology, etc., the lower layer is acrobatics, theater performers, especially meaningful in this painting, but also at that time for the opera, acrobatics performances for the lyrics for the book will be talented people's image, in an important position, invaluable.
Acrobatics, opera actors **** eleven people, there are hand tricks juggling, midgets illusion, lion dance, but also in the Song and Yuan miscellaneous operas in the positive end and net color. Walking in the forefront of the midget, naked and obese, head wrapped in red scarf, only a red cloth pants on the body to cover their shame, carrying a bottle on their shoulders, may be performing "into the bottle" a kind of skill and jujitsu acrobatics.
Another person shoulder draped Nu eyes and eyes, the sea mouth closed green lion suit a collar, long hair clear, it is likely to be the Yuan Dynasty high Cui Cui lion dance portrayal.
Ming (A.D. 1368 - 1644), the Qing (A.D. 1644 - 1911) two generations is China's last two feudal dynasties, acrobatics and dance and other traditional performing arts are rarely performed in the palace. In particular, acrobatics is regarded as an unimpressive play, the court basically no acrobatic performances recorded, only the Ming Xianzong (AD 1465 - 1488 reign), "the line of music" in the acrobatic performances of the image. Acrobats in the Qing Dynasty fell further into the rivers and lakes. But the opera has flourished, especially since 1790, Hui Ban into Beijing, Beijing opera was born, opera martial arts play on the absorption of acrobatic martial arts into an unprecedented flourish. Finally, the formation of martial arts theater as a recruiting boom.
The heel was originally an important acrobatic skills in the Qing Dynasty opera, it was absorbed by the opera performance in all aspects, so the late Qing Dynasty, there is the so-called "Beijing opera in the heel, acrobatics in the top of the" proverb. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Anhui class had the reputation of "light and shrewd, able to pounce and hit", and that year, they performed all kinds of acrobatics, competing on the stage, and after nearly 50 years of melting and smelting, naturally, there is more fire. Anhui class to Beijing after each performance will be specialized in heavy fighting fighting martial arts play. From the people who saw the Anhui class performance in Beijing at that time, they are absorbing a lot of acrobatic skills:
"Martial arts drama, to the Yu saw in the Beijing division, the person up and down the rope columns such as apes and brushes, turning the body such as the defeat of the leaf; a chest can win five people of the rack stack, a leap can be up to a few feet of the high building, dazzling God, and a few forget for the play." (See Wang Mengsheng's "Pear Garden Good Tales").
Daoguang years (1821-1851 AD) works "Du Men Miscellaneous Rhymes" "Selling Art" - the poem: "Singing children play Dan wonderful grace, small plays from Song Zhu Listening, 'Selling Art' is the most suitable to watch under the lamp, and watch the fire shooting stars at night."
This is in the opera organically interspersed with acrobatics "play fire shooting star" narrative.
The acrobats of the Qing Dynasty drifted in the rivers and lakes, and lived a miserable life, but out of love for the art of their ancestors and the pursuit of life, they maintained and developed their own art in a difficult environment, "stirrup technique" and "ancient colorful juggling" have new creations, "juggling altar" and "juggling altar" have new creations, and "juggling altar" have new creations, and "juggling altar" have new creations. They maintained and developed their art in the difficult environment, "stirrup technique" and "ancient color play" had new creation, "play altar", "sword, dan, pills, beans" series of illusions, have reached a very high level.
Acrobatics in the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the "street stalls", wandering in towns and villages to sell their skills, some highly skilled artists were also invited to do the performance of the rich and noble families in the halls and festivals of the line of incense to go to the meeting of the show. At the end of the Qing dynasty, Shanghai published "point stone Zhai Pictorial" reflects the performance of these acrobatics.