What are the Traditional Cultures of Yuanping, Shanxi?

The Feng Yangge, also known as the Cross Street Yangge and also called the Share Yangge, is a form of folk song and dance unique to Yuanping County. The name of the Phoenix Rice-plant Song and its origin has been heard in several ways: first, it is named for the props used, and when it is performed, the top of the straw hat worn by the male actor on his head is adorned with a ping-pong ball-sized red pom-pom, which resembles the red crown on the head of a phoenix, hence the name. Secondly, it is said that Feng Yangge was imported from Fengyang, Anhui Province. There is also a saying that: phoenix rice-planting song and other places of the rice-planting song is very different, is another derived from an art form, is another copy of the so-called "part of the rice-planting song". Yuanping Feng Yangge is a kind of festival folk song and dance. In Yuanping City, it is only found in the area of Beijia Village, and it is also unique in Shanxi Province. It was created a long time ago, due to a variety of reasons in the process of circulation after several ups and downs, on the verge of being lost, after the founding of the country only to restore the artistic luster. Legend one: when Qin Shi Huang went to repair the border, there was a family of young and old to avoid hard labor, the son pretended to be crazy to pretend to be a crazy son of the model, Yang Lapel fan, epileptic out of town, the wild doctor and the whole family fled out of the city after the son. This art form was created by later generations to commemorate such resourceful actions. The two leaders in the Feng Yangge are coincidentally the "Crazy Duke" and the "Wild Doctor". Legend 2: At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liangshan insurgents, in order to rescue their brothers who had been captured by the officials, disguised themselves as entertainers, mixed into the city and robbed the court. In order to commemorate this heroic behavior of the insurgents, the later generations adopted this form and produced the "Feng Yangge". Legend 3: At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to resist the invasion of Liao, soldiers were recruited from all over the Central Plains to go to the border. At that time, there were many generals from Fengyang County, Anhui Province, stationed in Beijia Village, which is located in Yanmen Pass. In order to express their homesickness, they often sang their hometown's "Fengyang Flower Drums" outside the tent, and the masses competed to learn them, and combined them with the local folk art of stepping on the circle of rice-planting songs to form the unique "Phoenix Rice-planting Song". The "Feng Yangge" has been passed down through thousands of years of vicissitudes. The predecessor of "Fengyang Yangge" may be "Fengyang Flower Drum". In 300 years ago by the foreign into the thickening of the county. After the combination with the local stepping circle rice-planting song, absorbing the folk songs and ditties to enrich the singing part, gradually evolved into the present form. Yuanping is located in the north of central Shanxi, upstream of the Hutuo River. It was established as Yuanping County in Han Dynasty, changed to Thief County in Sui Dynasty, and then changed to Yuanping in 1958. Considering its geographic location, it was historically an official road from the mainland to the outside of the country, and Beijia Village was located right next to the official road, so it was very likely that people traveling from the south to the north would bring their folk art here, which evolved through the continuous development of local artists. Therefore, according to the folklore and the historical records of the Guangxu period of the Phoenix Rice-planting Song condition speculation, the Phoenix Rice-planting Song may be produced in the early Qing Dynasty. Yuanping Feng Yangge performance team of less than ten people, more than dozens of people. In the early days, the players of the Phoenix Yangge were all men, and the female roles were also made up by men. Later on, many girls enthusiastically sang on the stage, both male and female, more elegant. Male role are warriors dressed, body satchel drums, wearing a military helmet, wonderful is the helmet coiled around a bamboo circle hat, is a length of about eight feet of elasticity and toughness of the bamboo strips, bamboo strips decorated with a bunch of red tassels on the top, the performance can be thrown out to retrieve the up and down, flying, telescoping and free, it is amazing. The female characters are dressed up as ancient village girls, holding small gongs, twisting the side line, dancing beautifully and lightly. There are three forms of Feng Yangge performances: treading the street, treading the circle, and opening the wheel. Stomping on the street, i.e., traveling through the streets. Men and women form several lines, twisting and dancing, staggering forward. The front of the team is commanded by a person who hits the water cymbal with his hand, and the two leaders in front of him are disguised as the "Crazy Eunuch" and the "Wild Doctor" respectively. At the back, the men beat the drums with raised arms and fluttered their heads in circles; the women beat small gongs and sang and danced. The music is high and melodious, the performance is natural and vivid, and the formation is flexible and changeable. Stomping circle, also called small rice-planting song, is the fixed performance after stepping on the street. The singers are an old couple and the rest are women. Before the performance, there is a pure dance performance, which is performed according to the gongs and drums such as "Four Beginnings" and "Long Flowing Water". Afterwards, the male protagonist, holding a flower fan, leads the female characters, who are dancing in a circle, to come out one by one. The female dancers are then danced with the male dancers, such as "Twisting Twist" or "Picking Out Eights". Then the whole group sings in a circle, usually with the male horn leading, the female horn singing in chorus, and the male and female chorus singing at the end of the song. Most of the lyrics are self-written and performed, with the main content of celebrating people, describing scenery and telling stories. The rhythm of the performance is also faster than before, the amplitude increases, men and women dance, singing humor, rich in local characteristics. Open wheel, also called big rice-planting songs, is the continuation of the above rice-planting songs, performs a small play, the content of the play has character, storyline, and even conflict, constituting a small folk singing, so the local commonly known as "out of the children's rice-planting songs". The program of the rice-planting songs reaches more than 40, and its content is very rich, reflecting agricultural production labor, such as "seedling gathering", "wheat", "autumn harvest"; there are the performance of annual festival customs, such as "New Year", "watching the lights"; there are portrayal of natural scenery, such as "four Ao eight scenic", "Chaohsiayu catching up with the meeting," "thieves in the county city to catch up with thirteen"; there are portrayal of love, marriage, family and neighborly relations, such as "two women sued," "and so the bridegroom The songs also depict love, marriage and family and neighborly relations, such as "Two Daughters Complaining", "Waiting for the Bridegroom", "Carrying a Fetus" and "In-laws Scolding Each Other", etc., which figuratively show people a picture of rural life. Feng Yangge is mostly performed from the 14th to the 16th day of the lunar calendar in the village in the form of "going up to the yard", "stepping on the street" and "chuwanghuo". In addition, during village festivals, temple fairs and red fires, they often gather in one place and perform in several circles for several days in a row. There are more than 80 traditional programs in "Feng Yangge". Most of them reflect rural life and production. For example, "Carrying Goods", "Staying at Mother's House", "Celebrating the New Year" and "Selling Surplus Grain" which celebrates modern life. In 1955, Li Erjun, a famous folk artist, led a team to Beijing to participate in the National Folk Music and Dance Festival, and performed the Yuanping Feng Yangge's "Celebrating the Chinese New Year", which was the first time to change the traditional form of dressing up as a man and won the prize of excellence, and was praised by experts as "a folk art that truly reflects the joys and wishes of the laboring people". Held in September 1991 in Shanxi Province during the Second National Folk Art Festival, after re-organization, well-rehearsed Yuanping rice-planting song lineup can be seen, the performance is more exciting, and after that, to participate in the Wutai Mountain International Tourism Month opening ceremony performances and the construction of well-off demonstration counties and districts in Shanxi Province and Shuozhou City Plaza Cultural Festival activities; in 2005, no night to participate in the Xinzhou City, the street performance, won the first prize, and soon after in the CCTV "Charming 12" program. In April 2006, this ancient folk art once again with the culture of Xinzhou out of Shanxi, into the "Avenue of Stars" so that the whole country and even the world to appreciate its charm. Make this ancient folk art more popular. In February 2008, Yuanping Feng Yangge was extended to the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage "traditional dance category - Yangge". In May 2010, Yuanping Feng Yangge on behalf of Shanxi won the fifteenth national "Group Star Award" organized by the Ministry of Culture, the highest award in the square dance category "Group Star Award".