A poet of the Tang Dynasty, Xu Ning, whom you may not be familiar with, wrote a poem about the beauty Zhao Feiyan:
The jade frost flows in front of the water-colored curtain,
The Zhao Feiyan serves Zhaoyang.
The dance in the palm of the hand is over and the piping is over,
Thirty-six palaces and autumn nights are long.
This poem relates a short story:
On one occasion, Zhao Feiyan performed a dance for Emperor Chengdi of Han Dynasty in a viewing pavilion on a small island in the Taiyi Pond behind the palace. Emperor Chengdi of Han struck the beat with a jade ring, accompanied by a eunuch, Feng Wufang, who played the sheng.
When Zhao Feiyan was dancing to the song "Returning to the wind to send the wind away," a sudden gust of wind caused Zhao Feiyan to fall into the pool, but it was only thanks to Feng Wufang who grabbed hold of her thin, cicada-winged cloud-water skirt that she was able to survive the fall.
At this time, Zhao Feiyan, with Feng Wufang's hand on her ankle, was still intoxicated by the dance.
The Han Emperor Chengdi saw this scene, a whim, ordered the courtesan to hold a crystal tray to come over, Zhao Feiyan even lightly jumped to the tray on the side of the song and dance, the viewers all marveled at, "Feiyan can be a dance on the palm of your hand," and thus came to be.
Dance in the crystal tray
So, Zhao Feiyan is indeed like the historical legend, can dance in the tray?
Excellent Dancing Skills Zhao Feiyan
Zhao Feiyan, originally from a commoner's background, was sent to the palace as a courtesan because of her poor family. She was later able to become the Empress and gained the favor of Liu Arnold, Emperor Cheng of Han Dynasty. In addition to her personal beauty, it was also inseparable from her superb dancing skills.
In the third year of Hongjia (18 B.C.), Emperor Cheng of Han was bored in the palace, so he went to Princess Yanga's house to visit her. Princess Yanga called out a group of dancers she usually cultivated to please Emperor Cheng of Han, and Zhao Feiyan was among them. Zhao Feiyan was one of them. With her soul-stirring eyes, beautiful singing voice and graceful dance, she immediately captivated Emperor Cheng. Emperor Chengdi of Han then brought her back to his palace.
Chengdi (like or unlike, all imagination)
The book is also recorded, said "after Zhao waist bone slender, good hunchback [jǔ] walk, as if the person holding a branch of flowers, trembling, others can not be learned". "Walking alone" is Zhao Feiyan's original creation, dancing hands like a flower trembling, body shape like the wind, see its dance skills.
The "dance on the palm" mentioned by the Tang poets is also Zhao Feiyan's original creation, "dance on the palm" is also known as "dance in the palm", because of the lightness of the dance, as if it could be placed in the palm. The dance is also known as the "Dance in the Palm" because of the lightness of the dance, as if it could be placed in the palm of the hand.
The Han Dynasty, the dance of the dynasty
We know that the Han Dynasty is a good dance of the times, from the cultural heritage, the Han Dynasty is the continuation of the main Chu culture. The Chu people advocate sorcery, sorcery is an important form of expression is dance, as a way to achieve the celestial and human communication. "Xiang Yu was a Ch'u man, and Liu Bang and many of those who followed him were also Ch'u men. In the siege of Gaixia, the music played by the Han army was also "Four Chu Songs".
The Song of Chu on All Sides
So the Han Dynasty became a dynasty of song and dance. After quelling the rebellious rebellion of King Qingbu of Huainan, Liu Bang, Gaozu of Han Dynasty, "passed through Pei and stayed there. I put wine in the Pei Palace, called all the old people to drink, and sent the children in Pei to get a hundred and twenty people, and taught them to sing. Drinking soundly, Gaozu hit the building, since the song for the poem: 'The wind rises and the clouds fly, the might of the sea and return to their hometown, and get a fierce warrior to guard the four sides! All of his children were singing and practicing the poem. Gaozu danced, and sobbed for several lines." ("Historical Records - Gaozu Benji") this feeling and move, impromptu dance dance style, since the beginning of the Han Dynasty has become a trend, the history of the book.
The emperors of the Han Dynasty after Liu Bang also entertained their guests with large-scale music and dance in magnificent scenes. For example, Emperor Xuandi Yuankang two years, married to the king of Chu Liu Wu granddaughter Xie You in the king of the Wusun, will be in the Ping optimistic performance of the "big corner of the", playing music to send the Princess to marry, entertaining Xiongnu emissaries and other foreign guests (see "Han Shu - Western Biography"). During the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, the emperor had "set up wine and meat forests to entertain guests from all directions, and made plays such as "Ba Yu", "Du Lu", "Dang Dang Pole" in the sea, "Man Yan Yu Long", and "Jiao Dai" for the purpose of observing them."
The Book of Han - Su Jian (with son Su Wu) biography, Su Wu mission to the Xiong Nu in the detained for nineteen years, through trials and tribulations, in the first six years of the Yuan (81 years ago) was released back to the Han. Before the trip, Li Ling, a Han general who had already surrendered to the Xiong Nu, hosted a banquet to bid him farewell. During the banquet, Li Ling danced and sang: "After 10,000 miles, I will fight for the Xiongnu. The road is endless, the vectors are pressing, the soldiers are destroyed, and the name is already blocked. My mother is dead, though I want to repay my kindness, how can I return home?" After the song and dance. I'm not going to be able to do that.
Su Wu and Li Ling
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the style of dancing remained the same. In 189, Emperor Ling died and Liu Wei, the youngest emperor, assumed the throne. Dong Zhuo, a warlord with real power, led his troops into the capital, abolished Liu Defender as King of Hongnong, installed Liu Xie as Emperor Xian, and then killed Liu Defender with poisoned wine. When Liu Defender was having a farewell banquet in the palace with Empress Tang Ji and the palace staff, he was overwhelmed with emotion, so he made Tang Ji dance and sing while dancing to express his feelings of parting. (See (Hou Han Shu - Empress Records)
Solidified thousand years of dance
So can Zhao Feiyan dance on a plate? In the Han Dynasty, there was indeed a kind of dance that was performed on plates, and drums were also used, and the number of plates and drums varied according to the skill level of the performers, and this dance was called the "Plate Drum Dance".
Fu Yi, a writer in the Han Dynasty, said in the Dance Fugue: "The dancer leaps up in the air and strikes the drum surface with the front and back of the feet in a staggered manner, with the front legs bowed and the back legs half-kneeling, and sometimes the upper body is greatly leaning back, with the back bent and the heels rubbing together. The waist is bent so much that it is like bending, and such a dance technique has high demands on the dancers, who must have a slim waist and a flexible body.
Pan drum dance stone portrait unearthed in Nanyang during the Han Dynasty
The portrait stone, which is like a colorful stage, puts on a wonderful and outstanding performance. In the center of the stage, a man waves his long sleeves and dances between plates and drums on the ground. The dance moves, which are in and out, and the acrobatic movements, which are moving and flashing, are perfectly combined to form a unique art form.
As the saying goes, "long sleeves are good for dancing," and in order to enhance the expressive effect of Han Dynasty dances, dancers would wear clothes with long sleeves. When dancing, one arm swings upward and the long sleeve forms a graceful arc above the head, while the other arm throws the long sleeve in front of the body in the opposite direction, thus showing a beautiful rhythmic effect of the two long sleeves.
A Han Dynasty long-sleeve dance portrait brick from Xintongqiao, Zhengzhou
(There is also a swallow in the upper left corner, could it have anything to do with Zhao Feiyan?)
Shandong Lianggonglin Han portrait stone, three dancers combed high bun, wearing a narrow-sleeved long dress, is a side of the left and right through, flinging long sleeves and dance, one side made to grab the cuju posture, a band is accompanied by them.
Han dynasty Shandong Qufu stone cuju sleeve dance
Han dynasty in the cultural inheritance of the Chu culture, but in the system is "Han Cheng Qin system". Chu people live in the Yangtze River Basin, the inheritance of the water is soft, so the development of the old Zhuang philosophy, Qu Yuan Li Sao; Qin people live in the Yellow River Basin, the courage to be strong, but also the art of the legal system to unify the world. Therefore, the Han Dynasty is the soft and strong, Han dance also fully reflects this feature.
In Han Dynasty dances, many times men and women danced together, with women being feminine and men being masculine.
In the following Han portrait from Nanyang, Henan Province, a thin-waisted dancer wearing a peaked cap dances with his sleeves raised, while a masked dancer on the right is topless, leaning back and making comical movements.
Nanyang Sitting and Standing Dancing Portrait Stone
To increase the comedic effect, the image of the man in the dance gradually becomes a clown, and the beautiful woman and the clown man **** dance, then the effect of the contrast between beauty and ugliness is created again.
The most familiar clown would be this Eastern Han drumming and rapping figurine!
Additionally, there are also depictions of the same on many Han Dynasty portrait stones, pottery commissions and jade pendants.
Long-sleeved Dancing Portrait Stone from Zhengzhou, Henan Province