Nuo Opera "Fighting the Lion"
In Youwan Village, Linwu County, Hunan Province, "gods" seem to exist within the villagers' lives. In this small village, there are two ancestral halls, one temple, and an ancient opera stage. When Nuo opera is performed, villagers "invite" various deities to gather together. When ordinary villagers don costumes and masks, dancing on the high stage, a sacred atmosphere descends imperceptibly, as if the gods have truly arrived, and a face-to-face communication between humans and gods is taking place.
**First Encounter with Nuo Opera**
As a northerner, I had only heard of Nuo opera before, never seeing it in person. Liang Xiangdong, the deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center who accompanied me, explained that as an evolution of ancient shamanic culture, Nuo opera originated in the Central Plains and was once very popular throughout China. However, due to various reasons, it gradually disappeared in most regions, and contemporary folk Nuo opera activities are mostly distributed in remote areas south of the Yangtze River. The Linwu Nuo opera we were observing is a remnant of the Nuo culture in southern Hunan.
Youwan Village, located in the remote mountainous area of Dachong Township, Linwu County, is surrounded by mountains and isolated from traffic. Perhaps because of this, the Nuo opera here has been able to remain immune to the influence of modern civilization, maintaining its ancient appearance.
The Nuo sacrificial procession, with its music and drumming, circled the village, passing through several alleys of gray brick and black tile houses, arriving at the Kai Gong Ancestral Hall, one of the ancestral halls of the Wang clan. Among the more than 900 villagers, the Wang surname accounts for the vast majority. According to the "Wang Family Genealogy," in the Tianshun years of the Ming Dynasty, the 17th generation ancestor Si Neng moved from Matadeng Taoping to Youwan Village, which has been over 550 years ago. It is said that it was this Si Neng who went out to learn from a master, studying Nuo sacrificial methods, and upon returning to the village, he practiced rituals to seek divine help and expel evil spirits and plagues, which gave birth to the Linwu Nuo opera that integrates Nuo sacrifice (Nuo rituals), Nuo dance (Nuo techniques), and Nuo drama.
The ancestral hall is filled with portraits of Nuo gods, with dozens of prayer flags hanging in three rows from the ceiling, and incense burning on the offering table. At the auspicious time, the master enters the ancestral hall to begin the ritual of making Nuo vows. Liang Xiangdong explained that Linwu Nuo opera includes three major parts: making Nuo vows, fulfilling Nuo vows, and closing the Nuo altar. Generally, Nuo vows are made in the first lunar month of the year, and fulfilled with the closing of the Nuo altar in the first lunar month of the following year. This process involves many complex ritual procedures such as setting up god statues, opening divine light, and dispatching spirit soldiers, spanning a long period. What we saw today is only a condensed version of the entire ritual, truly just the "tip of the iceberg."
The Nuo god masks on the offering table need to be consecrated by the master before they can be used. From this moment on, the masks have souls, and only by wearing them can one complete the transition from human to god. There are 9 Nuo gods in Youwan Village: San Niang, Lai Bao, Earth God, Guan Gong, Erlang Shen, Yaksha, Lion God, Monkey God, and Little God (Little Ghost). The performers in the Nuo opera troupe each play one Nuo god, and because ritual regulations prohibit women from touching the Nuo god masks, all performers are men.
In addition to these 9 gods, there is another important role in Linwu Nuo opera — the master. The master plays the role of communicating between humans and gods, is the center of the entire Nuo opera, and leads all ritual procedures. He is also the organizer and manager of the Nuo opera troupe. Wang Taibao, 60 years old, is the 16th generation master of the village. Since his ancestors, this sacred responsibility has been passed down through generations in the family. However, today, besides him, his son Wang Yuhui is also a master. He said, "I'm getting old, it's better to pass it on to the young people earlier, so I can be at ease earlier."
**People and "Gods" in Youwan Village**
After the vow-making ritual ends, the fulfilling of Nuo vows begins. The Nuo opera troupe travels through the narrow village alleys, paying respects to gods and visiting temples, then returns to the ancestral hall to slaughter pigs and sheep to thank the gods. At the ancient opera stage east of the ancestral hall, "Fighting the Lion" is about to begin. "Fighting the Lion" tells the story of the Monkey King and the Lion King fighting for treasures. In the center of the stage, a layer of golden straw is spread out. The Monkey King jumps left and right, occasionally teasing the Lion King. Although the Lion King is fierce, he can't do anything to the Monkey King. After several rounds of competition, the Monkey King ties a rope around the Lion King's neck, symbolizing victory in this battle.
As soon as this amusing "Fighting the Lion" ends, the villagers around me suddenly rush forward, scrambling for the straw on the ground. A villager, hands full of straw, smiles and says, "This straw is considered sacred grass bestowed by the Nuo gods. Taking it home can bring good fortune, and placing it in pig and cattle pens can bring prosperity to livestock."
While paying tribute to the gods, they don't forget to entertain themselves. There are always some entertaining elements mixed into the formal rituals, making the distance between humans and gods not so distant. This is true for "Fighting the Lion" and also for "Slaying the Little Ghost." At the three-way intersection outside the village, four divine generals each hold weapons, guarding the little ghost. The little ghost tries to escape, and the divine soldiers and generals, along with the whole village, shout in unison: "Wuhu! Slay the little ghost!" They all chase vigorously, finally beheading the little ghost and expelling evil spirits from the village. In this Nuo sacrifice, people's role is not to observe but to participate. In addition to devout prayers, they also create some joyous atmosphere.
The people of Youwan Village's belief in Nuo gods permeates all aspects of life. This can be glimpsed during the road and bridge sacrifice. The road and bridge sacrifice is usually performed in the winter of the year after making Nuo vows and is an extremely important procedure in Nuo sacrifices. Three routes of divine soldiers (upper route celestial immortals, middle route earth immortals, lower route water immortals) will be invited to the altar to present the Nuo vow petition to the upper realm and bestow blessings upon the people. Based on the wishes of the blessing seeker, the road sacrifice develops into different forms, such as ancestor worship road sacrifice, agricultural production road sacrifice (praying for rain and harvest), disaster avoidance and evil expelling road sacrifice (expelling illness), etc. Among them, the rain-seeking and harvest-praying road sacrifice is the largest in scale. Wang Benyou introduced that in the early years of the Republic of China, during a year when Shatan, Dachong, and surrounding areas experienced summer and autumn droughts with withered vegetation, his grandfather Wang Shenyou presided over the largest scale rain-seeking road sacrifice in history, bringing out more than 80 wooden god statues enshrined in the ancestral hall. Three days later, three heavy rainfalls indeed occurred.
Among these more than 80 god statues, the oldest has a history of over 300 years, witnessing the continuous inheritance of Linwu Nuo opera.
**After Becoming Heritage**
Under the night sky, the ancient opera stage, illuminated by lights, gains an additional sense of desolation and ancient charm. The last Nuo opera of the day, "Nine Gods Crossing the Checkpoint" (also known as "San Niang Seeking Her Husband"), will conclude here. Villagers sit in twos and threes on long wooden benches, savoring the familiar tunes with great interest. Who would have thought that this lively Nuo opera had once been interrupted for over 20 years?
As one of the discoverers of Linwu Nuo opera, Zhou Zuoming, a researcher at the Chenzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television, Press, and Publication, still remembers the excitement when he first heard about the existence of Nuo opera in Youwan Village. At that time, he was investigating the current state of Nuo cultural relics in Lutang Town. Regrettably, the only surviving old Nuo dance artist was already in his 80s, and memories of Nuo dance had become blurred. It was then that someone mentioned having seen this kind of dance in the ancestral hall of Youwan Village in Dachong Township in the early 1980s. Upon investigation, it was confirmed that Nuo culture did exist in Youwan Village, but activities had not been carried out for many years. Fortunately, most of the old artists from the original Nuo opera troupe were still alive and could resume performances.
When Wang Taibao and several inheritors in the village learned that relevant departments in Linwu County wanted to excavate and organize the Nuo opera of Youwan Village, they spent their own money to purchase the instruments, props, and costumes needed for rehearsing Nuo opera, and organized and called on a group of old folk artists to join the rehearsal of Nuo opera. "Since most of the middle-aged people who had followed Nuo opera performances were working outside the village, the average age of our performers at that time was over 60," Wang Taibao said.
On October 25, 2006, the village was filled with colorful flags and bustling crowds as the Youwan Village Nuo opera, which had disappeared for more than 20 years, "re-emerged." In 2007, the People's Government of Linwu County issued the "Five-Year Protection Plan for Linwu Nuo Opera," dedicated to the regional protection construction and inheritance training of Linwu Nuo opera. In 2012, the Linwu County Nuo Culture Research Base was established in Youwan Village, and the International Academic Symposium on China Hunan Linwu Nuo Culture was held. In 2013, the Chenzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television, Press, and Publication established the Chenzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance Base in Youwan Village. After several years of excavation and organization, the Nuo opera of Youwan Village gradually became a cultural brand of Linwu County and was successively listed in the municipal, provincial, and national intangible cultural heritage lists under the name "Linwu Nuo Opera."
Nowadays, during Nuo sacrifices, all members of the Wang clan, especially the male members, participate. Some wear masks and dress up as ghosts and gods; some carry or hold the statues or tablets of ancestors during village tours or road sacrifices; some beat drums and gongs. Even many young and middle-aged people working outside the village return to participate in the sacrifices. In their view, this is a matter of respecting ancestors and gods, and as descendants of the Wang family, it is an obligation they must fulfill.
In this age of scientific advancement, Nuo opera can no longer play its enormous role as it did in the past. The inheritance of Nuo opera is evolving into a contest against various pressures. However, the sky above Youwan Village still echoes with the deafening sound of firecrackers, and Nuo opera continues to be performed generation after generation. Perhaps, as Wang Taibao says, Nuo opera is not just a performance, but people's gratitude to their ancestors, reverence for heaven and earth, and expectations for the future.
