Dayuan Nuo Dance
Dayuan Nuo Dance, a folk dance with a thousand-year history, is known as a "living fossil." In its early years, it thrived due to its function of "entertaining gods and people," but during the Cultural Revolution, its props were destroyed, and it disappeared for 41 years. Now, the Dayuan Ancient Nuo has been "resurrected," regaining its brilliance. After being listed as one of the first batch of representative works of Fujian Province's intangible cultural heritage by the provincial government in 2005, it was nominated for national intangible cultural heritage last year.
The ancient Nuo is no longer simply for villagers' entertainment but has gradually evolved into a cultural element of Taining County.
Ancient Village, Ancient Nuo: Entertaining Gods and People
Dayuan Village in Xinqiao Township, Taining County, is a picturesque small village. Surprisingly, this remote mountain village has a "village age" of over a thousand years.
During the Southern Tang Dynasty (937 AD), the ancestor of Dayuan Village, Yan Xu, was falsely accused while serving as an official in the imperial court and imprisoned. Fortunately, he was secretly released by the then prison official Zhao Yuande. Yan Xu fled alone to Xinqiao's Dayuan Village, and since then, the Yan family has thrived in this small village. After avoiding danger, Yan Xu re-entered officialdom and rose to the position of prime minister. The emperor even granted him the court Nuo dance, then called "Hefan Dance," to bring back to his hometown. Thus, the Nuo dance has been passed down for over a thousand years.
The Dayuan Nuo Dance is primitive and ancient, featuring scenes reflecting labor, life, and warfare in primitive society, as well as lively dance movements for expelling epidemics, driving away ghosts, attracting wealth, and praying for a good harvest. The Nuo Masks worn by the dancers are characteristic of Nuo culture, with images that are either fierce, rugged, or gentle, representing different deities. They are carved and painted from camphor wood, resistant to insect damage. One scene in the Dayuan Nuo Dance involves four people carrying a statue, with Nuo dancers dancing around it. This statue represents Zhao Yuande, Yan Xu's benefactor. For over a thousand years, Yan's descendants have not only built a temple to worship this benefactor but also created a golden statue of him, performing the Nuo dance annually as a form of sacrifice.
Dayuan Village, backed by Lichuan in Jiangxi to the north, neighboring Shaowu City to the east, and adjacent to Jianning County to the west, was once the necessary route from surrounding areas of Taining to Lichuan in Jiangxi. Before the Qing Dynasty, this village had hundreds of households, with a market, restaurants, and inns to accommodate passing merchants for lodging and dining. Even the postal route of that time passed through here to Desheng Pass in Lichuan, Jiangxi, making it an inter-provincial transit point. Therefore, before the founding of New China, whenever the Nuo dance was performed, Dayuan Village would be crowded with people, with visitors coming from ten miles around to watch the spectacle.
Yan Yangchun, a 75-year-old villager, still vividly remembers the scene of villagers performing the Nuo dance before the founding of New China. He says that at that time, the Nuo dance was performed not only for fun but more importantly to worship the gods and pray for favorable weather and good harvests in the coming year. On the first day of the first lunar month, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and the twenty-fifth day of the fifth lunar month, especially on the fifteenth day of the tenth month to celebrate the harvest, the village's four Nuo dance teams would perform. "Golden Boy and Jade Girl" would lead the way, holding "Jade Ruyi," "Peaches of Immortality," and "Golden Ingots," with the Nuo dance teams going from house to house to "deliver blessings." Sometimes, the Nuo dance teams would even perform from the village to the township, with villagers lining the route to watch. At that time, due to material scarcity, the dancers had no performance costumes. Team members would borrow long gowns with embroidered edges from women to make do. Later, even these gowns became hard to borrow, so everyone simply danced bare-chested, even in the cold of the first lunar month.
On the Brink of Extinction: Ancient Nuo Revived
From 1954 onwards, all four Nuo dance teams in Dayuan Village ceased their activities. Especially during the Cultural Revolution, many precious Nuo masks and props were burned, and the Nuo dance that had been passed down for over a thousand years quietly left the social stage, facing the risk of being lost.
1995 marked a historical moment for the rebirth of the Dayuan Ancient Nuo. That year, during a folk culture survey in Taining County, upon learning about the ancient Nuo dance in Dayuan Village, it was decided to rescue this rare ancient folk custom. However, by this time, the Nuo dance had not been performed for 41 years, with few surviving old artists all over seventy, many of whom could not remember many of the movements. The ancient Nuo was on the brink of generational extinction.
Yan Jianhua, now 44 years old, a high school graduate and the village's cultural associate, had heard about the Nuo dance from the village elders since childhood but had never seen it. The first time he saw the Nuo masks and wax figures at the Shangshu Residence in the county town, he was very excited: so this was what the ancestors had passed down! Upon learning that the county was going to rebuild the Nuo dance team, Yan Jianhua spent nearly a year drawing the movements and formations taught by the old village artists in the form of sketches, then went to the county archives and library to search for information, and even visited old people from Dayuan Village who had moved to Shaowu and Lichuan in Jiangxi, piecing together the ancient Nuo dance bit by bit.
With complete sketches, Yan Jianhua and several members of the preparatory group went door to door every night to invite villagers to dance. But the villagers were either unwilling to learn, worried about missing farm work, or gave up after a few days of learning. Fortunately, Yan Jianhua and the preparatory group members actively participated, and several artists over seventy also came every night to teach hands-on, step by step. With the help and guidance from the county's cultural department, the once-lost ancient Nuo gradually came back to life.
A month later, the Dayuan Village amateur Nuo dance team was ready to debut in the village, but what about the lack of props and costumes? Yan Jianhua and the preparatory group members posted an appeal at the village entrance, and villagers donated 5 or 10 yuan each, raising over 500 yuan to complete the set of drums, gongs, ruyi scepters, and other props. The county cultural center paid for the Nuo masks. Without costumes, everyone simply performed bare-chested. That day, the village was more lively than during the New Year, with every household setting off firecrackers to "welcome the Nuo," and some elderly people were even moved to tears.
In September of that year, the Nuo dance team went to Sanming to participate in the National Day folk custom performance and won the Outstanding Performance Award. This was the first formal stage performance of the Dayuan Ancient Nuo. No one could have imagined that ten years later, this peasant Nuo dance team would perform on the CCTV stage.
New Life for Ancient Nuo, Ancient Village Gains Fame
No one in Dayuan Village dared to imagine bringing the Nuo dance to Beijing.
In those years, the county and township invested 20,000 yuan to redesign and purchase a set of costumes and props. As the team leader, Yan Jianhua organized the Nuo dance team to participate in various performances as much as possible to increase the fame of the Nuo dance. The village also provided appropriate compensation for lost work time to the Nuo dance team members during performances.
From participating in Ninghua's first Hakka ancestor worship, Dajin Lake Mid-Autumn Fireworks Gala, Hong Kong's return street parade, to being involved in the unveiling of Taining National Geopark, Taining's application for World Heritage status and China's Top Tourist Attractions... Gradually, the rugged figure of the ancient Nuo appeared in important elements of Taining's tourism development. The ancient Nuo, passed down for a thousand years, was no longer simply for "entertaining gods and people," but gradually evolved into a cultural element of Taining tourism, adding a bright touch to Taining's tourism development.
2005 was a fruitful year for the Dayuan Nuo Dance. That year, the Dayuan Nuo Dance was listed as Fujian Province's intangible cultural heritage. In June of the same year, as one of the member units of the provincial folk art troupe, the Dayuan Village amateur Nuo dance team represented Fujian in the Jiangxi Nanchang International Nuo Art Week, standing out among 36 teams from around the world to win the Silver Award and Outstanding Performance Award. Subsequently, they went to Beijing to support Taining's application for China's Top Tourist Attractions, with their rustic performance winning a standing ovation from on-site experts and audience. After Taining won the title of "China's Top Ten Charming Towns," they were invited to Beijing again to participate in the celebration performance, becoming one of the five programs selected for CCTV broadcast.
At the same time, the attitude of Dayuan villagers towards performing the Nuo dance was also changing. Yan Jianhua smiled and said that initially, no one was willing to learn, but now they feel that learning the Nuo dance is good because they can often go out to perform and "see the world and gain knowledge." Today, in Dayuan Village, over 90% of young people have learned the Nuo dance, and even young children like to follow behind with masks and wooden brushes. Whenever the Nuo dance team performs, the village sets off firecrackers to welcome and send them off. If team members miss farm work due to performances, friends and relatives come to help. When they win awards in competitions, the villagers are even happier than the team members. In 2008, Yan Jianhua was named one of the first batch of representative inheritors of Fujian Province's intangible cultural heritage.
The Dayuan Ancient Nuo has come out of the deep mountains and has also "saved" the ancient village in a unique way. Previously, many villagers wanted to tear down their old houses to build new ones, but after the ancient Nuo became famous, it attracted various media and photographers to come here to photograph the ancient village and folk customs. Seeing that their old houses and old village, which they considered dilapidated, became the "darlings" and "priceless treasures" in the eyes of many reporters and photographers, the villagers gradually realized that "once demolished, it can never be recovered!" and "We must protect what our ancestors left us!" Now, the village has chosen another site to build a new village for the villagers, and everyone is working together to protect this thousand-year-old ancient village.
(Source: Southeast Net - Fujian Daily)
Article Source: China News Network, February 25, 2010, 14:53 [Editor in charge: Si Wei]