Where is the Lantern Festival in China?

Lantern Opera is a popular art form of traditional Chinese opera in Han nationality. Its outstanding feature is that the hand never leaves the fan and handkerchief, singing and dancing, and singing and doing are closely combined. Lantern Festival originated from folk lantern dance, which is a local opera form formed in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In the process of popularity, due to the influence of local dialects, folk songs and customs, different singing and performance styles have been formed.

Lantern Festival is developed from Lantern Dance, commonly known as Lantern Festival, Lantern Festival and so on. The earliest ancient book that recorded lantern art was the Records of Zhili County, Pingyao, which was written in the second year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1663). It is said that "the weak men in the city dress up as women, and a group of people hold flower baskets as tea pickers and lamps as tea baskets." Everywhere they go, they sing the song "Picking Tea in December". What is recorded here is the custom of playing with lights in Zunyi. The custom of playing lanterns in Guiyang can be found in Qian Shu edited by Tian Wen during the reign of Emperor Kangxi. Among them, the poem "Spring Lantern", which is unknown, has the sentences of "picking tea with flowers" and "wandering in a string of lanterns". Write about the scenes of Bai Na and Wumeng ethnic minorities playing lanterns in the suburbs of Guiyang during the Spring Festival. The poetry of Tea Picking is "Tea Picking Song in December".

Lantern Opera is a folk opera in Hunan. It is developed from folk song and dance lanterns, camellia lanterns, ground flower drums and "tunes". It mainly includes Xiangxi Lantern Festival, Xiangbei Lantern Festival represented by Pingjiang Lantern Festival and Xiangnan Lantern Festival represented by Jiahe Lantern Festival.

There are many records in the local chronicles of Ming and Qing Dynasties about the grand occasion of folk song and dance performances such as lanterns, tea lanterns and floor drums. There are two forms of performance: one is "Ugly, Dancing Singing" with characters' stories, which are called Dihuagu, Mazhu Lantern, Pairing and Pairing Lantern; The second is the collective song and dance with arm steps, which is customarily called "swinging lights" and "jumping lights". After a long evolution, some folk song and dance forms, such as Huagu and Lantern, have absorbed the procedural rules of China traditional opera and gradually developed into Huagu opera. Others retain the singing and dancing features of Lantern Festival, and perform the stories of China traditional operas, which are called "Lantern Festival" and "Lantern Festival". Due to the differences of natural geographical environment and the imbalance of historical, political, economic and cultural development, as well as the differences of dialects, music materials and styles in the spread areas and the influence of neighboring sister arts, various lantern operas have their own characteristics in repertoire theme, aria structure and performance characteristics, and their historical development processes are also different.

The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, the Lantern Festival was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

[Edit this paragraph] Local characteristics

1, Xiangxi Lantern Festival

Popular in Xiangxi. Folklore called Mayang lamp, Sangzhi lamp and Baojing lamp. They are all lantern operas which are a combination of Toarey Yang Opera and Nuo Opera. Xiangxi Lantern Festival, formerly known as Lantern Festival, was named after the Lantern Festival. Jishou is called "Yuanxiao", Sangzhi is called "Lantern Festival" and Yongshun is called "Ground Lantern Festival".

After the lantern was formed in the form of song and dance, artists, after years of practice, artistically processed various movements in life and folk martial arts, and created and developed different styles of civil and military lanterns. The lanterns are beautiful and free, and the martial arts lanterns are strong.

Xiangxi Lantern Opera was initially formed, which first appeared in today's Phoenix and Mayang, during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Yangxi Opera, Tang Nuo Opera, Chen He Gao Qiang and Changde Hanban all performed in some places in western Hunan, which had a certain influence on the Lantern Festival. Therefore, the Lantern Festival, which is dominated by singing and dancing, has made a new development in its content, that is, adapting folk stories and other operas into Lantern Festival performances, such as Xiang Lian's Breaking in the Door and Visiting Friends with a Mountain Man. The singing of Xiangxi Lantern Opera mostly comes from folk songs and minor. Most of the singing styles of Lantern Festival and Lantern Festival are light tones, and the tunes keep the structural characteristics of folk songs, with different degrees of drama. Due to the continuous expansion of the theme and the increase of the industry, the aria is widely adopted by Bona, and Yang Opera, Nuo Opera, Quyi, Gaoqiang and other operas are integrated and developed in one furnace.

2. Pingjiang Lantern Festival

Formerly known as "Lantern Opera", it is also called "Flower Drum Opera in Pingjiang" in other places, which is the representative of Lantern in northern Hunan. The characteristics of Lantern Opera in northern Hunan are as follows: First, improvisation. Second, there are still traces of lantern performances. The third is to absorb the saying and doing of rap art, and the fourth is to learn from the performance skills of folk songs and dances. Pingjiang Lantern Opera, popular in Pingjiang County and Liuyang Dongxiang area, is performed in the form of song and dance, called Dihuagu; The performance in the form of drama is called Lantern Festival, which is the Pingjiang Lantern Festival. There are more than 100 Pingjiang Lantern Festival. Most of them are the same as ancient paintings and operas.

3. Jiahe Lantern Festival

That is, Southern Hunan Lantern Festival is popular on both sides of Fuling River. Guiyang is called "Dudiao", Chenxian is called "Dihuagu" and Jiahe is called "Lantern". There are more than 0/00 Jiahe Lantern Show/KLOC, among which there are relaxed and lively rural life dramas, such as Watching Flowers and Shooting Birds, and more are full dramas reflecting family life and folk stories, such as Bitter Tea, Hsi Chin, Strike the Iron and Bang Toad.

Yunnan Lantern Opera originated from folk Lantern Dance, which was a local opera popular in Yunnan in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. In the process of popularity, due to the influence of local voices and folk songs, different singing and performance styles have been formed. Yunnan Lantern has three branches: Kunming Lantern, Yuxi Lantern and Yao 'an Lantern. Among them, Kunming Lantern has retained the most ditties and repertoires of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the accompaniment instrument is mainly Hu Qin. Yao 'an Lantern folk songs are rich in color, mainly with flutes and bangzi. Yuxi Lantern is the earliest innovation, so it is called "New Lantern", and its repertoire and performance form are greatly influenced by Yunnan Opera.

4. Yunnan Lantern Festival

At first, it was a lantern show with strong song and dance elements, and later it was influenced by major operas such as Yunnan Opera. When the artists of the Lantern Festival improved the complex repertoire, they also absorbed the relevant tunes to change, expand and renovate it, and created new tunes of the Lantern Festival. The newly compiled light tone adopts the arrangement method of continuous tone, which has some characteristics of Banqiang music and is suitable for performing traditional plays. In addition, there are various folk songs in the tunes of Yunnan Lantern Opera, which occupy an important position in the whole drama. The performance of Lantern Festival attaches great importance to dance. The basic feature of Yunnan Lantern Dance is "twisting", and there is a folk saying that "you can't do it without twisting". The "crooked step" is accompanied by the movement of the hand, and the various changes of the props in the hand and the "flowers in the hand" and "flowers in the fan" are its concrete manifestations. The songs and dances in Lantern Opera are conducive to setting off the plot and enriching the characters.

The most prosperous period of Yunnan Lantern Opera was the 1950s and 1960s. At this time, not only a number of famous lantern actors such as Shi Baofeng, Xiong and Yuan Lu 'an emerged, but also dramas such as Tan, Naodu, Liu Cheng's watching vegetables and visiting his parents three times appeared, which were quite famous on the stage of Yunnan Opera. Xiong was one of the first old artists to put the "dustpan lamp" performed on the rural threshing floor on the stage. He is good at playing a primary school student, and is famous for playing Liang Shanbo in Uncle Shan's Visiting Friends and Xu Xian in The Legend of the White Snake. His performance has a strong local flavor of Yuxi, Yunnan.

In recent years, Yuanxiao operas all over the country are facing the same dilemma as other traditional opera arts. The number of theater performances has decreased, the troupe is short of funds, the arrangement of new plays is difficult, and the younger generation of creative actors are short of successors. It is urgent to take measures to rescue and protect Yuanxiao Opera, a local opera.

5. Guizhou Lantern Festival

It was developed on the basis of local folk songs and dances in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. At first, lanterns were called flower-picking lanterns, only singing and dancing. Later, opera was added to the song and dance, and later, influenced by foreign operas, it developed into a performance of this play. Guizhou Lantern Opera is mainly popular in Dushan, Zunyi, Bijie, Anshun, Tongren and other places, with different names. Northern Guizhou and western Guizhou are called "lantern drama", Dushan is called "desk lamp", Sinan and Yinjiang are called "high platform drama" or "lantern drama". At first, the performance form of Lantern Opera was relatively simple, mainly performing folk operas, and the themes were mostly rural life and folk stories, such as New Year greetings, sisters watching flowers, visiting relatives three times, Liu Sanmei carrying water, and cows stopping his wife. Its performance is characterized by "twisting", and actors often use folding fans and handkerchiefs as props to express their feelings. There are two and a half steps, four steps, fast and slow steps, pheasant step, shuttle step, broken rice step, short pile step, women's track and field step, quick step and so on. Fan play includes small flower fan, large flower fan, cross fan, cover fan, difference fan, butterfly fan, etc. There are rhinoceros looking at the moon, flowers planted on the knees, Huanglong wrapped around the waist, fishing for the moon on the sea floor, snow-covered roofs, rock eagles spreading their wings and so on. Some of the tunes of Guizhou Lantern Opera are dramatic, and some come from lyric folk songs, among which Embroidered Pocket is the most famous. In the process of popularity, Guizhou Lantern Opera gradually broke the song and dance program of "lights, fans and pa", and the foot color business was no longer limited to "second small" and "third small", but divided into net, end, old Dan and colorful Dan. On the basis of the original tune, its musical sound has also been expanded and changed, and gradually formed its own "banqiang" and "Qupai". The commonly used banqiang tunes are: tune, line tune, Dao tune, number tune, mantra tune, crying tune, one-word tune, Mamen, Yin Er Quan, Mountain Slope Sheep, Aizi and Four-level tune. Commonly used tunes include Four Small Scenes, Four Seasons Acacia, Moon Tone, Sending Husband Tone, Skillful Dressing, Bai Mudan Tone, Bigu Tone, Sending Tea Tone, Watching Flowers Tone, Snowflakes Floating and so on. When portraying characters by expressing plots, the board cavity and tunes are comprehensively used to form a string lamp system, a desk lamp system and a gong and drum lamp system, which have richer musical expression. Sinan Tujia Lantern Opera has integrated some elements of Nuo Opera and waving dance, forming its own characteristics. Its beautiful singing, strong local flavor and unique national style complement each other with lanterns and operas, which embodies the humanistic style of Wujiang River Basin.

[Edit this paragraph] function

Lantern opera comes from the folk, with few characters in the script, simple plot, simple lyrics and easy to understand, and its singing absorbs the characteristics of folk songs. It is cheerful and clear, with lively and funny performances and strong singing and dancing flavor. It is most famous for its life comedy, which is full of the fragrance of earth.

[Edit this paragraph] Play

In terms of repertoire, several lantern plays also have their own characteristics. There are few traditional plays of Xiangxi Lantern Opera, and the popular ones are picking mushrooms, cauliflower, pulling bamboo shoots, selling goods and flowers by Wang San. There are many plays of Lantern Opera in northern Hunan, mainly from the following aspects: First, the plays created collectively by Lantern artists. Second, some repertoires adapted from traditional repertoires by artists. With the continuous improvement and development of Lantern Opera in southern Hunan, there are more and more repertoires. Artists of past dynasties drew materials from social life and folk stories and created many plays. In addition, Lantern Opera has spread in southern Hunan and even northern Guangdong, and enriched the repertoire of Lantern Opera in the process of communication, absorption and transplantation with other operas. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 130 traditional operas in southern Hunan, including 59 dramas, 33 Chinese operas and more than 40 mini-operas. In addition, there are 40 sub-tune programs.

The repertoire of Lantern Opera is mainly old novels, folk stories and folk tunes. Traditional repertoires include Liu Sanmei Picking Water (1956 won the second prize of the first amateur art exhibition of workers and peasants in Guizhou Province), New Year's greetings, herding cattle to stop his wife, surrogate marriage, Wang Erbian's funeral, washing pants and playing with lights, Mo Dad persuading gambling and sisters watching flowers and offering tea. Dramas adapted from Chinese dramas include Liu Yin Ji, Jade Pin Ji, Killing Sister-in-law on May 2nd, Meng Zheng Driving Fast, Killing Dogs and Persuading Husband, Returning to the Kiln in Pinggui, Gui Ren Joining the Army, Feng Ting Driving Children, Yuanmen Killing Children, Chen Gu Driving Pan, Shi Xiu Killing Sister-in-law, etc. There are dozens of plays adapted from folk songs, such as Hanging High the Red Lantern, Two Plums, Eight Immortals, Python, Dripping Water, Zhao Fan, Pipa and Biography of a Crane.

[Edit this paragraph] Music

In terms of music, the tunes of Xiangxi Lantern Opera mainly come from light tone, and a large number of folk songs are used as the vocals in the play. Since the 1960s, with the establishment of professional troupes, the repertoire has been unprecedentedly rich, and the music has also developed from Qupai style to Qupai style, banqiang and compound music system, which has absorbed and enriched percussion music, enhanced musical expressive force and raised the level of drama. The tunes of Lantern Opera in northern Hunan can be divided into two categories: positive and minor, and there is also an ancient scale with only one key. Accompaniment instruments can be divided into literary and martial arts fields, such as Daqin, Hu Tao and war drums. Southern Hunan Lantern Festival music originated from local folk songs, minor and other folk songs. In the process of its formation and development, it absorbed and integrated folk music and foreign tunes. Paper-cut music of southern Hunan Lantern Opera can be divided into two kinds: playing the board and playing the silk string. The percussion music of Xiangnan Lantern Opera originated from the local folk percussion music. With the development of the art of Lantern Opera, some concepts of gongs and drums in Qi Opera have been quoted and changed.

[Edit this paragraph] Artistic features

In terms of performing arts, foot color and stage art, these three lantern plays also have their own characteristics. Xiangxi Lantern Opera inherited the "cover" and "circle" of lantern dance, various fan-shaped methods and humorous short pile diagrams in performing arts. In the long-term artistic practice, artists have refined and processed the different dynamics of various birds and beasts, flowers, birds, insects and fish, which are artistically embodied in these "covers" and "circles". After the founding of New China, the Lantern Festival was reborn and developed. Southern Hunan Lantern Opera has collected and arranged traditional plays and music, created a number of new plays, and continuously improved the performance quality. A number of outstanding repertoires, such as Emphasis Line, Flowers in October, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Carpenters, and October, have emerged and participated in provincial and local performances. The lantern festivals in northern Hunan and western Hunan are also developing vigorously. In recent ten years, Hunan Lantern Festival has made great progress. Many professional and amateur troupes have continuously improved their artistic level, created some new plays reflecting real life, and excavated and sorted out some traditional plays with new ideological content. Hunan has made new contributions to the development of Hunan Lantern Opera.

[Edit this paragraph] Organization

The organization of the Lantern Festival is called Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, and some even hold festivals to ensure performances. In the late Qing Dynasty, the famous lanterns in Guiyang were "South Gate Li Ergong" and "Xiao Bi Zhai Wang". 1960, Guizhou Lantern Troupe also hired Wang (9 1 year-old) to teach lantern tunes and the lantern drama "Sister Watching the Lantern". Wang's master is Li Ergong.