Characteristics of primitive dance

Its main form is a dance about hunting and labor. Neolithic rock paintings in Yinshan area of Inner Mongolia depict the image of hunting dance. People dress up as birds, goats, foxes and other animals. Some headdresses include antlers and feathers, while others have tails. The appearance of this dance is closely related to hunting.

Due to the lack of understanding of natural phenomena in primitive society, people have a sense of fear and gradually formed a primitive religious belief-totem worship. Taking animals, plants or natural objects as enclosures, we believe that totems can protect and harm people, and regard totems as ancestors and protectors. The images of snakes, birds and animals seen from unearthed cultural relics and ancient rock paintings are the images of clan totems. According to legend, Fuxi and Nu Wa, who have snake heads, are the ancestors of the Chinese nation with "dragon" as their totem. Fu danced in the name of "Fenglai" and sang the song "Jing"; Nu Wa's dance name "Chong Le" is a tribute to Fu's achievements in inventing nets, teaching people to catch birds and beasts, marrying Nu Wa and teaching people to marry. According to legend, Emperor Yan of Niutou is the ancestor of Qiang nationality with "sheep" as the totem. His music and dance "Liv" and his song "Harvest Year" are to praise the achievements of Emperor Yan in sowing grains and inventing agriculture, and are honored as Shennong. Kang Yin's dance is called "Big Dance", which teaches people to do physical exercise to resist damp diseases. Ge's dance is called "Le Guang", in which three people fuck oxtails and sing eight songs (segments) to pray for abundant crops and birds and animals to multiply. The Yellow Emperor takes "Cloud" as the totem, and "Cloud Gate" is the totem dance of the Yellow Emperor. The "Phoenix Bird Tianzhai" dance is a totem dance in the Di Ku era; "Stone-beating, animal dance" is the totem music and dance of all clans during the reign of Emperor Yao. The music and dance of these ancient clans are full of the struggle life of youth and strength, and also reflect the prayer fantasy and witchcraft etiquette of primitive religions.

Second, the rites and music of the Zhou Dynasty are masterpieces of ancient dance.

Since Yu Xia passed his son to Yu Qi, he has entered the slave society. From the Xia and Shang Dynasties (2 1 ~ BC 1 1 century) to the founding of the Western Zhou Dynasty, slavery reached its peak, and the ruling class of the Zhou Dynasty had fully realized the social role of music and dance in politics and formulated the system of rites and music. In order to carry out this system of rites and music, the Zhou royal family arranged the music and dances left over from the previous generation, including the music and dances of Huangdi, Tang Yao, Yu Shun, Shang Tang and, which were collectively called the Six-Generation Dance. And set up a huge music and dance organization "Da Le Si", and the children of nobles should receive strict education in six arts (etiquette, music, archery, imperial examination, calligraphy and mathematics). /kloc-enter school at the age of 0/3, step by step, learn music first, recite poems and dance. /kloc-at the age of 0/5, he began to learn archery, elephant driving and elephant dancing (the legend of elephants is martial arts dance, and some people think it is totem dance such as fish and shrimp). At the age of 20, I learned all kinds of ceremonies and big dances.

During the festival, the children of nobles were led by western music for six generations. Play different music and dances on different occasions, and play "Le Kai" in triumph; Yan Shangke, performing "Four generations under one roof" and "Sanqu"; Dance "bow and arrow dance" while holding an arrow. In all ceremonial occasions, on the one hand, it emphasizes the sanctity of being ordered by heaven, on the other hand, it emphasizes the dignity of rank. The ritual and music system in the Western Zhou Dynasty was a great creation of political civilization in slave society and a masterpiece of ancient dance before the Zhou Dynasty.

In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the royal family of the Zhou Dynasty declined and the princes competed for hegemony. The system of rites and music can not be maintained, and the historical buildings in slave society are facing the trend of falling apart.

Three. Witchcraft Dance and Folk Sacrifice Dance

In primitive society, because people worship totems and are superstitious about ghosts and gods, there are gradually "witches" to communicate with people and gods. The "witch" is in charge of divination, asking God to bless or eliminate the ominous. The "witch" was originally a clan leader. The legendary Yu Xia is not only a hero of water control, but also a wizard. His leg was sick in the flood fighting, so he couldn't walk, so he had to move forward step by step. This kind of footwork is called "Yubu", which became a dance step imitated by wizards later, also called "Wubu". Ge Hong's Bao Pu Zi in the Jin Dynasty recorded two jumping ways of "Imperial Step". Cheng Tang, the founder of Shang Dynasty, was also a wizard. In the early years of Shang Dynasty, it didn't rain, so Cheng Tang sacrificed himself and prayed for rain in the mulberry forest. It rained heavily. This rain-praying sacrifice was still left over during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the Han dynasty, spring drought begged for rain, witches offered sacrifices to workers violently, and children danced eight feet of dragons. Pray for rain in summer drought, sacrifice to Chiyou, and the strong dance with 70-foot red dragon. In the autumn drought, the witch was sacrificed to Shao Hao, and the widower danced with the white dragon. Looking for snow in winter drought, offering sacrifices to the God of Xuan Ming. Dance 6 feet black dragon. It rained continuously, beating drums and attacking to stop the rain. Now dragon dance has become a folk festival dance.

Wax Festival originated from witchcraft. It is said that it began in the Yi era and was held at the end of the year to pray for a bumper harvest and reward the gods. There are Ba Shen's wax sacrifices: ① Xian Si (Shennong); 2 Sisi (Hou Ji); 3 agriculture (Saturnalia); (4) pillars, tables and scabs (huts, fields, well gods); (5) cats and tigers (cats and tiger gods); 6 parties (earth gods); ⑦ Shui Yong (River God); ⑧ One hundred kinds (Hundred Valley Gods), witches in Huang Guan sang sacrificial songs in yellow clothes during the wax festival, and the band played "Hail to You", drummed and danced "Dance of Soldiers". The twelfth lunar month festival has become a day for farmers to rest and entertain. Both the cat god and the tiger god in the wax sacrifice appear in the concrete image of the corpse, and the image of the god is played by the wizard in the song and dance "Nine Songs" in Chu. From the poem "Nine Songs", we can see the performance of this large-scale witch dance: the altar is decorated with Qionghua Cao Fang and cinnamon sauce; The priest wears jewelry and holds a sword; The band played a pentatonic ensemble and drummed An Ge; The "gods" danced in colorful clothes.

In the early years of the Han Dynasty, witchcraft was still very popular, and Emperor Gaozu often sacrificed mountains and rivers with witchcraft. The famous witches in Jin Dynasty were Zhang Dan and Zhu Chen. Legend has it that they are good-looking, good at dancing, laughing like ghosts, drawing swords and breaking tongues, and invisible. The Record of Ancient and Modern Music contains the song of 1 1 Shenxian, which is a witch's spiritual song.

Witchcraft dance is popular in vast areas. Emperor gaozu used Qin wizards and Jin wizards in the north and Jing wizards and Han wizards in the south to worship the mountains and rivers. To a great extent, the spread of witchcraft entertains people by singing and dancing, makes use of the beauty of witches, and uses acrobatics, magic, opera, painting and other artistic means to pray for people, exorcise evil spirits and cure diseases, which is dazzling. "Witch" and "dance" are homophonic, and there is also "witch who dances down the gods". Witches of all ethnic groups who have survived all over the world so far, such as: the God Witch of the Han nationality, Duan Gong of the Qiang nationality, Shaman of the Manchu nationality, Shigong of the Zhuang nationality, Dongba of the Naxi nationality, Dongsa of the Jingpo nationality, Qiang Mu of the Tibetan nationality and Tea Horse of the Mongolian nationality, although their gods and customs are different, their activities are nothing more than praying for exorcism, which is directly related to primitive witchcraft. Emperor Gaozu once let the world build the Ling Xing Temple, and offering sacrifices to Ling Xing became a national ritual activity. Ling Xing is a daily star, the main valley. Dance the spirit star dance during the sacrifice. The dancers are 16 boys and girls, and the dance action is to teach people the labor process of farming: weeding, farming, plowing, driving birds, plowing and so on. Lingxing Dance spread to the Ming Dynasty, and there is also a "Lingxing Small Dance Score" in Zhu Zaiyu's Music Collection.