Yangge information

brief introduction

Yangko, also known as Yangko, has a long history. It is one of the most representative folk dance forms in China, and it is also a unique collective dance art in folk squares. Because of its colorful dance, yangko is very popular among farmers. In addition to its own style and characteristics, Yangko is generally composed of more than 10 to 100 dancers, dressed as historical stories, myths and legends, and people in real life, dancing and walking. With the rhythm of drums, Yangko is good at changing various formations and dancing in colorful ways, which is deeply loved by the audience.

trait

Yangko dance is lively, diverse, colorful, lively, large-scale and lively. On major festivals, such as the New Year, cities and rural areas have organized teams to greet each other, bless each other and entertain each other. In addition, different village neighbors will visit each other by dancing yangko, which is more important to ancient farmers than singing and dancing.

The benefits of yangko

All these make Yangko the main form of mass entertainment, celebration and publicity. Because yangko is rich in content, color and variety; In addition, the dynamic dance of Yangko is rich, which makes people who watch Yangko be elated and full of pride. Therefore, it is welcomed by the audience and is an art form loved by the people. It also brings happiness and joy to the people in the forest area and the general public, and it is a good way to relieve physical and mental fatigue.

The origin of yangko:

Yangge originated from the working life of transplanting rice seedlings and ploughing fields, and it is related to the carols and songs sung in ancient times to pray for harvest and disaster. In the process of development, we constantly absorbed the skills and forms of agricultural songs, yangko (a form of folk songs), folk martial arts, acrobatics and operas, thus developing from ordinary yangko singing to folk singing and dancing. By the Qing Dynasty, "Yangko" had spread all over the country. In order to show the difference, people often put a certain area or formal characteristics in front. For example, drum yangko (Shandong), northern Shaanxi yangko, local yangko (Hebei, Beijing, Liaoning), Manchu yangko and stilt yangko. Ancient paintings in the south, lanterns, tea picking and Ying Ge, which are popular in Guangdong and Hong Kong, have different names, but they all belong to the type of Yangko, and they are all derived from Yangko.

Make yangko

In northern Shaanxi, Lantern Festival is called "Noisy Yangko". The village yangko teams, led by an umbrella-holding "umbrella head", dance to the beat of gongs and drums, run "big venue" (group dance), perform "small venue" (two-person three-person dance), and perform in various households to celebrate the New Year and pray for a good harvest. The umbrella head leading the dance should be good at leading the traditional lyrics and improvising new words according to local conditions to meet the needs of different occasions. Generally speaking, singing is followed by dancing. When singing, all the players repeated the last sentence he sang, which was simple and lively. During the Lantern Festival, the local people will set up a light array called "Jiuqu Yellow River Lantern" (commonly known as "Turn to Jiuqu"), and the masses will enter it with the Yangko team to watch various Yangko performances. This activity has the meaning of eliminating disasters and evil spirits.

Northeast yangge

Folk dances in Liaoning include yangko, dragon lantern, dry boat, butterfly flapping, synchronized wrestling, Hua Gun, stilts, etc. They are often performed together, collectively known as "yangko".

Yangko before liberation

Before liberation, rural yangko was twisted and sung, also called yangko; Rural yangko tour village, also known as "running yangko"; Town yangko is also called "dancing yangko".

Yangko in coriander.

Note: Yangko is an intermediate form from local Nuo opera to local opera, with one end connected with exorcists (Nuo gods are actually witches) and the other end connected with opera actors. This chapter intends to introduce the name source and formal characteristics of Yangko, and the relationship between Yangko and villagers' Nuo opera, opera and puppet show. Yangko, which is popular all over the country, is related to the exorcism activities of ancient people-chasing epidemics along the door. This kind of music is not difficult to find in the popular northern yangko.

Shaanxi's "God Will Yangko"

The old yangko in Baoningbao Township, Yulin, Shaanxi Province and Guo Xinzhuang, Mizhi County is called "the yangko of God". "Before the Spring Festival every year, the Yangko team led by President Shen will go to worship the gods and temples. The next day, they began to pay New Year's greetings from door to door, which the masses called "along the door" to avoid disasters and take refuge, and to be auspicious and safe. " Obviously, "along the door" is the activity of chasing the epidemic along the door, but Nuo people take off their grimace shells.

Yangko with umbrella head

In western Shanxi and northwestern Shaanxi, there is a popular "umbrella-headed yangko". There is an important singer in the Yangko team, who holds a flower umbrella in his left hand and a flower umbrella in his right hand, commonly known as the umbrella head. He is the leader of a yangko team, whose main duties are to direct the overall situation, arrange programs, lead the yangko team to line streets and lanes, go to the courtyard to find a venue, and improvise yangko appreciation on behalf of the yangko team. According to folklore, umbrellas and rings are both instruments to subdue demons and catch monsters, which shows the connection between yangko and ancient Nuo ceremonies.

The ceremony of yangko

In some remote mountainous areas, whenever yangko is played, the plague should be sacrificed first, and then the plague should go to the hospital. At the end of yangko (usually after sunset), a ceremony to send the plague will be held. The community will make a boat in advance, mostly made of sorghum stalks and pasted with white paper. Exquisite places are all made of wood. There are lights and a paper man on board, symbolizing the god of plague. Or simply write a memorial tablet "the spiritual position of the plague master." Escorted by the yangko team to the river, people bowed down after the incense. Umbrella sang a farewell yangko, immediately put the paper boat into the water and floated away. This is very similar to the ancient exorcism ceremony.

Relationship between Yangko and Transplantation and Transplanting

The name "Yangko" is easily associated with its relationship with rice transplanting. In the three northern regions (northeast, northwest and north China) where there is no paddy field, rice planting and rice transplanting, the popularity of yangko is even higher than that in the south. This shows that the northern yangko has nothing to do with transplanting rice.

The name of "Yangko" in the north and the south is the same, but they are different. The "Yangko" in the south is a performance when transplanting rice seedlings, mainly "songs", while in the north, it is an entertainment costume performance during slack farming or Chinese New Year.

Yangko, which is popular in the three northern regions and performed in makeup during the Lantern Festival, is not an artistic variety with the southern Yangko sung during transplanting rice seedlings. They use the same name, which is just the result of similar pronunciation. Unless otherwise specified, the yangko discussed later generally refers to the northern yangko.

The history of yangko:

According to the Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Opera and Drama in China, the proportion of traditional Chinese opera and drama developed from Yangko in China is quite amazing. It can be said that yangko is the source of all kinds of dramas.

According to the records in Brief Introduction to Liu Bian, the performance time of Yangko is on the night of Lantern Festival, with a person dressed as an umbrella lamp selling plasters as the lead singer, followed by three or four women dressed as "boys" and three or four people pretending to join the army. They all hold "two-foot-long" logs in their hands. There are ethnic minority elements in the Yangko performance, which was formed in the Yuan Dynasty at the latest.

The information value provided by Cangxian Annals in Hebei Province in the Republic of China should be paid enough attention to. First, it is suspected that the meaning of the naming of yangko is "transplanting rice seedlings to sing in the south", and another name of yangko-"yangko" is put forward. Secondly, the formal characteristics of North China Yangko are described in detail, which is similar to that of Northeast Yangko, among which the costumes and props of each role are the most noteworthy. For example, the "interest" held by "Gongzi" can be related to the shape and function of "bamboo pole" in Song Zaju, and to the formation of "Luozi", which is an important material to solve problems in the history of traditional Chinese opera. As for "robe and short robe, soap boots and feather tassels", it should also be regarded as the clothing of ethnic minorities.

North China yangge

Regarding the North China Yangko, Li et al. recorded the "Yangko Club" in Beijing in the Guide to Beiping of the People's Society: "All the characters in the class dressed as actors and walked on stilts. Among them, the role is divided into ten parts: Tuotou monk, silly son, old Zuozi, Xiao, Chai Weng, fisherman, plaster seller, fisherman, handsome man and ugly drum. Due to the opposition of gongs and drums, * * * consists of twelve single voices. The characters are funny, inspiring the ensemble and making great contributions to the vocation of art "Obviously, Beijing Yangko is more like Liaoning Yangko. The so-called "silly childe" is the "sand childe" in the Northeast Yangko or the "childe" in Cangxian Annals. There is no "selling plaster" in Cangxian county, but there are in Northeast China and Beijing.

Yangko in northwest China

There are so-called "leaders with white beard, painted face, red tassel cap, short white coat and umbrella lamp" in northwest China, which are equivalent to the leaders of "anti-wearing fur coat" in Northeast Yangko and "short robe coat, feather tassel with soap boots and red umbrella" in North China Yangko. The so-called "prodigal son" and "prostitute" are probably equivalent to the "son" and "beauty" in North China Yangko. They "sang and danced", teased each other and performed simple plays to attract the audience's attention.

Characteristics of yangko

Let's sum up the characteristics of yangko: a makeup performance with dramatic factors is usually performed in the northern countryside around the Lantern Festival; Generally in the form of a dance team, and sing and dance; Most dance teams have to perform from door to door, retaining traces of development from door-to-door epidemic to busking and begging along the street; The names and numbers of the roles in the dance team are different, but there are always officials, martial arts students, old people, monks, women and so on. (Roughly equivalent to the ugliness in China's traditional operas), they always perform the content of teasing each other between young men and women, and young men call them "sand sons" or "silly sons"; Generally, boys make up and women dress up as men; In the dance team, there are two parts: the leader and the back. Leaders often wear fur coats and carry umbrella lamps, which are the costumes of northern minorities and are sometimes called "plasterers". Sometimes officials (joining the army) also wear ethnic costumes. Some dancers hold two short sticks; When performing, gongs and drums are ringing, and drums are more important.

According to this feature, there are similar performances in the Yangtze River valley and even in South China, but most of them are not called yangko, but called yangko lanterns, flower drum lanterns, or playing flower drums, lanterns and picking tea.

Yangko Lantern in Hubei Province

Yangko Lantern staged at Fangxian Lantern Festival in Hubei Province, Hundred Lantern Show in Yao 'an, Yunnan Province, and the picture of Jiahe County in Hunan Province in the Republic of China: "Yangko is called' Lantern Festival', with men, women and children singing and dancing, and golden drums and horns matching skills, similar to Hengzhou Lantern Festival. The wind stopped on the 15th, and it was called' Lantern Festival'. "

The "Flower Drum Lantern" recorded in Hupu 'an, Yizheng, Jiangsu Province in the Records of Chinese National Customs is a typical yangko. English songs popular in Puning and Chao 'an in Guangdong Province are also written as Ying Ge, Yangko and Yin Ge, which not only retain some performance characteristics of northern Yangko, but also retain the name of Yangko.

Therefore, we not only have reason to deny the theory that the northern yangko "comes from the south", but even say that the English songs, lanterns, tea picking and flower drums in the south are all imported from the north, at least influenced by the northern yangko.

Yangko is also called yangko.

In Shaanxi, Hebei and other places, yangko is also called "yangko". Some people think that yangko originated in Fengyang, so it is also called "yangko". Others believe that "Yangko" originated from the sun worship of ancient humans and was the original name of Yangko. Are unrealistic.

When we look beyond the Great Wall to the inhabited areas of ethnic minorities, we know that Yangko has names such as Xuan Ge, Yang Ge, and, and further south, we can see many homophones such as,, and so on.

Song of women

Huang Xun's Red Mountain Broken Leaves in the Qing Dynasty said: "There is a yangko in Hongshan Lantern City, and the" Miao "or" Song "of the yangko is called a woman's song. The ancient book says that it is called Qu Shuai, which seems to be inconsistent. " It is worth noting that yangko is a "woman's song".

The Journey to the West, Liu Wenhai, Republic of China: "Women who are attached to Xinjiang people are really charming and sold out as soon as they meet. ..... There was a nosy person who once wrote Brother Yang's words. Brother Yang is called pestering a woman. " I still remember the Xinjiang folk song: "Turpan grape cantaloupe, Kuqa sheep plaid (called woman) is a flower."

Four records of Xinjiang dialect in A Brief Introduction to Xi Huang compiled by Qi Yunshi in Qing Dynasty: "Call a woman Yang Xiong." According to this, it can be said with certainty that Xuan Ge, Yang Ge, Ge Ge and Yang Ge are all female names in Uygur language. And this woman mainly refers to girls, at least young women. It is hard to imagine that people over middle age will be called "a flower".

Therefore, the original meaning of yangko is "girl's song". There is the strongest evidence that young men and women tease each other in yangko everywhere. "Singing and dancing" is one of the essential features of Yangko.

Regardless of yangko, lanterns and tea picking, girls are the protagonists; This girl is mostly dressed by boys.

We have emphasized that Yangko has the elements of northern minorities, and now we can further say that Yangko is the product of the combination of ancient villagers' Nuo and western entertainment forms.

Travel notes of Xinjiang

Xie's Travels in Xinjiang records "Calling Brothers and Holding Langs", which is very similar to the Yangko of the Han nationality, including the song and dance of boys and girls flirting with each other and the drama performance with simple plot. Its main "roles" are played by Xuan Ge (a girl). The name of "Yangko" of the Han nationality comes from it.

"Brother Xuan" used to be the name of the role, and there is a saying of "Yangko role" in the northeast. In addition, there was a decree between Yongzheng and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty prohibiting "yangko feet and degenerate women" from swimming and singing. Today, after the group dance, a folk artist (or a part-time yangko) appeared to sing the yangko tune in Jidong yangko.

In addition, Li Junya's "The Lantern Festival Social Fire in Huangzhong" recorded the performance of the Lantern Festival Social Fire in southeastern Qinghai. In the huge costume dance team, there are stilt girls, flower girls, flower bangzi, Laoyanggao (also known as "Brother Laoyang"), pseudo-Vulcan, newspaper, flower drum, poison girl, flower monk, mute and arm aunt. This is basically the same as the ordinary yangko performance. The leader's "Levin" (yangko) is immediately Kuqa's "Levin" and "Ge Xuan", that is, the "yangko foot" or "yangko corner" of the Han nationality. Later, the whole dance team was called in the name of the team leader.

The Five Roles of Shandong Guzi Yangko

The drum yangko in Shandong yangko has five roles: umbrella, drum, stick, flower and ugly. Among them, "umbrella" is divided into "ugly umbrella" and "flower umbrella". "Ugly Umbrella", also called "Head Umbrella", dresses up for the old men and is the conductor of the whole Yangko team. "Drum", dressed for martial arts students, is the main actor of Yangko team. There are many people and complicated movements. It plays drums while dancing, and it dances with extraordinary momentum. "Drum Yangko" got its name. "Bang" is a young man dancing with a wooden stick with colored stripes at both ends. Hua is a young woman whose costume imitates Hua Dan in China's traditional drama. The number of "ugly" people can be more or less. They dress up as "silly boys", "ugly girls", "county officials" and "playboys" and improvise for fun.

The role of Jiaozhou Yangko

The roles of Jiaozhou Yangko are "drum, Cui Hua, stick, fan flower, careful axis", each role is a pair, * * * five to ten. The names of all the characters are called according to their props, makeup and performance characteristics. Since "drum", "stick" and "flower" are all role names, "Brother Xuan" can be a role name.

"Brother Xuan snuggles up to Lang"

When it spread to the East, the "Xuange Duilang" originated from the western regions met the fire of the Han people's Lantern Festival with exorcism factors, so at the junction of the East and the West, specifically, in Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, northern Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places, a makeup performance form with "Xuange" as the main role was produced. When this folk song and dance spread to the southeast, it was difficult for Xuan Xiong, Yang Xiong and others to understand, so they borrowed the name of Yangko, a southern rice transplanting song.

The appearance of yangko

Yangge probably came into being in the Song Dynasty, and it may be called "Jinggu" at the earliest. Song and dance in the western regions, with "Xuan Ge" as the main role, combined with the fire of the Lantern Festival of the Han nationality, became the Yangko in the Song Dynasty, which is located in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and is the junction of the central and western regions.

Differences between Yangko and Chaozhou English Songs

It's not that English songs don't rap, but it's divided into two parts: encouragement (martial arts and drums) and "ancient costume" performance (literary drums). The former kept the name of drumming "Ying Ge" and called the theatrical performance "the back shed". The "drum yangko" mentioned above is actually no different from Chaozhou dialect in Ying Ge. There is also a small pink yangko in Shanxi, which also belongs to this category.

"Song Jiang array"

In Fujian and Taiwan, there is a form of entertainment called "Gejiang Town", that is, English songs, but they simply abandoned all the names of "English songs" and "yangko" and replaced them with new names worthy of the name in the eyes of Han people. However, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou called the parade of boys and girls "welcome pavilion", which still bears the imprint of yangko and drums. Because a basic feature of yangko is that boys make up and women dress up as men.

Records of past events in Wulin

It is said here that women are dressed as puppets, which reminds us of the boys in the Yangko team who dress up as women. This form of yangko should be passed down from the puppet show. "Old Wulin", after the Lantern Festival for two years, is called "Dance Team, Muppets in the Whole Shed". Its names are: Xun Dan, Xi Dan, Clapping Stick, Men and Women Bamboo Horse, Men and Women Best, Hedong Zi, Blind Judge, Dry Boat, Playing Ghosts with Gong, Village, Drum Plate, Playing Monks and Vendors. It's almost the same as yangko dance.

Yangko Opera-Yangxi

There is a local joke in western Hunan that Yang Opera originated from Yangko, which is divided into South Road and North Road, and North Road Yang Opera is also called "Liu Zi Opera". Both the Yangxi Opera in South Road and the puppet show in North Road have been transplanted.

The "Tianzhu Yang Opera", which is popular in Tianzhu, Guizhou, is often dominated by clowns, and "starting feet" and "turning around and lifting feet while walking" are similar to small steps and small steps. Dan Jiao and the clown must open four doors when they appear, accompanied by gongs and drums. "In Hunan, people's operas are called" high-stage operas "and puppet shows are called" low-stage operas ". The clown's "starting foot" is exactly the action of "puppet foot" in Fujian Xiaoliyuan Opera, which is purely imitating the puppet.

It is worth mentioning that Nuo operas in Guizhou and Sichuan are also called "Yang Opera" or "Yang Opera". Usually, the explanation of the name of "Yang Opera" is that "Yang Opera" which entertains people and "Yin Opera" which entertains gods are symmetrical, hence the name. In fact, Yang opera and Yin opera are both Nuo operas, and there is no difference in performance place, time, form and purpose. Moreover, "Yang drama" can also be written as "Yang drama", which cannot be explained by referring to Yin and Yang.

Nuo Opera is called "Yang Opera" because the puppet gave it a nickname. In the fourth scene of Hunan Nuo Opera "Dapandong", there is a scene where "Brother Sakura" teaches "Peach Blossom" to sing lotus flowers. This "Sakura Brother" is equivalent to Xuange and Levin in the Western Yangko.

There are Zitong operas in Yunnan and Sichuan. "People who are newly married, infertile after marriage, childless or ill for a long time are generally invited to perform, with the intention of letting their children fulfill their wishes and pray for God's blessing." Also known as "Zitong Opera" and "Yang Opera", it is actually a kind of Nuo Opera. The relationship between the two is very clear, indicating that "Yang Xi" is a prayer for fertility. In Yuan Zaju, emperors often called empresses "children" or "children". "Hanwu Story" once said that Wei Zifu entered the palace and was not allowed to see him when he was in his forties. Please come out in tears. Emperor Wu was lucky enough to have a son and made him a queen because he dreamed of "Zi Shu" at night. This may be the beginning of Zitong, as the emperor said, or the origin of Zitong opera. And those who are also called "Yangxi" come from the boy-Xuange-Yangko.

Yangxi is popular in Yangchang Township, Luodian County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. "There are many Han people in Yang Opera Troupe, but the customs related to this drama are mainly Buyi people. In the homes of some Buyi villagers, there are small statues (about 20 cm high) dedicated to the "farewell empress" and "boy". If a family doesn't have children for a long time, it needs the help of relatives and friends to "steal" the little idol of "farewell to the empress" at home. The stolen owner clearly knew that these people were coming to "steal" the boy, so he let them steal it and ignored it, and he got a pleasant feeling in his heart. When the boy was stolen to the childless home, the owner wrapped it in red silk and hid it in a place where it was not easy to lose. At the same time, he made a wish to the gods to have a child. When he is pregnant and gives birth to a child, he will invite the' Yang Xi' class to sing and celebrate. It can be seen that the content of seeking children in' Yang Opera' accounts for the weight and its relationship with puppet shows. Because, no matter "sending away the goddess" or "the boy", they are all puppet statues, and they all pray as gods.