Why does Taiping Drum look forward to peace every year?

Taiping drum, also known as Banggu, is a folk song and dance rap art sung by Manchu people when they worship the gods. There are many aliases, such as Yin-Yang Opera, Chaoyang Opera, Jumping Family God, Jumping Single Drum God, Family Opera, Dang Drum Opera, etc., commonly known as "burning incense".

Some people think that Taiping Drum originated from Shamanism, but others think that Taiping Drum was originally a folk song and dance of Han nationality, then spread to Manchus in Northeast China, and then spread from Manchu to Han nationality after Qing Dynasty, so there is a difference between Manchu's "flag fragrance" and Han nationality's "folk fragrance".

A drum with sheepskin membranes at both ends and iron rings on the handle.

In addition to the three northeastern provinces, there are Taiping drums or similar folk songs and dances in Beijing, Qinghai and Jiangsu. There is a nine-lang god in the Taiping drum program of Manchus in Northeast China, and there is also a nine-lang god in Jiangsu folk song and dance programs. This man is the ninth son of Wei Zhi in Tang Dynasty, and his name is Wei Jiulang. It is said that he became a god after his death, so he was called the Nine Lang God. Taipinggu artists also said that Taipinggu was a form handed down after the victory of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin in conquering the East, and was beaten and sacrificed to commemorate the broadsword that Wang Junke lost on his way home. In the play, there are also historical stories and folklore of the Han nationality, such as Zheng He's divorced wife in the east. From this point of view, it was the Han people who first passed it on to Manchu, who developed this art and passed it on to the local Han people. Qi Xiang and Xiang Min are similar in performance form, so there is a folk song in Liaoyang in Northeast China:

Liaoyang city nine doors,

Man and Han all offer a god.

Jiudao Street, Liaoyang City,

Both Mann and Han sing and shout hi.

There are sporadic records of single drums in many Qing county annals in Northeast China. In the chapter "Fashion is all over the world" in the book "A Brief Introduction to the Capital" published in the 12th year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (1873), there is a description of "sonorous drums":

Dancing drums, young women,

Pretending to say the word of God is like singing.

Sama always tells lies when she is treating diseases.

Fool a fool and make your heart mixed.

Judging from these eight verses, "jumping on the drum" means "jumping on the single drum". The drummers were all young women at that time, and "Sama" means "shaman". Author Liu Shiying thinks that pedestrians cheat money in the name of jumping off a building to treat diseases.

Most of the people who did this later were men. It was very popular in rural areas in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. After liberation, it was cancelled as a superstitious activity. Around 1956, in order to dig and rescue folk art, music, dance and folk art workers all went to the countryside to find artists and collect their music, dance and lyrics. Therefore, there is a strange phenomenon that "people from the Public Security Bureau go to the countryside to catch and people from the Cultural Bureau go to the countryside to dig".

The performance form and representative repertoire of Taiping Drum are also very distinctive.

Learn to play the Taiping drum

"Jilin Tongzhi" records: "The sacrificial ceremony in Manchuria is the heaviest, with one offering sacrifices to heaven and two offering sacrifices to ancestors ... Family members string relatives, take their clansmen as tea horses, wear god hats, tie waist bells, drum and dance, recite auspicious words, and everyone drums together, which is called jumping home gods." Therefore, there are two folk sayings: "Learn from others' ways and keep the tea horse as a false god." At first, the single drum dance was to commemorate ancestors, draw shadows and figures, and offer sacrifices. Sacrificial songs have spread to this day, and in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, they developed into wearing god hats (similar to those worn by people who celebrate their birthdays now, with five Buddha statues in front), wearing colorful skirts around their waists, tying bells around their waists (a string of iron bells, about three inches long, shaped like pen caps, dancing in a tinkling way, so they are called "tinkling drums"), and playing single drums by hand (the leather surface of an iron frame, such as the shape of a cattail leaf fan, and the drum surface). In today's Fushun area, Liaoning Province, the "Jumping Single Drum" is also interspersed with the performance of "Jumping Tiger God". A few people dressed as tigers and playing big tigers and little tigers are even more lively and impressive. The singing of Northeast Taiping Drum absorbs the tunes of folk songs, duet and Northeast Drum, and its performance form is lively. In the Qing Dynasty, the court and the people performed Taiping Drum on New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival, seeking its auspicious meaning of "peace". He Qing's "Yantai Zhuzhi Ci";

The hoop and the drum meet every time,

Group dancing is old-fashioned

It is said that elephants live in peace,

Buckling is the same as yielding.

In the seventh year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (1742), the Taiping Spring City Map drawn by Ding, the Taiping World woodblock New Year Picture of Yangliuqing in Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Drum all reflected the performance of Taiping Drum at that time.

This form of song and dance was widely spread in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, including "happy incense", "willing incense" and "peaceful incense".

"Xixiang" is an activity for Manchu families to marry their daughters-in-law and hold happy events. It was held the day before the wedding day, so there is a saying that "Jingling, even marrying a daughter-in-law and burning incense".

"wishing incense" refers to making a wish to one's ancestors when one's family is ill. When the patient is well, he must keep his promise, burn incense and make a wish.

"Taiping Xiang" means that the rich people in the village invite people to "burn incense" after the autumn harvest, hoping for a bumper harvest and peace every year. The name of the single drum was changed to Taiping Drum, which originated from Taiping Xiang.

Taiping drum artist, commonly known as "incense burner", "single drummer" and "skillful craftsman". The leading artist is called "Zhang Tan" and the accompanying artist is called "Bangzi Drum" or "Beginning Drum". They all help to sing and dance under the command of the person in charge of the altar. A "fragrance team" ranges from three or four people to five or six people.

Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, there have been many Taiping drum artists in Shenyang, such as,,, Zhang Enying,, Hu Renzhu, Hu Chengyu, Hu Tong, Lu, Jin Weizi, Jia Changwu, Li Baoshan, Li Baochang, Xu Dianjiu and Gao Qi North. Some of them are father and son, others are brothers. Taiping drum artists, like duet artists, have full-time artists who are active all the year round, as well as semi-agricultural and semi-artistic artists. A few artists can sing duet and single drum. Among them, during Guangxu period, Zhang Caifa of Hunhebao in southern Shenyang and Chen Junqing of Shijiuzitun in Gujiabao, Xiushuihezi Township, Faku County were both famous singers.

Single drum performance by old artists

The lyrics of Taiping drum are mainly seven words, with a few five-word sentences and cross sentences, which are basically the same as those of Northeast drum. Most rhymes to the end, and the next sentence rhymes. There are also several lyrics, similar to the number of treasures, which are antithetical rhymes, and the upper and lower sentences rhyme.

Lyrics can be divided into "inner drum" and "outer drum". "Inner Road Drum" * * * is divided into nine shops (the lyrics are segmented, which is the same as the Tang Dynasty Bianwen, showing its historical origin), and it is necessary to sing lyrics for asking for heaven and sending god. These nine shops are: "Please visit the land, please visit Shandong (please visit Jiulang God), cross the Tianhe River, visit the four-door circle, meet the gods, meet the necromancer, meet the necromancer, settle down in eight places, and send the gods nine times." If you add "opening the altar", it can also be counted as ten shops. The main content is that God invited the gods to go down to the underworld, invited the souls of deceased relatives to come back to the underworld, sat down to eat and listen to music, and finally sent the gods and the dead back.

There are 12 shops and 24 shops in Wailu Drum, and you can sing more or less. The contents are all historical stories and folklore, such as Wu Wang's attack on Zhou Dynasty (from Disciples' Rules: Taishi Returning to the DPRK), emperor's surrender to Yangzhou, conquest of the East, picking up, evil dog mountain, etc. The artists of Taiping Drum also learned some tunes of Northeast Drum, Errenzhuan and Northeast Folk, such as "Saving Mother by Breaking Mountain", "White Ape Stealing Peach", "Li Cuilian Dishes Knife", "Farewell to Lovers" and "Going for a Drive in the Country". Conversely, the duet artist also learned some tracks and vocals from the Taiping drum artist. For example, the traditional song "The Afterlife of Zhang Sijie" (also known as "Fuyuanpei", the lyrics "Rushing South Gate" originated from the "Tianmen Circle" of Taiping Drum). Another example is "Hanging the Tiger Outside" (a lyric added by the artist) and "debauchery and wealth" in "Blue Bridge". "Xiqiao Pian" used a surname of Wen to denounce Zhou Wang's heartless "Ten Taboos", which came from Taiping Drum. "Ironically, Yang Di, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, also learned" Lower Yangzhou "from Taiping Drum.

Taiping drum performance

"Meng Jiangnv" and "Pick Zhang Lang" of Taiping Drum are the most popular and influential plays. The story of Meng Jiangnv is one of the four major folk stories in China. From the frontier prose in the Tang Dynasty to the disciple's book in the Qing Dynasty, Meng Jiangnv was looking for a husband. Today, there is still the Jiangnv Temple in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province. Everyone is familiar with Meng Jiangnv's story, so there is no need to elaborate. Picking Zhang Lang is one of the legends of Kitchen God. The main idea of the story is: In ancient times, there was a rich man, Zhang Yunchang, who married Guo Dingxiang. Husband and wife and beauty. One day, I went to Dongzhuang to collect rent and was caught by two witches, Tao and Xing. After returning home, he divorced his good wife Guo Dingxiang and married two witches. Soon, the house caught fire and the tiles did not exist. Zhang Lang also burned his eyes and wandered around, begging for a living. On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, he came to his ex-wife Guo Dingxiang's house to beg. Guo Dingxiang sympathized with him and gave him a big bowl of noodle soup with a golden hairpin in it. Zhang Lang took out a gold hairpin and threw it on the ground as a stick. Guo Dingxiang gave her real name. Hearing this, Zhang Lang felt ashamed and hit her head on the stove. The jade emperor in the sky remembered that he had the same surname as himself. Although he liked the new and hated the old, he made a big mistake, but he finally regretted dying on the kitchen stove, so he was named the kitchen god and looked after hundreds of families every year. When this story spread among the people, it left a custom for the kitchen god, and the 23 rd of the twelfth lunar month became the day of offering sacrifices to the kitchen. After the completion of this track, the two banshees were turned into evil women who covet the money of the Zhang family and deliberately speak ill of Guo Lilac, and the superstitious plot of Vulcan setting fire to Zhang Zhai was deleted. After finishing and publishing, it was adapted into "The Divorced Wife of Zhang Lang" performed by two people, which was well received by the audience. Another adaptation of the Manchu single drum "Dog Savior" from the juvenile legend of Nurhachi participated in the national minority folk art performance, which was well received and won the prize. The dance of Taiping Drum was also adapted by Liaoning Song and Dance Troupe into "Taiping Encouragement", which was performed abroad and was well received.