The Song Dynasty of Chinese Traditional Dance

Song Dynasty is an important turning point in the history of music and dance culture in China. During this period, Kaifeng, Lin 'an and other big cities enjoyed prosperous commerce and smooth traffic, which promoted the prosperity of urban entertainment life, greatly developed folk literature and art, and gave new vitality to music and dance culture.

In big cities, there are many places called "Wazi". The inner fence of Wazi is a circle called "Goulan", which is a fixed place for performing various skills, including acrobatics, storytelling, shadow play, puppet show, sword dance, machete dance and spiral dance. Among them, folk dance and song and dance are deeply loved by the public and occupy a place in the dance history of China.

In addition, the folk dance teams in the Song Dynasty were also very prosperous. Every Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival or Tomb-Sweeping Day, celebrations are held everywhere. Every village and society (guild organizations in all walks of life in the city) has its own folk dance team, which is a comprehensive street parade and performance. Many programs performed by these dance teams are still circulating among the people all over the country. Ball throwing music

The popular team dance in Song Dynasty is the inheritance and development of the dance in Tang Dynasty. Many of them followed the names of the dances in the Tang Dynasty, but the forms of performances changed, mainly when the court held ceremonies.

There is a kind of "throwing ball music team" in the dance of the court team, which is closely related to sports and is a dance form directly developed from throwing ball in sports competitions. The dancers are wearing "four-color Luo embroidery with a wide shirt", and their costumes are quite gorgeous. The dance action is characterized by "offering hydrangea".

The record of this kind of music and dance in Song history is too simple, and it is difficult for people to understand the state of music and dance. On the contrary, the book "Jinyi Yili" carved by the Rites Department of the Li Dynasty (Lee) in the19th century in North Korea describes in great detail many performance scenes of music and dance (including "ball throwing music") introduced to North Korea from China in the Song Dynasty: the female dance team consists of 16 people, with two leaders holding "bamboo poles" and the other two holding them. There is a round hole in the middle called "eye of the wind", such as the ball ring on the basketball stand today. While dancing, the female dancer advances, throws the ball into the "goal" and "eye of the wind", and sings while reciting.

The book also describes the performance of boys' "throwing the ball". Except that the dancers are men and the costumes are different, the performance form is similar to that of the women's group.

Although the precious "Golden Armor Rules" was written late, equivalent to the 18th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1892), it recorded the team dance of the same name in Song Dynasty, but it has very important reference value.

Gugaoli (the ancestor of Korean nationality along Yalu River) has a long history of frequent cultural exchanges with China Zhongyuan music and dance. As early as 409-436 A.D., "Koryo Music" had spread in the era of Beiyan (one of the sixteen countries). Seven songs, nine songs and ten songs in Sui and Tang Dynasties all had Korean music departments. "History of Korea: Music" contains: "Zong Rui won Song Huizong Xinle for nine years. At that time, it was given in addition to musical instruments and crown clothes. " This is an accurate record of the introduction of court music and dance into Korea in the Song Dynasty. These court dances were introduced to Korea from the Song Dynasty, and have been circulated in the ancient Koryo court to this day, and spread to Korea today as classical dances. Dance team, social fire, walking meeting, flower meeting

The parade of folk festivals in Song Dynasty is called "Dance Team", sometimes called "Shehuo", which is similar to the "Walking Meeting" in Qing Dynasty. Although it is called "Dance Team", in addition to performing folk songs and dances such as Dengaku, Dragon Boat, Bao Lao, Shi Zhailang, Bamboo Horse and Acura, there are also music performances such as Le Qing, martial arts "Down the Sword", and dramatic "Three Religions of Qiao" and "Qiaoqin", etc. This form of performance has been passed down to this day. The "Party Walking" or "Flower Party" in Hebei and other places, and the "Social Fire" in Shaanxi are the folk comprehensive performances that inherit and develop the "Dance Team" in the Song Dynasty.

Now take the dragon boat as an example. Rowing dragon boats in the river is an ancient custom in China. The "dry dragon boat" in the Song Dynasty imitated the appearance of rowing dragon boats on land. Seen from a distance, it looks like a boat swimming in the water. The early boat boat, painted in the "Beijing Boat Map" in Qing Dynasty, depicts a woman "sitting" in the boat, dressed in costume and holding a fan in her right hand. Another flower faces the public and holds a bamboo pole to punt. Accompanied by four musicians, one carries a big drum, one plays a big drum and one plays a cymbal. This is similar to the "dry boat running" performed by people in today's parade to celebrate the festival.

This kind of performance team is an amateur or semi-amateur mass performance team, in which various performance projects are passed down from generation to generation. It is precisely because they are closely combined with people's lives and customs that they have tenacious vitality and can be passed down for thousands of years. Today, dry boats, bamboo horses and Acura still live among the people.