Was the history of stilts first invented by China people?

Stilts, also known as abductors, are performed by performers on wooden stilts. Because the performer is a little taller, the audience needs to look up or stand on a high place to watch, so some people call stilts "a high-profile drama." This kind of activity is very popular in Shanxi Province, and it is a popular form of folk art activities.

Stilts are a form of dancers performing with long wooden stilts tied to their feet. They are skillful and lively. Because stilts are taller than ordinary people, they are easy to watch from far and near, and their mobility is no different from that of the activity stage, so they are deeply loved by the masses.

As for the origin of stilts, scholars believe that it is related to the totem worship of primitive clans and the fishing life of coastal fishermen. According to historians' research, the Danzhu clan, which took cranes as totems in the Yao and Shun era, danced on stilts during sacrifices to imitate cranes. (See Sun Zuoyun's Talk about Dani); Archaeologists believe that there are characters in ancient Oracle Bone Inscriptions that approximate the image of walking on stilts. (Fang Qidong's Dance of Shang Dynasty in Oracle Bone Inscriptions) The two can prove each other.

There is a description of "long-share country" in the ancient document Shan Hai Jing. According to the notes of the ancients, we can know that the "long-share country" is related to walking on stilts. From the notes that "long-legged people often take long-armed people to fish in the sea", it is not difficult to imagine the image of fishing in shallow water with long wooden stakes tied to their feet and primitive fishing tools made of long wood. More interestingly, the Jing fishermen who live along the coast of Fangcheng, Guangxi today still have the habit of fishing with long stakes in shallow waters.

Nowadays, stilts used by people are mostly made of wood, and performances can be divided into double stilts and single stilts. Double stilts are often tied to the calf to show their skills; Holding the top of wooden stilts with both hands, it is convenient to go up and down, dynamic and interesting. Its performances can be divided into "Wen stilts" and "Wu stilts". Literary stilts emphasize pretending and teasing, while martial stilts emphasize personal skills and unique skills. Stilts around the country have formed a distinctive regional style and national color.

The height of stilts varies from a few inches to seven or eight feet in Shanxi. In Ruicheng County and Xinjiang County of Shanxi Province, the height of stilts reaches 15 feet or even 18 feet. Usually, the height of stilts is about four feet.

Stilts have a long history in Shanxi, and pictures of stilts and acrobatics can also be seen on the sarcophagus of the Northern Wei Dynasty unearthed in Yushe County, Jinzhong area. Although stilts are not recorded in writing, they should have started from the Northern Wei Dynasty at the latest. There are two kinds of stilts in Shanxi: Wen stilts and Wu stilts. Literary stilts are more important than twisting steps, while martial stilts mainly perform stunts.

In Fushan County, the first stilt is the conductor, the second stilt is the leader, the opera characters are in the middle, and finally the ugly ones are behind. The performance begins with twisting various field maps, and then performs various difficult movements such as "crossing the fairy bridge", "jumping on the table", "jumping on the double stool" and "splitting".

In Hucun, Yuanqu County, stilts mainly perform stunts. The stilt performances here not only have tricks such as twisting waist, bumping, backflip, falling fork, jumping table and somersaulting, but also have difficult lifting methods such as lifting two knots, three knots, sitting lifting, standing lifting and combination lifting, and can form the shape of "horse-drawn cart" and "crossing the overpass". Walking on stilts in this county, the most difficult thing is to "climb the tiger ladder".

"Butterfly" in Bai Bi Village, Xinjiang County and Shuangchi Town, Jiaokou County are stilt programs, which have both storylines and many difficult movements. This program is performed by three people. The young woman plays the role of an angel, carrying butterflies forward, the young man plays the role of a niche, holding a butterfly fan, and the clown plays and chases with a rattle. It is very vivid, lively and interesting. In the performance, these three people have some skills, such as squatting, jumping on the table, kite flipping, jumping over the head, rolling backwards and jumping on one leg.

The "animal stilts" in Jishan County and Youyu County are conjoined stilts performed by two people. Stilts performers have wooden stilts tied to their feet, animal skins tied to their waists and animal heads tied to their foreheads. Their upper body plays the corresponding numbers to form a group of shapes, dancing forward in the music and gongs and drums.

It is very difficult for three people to step on four stilts in Xiaxian and other places, and four people * * * tie five stilts, so the performance needs tacit cooperation.

The stilts in Yuanping, Pingding and Dingxiang counties are called "stilt yangko", which is called "stilt yangko" by twisting yangko steps and changing formation, and then commenting and singing. In Ganjiazhuang, Xixian County, there is also a performance mode of "singing stilts", in which a small bell is tied at the joints of stilts.

In Shanxi province, stilt performances are varied and eclectic. The performance time of these stilts is generally in the "golden age" activities around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and stilts are a form of performance in the whole activity. This kind of activity is flexible in content and relatively free in action. You can perform in a big venue or walk around the street.

Shandong stilts are often stacked on three floors (two or three floors without stilts) to play opera characters, and the upper people step on the shoulders of the lower people and March as usual.

On the stilts around Beijing and Tianjin, actors often perform such difficult skills as "jumping on one foot", "splitting" and "crossing obstacles". Others perform stunts, such as jumping off four high tables with one foot.

Stilts are popular in Northeast China, and the most famous is "Southern Liaoning Stilts". Its form is complete and its performance is standardized. At first, I wanted to "build an elephant" (in the shape of a two-story building) to sing yangko, which means "there is an elephant living in peace", and then I ran to the big field to change the formation, and then performed duets, "butterflies flapping" and "fishermen fishing", and performed folk operas in groups.

On the stilts of ethnic minorities, actors all wear their own clothes and perform in a unique way. For example, Buyi people have both double stilts and single stilts (also known as single stilts), which are easy to make by holding both ends of stilts with both hands, and their single stilts are especially popular with children; In the Bai people's "stilts playing with horses", the actors also stepped on wooden stilts and performed with horse-shaped props; The "double stilts" of Uighurs integrate folk dance into it, which is refreshing.

About stilts, the ancient document Liezi Fu Shuo described a man named Zilan. When he performed stilt walking skills for Song Dynasty, two sticks (stilts) twice as long as his body were tied to his calf. He quickly ran and jumped and abandoned seven short swords in the air. Five of them are always in the air. Yuan Jun was very surprised when he saw them. This story shows that stilts were an acrobatic skill in Wei and Jin Dynasties. The "Hundred Dramas" on the tombstone of the Northern Wei Dynasty unearthed today also has the image of "Ren Qiao" at that time, which shows that stilts have a long history.

With regard to the origin of stilts, the late historian Sun Zuoyun (A.D. 19 12 ~ 1978) put forward that stilts originated from cranes for the first time in the article "On Danzhu —— A study of ancient crane families in China ——— On the totem of stilts dancing", based on the ancient literature such as Shan Hai Jing. Guo Pu, a native of A Jin, commented: "Or there is a country of Qiao, and today a musician's Qiao built this statue." Wu Renchen commented: "When a Qiao plays, two pieces of wood continue to be sufficient, which is called stilts." Both kinds of notes think that long-legged Chinese are long-legged people tied to their feet with wooden stilts. In Talking about Dani, it is believed that stilts originated from the primitive totem belief and were used in religious sacrificial ceremonies, and then evolved from acrobatic performances to dance forms that played opera characters. Danzhu in the Yao and Shun period was a clan with cranes as its totem, and stilt play directly originated from the dance of the ancient crane totem clan. Recently, some scholars believe that there is a word in Oracle Bone Inscriptions that can be interpreted as "dancing like a person dancing with a stick". If it were established, this unique folk stilt dance form would have come out in the late Shang Dynasty at the latest. This is a supplement from totem worship. Moreover, in the religious ceremony of tchokwe tribe in Zaire, Africa, there is also a performance of walking on stilts. A wizard walked slowly with long wooden stilts tied to his legs and danced slowly with his hands. This is another evidence of "totem worship theory" and "religious ceremony theory"

The labor theory about the origin of stilts can be based on another note by Guo Pu: China people with long arms are in the east of Chishui, with the same body as ordinary people, but their arms are three feet long. "In other words, long-legged people often carry long-armed people to go fishing in the sea." From this, it is associated with wooden stilts with long feet and long hands, and depicts the image of Jing fishermen who live in the "three islands of Jing nationality" in Fangcheng, Guangxi, stepping on wooden stilts and casting nets in shallow water to fish. According to 1930' s Art Style magazine, "Chopsticks Street and Tielong Street in Wuchang are often flooded because of their low status. Whenever they are flooded, almost all the residents there walk on stilts. This is a stilt from work and life records.

The evolution from acrobatics to costumes-the names of stilts in different times show the evolution from acrobatic performance to playing the role of opera. Before and after Wei and Jin Dynasties, "Ren Qiao" was a transition from totem worship to acrobatics. Although its superb and amazing skills were mysterious, it was already a form of performance. Stilts in Sui and Tang Dynasties were called "geisha with long stilts", which was a form of entertainment. The appearance of "walking on stilts", "village Dengaku" and "flapping butterflies" in the Southern Song Dynasty's Lin 'an Lantern Festival shows that it has become a folk dance. According to the records of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, stilts often performed opera characters with yangko, which is called "stilt yangko". For example, "Kyoto Customs" says: "Yangko is called' stilt Yangko', and several people are dressed as camel heads, fishermen, woodcutters, fishermen and sons, accompanied by waist drums and gongs, and their feet climb on the vertical wood." At present, most stilts in Beijing and Tianjin belong to this category. There are 12 actors, who are dressed as camel head, second brother, Yu, Joe, Geng, Reading, or The Journey to the West. There are two kinds of performances: literature and martial arts. Literary stilts pay attention to being coy or performing simple plays. Wu Qiao emphasized personal skills, such as "jumping on one leg", "catching the tiger", "chopping" and "jumping over obstacles" and "jumping on the table". The stilt named "Dengyunhui" in Zhangxie Village, Fangshan, Beijing, has a length of 1.40cm. A skilled actor can bend down and jump off four stacked high tables with a stilt.

Stilts in other areas have their own strengths, and the wooden stilts used are of different heights. It is mostly used for technical performances, and the highest stilts can reach 2 meters, but it is mostly used for walking and simple performances. There are two kinds of accompaniment instruments: Beijing-Tianjin stilts and four gongs and drums (two waist drums and two hand gongs). They play and dance by themselves to accompany the whole team. The other is percussion music accompanied by drums and cymbals, which is loud and has a warm atmosphere, such as stilts in Hebei and Shandong. Shandong stilts often perform thrilling performances by stacking three layers: the bottom dancer steps on stilts, with two long sticks on his shoulders, and the middle dancer stands on the sticks without stepping on stilts. They also stand on their shoulders with three actors who play The Legend of the White Snake or a child who dances with a small umbrella. The lowest actor can move forward slowly. "Tuozhuang" in Song County, Henan Province is a performance form combining stilts with "elbow pavilion". The so-called "elbow pavilion" means that the performer ties a special iron prop to his body, and then ties one or two children firmly to the top of the prop, just like holding it up by hand, forming two or three layers of various drama characters, such as "leopard" and "ugly three firewood". In this area, "supporting" dancers step on wooden stilts with one or two children on them, so it is very difficult to perform and make props.