What is the origin of walking on stilts?

There is a folklore that Yan Ying, who was famous for his antics during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, once went to a neighboring country, and the neighboring countries laughed at his short stature. He put on a Shuang Mu leg and suddenly became taller, which made the monarch and ministers of this country feel ashamed. He also used this topic to make sarcastic speeches to foreign ministers, which still embarrassed them. Accordingly, stilt walking activities spread among the people.

Another legend is that walking on stilts is related to cracking down on corrupt officials. Once upon a time, there was a county called Liang Jincheng. People inside and outside the city are very friendly. Every Spring Festival, they hold a social fire together to wish each other a prosperous business and a bumper harvest. Unexpectedly, a corrupt official took this as an opportunity to get rich, saying that everyone who went in and out of the city to run a social fire had to pay San Qian money. If people don't pay, he will close the city gate and hang the suspension bridge. But it's still hard for smart people to walk on stilts. Climb over the city wall, cross the moat, continue to celebrate the Spring Festival and enjoy it.

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stilts

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 are divided into "literary stilts" and "martial arts stilts". Literary stilts emphasize posturing and teasing, while Wushu stilts emphasize personal skills and unique skills. Stilts around the country have formed a distinctive regional style and national color.

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; Bai people "play with horses on stilts", and actors also step on wooden stilts and perform with horse-shaped props; The "double stilts" of Uighurs integrate folk dance into it, which is refreshing.