Manchu culture and art

 

Manchu culture and art

 

On a meadow on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, Burmese musician Dorje and his Naypyitaw Song and Dance Troupe Mongolian Dance Team temporarily built two yurts on the meadow. He took his daughter Yadan to meet here I made friends such as Agu Demba, A Zhuo, Chu Sanxing, Dawa, and Xiang Qima.

Dorji said to Agudenba, Azhuo and Chu Sanxing, I will return to Naypyidaw in a few days. I am very happy to see you this time. I would especially like to thank Agudenba and Dawa. Let me find my daughter who was abducted to Bangladesh.

Dorje said:

People often fall into a strange circle. On the one hand, they do everything possible to prolong their lives, but on the other hand, they waste their lives doing nothing. I regard culture and art as my second life. My love for culture and art life does not mean treating it like exquisite porcelain. I just protect it cautiously. When the opportunity arises, I must fully stimulate its potential and let it shine with splendid brilliance.

Today I will explain Manchu culture and art to my Mongolian dance team. If you are interested, you may wish to participate in this event together.

Agudumba, Dawa and other friends accepted Mr. Dorji’s invitation.

On the meadow by the Irrawaddy River, Dorje began to talk about "Manchu culture and art" to his friends and dance team members.

A long table was temporarily moved into a podium. There is a flower basket on the podium, with several butterflies flying around the flower basket.

Duoji smiled and said to his friends and dance team members: Do you see these butterflies? Butterflies are so beautiful, but the beauty of a butterfly is not only the colorful wings, but also the flight of the butterfly. Once the butterfly is made into a specimen, it will be inferior. Today I am telling you about Manchu culture and art, hoping that Manchu culture and art can gain wings.

Let me first talk about the characteristics of Manchu literature.

The literary works of the Manchu people are mainly mythical stories, including "The Battle of the Heavenly Palace", "The Jurchen Dingshui", "The Changbai Fairy", "The Biography of the Nishan Shaman", etc. Among them, the most influential one is undoubtedly "The Biography of Nishan Shaman". It tells the story of how the Nishan shaman helped resurrect the son of a Yuanwai who died unexpectedly. It is widely circulated among other Tungus ethnic groups besides the Manchus, such as the Xibe, Hezhe, Ewenki, and Oroqen ethnic groups. There are four versions of "The Biography of Nishan Shaman" with roughly the same content. The Vladivostok version is the most widely circulated and has been translated into and published in many languages.

During the Qing Dynasty, Eight Banners literature flourished for a while. The poet Yuan Mei lamented that "the elegance of Manchuria these days is far superior to that of the Han people. Even though they are in the military, they are all capable of poetry." As a result, many Chinese language and literature works were born. Typical representatives include Nalan Xingde's collection of poems "Drinking Water Ci", Gu Taiqing's collection of poems "Tianyou Pavilion Collection", the collection of Eight Banners poems "Xi Chao Ya Song Collection" compiled by Tie Bao, and Wen Kang's novel "The Heroes of Sons and Daughters" as typical representatives.

In addition to literature, the Manchu people have a close relationship with folk art. In particular, the children of the Eight Banners in the Qing Dynasty were particularly fond of it. There are also Manchus who are famous actors in the folk art world today. Traditionally speaking, the folk arts that the Manchus generally love include Peking Opera, Zi Di Shu, octagonal drums and cross talk. Among them, the octagonal drum and Zi Di Shu are Manchu folk arts, while Peking Opera and cross talk have an inseparable relationship with the Manchu in their development process.

Duoji began to explain the Octagonal Drum and the Book of Disciples:

The octagonal drum is an original folk art of the Manchu people. It is said that it was originally a form of entertainment performed by the military camp during the triumphal march to Jinchuan during the Qianlong period.

Duoji took out an octagonal drum from the musical instrument box beside him, held the octagonal drum in his hand and said:

Look at this octagonal drum. The body of the drum is derived from the Eight Banners military drum. It has an octagonal shape, is framed by wood, is covered with python skin on one side, has bells embedded around it, and has silk tassels at the lower end. There are four colors: yellow, white, red and blue. Color, symbolizing the four colors of the Eight Flags. When playing, hit the drum head with your fingers to make a sound, shake the drum body or rub the drum head with your fingers to make a ringing sound.

The octagonal drum is usually performed by three people, one is responsible for playing the drums and playing the strings, a clown is responsible for teasing, and there is also a performer who plays the lead singer. There are solo performances and full hall octagonal drum performances, which were widely loved by the children of the Eight Banners in the Qing Dynasty. After the Republic of China, the octagonal drum gradually declined in popularity, but its derived folk arts such as single string and cross talk are still widely loved by the public. Danxian is a variation of the octagonal drum three-person performance model. It has two forms of performance: self-playing and self-singing, or singer and accompaniment. Crosstalk is an independent genre split from the octagonal drum in the whole hall. Many Danxian and crosstalk artists were originally octagonal drum artists.

Duoji took out a few booklets from the musical instrument case and said:

The main singing books of Bajianggu are these disciple books. It originated from a traditional ditty called "Manchu Diao" and was re-created and developed by the Eight Banners disciples in the Qing Dynasty, so it was named "Qingyin Zi Shu". Although Zi Di Shu is not an original art of the Han people, it incorporates many storytelling themes from Han culture. The content is mainly based on allusions from famous works such as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "A Dream of Red Mansions", "The Romance of the West Chamber", "The Legend of White Snake", and "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". In addition, there are some works that show the lives of the Eight Banners disciples, represented by Yigeng, a clan member with the pen name "Crane Love". His works "The Lament of the Old Guard", "The Lament of the Young Guard" and "The Lament of the Female Guard" are examples of this type of subject matter. . The program of Zi Di Shu is rich in content, with lyrics mostly consisting of seven characters and one sentence. The singing styles include Dongcheng Diao and Xicheng Diao, referred to as Dong Diao and Xi Diao, which interact with the drums, but the rhythm is always unique.

Dorje added:

Everyone in China knows Peking Opera, which is regarded as the quintessence of China. It combines the characteristics of other traditional music types such as Anhui opera and gradually formed an independent folk art form in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, everyone from the emperor to ordinary bannermen had a special liking for listening to Beijing opera. In the early stage, it was mainly popular in the palace, and there were different plays according to different occasions, such as "Yue Ling Cheng Ying", "Fa Gong Ya Zou", "Nine-Nine Daqing", "Guanshan Jinke", "Shengping Baodao", "Standing to the Spring and Autumn Period", "Loyalty and Righteousness Pictures", etc.

Since the Jiaqing and Daoguang years, private box offices in Beijing and Banner have gradually emerged. Famous box offices include "Romance Self-rewarding Box Office", "Cuifeng'an Pleasure Box Office", "Yuexing Yihuai Box Office", "Gongyue Self-rewarding Box Office", "Youmu Pinghuai Box Office" and "Nishang Yayun Box Office" "wait. Fans were basically descendants of clan clans and Beijing banners, and many of them would be famous actors in the Republic of China period.

However, in order to prevent the children of the Eight Banners from indulging in opera, the imperial court prohibited the opening of theaters in the inner city, and did not allow the Banner people to sing on stage or "come with the actors." But this still cannot stop the children of the Eight Banners from loving opera.

In the eleventh year of Jiaqing, the Manchu Censor He Shuncha reported that some of the children of the Beijing Banner were performing on the stage. However, when they investigated again later, they discovered that Heshun himself often went to listen to operas against the rules. As a last resort, Heshun made up a reason for "secret investigation", but Emperor Jiaqing found out and dismissed him.

During the Daoguang period, there were more illegal operas and stage performances, and the titles were getting higher and higher. Beile Yiqi, Shengjing General Yihao, Dun Prince Miankai, Zhenguo Gong Mianshun, Zhapu Deputy Capital Tongjueluo Shanying, Vice-President Chang Ming, Song Jie, Li Fanyuan's doctor Bianjian, Deputy General Da Chong'a, etc. were successively convicted and punished for hiding actors, visiting temples to listen to music, and acting in mansions. Belle Yiqi was even deprived of her title for this reason. .

Later, the bannermen simply organized a "box office" spontaneously and sang with other bannermen fans to satisfy their entertainment needs. Since box office is not an official performance, it is not included in the ban. After the Republic of China, because there were no longer legal restrictions on Manchus performing on stage, many famous Manchu actors came out of the opera house.

Peking Opera includes "Flag Costume Opera", also known as "Manchu Costume Opera", in which actors wear Manchu costumes to play characters from Liao, Jin and other foreign countries. The Empress Dowager Xiao, Princess Tiejing, and Princess Daizhan in "Silang Visits His Mother", "Yanmen Pass", "Catching Three Passes", and "Silver Sky Mountain" all wear Manchu women's costumes. Some Manchu lines such as "Batulu" and "Eniang" are also used in flag costume Peking Opera to interpret the character's identity as a foreign character. In addition, the Manchus in the Qing Dynasty, especially the Manchus in the barracks, highly respected Yue Fei and called him "Master Yue". Like the Han people, they are used to taking Song as the positive side and Jin as the negative side when listening to dramas about the war between Song and Jin Dynasties.

Duoji smiled again and said:

You must have heard or seen cross talk performances, but many people don’t know the close relationship between cross talk and the Manchu people.

Crosstalk is split from the octagonal drum in the whole hall. It mainly focuses on the four skills of "speaking, learning, teasing and singing". There are single, dialogue, group crosstalk and other performance forms. Because crosstalk incorporates Manchu folk arts such as octagonal drum and Zi Di Shu, it is especially popular among the Manchu community. There are numerous Manchu celebrities in the cross talk world, including Ayantao, Enxu, Yu Erfu, Yu Delong, Guo Qiru, Chang Baokun, Zhao Peiru, Hou Baolin, Wang Fengshan and other famous names.

Dorje took out another booklet from the musical instrument case and said:

This is an "Uleben". In addition to the octagonal drum and Zidi Shu, the Manchus also have their own language-speaking art "Uleben", which is mainly popular in the Northeast region. There are two main types of "Uleben" genres. One is the word-of-mouth folk literature and legends that are widely hidden among the Manchu people, such as "The Biography of Nishan Shaman"; the other is ballads and proverbs with independent plots and complete structures. The art of long narratives with comprehensive system and comprehensive content.

Finally, Dorje said:

In terms of dance, there is Manchu Yangko, which is still loved by people of all ethnic groups in Northeast China. Yangge is mainly a generic term for a very mass and representative folk dance that is widely spread in northern China. Yangko was born in the countryside and spread among the people. It has a history of thousands of years in China. It reached its peak during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There is a saying among the Han people that during the agricultural work such as transplanting and pulling out rice seedlings, ancient farmers hummed songs, twisted their bodies casually, and integrated into their unique steps in order to relieve the pain of working with their faces facing the loess and their backs to the sky. This forms a colorful Yangko dance. Yangko is also related to the ancient songs and songs that were sung when worshiping the God of Agriculture to pray for a good harvest, analyzing blessings and fighting disasters. In the process of development, Yangko has continuously absorbed the skills and forms of agricultural songs, English songs, folk martial arts, acrobatics and opera, thus It has developed from ordinary singing of Yangko to folk songs and dances. By the Qing Dynasty, Yangko had been widely spread throughout the country.

Yangko is a folk dance widely popular in rural areas of northern China. It does not require a stage and the audience does not need to be seated.

According to different performance styles of Yangko, Northeastern Yangko can be divided into two types: bungee and stilts. Dibengzi, also known as Diyangge, is widely spread; stilts are popular in southern Liaoning, especially in Yingkou, Haicheng and Gaixian areas.

When performing Yangko, people wear colorful costumes, hold umbrellas or handkerchiefs and other props in their hands, and dance to the accompaniment of gongs, drums, suona and other musical instruments.

Different regions have different dance methods. Northeastern Yangko is powerful and vigorous, and incorporates movements such as horseback riding and hunting. Northeastern Yangko has a humorous form and unique style. The vast black land gives it a simple and bold spirituality and style. It integrates spicy, humorous, quiet and steady, and fully displays the warm, simple, strong and soft character of the Northeast people. The movements are both graceful and playful, steady yet wavy. "Lang" means cheerful and handsome, and there are waves in the stability, and stability in the waves. It is a combination of hardness and softness, and cannot be twisted and lingering. Stepping on the board and twisting on the waist are the biggest characteristics of Northeastern Yangko. At the same time, the various "flowers in the hands", the bright and elastic drum beats, and the cool, pretty, quiet, steady and beautiful rhythms are all the characteristics of Northeastern Yangko. Northern Shaanxi Yangko is simple and natural, with steady steps and rich formation changes.

Yangko dance teams range from dozens to hundreds of people and are an indispensable entertainment activity for farmers during their leisure time. Now let me ask the team members to perform a Manchu Yangko dance as the end of my lecture.

Amid applause, the Mongolian dance team performed the joyful Northeastern Yangko dance, and the leader of the dance team sang "Northeastern Yangko":

 

The wind in Changbai Mountain beats the gong,

The waves in Heilongjiang are beating drums,

Twist the yangko and dance the dance,

We Northeasterners are generous and enthusiastic.

 

We sang Northeast Yangge,

The girl and the boy are very good at twisting,

The uncle and aunt are still very chic,

Pray for good weather in the black land.

 

Look at the high sky, thick soil and rivers nourishing water,

I wish you a good harvest in the fertile fields,

The Guandong wind tilts toward the sky and the earth,

The love of the Northeast and the four seasons are related to each other.

 

Northeastern people with warm-hearted personalities,

This life is full of twists and turns,

Feel the heat of the black earth,

The rhythm of dance is the rhythm of life.

 

Sing with simple body language,

Look at the dance with expressive eyes,

White mountains and black waters gave birth to us,

We are open-minded Northeasterners.