*Zhanjiang Exorcizing Dance

24.*Zhanjiang Exorcizing Dance

Nominating Unit: City of Zhanjiang

City of Zhanjiang is located on Leizhou Peninsula at the southernmost part of China’s mainland. It used to be under the jurisdiction of Leizhou Prefecture. General History of Guangdong, a historical record from the Reign of Emperor Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, already wrote “in Leizhou Prefecture, people play ghosts and demons and dance along streets with the accompaniment of gongs, drums, and orchestra on Lantern Festival.” This is a record for Exorcising Dance (exorcism dance) from more than 450 years ago. Leizhou Prefecture Annals, a record in the reign of Emperor Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, recorded the local exorcism dance in more details: “from the twelfth to the fifteenth of January on the lunar calendar, in the city all colored lanterns are lit up every night. Teams of 3 to 4 hundred people or even 5 to 6 hundred people would light firecrackers, fireworks, and play ghosts and demons with the accompaniment of gongs and drums. The audience would watch the play till dawn. This is called Exorcising Dance, and is most popular in the city, but is also practiced in rural areas where it is called ‘driving away plagues’. Sometimes the Exorcising Dance can last till 28th of January or even 12th of February on the lunar calendar.” The locals still have masks for the Exorcising Dance 300, 400, 570, or even 600 years old, which is living evidence of the long history of Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance.

Leizhou Peninsula is one of the two most thunder-rich areas in the world, and the local people have ever been plagued with the thunder threat. To awe the god of thunder and exorcize devils and plagues has been a unique spiritual connotation of Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance. Some Exorcising Dance features roles of God of Thunder and five of his generals each positioned in the north, south, east, west and central. Other Exorcising Dances also feature the role of Thunder God. Besides, the spirits worshipped in Exorcising Dance also include Kang Baoyi, a national hero fighting the invading Liao army in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Guan Gong from the Three Kingdoms period. The routines are normally similar between various types of Exorcising Dances, which are normally presided over by a Taoist who also leads the Exorcising Dance. Even basic hand gestures used in Exorcising Dance are borrowed from Taoism hand gestures. Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance can be called a unique combination of nature worship, history worship and Taoism culture.

Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance has many names and forms because different places worship different gods. The “Zou Qing Jiang” Exorcising Dance popular among such townships as Nanxing, Songzhu, Leigao, etc. features 6 thunder gods, and consists of “Exorcising Dance in front of temples”, “Exorcising Dance in the courtyard”, and “army retreat and wood spell”. It also has such segments as burning a scarecrow to indicate the exorcizing of demons and evils, and floating a paper boat painted with spells on the river. “Kao Bing”, a Exorcising Dance popular in Huguang and Taiping townships of Mazhang District, City of Zhanjiang, features five roles of the five warriors under Emperor Kang. Besides exorcizing plots similar with “Zou Qing Jiang”, there is also sorcery performance of “Fan Ci Chuang” which is performed on a table paved with thorns. “Wu Er Zhen”, popular in Da’an Village of Wuchuan Municipality, features Mr. Che and Mr. Mai who sacrificed themselves for the country with Emperor Kang, specially depicting the two performers’repeated performance with swords and tomahawks. “Wu Liu Jiang”, popular in Bopu Township of Wuchuan Municipality, features six marshals, such as Guan Yunchang and Zhao Guangming. The six marshals would go on performance in order and show their skills with different weapons.

The main movements in Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance include head spinning, body twisting, squatting and shivering, wrist circling, fi nger pushing, quick short steps, and tread hopping, accompanied by loud shouts, to form a frightening scene to subdue devils. The style of the dance is stern and solemn. The masks used are made of wood, skull, or bull skin, with special facial paintings. The types of the masks can be divided between fierce and gemutlich. The five Thunder Gods all have fierce looks, with wide-open round eyes, protruding cheekbones, giant noses, high foreheads, upward growing horns, and tusks sticking out of their wide mouths. The style is ancient, exaggerating, fierce and stern. Historical figures have gemutlich looks, with round faces, long beards, elliptical eyes, gold pupils, high noses, wide mouth and a hood on their heads. Their looks are handsome and proper, giving out a mighty and dignified feeling, yet with individuality.(https://www.daowen.com)

Exorcising Dance mainly uses clay drums, moon drums, high-ended drums, and small gongs for accompaniment. Sometimes giant cymbals, small cymbals, trumpets, and bull horns are also used. The ancient clay drum is the main instrument, which is made of clay, and is big on both ends and thin in the middle. The inside of the drum is hollow and covered with lamp skin on both sides. The sound it produces is deep and clear, featuring special local flavors.

Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance carries the spirits of ancestors, and came to our world from the mysterious ancient times. It bears unique historical and cultural values in studying the transmission and evolution of ancient exorcism dances, the local folk customs, religions, beliefs, and social psychologies. It was enlisted into the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Due to a less developed economy, the transmission of Zhanjiang Exorcising Dance is faced with many predicaments, especially a lack of transmitters. Some of the performing skills are already lost. Urgent rescuing and protective measures are called for.