Folk social fire (Benxi social fire)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Folk Shehuo (Benxi Shehuo)

Applicant: Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province

Project No.: 502

Project No.: Ⅹ - 54

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Liaoning Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province

Protected by: cultural center of Benxi Manchu Autonomous County

Brief introduction of folk Shehuo (Benxi Shehuo)

Applicant: Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province

Folk fire is a popular self entertainment activity during the Spring Festival, which originated from the ancient land worship and fire god worship. "She" is the God of land, "fire" is the ancestor of fire, is the legendary god of fire. In the history of agriculture based China, land was used for farming, fire for cooking food and heating, both of which are the material basis for people's survival and development. In ancient times, people believed that fire also had "spirit" according to primitive thinking, and worshipped it as a deity with special meaning, thus forming the concept of advocating fire. With the development of society and the improvement of people's cognitive ability, this kind of sacrificial ceremony gradually added the element of entertaining people, and finally formed a large-scale and complex folk entertainment activities.

According to the form of performance, Shehuo can be divided into modeling Shehuo and performing Shehuo. Among them, modeling Shehuo includes cloth Shehuo, back Shehuo, horse Shehuo, car Shehuo, core Shehuo, mountain Shehuo, mask Shehuo and other forms of line-up performance, which mainly shows the figure's modeling and craft; performing Shehuo includes platform Shehuo, stilt Shehuo and other forms, which mainly carries out fighting performance in the courtyard.

The theme of Shehuo is folklore and drama, which shows a story with one or a group of characters. A story is a turn of Shehuo. The characters should draw the face of Shehuo, wear the clothes of Shehuo and hold the torch of Shehuo. Generally speaking, Shehuo's performance is to explore horses in front, followed by Shehuo's flag team, fire blunderbuss team (artillery team), flag team, Shehuo team, and finally gongs and drums team. Reform and opening up has brought new vitality to the folk fire art. Under the new situation, the traditional fire art has been carried forward and become a popular folk cultural activity.

Benxi Shehuo is a traditional form of folk performance. It originated from Fengxiang, Shaanxi, the birthplace of Western Zhou culture, and flourished in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong and Hebei. Now it is mainly distributed in Wolong, niuxintai, pianling, Xiaoshi, Quanshui and Nandian areas along the upper reaches of Taizi River in Benxi Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province. Benxi Shehuo activities are generally held during the Spring Festival. In the activities, performers use 18 kinds of weapons as props to fight against each other, so they get the name of "Wu Yangge", also known as "Wu Shehuo". This "yangko dance" and "go social fire" in the "booth fire" is very similar, artists from Beijing opera art to absorb the essence, to enrich the form and content of the performance. The plot of Benxi Shehuo is complex. At first, there are only a few movements, such as winning and losing movements. Later, it gradually develops into a complete set of movements. The performance procedure is influenced by the local folk custom of Benxi.

Chinese PinYin : Min Jian She Huo Ben Xi She Huo