Nanxian Flower Drum

Nanxian Flower Drum

Nanxian Flower Drum is a traditional dance in Nanxian County of Hunan Province, which is the predecessor of Hunan Flower Drum Opera.

On May 20, 2006, the local flower drum of Nanxian County was listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

Historical Evolution

Nanxian "Flower Drum" originated in the early years of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty. It is a folk art form created by Nanxian people in labor. It evolved from folk folk folk songs, minors and labor chants. Hunan Changsha Flower Drum Opera was formed and developed on the basis of this kind of Flower Drum. The Enlightenment period of "Flower Drum" in Nanxian County was the Flower Drum of Zidi. Its development period was the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the town circuses such as Beihekou and Muluhu were popular in Nanxian County, and then they were combined with their counterparts to form a new folk art form, that is, the bamboo-horse-land flower-drum. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, immigrants flocked to the border, making the Lantern Festival and Qing Mid-Autumn Festival coincide with Weilong, thus pushing the "Flower Drum" in Nanxian County to a prosperous period. After liberation, the celebration of the land reform and the establishment of the cooperative people's commune pushed the earth flower drum to the peak of development.

Stylistic features

Performing Form

The flower drums in Nanxian County are simple and rugged in action, lively and natural in performance, lifelike and unique in artistic style, which are deeply rooted in the people.

According to historical records, there are five forms of flower drum in Nanxian County, namely, couplet flower drum, bamboo horse flower drum, Weilong flower drum, mussel shell flower drum and bench floor flower drum. Now in addition to the mussel shell floor flower drum, bench floor flower drum has been lost, the complete preservation of the remaining three forms of performance, "Duanzi floor flower drum", "Zhuma floor flower drum" and "Weilong floor flower drum".

Flower Drum in Paizidi

"Pair-son Flower Drum" is also known as "single flower drum". Once the character is ugly, the origin of the Dan and clown are dressed up by men (later developed into a man and a woman). The clown wears a red silk towel with a braid or straw hat pedicle (cutting the straw hat to the top), a straw hat, a wine pedicle (hat shaped like a sand bag cover of a wine jar) as a headdress, wearing a set of light blue or dark yellow, black clothes, holding a banana fan, paper fan, or silk fan as props, and drawing three white powder on both eyes and nose, which looks like a "small" character, so it is called a floral face. Danjiao top silk handkerchief, tie a handkerchief, or dress as a fairy (using black cloth to imitate the curly hair of a yellow girl with flowers of classical style), Babatou (according to the ancient dress of a hairstyle), insert red and yellow accessories, wearing a set of red clothes or skirts made of silk and fabric, hand-knitted red silk or red cloth handkerchief, wine cup as props. They sang and danced in accordance with more than ten tunes, such as "December Watchman", "Towing Bench", "October Watcher", "Tea Picking", "Flower Arrangement", "Fan Tune" and "Song of Giving Money". They played "set" and "nest" with lyrics and meanings, especially focusing on the expression of characters'emotions and personalities with fans and handkerchiefs.

Bamboo Horse Flower Drum

"Bamboo Horse Flower Drum" is developed on the basis of "couplet Flower Drum". Once an ugly dress is dressed up, the content of singing and the performance program are basically the same as "couplet Flower Drum". But in the performance program, the word "8" is added, the word "cloud hand" is pulled up, and the "negotiation" is adopted. It requires the organic combination of hands, eyes, body, methods and steps, especially the addition of the protagonists. They must be horsemen dressed up, wearing red fairies or white hats, wearing white or red martial arts clothes, holding whips, shoulder backs or waistbands covered with bamboo horses of various colors, and performing in coordination with the ugliness of floor drums, once inserted. Some also have horsemen with flip-flops. They often use ten horses, and generally have 35 horses, walking in "8-word circles, playing with covers" to show their performance. Majestic scenes.

Wailong Flower Drum

"Wailong Flower Drum" is the most spectacular scene of the flower drum, Dan, ugly performances are slightly different from their counterparts, more abundant, there is money in the door, there is resignation, there are Wailong, dragon dance performance, the dragon head and tail connected with 11 or 13 dragon handles, with the flower to inspire a set of opera beads, wells, panzhu, top butterflies, sleeping Luohan, or put out a five-grain fengdeng. Words, through rich routines to render the festive and auspicious atmosphere.

Performing Characteristics

In the process of its formation and development, the local flower drum in Nanxian County is deeply loved by the masses with its unique folk dance form. As an artistic performance form of the people's New Year's festival in the lake area, whether it is playing music or percussion music, whether it is costume or artistic form of performance, whether it is the skill of hands, eyes, body and steps, or the use of special handkerchiefs and fans for actors, it standardizes the inherent performance procedures and presents four basic characteristics:

Firstly, the performing skills are standardized. The first is the standard of Gong and drum brand. The gongs and drums of floor flower drums are usually "long mallets" turning "bridge cymbals" and then "picking five thumps" entering and blowing through the door. The special tunes are "December watchman", "mop bench", "October watchgirl", "tea picking", "flower arranging", "fan tune" and "song of giving money". How did the grandfather sing? Teachers and apprentices passed on from generation to generation, and the inheritance was not out of shape. Secondly, the standardization of lyrics. "Flower Drum" lyrics have always maintained a seven-character sentence as the main body, each sentence seven words, four sentences for a paragraph, syllable for "223". For example, "The first month watcher is the first month, feet fall to kneel in front of her sister, ten fingertips to pull up, what year did she spend?" It's easy to remember, it sounds refreshing and it looks lively. Thirdly, it is the norm of action. The movements of the earth flower drums also have their merits. Ugly and Dan pay great attention to the application of "three sections" and "six combinations". Hands are divided into "tip, elbow, shoulder" three sections, feet into "tip, teng, hip" three sections, head, waist, hip three sections, the performance must be coordinated in three sections. "Six-in-one" is divided into "three-in-one" and "three-in-one" respectively. "Inner three-in-one" means that the performers should be flexible in spirit and spirit while performing; while "outer three-in-one" means the coordination of external actions and the combination of spirit and form. The actions of "opening windows", "moving stools", "pouring tea", "rocking oars", "transplanting seedlings", "crossing ditches", "hitting umbrellas", "looking at the moon", "riding horses" and "pulling the year" in life are standardized in artistic movements.

Second, the forms of performance are very rich. The performances of Nanxian Flower Drum are rich and varied. The performers were fewer than two, more than 56, 78, more than a dozen, dozens. The costumes for the show are white, red, yellow and blue. The performances include flower fans, handkerchiefs, bench dragons, long cloth dragons, straw dragons, clamshell, bamboo horses, whips, wine cups and chopsticks. The instruments played are tanggu, hand drum, gong, cymbal, cymbal, cloud gong, bell touching, suona, cylinder, etc. The tunes sung are "December watchman", "tug bench", "tea picking tune" and "Cidong song". Especially, the forms of performance are very rich, such as "flower drums in pairs", "flower drums in surroundings of dragons", "flower drums in bamboo horses" and "flower drums in benches", "flower drums in clamshell" and so on. "Pairs of flowers and drums" in each scene can appear a pair of ugly dan, but also many ugly Dan scenes, as for the performance of "bamboo horse flowers and drums", "mussel shell flowers and drums", "Weilong flowers and drums" is brilliant, with different characteristics. "Shuanglong Play Pearl", "Yuweng Play Mussel", "Bamboo Circus Fang". The scenes are magnificent and powerful, the atmosphere is strong and high, so that people can enjoy the pleasure after work.

Third, the mode and the board are concise. Although there are many common tunes of the floor flower drum, the modes and slabs are not very complicated. This is because of the simplicity of the floor flower drum performance, which also forms the simplicity of the fixed plate rhythm of its vocal cavity. For example, "December Wanglang", "Tuobao", "Song of Giving Money" and so on, the tune structure is balanced and symmetrical, each sentence is a group of four, each sentence is four bars, including the last eight bars of the flower chamber is also four bars into one sentence, generally can be regulated as a square balanced symmetrical structure. This vocal structure is easy to remember. No matter how many segments are sung, there are four sentences in each paragraph and four bars in each sentence. According to the organic combination of emotion, sound, pronunciation and character of the lyrics, a fixed pattern (rhythm) is formed to express the law of filling in the lyrics. Xiaodan and clown can adapt their thoughts and feelings according to the content of each Lyric paragraph, and their movements are constantly changing. On the basis of the words "Neiwohua" and "Waiwohua", they can add a large number of concise actions such as "left pendulum right pendulum", "forward and backward", "exploring the sea" and "splitting" to give aesthetic value to their performances. However, any performance programs and techniques are not separated from the conciseness of their modes and formats.

Fourth, the venue and repertoire of the performance are more flexible. During the festival, every household put on lights and colors, and the troop of flowers and drums came to join in the festival. I saw the clown leading Danjiao to walk around the village with the rhythm of gongs and drums. The owner's house had a yard and played on the yard. The owner's house was fishing. He played on the fishing boat. On rainy days, the owner moved out to dress up a bucket or a square table. The clown played a flower drum on the bucket or a square table. There are many people watching, just playing a "December watchman" is inconsistent. The host adds a bench to the table or dress up as a bucket, and "Flower Drum" adds a "tug bench". If the host plant a bamboo pole under the eaves or at the berth of the fishing boat and hang cigarettes and wine, "Flower Drum" will have to play "Cidong Song", then Xiaodan will stand on the shoulder of the clown to pick up the lottery gift from the host. As for the "bamboo horse flower drum" and "Weilong flower drum" are more popular with the masses. The owner should hang colors for the horse and dragon, play "condom" and "zygote" with whips and "envelope". In short, the "Flower Drum" is a flexible and flexible form, which brings joy and joy to millions of households.

Distribution area

According to the census data, the main distribution of flower drums in Nanxian County is: Nanzhou Town, Wuzui, Zhongyukou, Tour Port, Sanxianhu Lake, Xiachai City, 800 gongs and other areas (mainly the flower drums in Paizidi and Weilongdi). Beihekou, Mulu Lake, Langba Lake and other areas (mainly bamboo-horse-land flower drum).

Endangered status

1. With the development of science and technology and the dissemination and impact of various cultural information, the folk cultural phenomenon of "Flower Drum" has gradually been submerged by modern civilization.

2. Because of the changes in living habits and aesthetic tastes, the basic team of Flower Drum has been disintegrating year by year. As far as the information we have is concerned, only Yang Zigui and Xue Zhengmin are the inheritors of Flower Drum which can be deduced completely. They are both nearly eighty years old, and the situation is very worrying.

3. Because there is no corresponding protection and rescue mechanism, Flower Drum Art is still in a state of self-reliance and self-extinction, no one teaches, no one studies, and even more than ten professional folk Flower Drum Opera troupes in our county have no talent to perform Flower Drum. Rescue, protection and inheritance are imminent.

Inheritance Significance

artistic value

In recent years, through the investigation, excavation and textual research of the local flower drum, professionals have proved that after more than 200 years of development, the local flower drum in Nanxian County is deeply rooted in the people, which directly affects and promotes the development of Hunan flower drum opera.

Academic value

According to the provincial experts, Nanxian Flower Drum belongs to the category of Chinese folk dance. Its dancing posture is graceful, lively and humorous, and its movements are standard and close to life. (2) It uses rich tunes, playing with wind and percussion ensembles. The tunes include more than ten kinds of tunes, such as "December Wanglang", "October Wangjie", "Tea Picking Tune". (3) Most of its contents are about the working scenes of the working people in real life and the love life of men and women.

Pragmatic value

The excavation, rescue and protection of flower drums will play an important role in revitalizing national art, promoting national culture, enriching people's cultural life, serving the construction of spiritual civilization, building a harmonious society, and achieving cultural prosperity and development.

(2) Flower Drum in Nanxian County is the first batch of intangible cultural heritage protection items in Hunan Province. It is a good opportunity to declare national protection items. The report of the 17th National Congress of the CPC attaches great importance to the prosperity and development of culture, which is a good period. Making the floor flower drum bigger and stronger, realizing the platform of floor flower drum and economic singing, will play a very good propaganda role in propagating Nanxian, promoting Nanxian and promoting the development of county economy.