Chinese Theatre An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi: Volume One: From Exorcism to Entertainmento Story-acting 9781138208100, 9781032121215, 9781315460291

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CHINESE THEATRE: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY THROUGH NUOXI AND MULIANXI

Xiaohuan Zhao

CHINESE THEATRE: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY THROUGH NUOXI AND MULIANXI Volume One: From Exorcism to Entertainment Xiaohuan Zhao

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30-11-2021 18:57:18

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi is the first book in any language entirely devoted to a historical inquiry into Chinese theatre through Nuoxi and Mulianxi, the two most representative and predominant forms of Chinese temple theatre. With a view to evaluating the role of temple theatre in the development of xiqu or traditional Chinese theatre and drama from myth to ritual to ritual drama to drama, Volume One provides a panoramic perspective that allows every aspect of Nuoxi to be considered, not in the margins of xiqu but in and of itself. Thus, this volume traces xiqu history from its shamanic roots in exorcism rituals of Nuo to various forms of ritual and theatrical performance presented at temple fairs, during community and calendrical festivals or for ceremonial functions over the course of imperial history, and into the twenty-first century, followed by an exploration of the scriptural origins and oral traditions of Mulianxi, with pivotal forms and functions of Nuoxi and Mulian storytelling, examined, explicated and illustrated in association with the development of corresponding genres of Chines performance literature and performing arts. This is an interdisciplinary book project that is aimed to help researchers and students of theatre history understand the ritual origins of Chinese theatre and the dynamic relationships among myth, ritual, religion and theatre. Xiaohuan Zhao is Associate Professor of Chinese Literary and Theatre Studies at the University of Sydney and concurrently Distinguished Overseas Professor at the Research Institute of Chinese Theatre and Theatrical Relics of Shanxi Normal University.

Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi Volume One: From Exorcism to Entertainment Xiaohuan Zhao

First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Xiaohuan Zhao The right of Xiaohuan Zhao to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-20810-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-12121-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-46029-1 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781315460291 Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC

This illustration shows a masked performance scene of Liu Wenlong Takes the Imperial Examination ( Liu Wenlong gankao), a Guichi Nuoxi play staged in Liujie, Guichi District, Chizhou City, Anhui Province, on the night of 2 March 2018 or the fifteenth day of the first month in the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, which is celebrated across China as the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao jie) to mark the end of the Spring Festival period.

To William Dolby (1936–2015)

Contents

List of figures and tables Foreword Acknowledgements Abbreviations and conventions Chronology of dynasties and periods Introduction PART 1

x xiv xvii xx xxii 1

Ritual origins of Chinese theatre: from Nuo to Nuoxi

21

1

Ritual and ritual performance in early China

23

2

The Hundred Shows

64

3

The Nuo theatre

PART 2

101

The Mulian myth: from scripture to storytelling

145

4

Scriptural origins of the Mulian myth

147

5

The Mulian myth in transformation texts

168

6

The Mulian myth in precious scrolls

184

Glossary Figure credits Bibliography Index

215 246 248 265

Figures and tables

Figures Cover 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 0.10 0.11 0.12 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17

Scene from Guichi Nuoxi Play, Liu Wenlong Takes the Imperial Examination Yuci City God Temple Worshipping the City God Mural of City God on Inspection Tour The Parade of the City God statue during the temple fair Scene from City God Judges a Case Scene from Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) Fights Chiyou Scene from The Generals of the Yang Family Scene from Beat the Golden Twig Scene from Pigsy Carries His Wife on His Back Scene from A Matchmaker Goes into Town Part of silk painting, Skeleton Plays with a Puppet Scene from Memorial Service Shouyang Aishe masked Nuo dance Brick carving of dance duet Brick carving of banquet music Brick carving of pole-drum dance Silk painting of Phoenix, Dragon and Lady Rubbing of stone carving of Picture of Praying to Rain Lacquered wooden inner coffin of Marquis Yi of Zeng Inner coffin decorations Tomb mural of ancestors receiving offerings from their descendants Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Painted Pottery Basin with Dancing Pattern Painted Pottery Basin with Dancing Pattern Dadiwan Floor Painting Pottery figurines of a musical ensemble Bronze bells and stone chimes Stone chime with tiger motif Large stone chime

v 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 10 11 17 17 24 24 25 25 26 29 31 32 34 36 38 38 39 40 40 41 41

Figures and tables xi 1.18 Bronze chime bells 1.19 Pottery drum 1.20 Alligator drum 1.21 Pottery hourglass drum 1.22 Bronze cymbals with animal motifs 1.23 Bone mouth harp 1.24 Bone flute and bone whistles 1.25 Oval-shaped pottery ocarinas 1.26 Bronze animal masks 1.27 Yinghou Bronze mask 1.28 Kaihua bronze drum 1.29 Rock artwork of animal impersonation dance 1.30 Brick relief carving of martial dance 1.31 Brick relief carving of guchui musical ensemble 1.32 Head of bronze belt hook 1.33 Pottery musician figurines 1.34 Bronze dancing figurine 1.35 Dunhuang Grotto mural of musical dance 1.36 Yulin Grotto mural of musical dance 2.1 Grey pottery singing figurine 2.2 Painted pottery figurine of a female dancing entertainer 2.3–2.5 Pottery female entertainer figurines 2.6. Ceramic figurine of drum-beating entertainer 2.7 Pottery figurine of flute-blowing entertainer 2.8 Earthenware figurine of a dwarf-entertainer 2.9 Brick carving of baixi performance 2.10 Eastern Han Stone coffin 2.11 Rubbing of relief carving of baixi on stone coffin 2.12 Rubbing of stone carving of baixi 2.13 Rubbing of relief carving of baixi 2.14 Book illustration of Horn Butting 2.15 Rubbing of stone relief of man combating tiger 2.16 Brick carving of baixi 2.17 Central chamber of Mixian M2 Eastern Han tomb 2.18 Mural depicts a banquet-music scene 2.19 Stone carving of Dance on Plate-shaped Drums 2.20 Helin’ge’er mural of baixi performance 2.21 Rubbing of stone relief of baixi performance 2.22 Rubbing of stone carving of Chiyou 2.23 Scene from Huangdi Fights Chiyou 2.24–2.27 Ritual performance of Beheading Hanba the Draught Demon 2.28 Bronze vessel gui decorated with taotie motif 3.1 Rubbing of stone relief of Nuo performance 3.2 The ‘village-Nuo’ text in the Analects

41 42 42 43 43 43 44 44 45 46 47 48 50 50 51 51 52 54 54 64 66 66–67 67 68 69 73 74 74 75 75 77 77 79 83 83 84 84 85 86 87 88–89 90 102 103

xii

Figures and tables

3.3 Confucius dressed in court robes 3.4 The ‘state-Nuo’ text in Book of Rites 3.5–3.6 Rubbing of the Fangxiang text in Shang oracle-bone inscription 3.7 Pottery qi head 3.8 Pottery qi-headed Fangxiangshi 3.9 Sanxingdui gold mask 3.10 Rubbing of stone relief carving of Fangxiangshi 3.11 Tomb stone carving of bearlike Fangxiangshi 3.12 Rubbing of stone relief of Fangxiangshi fighting evil spirits 3.13 Shouyang Aishe masked performance 3.14 Wu’an face-mask theatre 3.15 Qimen Nuoxi 3.16 Scene from The Dance of Vajra-Wielding Deities 3.17 Scene from puppet show Four Generals Open the Stage 3.18 Puppet show Lord Master the Patron God of Theatre 3.19 Facial make-up for the role type of chou clown 3.20 Stage appearances in Shanxi Gong-and-Drum-Variety Theatre 3.21 Shrine mural painting of Nuo exorcism 3.22 Rubbing of Fangixangshi the Nuo exorcist 3.23 Song silk painting of Grand Nuo Performance 3.24 Spring Festival Nuo Parade 3.25 Huizhou Nuoxi play Dancing Zhong Kui 3.26 Scene from Zhong Kui Catches Imps 3.27 Jiangxi Wuyuan Nuo Dance 3.28 Hunan Chenzhou Nuoxi play Earth God of Liangshan 3.29 Yunnan Guan Suo Play Three Visits to Kongming 3.30 Wu’an Nuoxi play Catching Yellow Ghosts 3.31 Fan-and-Drum Nuoxi play Setting up an Altar for Houtu the Goddess of the Soil 3.32 Ritual of ‘opening a red mountain’ 3.33 Ritual of ‘climbing a knife mountain’ 3.34 Ritual of ‘cleansing the sacrificial animal’ 3.35 Nuo-altar shrine 3.36 Nuo-altar ritual dances 3.37 Nuo ritual implements and masks 3.38 Scene from Nuo-altar play, Scholar Gan 3.39 Scene from Nuo-altar play, Lord Guan Beheads Cai Yang 4.1 Woodblock illustration of Tortures of Chinese Buddhist Hell 4.2 Woodblock illustration of Mulian Rescues His Mother 4.3 The Jimingsi Temple in Nanjing 4.4 Illustrated woodblock print book, Mulian Saves His Mother 4.5 Statues of Buddha and his two chief disciples 4.6 Scroll painting of Mulian and His Mother Madame Liu 4.7 Qing palace xiqu painting of a scene from Mulian Saves His Mother 4.8 Statues of the Three Officers

104 105 106 107 107 108 108 109 109 110 110 111 111 112 112 113 113 114 116 117 118 120 127 127 128 128 129 129 130 131 132 132 134 135 137 138 147 148 149 149 155 157 158 161

Figures and tables xiii 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 5.1 5.2 5.3

Zhongyuan Festival painting of Floating River Lanterns 162 Zhongyuan Festival painting of Offering Sacrifices to Ancestors 162 Illustration about the ritual of zhengchang 164 Scene from Longevity Wishing Ceremony 165 Jin dynasty temple mural depicting a shadow show 169 Xiaoyi temple shadow theatre stage 170 Handwritten copy of The Transformation Text on 175 Mahāmaudgalyāyana Rescuing His Mother from the Dark Region 5.4 Yulin Grotto mural of Mulian Transformation Tableau 176 6.1 Hall for Telling Preciou Scrolls 191 6.2 Image of Skanda and ‘dragon placard’ 194 6.3–6.16 Illustrations from Sūtra of Mulian 196–200 6.17 Part of Mulian Transformation Tableau 203 6.18–6.20 Mulian baojuan illustrations 207–208

Tables Table 6.1 Comparison between Mulian baojuan and Sūtra of Mulian

204

Foreword

Temples, ritual, performance, theatre! There’s no surprise that scholars have long known of links among such concepts. But there is a very big difference between such understanding and a thorough analysis of the theatre of one country, its origins, its history and its progress. And that is what this splendid book has provided! And among the various civilisations, China’s history is known for its length. Even more important is the fact that ritual occupies so important a place in Chinese culture, civilisation and philosophy. What this means is that the historical inquiry into Chinese theatre via the temple theatre as represented by nuoxi and Mulianxi, is analysis of much more than simply theatre or performing arts. It is analysis involving the enormous scope of Chinese thinking, behaviour and culture. What is the nuoxi of the subtitle? It is an ancient ritual form of performance dating back to the most ancient times. Its history is wonderfully documented and analysed in Chapter 3. It is still found in parts of southern China. Though hardly as common or widespread as it once was, it can occasionally be seen among some of the minority nationalities of Guizhou and elsewhere in southern China, such as the Zhuang, Yi and Miao, and also in some Han areas. Though there are still ritual elements in some performances, it is my impression that nowadays nuo is more folk entertainment theatre than ritual. I had the good fortune to see a performance by amateurs of several different ethnic groups on a very beautiful ancient stage in Fenghuang County, western Hunan, itself a remarkably traditional town with one of the most beautifully preserved city walls in all China. The background gave the performance a highly authentic traditional feel, but I think the actors were more interested in preserving and showcasing an ancient style than in taking part in a ritual. And who is this Mulian who looms large enough in Chinese traditional temple theatre to earn a place in the book’s subtitle? He is a devout Buddhist monk who goes to Hell to save his mother. Why does she need saving? She is lacking in generosity and compassion and, though wealthy herself, does not like to help people. And above all, she shows no respect for the Three Treasures of Buddhism (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha), thus being condemned to eternal punishment in Hell as karmic retribution. Apart from being a Buddhist monk, Mulian is also a central figure in ritual performance, a shaman. Stories about him have become the most prevalent of all in Chinese temple and ritual theatre.

Foreword

xv

One of the most important aspects of theatre history is its interdisciplinarity. Apart from theatre, the author also takes up the study of history, religion, society and literature. It is a study of history, because it spans the whole development of China from the most ancient times till our own times. We can see here discussions of how society and culture evolved over those many centuries. We can observe some of the main features of the main dynasties and the culture they produced. This book is a study of religion. Mulian is quite clearly a primarily Buddhist figure. But shamanistic practices and beliefs are also involved in the development of the temple theatre. Theatre is also very much a part of Chinese society. It tells us a great deal about that society and how it relates with the religions and religious practices followed there. The interrelationship with society begs the question of whether temple theatre is purely religious or is also secular. It is hardly possible for it to be purely religious, since people can and do enjoy theatre that is secular in content in temple venues. But we should never ignore the religious aspect. In Volume Two, Chapter 6 on Mulian dramas in Chinese regional theatre (difang xi), which is generally a secular form of art, the author cites the distinguished Dutch Sinologist Piet van der Loon as saying that Mulian dramas ‘performed a direct and spectacular action which served to cleanse the community of all impurities’. In other words, they were secular and a form of entertainment, but also fulfilled an important moral or religious function. Finally, the study both of nuoxi and Mulianxi involves Chinese literature. The way Mulian saved his mother is the subject of items in many different forms of literature, including prose, poetry and narrative. He is obviously a figure who could inspire Chinese people throughout the ages, whether or not they were Buddhist. I think the enormous detail with which Zhao Xiaohuan recounts the stories of Mulian and his virtues, compassion, openness and generosity shows this work as a model of scholarship. This detail tells the reader the various roots of the story and how they found their way into Chinese Buddhism to become a favourite popular topic. Mulian is a popular hero among ordinary Chinese for various reasons. Volume One, Chapter 4 on the origins of the Mulian myth concludes, ‘The triple role of Mulian as a devout monk, as a filial son and particularly as a quintessential shaman accounts for the enormous popularity of the Mulian myth and Mulian performance or Mulianxi in China.’ Also admirable is the way Zhao Xiaohuan discusses the forms of performance literature and performing arts dedicated to the stories of Mulian. What strikes me is the multiple forms of literature that led to the development of theatre. Stories can be presented to audiences and readers in all sorts of ways. They all have their own emotional impact, but probably reach their height when many people gather together to share the story in a performance with actors on a stage or in another recognisable venue. There is no need to be literate to enjoy a theatre show. People appreciating a drama as part of a crowd produce a strong community feeling of shared emotions.

xvi

Foreword

One of the many things I like about this book is its richness in terms of direct reference to the primary sources. It is replete with quotations from them, histories, poetry of various kinds, essays, diaries, plays, fieldnotes, family and local histories, Buddhist sutras and so on. This adds colour, verisimilitude and scholarly value to the analysis. The narrative becomes more credible, more interesting, more vital. For me, it is the interrelationships of Chinese theatre with its society, religion, literature and history and the pivotal contributions of nuoxi and Mulianxi to the development of Chinese theatre that make it so fascinating. And the fact that Zhao Xiaohuan has done such a good job of highlighting and analysing these interrelationships and contributions is among the many reasons why I regard this book as path-breaking and an example of truly excellent scholarship. Although included among the sources on Chinese xiqu and theatre more generally, and highly appreciative of that fact, I learned an enormous amount from this book. It is an honour for me to write a foreword for it. I wish it and its author every success.

Colin Mackerras AO, FAHA, Professor Emeritus, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia

Acknowledgements

This book grew out of a three-year research project on Chinese temple theatre, which was generously funded by the Shanxi One Hundred Talents Scheme (SOHTS). During this period, I received help and support from a great number of people and institutions. Above all, I am deeply indebted to Che Wenming, Deputy President of Shanxi Normal University (SNU) (formerly Director of SNU Research Institute of Xiqu and Xiqu Relics and Dean of SNU School of Xiqu, Film and Television Studies), for inviting me to join SNU as the SOHTS Distinguished Overseas Professor and for providing support at the various stages of this research project. I am also grateful to colleagues at SNU, including but not limited to Yan Baoquan, Wang Xingrong, Wang Zhifeng, Yao Chunmin, Lü Wenli, Hao Chengwen and Zhang Yongfeng for their collegiality and hospitality; to Cao Fei, Sun Junshi, Jian Chaohui and Zhao Danrong for accompanying me on my initial field trips in Shanxi; to Xu Guangdao for picking me up from the airport on each and every one of my visits to SNU and for driving me to innumerable temples and temple fairs during my fieldwork in Shanxi and its neighbouring provinces over these years. Among my Shanxi colleagues, I owe special gratitude to my SNU liaison Wang Luwei, a brilliant young scholar, for his friendship, local knowledge and expert assistance in my field and archival research in China and for his kind offer of images and photographs from his personal collection and SNU Museum of Xiqu Relics. SNU boasts China’s first and foremost museum of xiqu relics. A xiqu treasure house, indeed – for it houses more than one hundred tomb brick and stone xiqu carvings dating from the Song (960–1279), Jin (1115–1234) and Yuan (1271– 1368) dynasties, approximately three thousand rubbings of xiqu stelae, more than five thousand photos of xiqu relics and more than three hundred hand-copied scripts of regional, folk and ritual drama from premodern China, in addition to a sizable collection of xiqu costumes, headdresses, properties, musical instruments, puppets and shadows, among others. I feel honoured to have been granted access to the treasure house and permission to exploit its rich resources for this research project. Richard Schechner read my essays on Huizhou temple theatre and Guizhou Nuoxi, offering very encouraging feedback and perceptive advice, which was incorporated into Zhao (2017, 2019) and adapted into Volume One: Chapters 1

xviii Acknowledgements and 3 and Volume Two: Appendix. In addition, he also provided me with his works on traditional practices and perceptions of ritual, performance and theatre, from which I have learned a great deal. All these years, I have been fortunate to have had regular contact with Colin Mackerras, one of the world’s most outstanding historians of Chinese drama and theatre (Liu 2011: 426–436). He offered valuable advice on this book project from the outset, and he also read an earlier version of the book manuscript and made incisive comments on it, for which I am profoundly grateful. Rostislav Berezkin of Fudan University, a young but a highly accomplished scholar of Mulian baojuan or precious scrolls on Mulian, read closely an earlier version of Volume One, Chapter 6 and offered me helpful comments and suggestions. My heartfelt gratitude also goes to Susette Cooke, a colleague of mine at the University of Sydney, who read closely the whole manuscript with great patience. Her useful and thoughtful comments and suggestions have been absorbed into this work. There is also a list of people to thank for sharing with me their research materials, findings and photographs pertaining to this study, giving their comments and suggestions on this book project in various stages of completion, or providing me with on-site assistance for my fieldwork in China: Marvin Carlson (City University of New York), Tanaka Issei (Tokyo University), Anne McLaren (University of Melbourne), Mariellen Sandford (New York University), Andrew Filmer (Aberystwyth University), Claire Cochrane (University of Worcester), Jo Robinson (University of Nottingham), Silvia Battista (Liverpool Hope University), Sally Sussman (Australian Performance Exchange), Peter Wilson (University of Sydney, hereafter USYD), Charlie Chai (Fisher & Paykel), Phra Kiattisak Kittipanyo (DIRI), Jason Tai (Yun Yang Temple), Cao Humei (China Nuo Culture Research Institute), Chen Guoshun (Cultural Affairs Bureau of Qimen County, Anhui Province), Chen Xiaodong (Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Dejiang County, Guizhou Province), Chen Zhiyong (Sun Yat-sen University, hereafter SYSU), Ding Shumei (Sichuan University), Fan Desheng (Lanzhou University), Gong Dequan (Guizhou Minzu University), He Shan (NPC Legislative Affairs Commission), Huang Yongfeng (Xiamen University), Jiang Jianning (Guangxi Medical University), Hua Wei (CUHK), Kang Baocheng (SYSU), Li Guotao (SYSU), Li Ying (SNU), Liu Xiaohui (Chinese National Academy of Arts, hereafter CNAA), Liu Wenbin (Guangxi Tasly), Liu Yingwang (Huangshan Municipal Government, Anhui Province), Mao Gengru (Anhui Xuancheng Opera Troupe), Miao Huaiming (Nanjing University), Ni Caixia (SYSU), Qiao Guanghui (Southeast University), Wang Dingyong (Yangzhou University), Wang Ping (Lanzhou City College), Wang Xuefeng (CNAA), Xie Yufeng (Nanjing University), Xu Zifang (Southeast University), Zhao Shanlin (East China Normal University), Zhao Tianwei (Southeast University), Zhou Xiaoyuan (Hunan Xiangtan No. 1 Middle School), Zhu Hengfu (Shanghai Normal University) and also to my postgraduate students at the University of Sydney, Lydia Liu Liu, Lisa Yunjie Hu, Liwanna Chan, Mei Ling Milly Cheng and Yiqian Wu. I am also very lucky to have had the companionship of Wang Xiaoyang (Southeast University) and Wang

Acknowledgements xix Qian (Yangzhou University) during my field research in China over the past few years. Their companionship and expertise in art/archaeology and religion have made my fieldwork there very joyful and fruitful. My gratitude is also due to the three anonymous peer reviewers of the original book proposal submitted to Routledge, to the critical comments also made anonymously on the first complete draft of this book and to the generous advice and support from the Routledge Theatre and Performance Studies department, particularly to Ben Piggott and Zoe Forbes. They have all helped me to improve the quality of this book. All errors, of course, remain my own. The appendix to Volume Two is adapted from Zhao (2017: 397–415; 2020: 161– 172). To the University of Hawai’i Press and Bloomsbury Publishing I express my appreciation for granting me permission to adapt and republish them in this book. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the China Studies Centre of the University of Sydney for providing funding to support my research and publication on Chinese religion and theatre over these years and to the University of Sydney Library, especially to Anne Goodfellow (Academic Liaison Librarian) for her efficient handling of all my requests for book purchase and interlibrary loan. I am also thankful to my colleagues at the Department of Chinese Studies for the pleasant working environment and rewarding experience I have had all along. During the final stage of preparing this work for publication, I benefited greatly from the Special Study Programme of the University of Sydney, which exempted me from all teaching and administrative duties so that I could concentrate on writing the book. Needless to say, my thanks must also go to my family – Julie, Daniel, Cleo and Stella – for their unfailing understanding, support and love. Last but by no means least, I owe my deepest gratitude to William Dolby, who has been a constant source of inspiration since I started to read for my PhD at the University of Edinburgh and to whom this book is dedicated.

Abbreviations and conventions

Abbreviations BJCJ CBETA DZ ESSS GBXQCK MSQY MSQYCS MSYJ MZYS QH QH_TSY QH_M3 QH_J2 QH_J3 QTS QTW SKQS SSJZS TPGJ TPYL WYYJ XBZZJC XQYJ YSBJ ZHXQ ZZJC

Baojuan chuji Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association Zhengtong daozang Ershisi shi Guben xiqu congkan Minsu quyi Minsu quyi congshu Minsu yanjiu Minzu yishu Lidai quhua huibian QH Tang Song Yuan bian QH Mingdai bian (disan ji) QH Jindai bian (di’er ji) QH Jindai bian (disan ji) Quan Tangshi Quan Tangwen Siku quanshu Shisanjing zhushu Taiping guangji Taiping yulan Wenyi yanjiu Xinbian zhuzi jicheng Xiqu yanjiu Yishu baijia Zhonghua xiqu Zhuzi jicheng

Conventions For Chinese romanisation, Pinyin (without tone mark) is used throughout the book except in direct quotations. No Chinese characters are provided in the running

Abbreviations and conventions xxi text, captions or endnotes for Chinese terms and expressions unless necessary to avoid confusion. Instead, a glossary for them is provided at the end of each volume of the book, where Pinyin is given followed by the fantizi (traditional scripts) even if originally published in jiantizi (simplified scripts). Likewise, only romaji and romaja are given in the running text and endnotes for Japanese and Korean terms with their form in kanji/kana or hanja/hangul provided in the glossary as are their Chinese counterparts. Non-English words and expressions are italicised throughout the book except for proper nouns and major genres of Chinese theatre (including Chinese temple theatre and regional theatre), which are in general italicised on their first occurrence only. For premodern Chinese texts, they are cited by title rather than by author. In such cases, the juan (scroll) number is also given, followed by period and page number. Some texts reprinted in traditional folio format, in pages with flattened recto/verso sides (often with more than one to a page), are also given sequential pagination in Arabic numerals. In such cases, the scroll and page number (with recto/verso indication) of the traditional format is cited.

Chronology of dynasties and periods

Early China Xia: ca. 2100–ca. 1600 bc Shang: ca. 1600–1046 bc Zhou: 1045–256 bc Western Zhou: 1045–771 bc Eastern Zhou: 770–256 bc Spring and Autumn Period: 770–476 bc Warring States Period: 475–221 bc Qin: 221–206 bc Han: 206 bc–ad 220 Western Han or Former Han: 206 bc–ad 25 Eastern Han or Later Han: ad 25–220 Medieval China Six Dynasties (220–589) Three Kingdoms: 220–280 Cao Wei: 220–265 (Western) Shu: 221–263 (Eastern) Wu: 222–280 Jin: 266–420 Western Jin: 266–316 Eastern Jin: 317–420 Northern and Southern Dynasties: 420–589 Sui: 581–618 Tang: 618–907 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms: 907–960

Chronology of dynasties and periods xxiii Song: 960–1279 Northern Song: 960–1127 Southern Song: 1127–1279 Liao: 947–1125 Western Xia: 1038–1227 Jin: 1115–1234 Yuan: 1271–1368 Late Imperial/Early Modern China Ming: 1368–1644 Qing: 1644–1912 Modern and Contemporary China Republic: 1912– Peoples’ Republic: 1949–

Introduction

This book aims to study the role of temple theatre in the development of traditional Chinese drama and theatre (xiqu), with focus primarily on the two most representative and predominant forms of temple theatre, that is Nuoxi or Nuo theatre and Mulianxi or Mulian theatre, the former being the oldest living shamanic ritual and theatrical performance in China and the latter widely hailed as ‘the ancestor of one hundred forms of xiqu’ (baixi zhi zu). Xiqu is an umbrella term for a great variety of forms that originated in different places and different periods.1 While sharing the common defining feature of ‘enacting a story with speech, action, song and dance’ (Wang 2007: 33), each is distinguished from the others in dialect and musical style. The twelfth century witnessed the appearance of Southern drama (nanxi), the earliest mature form of xiqu, but earlier forms of xiqu have a much longer history going back as far as the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–1045 bc) when Chinese temple theatre began to emerge in the form of shamanic ritual performance. The relationship of ritual to drama is perhaps the most central, complex and controversial issue that confronts anyone exploring the origin and evolution of theatre. As a sacred space for ritual performance and a secular space for theatrical entertainment, Chinese temple theatre provides hope of finding proof for an essential link between ritual and drama. This book attempts to search for the historical link between religion and ritual and drama and theatre via temple theatre, and to demonstrate how Chinese temple theatre serves as the liminal continuum between ritual and theatrical performance. The specific aim of this book is thus to seek an explanation for how xiqu emerged from temple theatre and how various ritual elements and theatrical devices were synthesised into xiqu.

Definitions and explanations Needless to say, any such search is conditioned by our definitions of ‘temple’, ‘theatre’, ‘temple theatre’, ‘ritual’, ‘drama’ and ‘ritual drama’. Although explicit declarations of definitions put this study in danger of easy rebuttal, despite the risks there is no other way. In religious terms, ‘temple’ is a sacred place of worship for religions or faiths other than the monotheistic ones, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Since the book studies ‘temple theatre’ in a broader socio-cultural DOI: 10.4324/9781315460291-1

2

Introduction

context than the religious or theatrical one, the word ‘temple’ is to be understood in more neutral terms as a space for the stage and the sacrifice that preserve its existence and proper functioning. Closely associated with ‘temple’ in this study is ‘temple theatre’, by which we mean both ritual/theatrical performances of all forms of performing arts and performance literature, sacred and secular, presented at temple fairs or during community and calendrical festivals or for ceremonial (celebratory and commorative) functions – as in welcoming gods and expelling ghosts (yingshen saishe), celebrating imperial ascension and marriage, marking the birth or mourning the death of a person and commemorating a military victory or the spirits of war dead – and open-air sites/stages or roofed structures designated for ritual/theatrical performances, which could be a cave, a street, a square, a shrine, a site of holy relics, a Buddhist or Daoist monastery, a lineage temple or an ancestral shrine, a courtyard, a garden, a residential house and a royal or princely court. The structures in question are therefore not always recognisable as ‘theatre’ in its modern sense: (a) a building designed for dramatic and operatic performances and (b) the (art of) dramatic and operatic performances, nor are they identifiable merely as a ‘viewing place’ in the original sense of the Greek word theatron. ‘Temple theatre’ as such distinguishes itself from Hanson’s (1959) ‘theatre-temple’, Nielsen’s (2002) ‘cultic theatre’ and Che’s (2005) ‘temple theatre’ (shenmiao juchang), all of which deal with physical structures for ritual/theatrical performances from a perspective of architectural archaeology. For those not trained in performance and theatre but only in literature, ‘drama’ is a matter of literature, whereas ‘ritual’ is a kind of subliterature – something somewhat nebulous and amorphous. Such a view is reflected in the strong emphasis traditionally placed by historians of Chinese theatre on the surviving textual evidence as represented by the variety play (zaju) that flourished during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) – the so-called golden age of Chinese drama (Shih 1976). They tend to think of drama in a specific sense as a literary creation – an art form that does not need to be performed. Classical anthropologists, particularly Cambridge Ritualists such as Jane Harrison, Francis Cornford and Gilbert Murray, however, think of ‘drama’ in a more general sense as ‘the re-enactment of myth through ritual’. However, both ‘drama’ and ‘ritual’ need to be rethought and reassessed by anyone who seeks to trace the history of Chinese theatre in terms of its ritual origins. ‘Drama’ needs to be understood not only in its more specific literary context, but also in the general anthropological context of Chinese temple theatre as re-enactment through ritual and ceremony of happenings, natural and supernatural, mythic and mundane, and malevolent and benign that are believed to have occurred as a divine response to human needs and deeds. As for ‘ritual’, the word should not be understood as ‘subliterature’ in comparison to ‘drama’. Rather, ‘ritual’ needs to be thought of as the self-conscious performance of structured, stylised, repeatable yet variable actions that is presented to please and placate gods, ghosts and spirits, to expel epidemic diseases and exorcise demons, and to entertain, enlighten and educate ritual and ceremony participants – not just performers but spectators as well. As such, ritual is an inclusive term meaning activities of priests-performers, actors, musicians, dancers, singers, audience

Introduction 3 participants and spectators, and so is ritual performance that involves various xiqu elements including music, acting, singing, dancing, drumming, chanting, combat, costuming, make-up, masking and impersonating, and are therefore at once both efficacious and entertaining. In this sense, ‘ritual’ is ‘ritual drama’ and ‘ritual performance’ is ‘theatrical performance’. And accordingly, ‘theatre’ is interchangeable with ‘performance’ and vice versa. To redefine the meanings of terms related to ‘temple’ and ‘temple theatre’ is part of a larger effort to reconstruct and reinterpret the history of ritual, theatre and performance that is currently underway here. The strong assertion of the ontological fusion of ritual/theatrical character, content and function of Chinese temple theatre also has implications for the broader exercise of cross-cultural comparison, opening the door to a less overly Hellenoand Eurocentric approach to the comparative study of the origins and evolutions of theatre. By prompting and participating in cross-cultural dialogue and debate on temples, shrines, stages, streets and squares in China as a space for ritual performance and theatrical entertainment, it is hoped that this book goes beyond existing scholarship by adding depth and width to an understanding of what has been called ‘the global theatre’, at a time when Asian theatre is attracting everincreasing attention from ‘Western actors, dancers, musicians, directors, and playwrights’ (Brandon 2011: 5).

Ritual origins of theatre There is a highly influential – almost universal – assumption that theatre evolved from myth, ritual and ceremony. This assumption is at the heart of the ritual theory of drama developed by the Cambridge Ritualists in the early twentieth century and has been commonplace since the time of Aristotle (384–322 bc). However, hardly any clear consensus has been reached on just how this happened or whether this ever happened. Indeed, this how-question is one of the most crucial and controversial in theatre studies – a topic for a century-long heated discussion and debate among scholars of theatre history in the West. In China, modern scholarship on xiqu started in 1912 with Wang Guowei’s (1877–1927) groundbreaking A Study of Song and Yuan Xiqu (Song Yuan xiqu kao).2 Wang Guowei (2007: 1) began his inquiry into the history of xiqu with the rhetorical question, ‘Might the rise of song and dance have begun with ancient shamans (wu)?’ He did not answer the question but instead traced wu-shamanism or wuism to the golden age of ‘high antiquity’ (shanggu).3 Wang Guowei (2007: 3–4) then proposed another source of origin for xiqu, that is, the witty words, actions and impersonations of professional jesters and entertainers (paiyou) of the Zhou court during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 bc), thus initiating a heated discussion on the two lines of xiqu development and an equally heated debate over the ritual origins of Chinese theatre. The debate and discussion among historians of Chinese theatre are surprisingly coincident not only with the way Western scholarship has responded to the ritual theory of drama, but also with the way Western scholarship has dealt with it.4 Various theories have since been proposed as inspired by Wang Guowei on the origin(s) of Chinese theatre.5 They may be generally described as ‘sole-ancestral’

4

Introduction

versus ‘multi-ancestral’. The former – as represented by Piet van der Loon (1977), Tang Wenbiao (1985: 37–40), Ma Guojun (1992), Tanaka Issei (1998), Kang Baocheng (2011), Liao and Liu (2013) and Xiaohuan Zhao (2019) – holds that Chinese theatre in its various forms has one and the same origin in ancient Chinese shamanic rituals and sacrificial ceremonies. The latter – as shown in Zhou Yibai (1960), William Dolby (1976), Colin Mackerras (1990), Zeng Yongyi (2008) and Regina Llamas (2013) – is rooted in the view that various earlier forms of religious and entertaining performances including shamanic song and dance, court jesting, market storytelling and storysinging, comic skits, acrobatics, martial arts and so on, all contributed, more or less, to the birth and growth of xiqu, the predominant form of Chinese theatre since the twelfth century. Those who view Chinese theatre as a multi-ancestral phenomenon tend to regard all the earlier forms of performance and entertainment as the sources from which xiqu evolved. In other words, the multi-ancestral theory identifies shamanic rituals and sacrificial ceremonies as merely one of the many sources of Chinese theatre, albeit the earliest one. Upon closer examination, however, the two seemingly opposing points of view are very similar because both of them trace the origin(s) of Chinese theatre as far back as shamanic song and dance of high antiquity. The problem with the multi-ancestral theory is not its denial of any relationship between ritual and theatre, but its failure to distinguish ‘spring’ from ‘wellspring’. In our view, a spring is to its wellspring as xiqu is to wuism, from which various elements of ritual performance such as combat, costumes, masks, chanting and singing, dance and non-dance movement, facial expressions, drumming and make-up develop into xiqu. In his comment on the performances of lantern opera (dengxi) staged by village shamans in northern Sichuan, Kirby (1975: 72–73) notes, ‘In them, we can see a reflection of the process which formed the more ancient drama and which continued to transform the “mainstream” styles.’ The process is dynamic and bidirectional, or in Schechner’s words, a process ‘from ritual to theater and back’ (Schechner 2003: 121). Yet still no consensus whatsoever has been reached among historians of Chinese theatre on how this happened or whether this ever happened. Recently, the ritual theory of drama has been challenged by the emergence of Chinese exceptionalism, which asserts that Chineseness, including Chinese civilisation and culture, is justifiably and factually distinct and deeply rooted in China’s national history and tradition, and so is xiqu. Xiqu is peculiar to Chinese culture; it is an exceptionally complex, composite, multi-ancestral art of literature and performance (Xie 2007; Fu 2008; Zeng 2008: 11–57). The exceptionalism of xiqu history was first systematically set forth by Zhang Geng (1911–2003), the late President of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (Zhongguo xiqu xueyuan). In the opening section of A General Introduction to Xiqu Studies (Zhongguo xiqu tonglun), Zhang Geng states that ‘Xiqu is a self-contained system’, which took a path in its origination and evolution entirely different from that of ancient Greek and Indian theatre (Zhang and Guo 2010: 1–13). Is Chinese theatre history really an exception? This is not the simple yes or no question it appears to be. Little direct evidence on the origins of Chinese theatre has survived, which is also the case with all other theatres of the world

Introduction 5 including ancient Greek theatre. Equally little is known about how ‘classical Chinese drama’ as represented by Yuan zaju ‘seems suddenly to appear on the literary horizon full grown’ (Crump 1980: 3). To answer this question requires probing the history and historiography of temple theatre: why and how did temple theatre accommodate both ritual performance and theatrical entertainment? What kinds of ritual and theatrical performances were staged? Who participated in the performances, in what capacity and under what circumstances? To what extent was ritual shaped by theatre or vice versa? To what extent was xiqu shaped by temple theatre or vice versa? How did various theatrical elements such as dance, singing, miming, music, acrobatics, make-up, props, costumes and so forth develop and coalesce into a composite performance art that is xiqu? By addressing these questions and issues, this book will work towards reconstruction of the trajectory of xiqu from religious ritual to ritual drama and from ritual drama to drama.

Theatre history in temple fairs Different from commercial urban entertainments, dramatic shows were usually staged in traditional China as part of temple fairs, as people widely believed that deities, including their enshrined ancestors, enjoy theatrical performance as much as they do. ‘Temple stages,’ as Dolby (1976: 186) correctly points out, ‘have played a big part in the history of Chinese drama.’ Temple theatre still plays a big part in theatrical entertainment in twenty-first-century China, particularly in its vast rural and hinterland areas. In early 2014, I was invited to attend a symposium on Chenghuang the City God and Community Festival Performance (shehuo).6 The symposium was held in Yuci District, Jinzhong City, Shanxi, a landlocked province in North China. During the symposium, I visited the Yuci City God Temple (Chenghuang miao) and observed the local temple fairs. First built in 1362 or the twenty-second year of Zhizheng of the Yuan dynasty and relocated to the current site in 1431 or the sixth year of Xuande of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the temple boasts one of the earliest surviving City God temples in China (Figure 0.1).

Figure 0.1 The City God Temple of Yuci, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province.

6

Introduction

Figure 0.2 Worshipping the City God. Capital City God Temple of Xi’an, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province.

The City God is a popular tutelary deity in Chinese Daoism and folk religion. The cult of the City God dates from the Six Dynasties (220–589). Indeed, the god was so popular that it was hard to find a city without a temple dedicated to him in traditional China. Under the Ming dynasty, the City God was officially entrusted with a judicial and administrative power over the dead comparable to that of King Yama in Chinese Buddhism. And from then onwards, the City God was housed in a yamen-like temple to receive sacrificial offerings and enjoy ritual and theatrical performances during temple fairs (Figure 0.2).7 The local temple fair is a six-day event held as part of the annual twenty-day Jinzhong Community Performance Festival. During the temple fair, the City God starts the day with a grandiose morning tour of inspection of his city (xuncheng) (Figure 0.3). Escorted by armed guards on both sides, the statue of the god is carried in a sedan chair and paraded throughout the town with court runners beating gongs to clear the way at the front and staff members in official robes bringing up the rear (Figure 0.4). After the inspection tour, ritual and theatrical performances are presented inside the temple to enact the god’s miraculous deeds such as practising exorcism, summoning rain and bringing good harvest and making divine judgements (Figure 0.5). The god is seated in the main hall of the temple to watch the performances. Outside in the square, there are ‘variety entertainment’ (zaxi) to entertain the general public. The entertainment is so called because it is a mixture of a variety

Introduction 7

Figure 0.3 Mural painting, City God on Inspection Tour. Xi’an Capital City God Temple, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province.

Figure 0.4 The Parade of the City God statue during the temple fair.

8

Introduction

Figure 0.5 City God Judges a Case (Chenghuang duan’an), a ritual drama performed by locals in the Yuci City God Temple during the temple fair.

Figure 0.6 Scene from The Yellow Emperor Fights Chiyou (Huangdi zhan Chiyou), a masked Nuo dance drama performed by Shouyang Aishe (Society for the Love of the Gods of the Earth and the Five Grains) Nuo Dance Troupe during the temple fair.

Introduction 9

Figure 0.7 Scene from The Generals of the Yang Family.

of acts including the Nuo dance (nuowu) (Figure 0.6), lion dance (wushi), ricesprout-song (yangge) dance, boat-on-dry-land (hanchuan) dance, walking on stilts (cai gaoqiao), acrobatics, martial arts and so forth, which are reminiscent of the ‘hundred shows’ (baixi) performed in ancient times since the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220). At nightfall, the entertainment reaches its climax with the staging, mostly in the popular local style of Jinju (Shanxi Opera), of highlight scenes (zhezixi) extracted from full-length dramas in the repertory of the major theatre (daxi) of the festival, such as The Buddhist Temple (Fanwang gong), The Generals of the Yang Family (Yangjia jiang) (Figure 0.7) and Beat the Golden Twig (Da jinzhi) (Figure 0.8). The performance of the major theatre is embedded from time to time with plays in the repertory of the minor theatre (xiaoxi) of the festival. They are for the most part short folk plays or sketch comedies often containing ribald scenes (hunxi) or ribald episodes (hunduanzi). Among the most performed are Pigsy Carries His Wife on His Back (Zhu Bajie bei xifu) (Figure 0.9), A Young Married Woman Rides a Donkey (Xifu qi maolü) and A Matchmaker Goes into Town (Meipo jincheng) (Figure 0.10). On the last day of the fair, the City God is reinstated in the main hall of the temple to receive routine offering of sacrifices. Obviously, the temple fair does not merely perform a religious function. The fair demonstrates a wide range of ritual and theatrical performance from solemn ritual offering of sacrifices to the City God inside the temple to the processional performance of the inspection tour

10

Introduction

Figure 0.8 Scene from Beat the Golden Twig.

Figure 0.9 Scene from Pigsy Carries His Wife on His Back.

of the City God to the stage performance of farce skits, sketch comedies and extracted scenes from full-length dramas, re-enacting the historical development of Chinese theatre in vivid detail from ritual to ritual drama to drama proper.

Modern scholarship: achievements and challenges Modern studies in Chinese theatre history began in 1912 with A Study of Song and Yuan Xiqu by Wang Guowei, who used the word xiju to refer to proto-theatre or

Introduction 11

Figure 0.10 Scene from A Matchmaker Goes into Town.

quasi-drama and the word xiqu to full-fledged musical drama and theatre, tracing the origins of xiqu to shamanic song and dance and court entertainment from early China.8 Since then, numerous publications on Chinese theatre history have been produced in China. As shown in Zhou Yibai (2007), Liao and Liu (2013) and Zhang and Guo (2014), these works cover a wide range of aspects of Chinese theatre history from shamanistic rituals, court jestings and folk and court song and dance of the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the hundred shows or baixi popular since the Han dynasty; from Six Dynasties dance plays and Tang dynasty (618–907) adjutant plays (canjunxi) to Song (960–1279) and Jin (1115–1234) variety show (zaju) – a form of vaudeville theatre that features a mixture of song and dance, sketch comedy and farce skit; from Song-Yuan storytelling and storysinging (shuochang) and Southern drama to Yuan zaju; from Ming-Qing (1644–1912) marvel drama (chuanqi, lit. ‘transmission of marvels’) to Kunqu or Kun Opera; and from Jingju or Beijing Opera to various other forms of regional theatre that rose during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Most significant among them is the Zhongguo xiqu fazhan shi (History of Xiqu Development in China). A multi-volume book of more than 1.4 million Chinese characters, the History of Xiqu Development in China is the hitherto most detailed and comprehensive research on Chinese theatre history and represents the highest academic achievements by contemporary Chinese scholars in this regard. This monumental book distinguishes itself from other major studies in Chinese theatre history by providing a great deal of archaeological evidence richly illustrated with full-colour images. Through these works, we are now able to have a clearer idea about the history of Chinese theatre than Wang Guowei and his contemporaries. On the whole, however, studies in Chinese theatre history tend to regard ritual and ritual performance as disparate and separate from theatre, as noted by Tanaka Issei (2009: 47–48), although their value in Chinese theatre history has attracted more and more scholarly attention. A key turning point occurred when the late Piet van der Loon (1977), an eminent scholar of oral and written traditions of Chinese popular culture (folk religion and

12

Introduction

drama), published an insightful and at times inspiring essay titled ‘Les origines rituelles du théâtre chinois’. The essay exercised an immediate and penetrating influence in the xiqu research circles across the Taiwan Strait after being translated into Chinese (Long 1979). Since then, ritual and ritual performance have increasingly drawn the attention of Sinologists. Notable among them are Barbara Ward (1979), Tanaka Issei (1981, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1998), David Johnson (1989a, 1994, 1995a, 2009), John Lagerwey (1987), David Holm (1993, 1994, 2003), Anne McLaren (1998), Qitao Guo (2005), Daniel L. Overmyer (2009) and Dean and Zheng (2010a, 2010b). It is interesting to note that most of these scholars research in the areas of Chinese religion, non-elite society, folk belief and practice, folk and popular culture and literature in premodern China rather than specialise in Chinese theatre, with the remarkable exception of Tanaka Issei, a world-leading expert on Chinese religious drama and ritual theatre. Research on Chinese ritual and ritual theatre was carried out on an unprecedented scale in the 1990s under the research project ‘Chinese Regional Theatre in Its Social and Ritual Contexts’ funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK) Foundation. Directed by Wang Chiu-Kui (aka Wang Qiugui) from the Institute of Anthropology of the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, this cross-strait collaborative research project led to the publication in 1993-2007 of a total of eighty-six volumes in ‘Studies in Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore Series’ (Minsu quyi congshu) by the Taibei-based Shih Ho-cheng Folk Culture Foundation. Heavily ethno-anthropologically oriented, these books fall into four categories: fieldwork reports, collected manuscripts of play and ritual texts, collected research papers and monographs on ritual and ritual drama. Written by scholars mainly from mainland China based on their field and archival research, books included in the series for the most part deal with a particular form of religious ritual or ritual theatre prevalent in a particular region or among members of a particular community or ethnic group. They prove to be an extremely rich, in-depth source of materials for scholarly inquiry into Chinese ritual, religion and ritual drama, contributing greatly to the study of popular culture, theatre and anthropology worldwide. As a whole, however, they demonstrate little interest in the origin and history of Chinese theatre because their authors are, if not all, mostly folklorists, ethnographers, anthropologists, social historians or scholars of religious studies.9 While all these studies offer exciting findings on Chinese theatre in its ritual settings, the long history prior to it is still obscure and poorly understood.10 The questions concerning the origin(s) and formation of xiqu and the relationship between ritual and drama that have perplexed us historians of Chinese theatre for a century is still haunting us today (Zhou 2003: 55), and as a result, whether or how xiqu originated from ritual remains a controversial issue for debate in China and beyond. The debate over the origins of Chinese theatre arises from a lack of agreement as to how to define xiju and xiqu and how to distinguish between them (Zeng 2008: 12–20; Kang 2009), and also from a lack of written records of Chinese theatre originating from ritual. As shown earlier in the community festival performance, however, Chinese temple theatre preserves various forms of religious

Introduction 13 ritual and theatrical performance. They predate xiqu with its earliest mature form – Southern drama – appearing in the twelfth century, and manifest themselves perfectly as ‘temple theatre’, which covers the whole range of liminal continuum between ritual and drama. They are valuable sources for the exploration of the historical link between ritual and drama, but unfortunately, ‘have largely been ignored by Chinese theatre historians and theoreticians’ (Yu 1989: 12) in their past one hundred years of research on Chinese theatre (Kang et al. 1999). The challenge and the current state of the research field demonstrate the need for a systematic study of Chinese temple theatre in terms of the intrinsic parallels among ritual, ritual drama and drama. The first advances in challenging the Helleno- and Eurocentric hegemony have been made in Schechner’s (1985) ‘indigenous theorizings of non-Western theatre’, in more detail in Schechner and Appeal’s (1990) cross-cultural studies of theatre and ritual (Turner 1985: XII), and in a more recent, thorough examination of the origins of Greek drama as compared with ritual drama from the non-Greek world (Csapo and Miller 2007). Yet no focused attention seems to have been paid by any mainstream historians of drama and theatre in the West to Chinese theatre, except for occasional references to its influence on, or its relationship with, Japanese theatre,11 although xiqu has been well established as a branch of Chinese studies in the West thanks to the great efforts of Sinologists, including A. C. Scott, Piet van der Loon, Chung-wen Shih, William Dolby, Colin Mackerras, James Crump, Cyril Birch, Dale R. Johnson, Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema, to name but a few. While not all of them are devoted to historical inquiries into Chinese theatre, their research on xiqu is more or less concerned with its origin or its evolution and development. Most notable among the few English-language books on Chinese theatre history are Dolby’s (1976) A History of Chinese Drama, Idema and West’s (1982) Chinese Theater 1100–1450: A Source Book and Mackerras’s (1990) Chinese Drama: A Historical Survey. Dolby’s work is the first and by far the most comprehensive history of Chinese drama in a Western language. Following the chronological division of China’s history into dynasties, he traces the history of Chinese drama from its early origins in the forms of religious ritual and court jestings through imperial ages up to the time of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Idema and West’s Chinese Theater 1100–1450: A Source Book proves to be an invaluable source to students of Chinese theatre. This volume provides annotated translations of topically and chronologically arranged texts from a variety of primary sources ranging from literati jottings to essays and treaties to literary works such as poems, plays and vernacular novels that illustrate the distinctive features and development of Chinese theatre, with focus on Southern drama and Yuan zaju – the two earliest mature forms of xiqu. In Chinese Drama: A Historical Survey, Mackerras presents a very informative and comprehensive historical inquiry into Chinese drama from its beginnings in the Old China to its continued development in the New China. He divides the book into two parts. Part 1 deals with ‘Tradition and the Old Society’ down to 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party came to power, Part 2 with ‘the New China’, covering a time span of forty years from 1949 to 1988. This work is

14 Introduction unique in that it devotes one whole chapter to ‘The Dramas of China’s Minority Nationalities’, pays close attention to regional theatre and organises its materials mainly by dramatic form rather than by dynastic sequence. In Japan, academic study of Chinese theatre as a branch of the kangaku (Chinese studies) started with Naoki Kano (1868–1947) of Kyoto University and On Shionoya (1878–1962) of Tokyo University, both under the influence of Wang Guowei (Akira 2000: 101–102).12 Japanese Sinologists as represented by Aoki Masaru (1887–1964), Kōjirō Yoshikawa (1904–1980), Tanaka Kenji (1912–2002) and Iwaki Hideo (1923–2011) contributed greatly to our understanding of xiqu through their research and publication, but like their Chinese counterparts, they are overwhelmingly concentrated on classical Chinese literary dramas and literati dramatists, particularly Yuan zaju plays and their writers, showing little interest in mass and popular theatre, let alone ritual drama and temple theatre (Akira 2000). Inspired by Cambridge Ritualism, Tanaka Issei of Tokyo University takes a different path from his Japanese predecessors by focusing on ancient shamanistic rituals and other popular religious rituals as origins of Chinese drama. Following Jane Harrison and particularly Harrison’s two devoted followers in Japan, Orikuchi Shinobu (1887–1953) and Nobutsuna Saigō (1916–2008), Tanaka Issei (1998: 1–3) commits himself to tracing the origin of Chinese theatre in village rituals of offering sacrifices to gods, in the belief that Chinese theatre developed from the song, dance, actions, divine utterances and responses from gods impersonated by shaman-performers to prayers of shaman-priests. He thereby asserts that the ritual performed by shamans to welcome gods and pray for blessings evolved into congratulatory plays, and that the ritual of exorcism performed by shamans to placate and subdue the departed soul or spirit (Jap. bōrei) that was believed to have brought disasters and diseases resulted in the birth of tragic plays. He is especially interested in identifying the ritual remains and patterns in xiqu, particularly the spirit-pacification ritual (Jap. chinkonsai) in Yuan zaju.13 The year 1998 witnessed the publication of his monumental work Chūgoku engeki shi (History of Chinese Theatre). Growing from his previous four major publications – Chūgoku saishi engeki kenkyū (Research on Chinese Ritual Theatre, 1981); Chūgoku no sōzoku to engeki (Chinese Lineage and Theatre, 1985); Chūgoku kyōson saishi kenkyū (Research on Rituals in Rural China, 1989); and Chūgoku fukei engeki kenkyū (Research on Chinese Shamanic Theatre, 1993) – this book marks a significant milestone in Japanese scholarship on Chinese theatre history. By focusing on ritual and non-elite theatre in China, Tanaka distinguishes himself from all other major historians of Chinese theatre in Japan and beyond. While Tanaka’s works are still very important reference books on the history and prehistory of Chinese drama, the trajectory he charts for the evolution of xiqu is compromised by his simplistically categorising xiqu role types (juese) played by actors as derived from religious roles played by shamans in rituals, and by his highly reductive analysis of a full-fleshed piece of drama, stripping it down to a liturgic skeleton. His research on the origins of Chinese theatre is further hampered by his insistence that legendary accounts of grudge-bearing spirits (Jap. onryō) can never evolve into drama except through the chinkonsai (Tanaka 1998:

Introduction 15 54–68, 112–135; 2009: 53). It is no surprise that Tanaka gives particular emphasis to this particular form of mortuary service, considering the great emphasis placed by scholars of Japanese literature and theatre on the role of chinkonsai in the origin and development of kagura (lit. ‘divine entertainment’), sarugaku (lit. ‘monkey entertainment’) and nōgaku (Nobutsuna 1964: 241–294; Ortolani 1995: 6, 7, 18, 90–93). His fieldwork having been largely confined to several villages in the New Territories of Hong Kong (Fu 2008: 144) and his ‘failure to provide any historiographical evidence to show how “sacrificial ritual evolved into entertaining theatre” ’ (Xie 2007: 143),14 have drawn strong criticism from some Chinese scholars who ardently maintain that xiqu is a unique, exceptional form of art peculiar to Chinese culture and is nothing to do with any ritual whatsoever.15 Despite the problems and criticisms, his emphasis on fieldwork, his ethno-anthropological approach, his introduction of socio-economic history to theatre history studies, his painstaking effort to collect primary sources from local gazetteers and lineage/ family histories and, above all, his fine-grained analysis of religious ritual and ritual drama have helped usher in a new concept, a new perspective and a new era of Chinese theatre history studies.

Time frame, structure and sources Anyone who attempts a historical survey of China will be tempted to divide the material by dynasty. Indeed, dynastic change constitutes an easily discernible dividing line of history and has long been employed in China as a linear time framework for material organisation. While acknowledging the impact of politics on literature, theatre and culture in China, this book chooses not to organise its material for chapter division by dynasty. The reason is simple. Changes in dynasties, as Mackerras (1990: 9) observes, rarely coincide with the changes in theatre and drama. Theatre is an organic entity in its own right and has a life cycle different from dynastic cycle. Take for example Southern drama, the earliest mature form of xiqu. Southern drama emerged at the turn of the twelfth century or towards the end of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), prevailed in southeastern China in most of the Southern Song (1127–1279) and the Yuan eras (1271–1368) and continued to be performed into the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) when Southern drama started to decline and developed into a new genre of drama known as chuanqi or marvel drama, before eventually disappearing and dissolving entirely into various regional forms of drama in Southern style in the late sixteenth century. This is also the case with Yuan zaju. Also known as Yuan drama (Yuanqu) or Northern drama (beiqu) as opposed to Southern drama, the so-called Yuan zaju began earlier and ended later than the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). In light of this, this book adopts a structure primarily based on the form and function of ritual/theatrical performances in temple theatre and the form and function of xiqu in its various regional varieties derived from, or produced for or by, temple theatre, and sets them within a quadripartite time frame. This will allow us to see more clearly the role of ritual and religion in the development of Chinese temple theatre in particular and of Chinese theatre in general. The quadripartite

16 Introduction time frame consists of four broad yet distinctive periods: Early China, from earliest times to the Han dynasty period (206 bc–ad 220), during which the earliest historical civilisation was developed under the Three Dynasties – Xia (ca. 2100–ca. 1600 bc), Shang (ca. 1600–1046 bc) and Zhou (1045–256 bc) – and the earliest unified, multi-national and power-centralised empires were established under the short-lived Qin (221–206 bc) and the subsequent Han dynasty in China; Medieval China, from the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 to the establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368, a period spanning the Six Dynasties (220–589), the Sui (581–618), the Tang (618–907), the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907–960), the Song dynasty (960–1279) and the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368); Late Imperial China or Early Modern China, that is the last two dynasties: the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty; and Modern and Contemporary China, from the establishment of the Repulic of China in 1912 to present-day China. Within the general time frame, references will be made – simply for the sake of narrative convenience rather than for theatre history periodisation – to a corresponding dynasty or reign period when a particular genre or form of ritual and theatre is brought under discussion. By form and function of ritual and theatrical performance, the book is divided into two volumes, each consisting of six chapters. A common thread running through them, as suggested by the book title, is Nuoxi and Mulianxi. As recorded in oracle-bone inscriptions (jiaguwen) from the Shang dynasty and Confucian classics from the Zhou dynasty, Fangxiang or Fangxiangshi is the chief shaman-exorcist who plays a key role in the exorcism rite of Nuo, from which derived Nuoxi, the most prominent example of masked theatre that features singing, dancing, chanting, acting and various forms of shamanic ritual performance and folk martial arts. Mulian (Skr. Maudgalyāyana) is the central figure in Mulianxi. By Mulianxi is meant Mulian theatre or in its broad sense all forms of performing arts – theatrical or non-theatrical – that enact the myth of Mulian rescuing his mother from Hell. With a continuous performance history of more than one thousand years, the Mulian myth finds expression in all popular genres of performance literature and performing arts in premodern China. As the two most enduring and widespread forms of Chinese temple theatre, Nuoxi and Mulianxi bear testimony to Chinese theatre developing from myth to ritual to ritual drama to drama. But just because the book revolves mainly around Nuoxi and Mulianxi does not necessarily mean it denies contributions of other genres of performing arts to the development of xiqu. A case in point is puppetry or kuileixi (Figures 011 and 012), which originated from mortuary rituals in ancient China, matured under the influence of Buddhism from the Western Regions and was frequently performed in association with Nuo rituals of exorcism and also to re-enact the myth of Mulian rescuing his mother from Hell (Kang 2011: 117–118, 240–278; see also Sun 1952; Dolby 1978; Liao 1996 and Kang 2003).16 Volume One is further divided into two parts. Part 1, ‘Ritual origins of Chinese theatre: from Nuo to Nuoxi’, is dedicated to shamanic ritual performance, which is the origin of and basis for all forms of entertainment in early and medieval China. This part comprises three chapters, that is ‘Ritual and ritual

Introduction 17

Figure 0.11 Part of Skeleton Performs a Puppet Show (Kulou xihuan tu). Silk painting on a round fan (tuanshan) by the Southern Song court painter Li Song (1166– 1234). Size: 27 cm × 26.3 cm. Source: The Palace Museum, Forbidden City, Beijing.

Figure 0.12 Scene from Memorial Service (Zhuijian gongguo), performed by Fujian Quanzhou Marionette Troupe at the Chinese Mulianxi Show 2018, Prince Gong’s Palace, Beijing, 24 August 2018.

performance in early China’, ‘The Hundred Shows’ and ‘The Nuo theatre’. Part 2, ‘The Mulian myth: from scripture to storytelling’, which also consists of three chapters, deals with the Mulian myth and its ritual enactment in storytelling and storysinging. Proceeding with an exploration of Indic origins of the Mulian myth, this part moves over to the oral performance of the Mulian

18

Introduction

myth in Mulian bianwen (transformation texts) and Mulian baojuan (precious scrolls). Volume Two continues our historical inquiry into Chinese theatre with focus shifted from Mulian storytelling to Mulian story-acting, the dramatic enactment of the Mulian myth, that is. This volume is further divided into two parts with each part consisting of three chapters and each chapter dealing with a major genre of Mulianxi in association with the development of the corresponding genre of xiqu. Part 1, ‘Mulianxi: from Northern Dramas to Southern Dramas’, traces the historical development of Chinese theatre under the influence of Mulianxi from Song-Jin variety skit and Yuan variety play or Northern drama to Song-Yuan Southern drama and its direct descendant, that is marvel drama. Part 2, ‘Mulianxi: from Elite Court Theatre to Mass Regional Theatre’, mainly deals with the crucial role of Mulianxi in the popularisation of the aristocratic Kunqu, in the development of liantai benxi, a form of cycle play or serialised drama prevailing at urban centres and royal courts, and also in the birth and growth of various regional forms of theatre in Late Imperial China. While this volume is primarily concerned with Mulianxi, references are also made to other forms of Chinese temple theatre, Nuoxi in particular, as Mulianxi has been performed since the Southern Song dynasty as, or in company with, Nuoxi, to cleanse the community of evil spirits and epidemic diseases. Volume Two comes complete with an appendix to provide additional information on Chinese temple theatre. Titled ‘From shrine to stage: towards an anthropological architecture of Chinese temple theatre’, the appendix details my archival and field research on the space and structure of an ancient ancestral-shrine theatre in Huizhou, southern Anhui. The site, space and structure of the temple theatre are described and discussed in close association with theatrical and architectural conventions and examined and analysed in the broader social, cultural and historical context of ancestor worship in late medieval and early modern Huizhou. This book seeks to bring together a variety of evidence to explore the history of Chinese theatre through Nuoxi and Mulianxi. I consult three major types of sources: (1) primary (visual and textual) sources from premodern China or in the form of fieldwork reports by modern Chinese scholars; (2) secondary sources mostly in Chinese, English and Japanese; and (3) my personal experience with Chinese theatre, ritual and religion. Over the past few years, I have conducted extensive fieldwork in China and have gained a great deal of first-hand knowledge of ritual and theatre. I feel obliged to draw on it to corroborate and complement the other two types of sources.

Notes 1 Various translations have been proposed of the Chinese term xiqu. Among them are ‘Chinese opera’, ‘Chinese song-drama’, ‘theatre of song’, ‘Chinese music-drama’, ‘Chinese musical drama’, ‘Chinese musical theatre’, ‘traditional Chinese theatre’, ‘traditional Chinese drama’ or ‘traditional Chinese drama and theatre’, but none of them adequately or accurately conveys the meaning of xiqu, and some of them may even cause confusion to an English-speaking reader who is already familiar with Western

Introduction 19

2

3 4 5 6

7 8

9 10 11

12

13 14

conceptions of music, song, drama, play, theatre, opera and so forth. For the sake of clarity and convenience, xiqu will be used whenever possible and necessary throughout this book, as Nō/Noh and kabuki are widely adopted in studies of traditional Japanese theatre. Wang Guowei started to write this book in November 1912 as invited by the Shanghaibased Commercial Press and completed it in February 1913. He then had this work in sixteen chapters published in eight installments in Oriental Magazine (Dongfang zazhi) by the Commercial Press, which changed its title to A History of Song and Yuan Xiqu (Song Yuan xiqu shi) when publishing it in book form in 1915. For this note, see Chen Hongxiang (2007: 340–341). ‘High antiquity’ is often described in early Chinese classics as a golden age covering the first three dynasties of China, that is Xia (ca. 2100–ca. 1600 bc), Shang (ca. 1600–1046 bc) and Zhou (1045–256 bc). For a critical review of Cambridge Ritualists and one hundred years of studies in theatre history, see Zhao (2018). For a convenient summary of these theories, see Zeng (2008: 20–30) and Huang and Kang (2009: 3–19). Shehuo, meaning literally ‘earth god and fire’, is a traditional community festival originating in the ancient rite of exorcism called nuo, during which shaman priests/exorcists made burnt offerings to the earth god (she) and held burning torches (huo) to expel diseases and demons. The exorcism ritual of shehuo evolved into a variety show of folk and ritual performances during the Song dynasty, as recorded by Meng Yuanlao (fl. 1100–1150) in his Dream of the Splendour of the Eastern Capital (Dongjing menghua lu, hereafter Menghua Lu) (Menghua lu 8.758). For a detailed study of the Cult of Chenghuang the City God in traditional China, particularly in the Yuan period, see Zhao (2016). The Chinese term xiju, which is usually translated as ‘drama’ or ‘theatre’, refers to all forms of drama and theatre in its broadest sense, including Western-style spoken drama (huaju) and opera (geju), shadow puppet theatre (piyingxi), song-and-dance drama (gewuxi) as well as all forms of xiqu, and in its narrowest sense, refers to all earlier forms of xiqu, which is understood as mature forms of xiju embodied by Song-Yuan Southern drama and Yuan variety play. For historical reviews of this term, see Zhao Shanlin (1996) and Li Jian (2014). For a brief introduction to the research project and a bibliographical report on the project, see Wang Ch’iu Kuei (1995, 2002). This observation was made by Idema and West (1982: 4) but unfortunately remains true even today. Noteworthy among scholars in the Western mainstream theatre and performance studies are Richard Schechner and Marvin Carlson. For TDR/The Drama Review, Schechner edited and co-translated a group of essays written by Chinese scholars (e.g. Qu 1989; Huangpu 1989) on Nuo ritual and Nuo theatre that originated from ancient exorcism ceremonies; Marvin Carlson (2014: 4–11) ranks Chinese theatre alongside ancient Greek, Roman and Indian theatres among the oldest theatres of the world, tracing its history and discussing its development. This comment was made by On Shionoya in the introductory section of the fifth chapter of his General Remarks on Chinese Literature (Shina bungaku gairon kōwa) published in 1919 and cited by Wang Gulu (2010: 5) in his ‘Translator’s Preface’ to Aoki Masaru’s (2010) History of Drama from Early Modern China (Shina kinsei gekiky shi). For a comparative study of ghost plays in Yuan zaju and Japanese Nō, see Zhao (2015). This comment is not fair. Tanaka does provide written evidence scattered in ancient classics, local gazetteers, literati jottings and family and lineage histories to support his argument, although his evidence is not viewed as direct or sufficient enough by his critics.

20

Introduction

15 For more comments and criticisms by Chinese scholars on Tanaka’s research on Chinese theatre history, see Xie (2007) and Fu (2008, 2009). For Tanaka’s response to and countercriticism of his Chinese critics, see Tanaka (2009). 16 For extensive ‘Documentation Relating to the Origins of the Chinese Shadow-Puppet Theater’, see Cohen (2000).

Part 1

Ritual origins of Chinese theatre From Nuo to Nuoxi

1

Ritual and ritual performance in early China

Shamanism is the earliest Chinese expression of spirituality, philosophy and art.1 It is the source from which emerge and evolve all Chinese traditions. Chinese theatre is no exception. As intermediaries between human beings and supernatural beings, shamans were the first group of enlightened people engaged in almost all the scholarly, creative and professional activities of the time. They performed rituals to bring down gods and to drive away evil spirits by drumming, singing, dancing and chanting. They were therefore the earliest musicians, dancers, singers, actors and artists.

Wu and Wuism: definition and explanation The word ‘shaman’ is derived from the Tungusic saman, which denotes one who is ‘excited, moved, raised’, or who acquires the ability ‘to know in an ecstatic manner’ (Grim 1983: 15). As suggested by its etymological origins in ManchuTungus, shamanism is characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies and represents the earliest and most primeval form of religion, magic and medicine. Rather than being restricted to the Tungusic hunter-gatherer society, however, shamanism is a repertoire of beliefs and practices that are not bound to any specific cultural or ethnic group. In pastoralist and agricultural societies that successfully developed from hunter-gatherer societies, shamanism survives largely intact and continues to flourish even in modern post-industrial lifestyles. ‘Shaman’ or ‘shamanism’ is notoriously difficult to define because rites and experiences associated with shamanism differ from culture to culture. However, the belief that deities and spirits may possess human beings and that the possessed human beings may mediate contact with the living, the divine and the dead is common to all shamanic cultures including Chinese shamanism or wuism. Wuism or wu-shamanism is an ancient Chinese belief and practice with a recorded history of more than three thousand years. Wu-shamans functioned as spirit mediums (lingmei) in ancient China. They mediated between the realm of the living and that of the spirits (shen) including the spirits of the dead. They offered services to spirits and performed rituals to treat diseases, to avert calamities, to invoke blessings, to expel demons, to grant parents children, to conduct trial by ordeal, to arrange funerals and so forth. The single most characteristic feature shared by all shamanic ritual performances in China is perhaps masked dancing (Figure 1.1). DOI: 10.4324/9781315460291-3

24

Ritual origins of Chinese theatre

Figure 1.1 Shouyang Aishe masked Nuo Dance. Shouyang County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province.

Figure 1.2 Brick relief carving, measuring 40 cm wide × 39 cm long × 4.7 cm thick, depicts a dance duet. Excavated from an Eastern Han (ad 25–220) tomb in Xinye, Nanyang City, Henan Province. Source: Henan Museum.

Tradition has it that wu is a dancer (wu zhe wu ye). Joseph Needham (1985: 134) notes, ‘The Chinese had a word of their own for shaman, however, namely, wu, and it is interesting that the idea of dancing is what binds all these words together’. Indeed, people would hardly think of shamans without associating them with dancers in old times, as vividly shown in the ancient Chinese small-seal script (xiaozhuan) for wu , in which two shamans dance face to face while holding ritual implements to bring down gods and spirits (jiangshen) (Gao and Tu 2008: 276) (Figure 1.2).

Ritual and ritual performance 25 And likewise, people would hardly imagine any form of ritual/musical performance without dancing or drumming and any form of dance without drumming in ancient China (Figures 1.3 and 1.4). In the Shuowen jiezi (Explaining Simple and Analysing Compound Characters, hereafter Shuowen), a dictionary compiled by the Eastern Han (ad 25–220) scholar Xu Shen (fl. ad 100), the word wu is defined as ‘an invocator (zhu) – a female

Figure 1.3 Brick carving shows a scene of banquet music (yanyue), in which a dancer performs the long-sleeved dance (changxiu wu), a drummer stoops, striking the big flat drum placed on the ground (biangu), and four people sit in two pairs looking on, one of them watching while playing the qin zither. Size: 43.5 cm × 48 cm. Excavated in 1966 from a late Eastern Han tomb at the Zhaojuesi Monastery in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Source: Sichuan Museum.

Figure 1.4 Brick relief carving features two shaman-musicians performing the poledrum dance (jiangu wu) – a popular form of ritual dancing and drumming in early China, in which musicians play the large barrel drum mounted on a pole (jiangu) while dancing to the drumbeat. Size: 90 cm × 130 cm. Excavated from a late Eastern Han tomb in Xigu Village, Binhu Town, Tengzhou City, Shandong Province. Source: Tengzhou Museum of Han Carved Stones.

26

Ritual origins of Chinese theatre

Figure 1.5 Picture of Phoenix, Dragon and Lady (Long feng shinü tu), known as the oldest surviving silk painting in the history of Chinese fine art, depicts a lady (most probably an invocator) dressed in a long-sleeved gown, crossing fingers and praying while a phoenix and a dragon are hovering overhead. Size: 31.2 cm × 23.2 cm. Excavated from a Chu tomb dating from the Warring States Period (475–221 bc), in Chenjia dashan, Changsha City, Hunan Province. Source: Hunan Museum.

person who can perform services to the Invisible and invite spirits to descend by dancing’ (Shuowen 9.648) (Figure 1.5). The Chinese character that represents this word is analysed as a pictogram ‘depicting a human body shape with two sleeves posturing’ (Shuowen 9.648), whereas the word xi is explained as ‘a person who can serve the spirits solemnly and respectfully’. The Shuowen dictionary further defines xi as a male shaman (Shuowen 9.648–649) as opposed to wu as a female shaman. At the centre of the definition are ritual services performed by wu-shamans to bring down gods and spirits by dancing: dancing is thus an indissociable part of wu-shamanic rituals. The distinction drawn in the Shuowen dictionary between xi and wu, however, is generally ignored in Chinese classic texts. For example, in the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli) – a pre-Qin (221–206 bc) Confucian text compiled to describe the bureaucratic system designed by Zhou Gong or the Duke of Zhou (fl. 1045 bc) for the newly established Zhou dynasty (1045–256 bc), the word wu is generally used to refer to shamans of both sexes, and the word nan (male) or nü (female) is used to form a compound word nanwu or nüwu to distinguish male shamans from female shamans where necessary. Shamans seek to contact, control or command spiritual forces and to work with their knowledge of the unseen to help and heal others (Frazer 1927: 48–51). In this sense, a shaman is, among others, a magician and a physician, albeit not necessarily vice versa. Shamans are not spirits or deities, but they distinguish themselves from laypeople in that they are possessed of unique physical and spiritual qualities with special appeal for spirits, for ‘spirits may descend and possess a person who

Ritual and ritual performance 27 is insightful and single-minded and a person who is serious, respectful, and sensitive’ (Hanshu 25.1189). Many wu-shamans as recorded in early Chinese texts were lame, blind, dwarf, hunchbacked or epileptic.2 In the ‘Royal Regulations’ (‘Wangzhi’) chapter of the Xunzi (9.156), shamans are referred to as ‘hunchback wu and lame xi’ (yuwu boji), on which Yang Liang (fl. 810) offers an explanatory note: ‘They were so called because in ancient times physically disabled people were engaged in shamanic activities’ (Xunzi 5.169). In ancient times, female shamans who performed rain-inducing rituals were referred to as wuwang (Chunqiu Zuozhuan 14.109b): wang in this binome has the connotation of ‘emancipated’ and ‘crippled’. They were unusual or abnormal right from birth and, as such, would be categorised as physically or neurotically disabled in modern medical terms, but the physical disabilities they were born with conferred advantages in performing rituals and variety shows. A blind person, for example, could compensate for his or her handicap with enhanced hearing or aptitude for music; a dwarf with greater dexterity in acrobatics and magic arts; and a lame person with exceptional skill to hobble, jump or dance on one leg. Whether they were possessed by spirits or embarked on a spirit journey, wu-shamans needed to demonstrate their insight into the spiritual dimensions and their sensibility of touch, sight, hearing and emotion. Their ecstatic body movement and esoteric utterances were intrinsic to shamanic rituals; their epileptic seizures, trances, hallucinations and hysteria were easily associated with a shamanic journey to another world to communicate with spirits.

Wu and Wuism in Shang and Zhou China Wuism was rampant and penetrated into every aspect of social and political life in ancient times when ‘each and every household performed shamanic rituals, indulging in offering sacrifices [to gods and ghosts] without restraint’ (Hanshu 25.1190). Shamanic practices were sanctioned by the royal practice and manipulated by the ruling elites for social and state control during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Shang king was actually chief shaman and high priest and engaged in all sorts of shamanic activities (Chen 1936: 535–536). He supervised oracular activities at the royal court and directed court officials and attendants, including religious figures, to perform rituals as intermediaries in search for divine wisdom and instruction from deified ancestors on a wide range of political and personal affairs, from siting and building a town or temple, waging a war and fighting a battle, to praying for rain, to going hunting or to making an excursion. He also effected direct communication with Di or Shangdi (Lord on High) the Supreme God and the spirits of long-departed ancestors through meticulous performance of rituals, and thereby exercised his political power and strengthened his status as a semi-divine and semi-human ruler.3 We cannot tell for certain exactly how these rituals were performed, but we have evidence in oracle bone inscriptions that dance, music and probably alcohol were involved to initiate ritual performers into a state of ecstatic trance and to set them out on a soul flight or shamanic journey to the spirit world. Famous shamans of

28 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre antiquity listed in the Book of Documents (Shangshu), a Confucian classic with certain pieces in the received New Text datable to the eleventh century bc, were Tang the Perfect (Cheng Tang), Yi Yin, Yi Zhi, Gan Pan, Wu Xian and his son Wu Xian, to name but a few (Shangshu 16: 111c–112a). Among them, King Tang was the founder of the Shang dynasty, Yi Yin, also known as Bao Heng, was his chief minister, with the rest being court ministers of later Shang kings. Clearly, they were the upper ruling class, and some of them, such as Bao Heng, Gan Pan and Wu Xian, as indicated by their names, were professional wu-shamans (Chan 1972: 37–38). But there must have been many more who practised household or community shamanism at grassroots level and were therefore not recorded in history. There were many professional shamans serving at the royal and princely courts during the Zhou dynasty, but they were generally much lower in rank compared with their Shang counterparts. In the bureaucratic system designed by the Duke of Zhou for the newly established dynasty, shaman-officials were organised into the Department of Invocators headed by the ‘Chief Invocator’ (dazhu) of the ‘Lower Magnate’ (xia dafu) rank – the lowest rank of the nobility in Zhou times. The two other related departments in the royal administration of the Zhou, that is the ‘Diviner’ (bu) and the ‘[Ritual] Scribe’ (shi), were placed at the same rank as the Invocator (zhu). The Department of Invocators was further divided into three offices, namely, ‘Director of Shamans’ (siwu), ‘Male Shamans’ and ‘Female Shamans’. All were minor officials at the rank of the ‘Middle Gentleman’ (zhongshi), just above the ‘Commoner-Gentleman’ (shushi), alternatively known as the ‘Lower Gentleman’ (xiashi) (Falkenhausen 1995: 283–285). The coinage of nanwu to distinguish male shamans from their female counterparts in the Rites of Zhou might also be understood as a signal for the declining influence of wushamans in Eastern Zhou (770–256 bc) socio-political life. The reduction in number and rank of shaman-officials at court led many of them to leave the palace and the capital to practise wuism among the masses, thus facilitating the integration of royal court shamanic rituals with rural community ones and resulting in an unprecedented prosperity of wuism. By the end of the Warring States Period (475–221 bc), shamanism had been well established among the people from all walks of life, forming a ubiquitous presence across the country. Many of them were summoned by emperors to set up shrines in the capital and to perform rituals in the palace. Their dramatic comeback to the royal and princely courts was partly due to the widespread belief among the ruling elites in shamanism and partly due to the political use of shamanism for power struggle (Zhao 2013). Despite sporadic attempts to suppress it, wu-shamanism continued to thrive among the general public throughout most of China’s dynastic history.

Three big sacrifices: Yu, Nuo and Zha/La There were three broad categories of shamanic activity in ancient China, namely, divination (zhanbu), invocation (qiling) and exorcism (rangjie). They were practised by different means for different ends, but all attempted to employ external spiritual forces through a set of sacred and secret rituals. Various methods of

Ritual and ritual performance 29 divination were developed, the most primal and popular of them being divination by yarrow stalks (shi) and divination by burning or heating bones and plastrons to produce cracks on them (bu). They were widely used to interpret natural and supernatural phenomena including dreams and stars. Invocation aimed to invoke the descent and presence of deities and spirits and to seek divine blessing and spiritual protection, whereas exorcism aimed to evict evil spirits (quxie) and expel pestilence (zhuyi). Invocation and exorcism could take the form of prayer of supplication, possession, evocation, apparition, conjuration and the impersonation of departed ancestors (shi). In ritual practice, two or more forms were usually combined to produce desired effects. To evoke and to evict were but the two sides of the same coin in wu-shamanic belief and practice. Both appealed for divine intervention and both involved shamans drumming, dancing, singing and chanting in a catatonic, mesmeric or hypnotic trance, with rare exceptions, as shown in the ‘Three Big Sacrificial Rituals’ in ancient China. Yu the rain ritual The ‘Three Big Sacrificial Rituals’ were the Yu (rain ritual), the Nuo (exorcism ritual) and Zha/La (end-of-year-thanksgiving ritual), respectively. There are numerous records about the ancient rain-inducing rituals in the inscriptions on Shang oracle bones, in Zhou ritual, historical and philosophical texts (Chen 1936: 563–566), and in Han tomb murals and brick carvings (Figure 1.6). As stipulated in the Rites of Zhou, the main responsibility of the Director of Shamans was to direct shamanesses to dance for rain at times of drought (Zhouli

Figure 1.6 Rubbing of the Qiyu tu (Picture of Praying to Rain), a brick carving depicting a rainmaking scene, in which three spirit men (shenren) pull a five-wheeled thunder carriage (leiche), four Masters of Rain (Yushi) pour rainwater down to the world, and a half-naked Fengbo (Count of the Wind), half-squatting behind the thunder carriage, spits out raincloud. Size: 50 cm × 170 cm. Excavated in 1983 from an Eastern Han tomb in Wangzhuang, Wolong District, Nanyang City, Henan Province. Source: Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Carvings.

30 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre 26: 178a, 178c). They brought rain by dancing as an offering to the wind and rain deities and also by undergoing torture to provoke the sympathy of the spirit world. The rain ritual generally known as yu was referred to as chi or ‘burning red’ in the oracle bone inscriptions because the ritual frequently involved exposing a shaman king or a female shaman (wuwang) to the scorching sun (baowang) or even burning a wu-shaman to death (fenwu) (Liji 10.89a; Chen 1936: 563–564). The ritual provided experiences and entertainment akin to theatre with shamans impersonating the demon of drought called Ba and offering themselves as the ritual incarnation of the demon – a living sacrifice – to be bared to the blazing sun or burnt to death. The wang were wu-shamans who specialised in the rain rituals, hence the compound word wuwang. The second element in this compound is of the same word family as ‘madness’ (kuang 狂), ‘impersonation [for fraud]’ (kuang 誆) and ‘simulation’ (yang 佯). The combination of wu with wang into wuwang is strongly suggestive of the dramatic form of the rain rituals in which wang-shamans put on a disguise (e.g. mask), assumed a different persona – the drought demon in this case, dancing and chanting in an ecstatic, frenzied manner. ‘Madness’, ‘impersonation’ and ‘simulation’ are thus at the core of the associative meaning of the word wang, wu or wuwang. Han historical sources also testify to the popular conception of ‘imitating madness and acting as a wu’ (yang kuang wei wu) (Shiji 92.2626; Hanshu 45.2165).4 Exposing a wuwang-shaman during the ritual represented the exposure of the demon. A certain functionary called Chibashi in the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 37.251a) is identified as ‘the man in charge of the ceremony of exposing the demon, or the masked dancer who represented him’ – a man with an exorcistic duty similar to that of Fangxiang in the exorcistic Nuo (Schafer 1951: 132, citing Chen Mengjia 1936: 561). Nuo the exorcism ritual The Nuo-exorcism is a living shamanic tradition with written records dating from the Shang dynasty. It is likely that the Nuo was performed in the first place as part of the Yu to drive the drought demon. It is not clear as to when the Nuo started to be performed independently from the Yu, but we have evidence that the Nuo was institutionalised during the Zhou dynasty when a functionary called Fangxiang or Fangxiangshi was put in charge of the rite of exorcism (Zhouli 31.213a) (Figures 1.7 and 1.8). In the origin and development of Chinese theatre, as will be discussed at length later in this book, the Nuo rite plays a key role similar to that of the Dithyramb and Phallic Processions in the origin of ancient Greek theatre. Zha/La the end-of-year thanksgiving ritual Closely related to the Nuo was a sacrificial ritual called zha (sacrifice) or bazha (eightfold sacrifices). Known as qingsi (pure sacrifice) during the Xia dynasty (ca. 2070–ca.1600 bc) and jiaping (good peace) in the Shang dynasty (Liji 21.185c), the Zha was held in Zhou times to express gratitude to eight tutelary

Ritual and ritual performance 31

Figure 1.7 Lacquered wooden inner coffin of Marquis Yi of Zeng (Zenghou Yi, d. ca. 433 bc) richly adorned with entangled clouds, serpents, fish, birds and beasts. The window design in the middle is flanked on either side by six hybrid figures. Dimensions: 249 cm long × 1.27 cm wide × 1.32 cm high. Excavated in 1978 in Dongtuanpo, Suixian County, Hubei Province. Source: Hubei Museum.

agricultural gods and spirits for a good harvest of crops. Among the eight gods and spirits were Xianse the Father of Husbandry, identified as Shennong the Divine Farmer, the first builders of dykes and ditches, and (the spirits of) cats and tigers (Liji 26.225c–226b). Religious as it was, the Zha involved eating, drinking, dancing, drumming and merrymaking (Zhouli 24.164a) so much so that ‘the people of the whole state appear to be mad’, as observed by Zigong (520–456 bc) a prominent disciple of Confucius (Liji 43.339b–c). The most dramatic was the ritual performance of ‘meeting cats and tigers’ (yingmao yinghu), as recounted in the Book of Rites – a collection of Confucian ritual texts compiled during the Warring States Period: They met the (representatives of the) cats, because they devoured the rats and mice (which injured the fruits) of the fields, and (those of) the tigers, because they devoured the (wild) boars (which destroyed them). They met them and made offerings to them. They said, – May the ground no sliding show, Water in its channels flow, Insects to keep quiet know; Only in the fens weeds grow! (Liji 26.226a)

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Figure 1.8 Details of inner coffin designs. The upper panel features four big bird figures, all looking aside, and the lower panel six half-human, half-animal figures standing guard in three columns, each holding a ge or dagger-axe in their right hand. The two horned figures in the outermost appear to have a human face and bird claws and legs and are most probably feathered immortals (yuren) that guide the marquis on his way to immortality; with a masked head (qitou), a human face and animal legs and feet, the four figures in the inner columns represent Fangxiangshi the exorcist who protects the tomb occupant from being hunted by evil spirits in the Dark Regions.

Shamans played a key role in the performance. They impersonated agricultural deities and the spirits of cats and tigers and represented them to receive offerings. The ritual performance of meeting the spirits of cats and tigers concluded with prayers probably in the form of a chorus. Around the third century bc, the Zha was dissolved into the La – an end-ofyear thanksgiving festival. It was also during this period that the Nuo started to be performed annually on the eve of the La, hence the festival nuozha or nuola. A Later Han (ad 25–220) source gives a fairly detailed account of the Grand Nuo performed by Fangxiang: on the eve of La festival, Fangxiang leads twelve youths disguised as ‘divine animals’ (shenshou) wearing fur, feathers and horns, followed by a troupe of one hundred-odd lads; they shout, jump and dance wildly all the way down the corridors of the royal palace and the streets outside while chasing evil spirits and exorcising them from the capital city (Hou Hanshu 5.3127–3128).

Ritual and ritual performance 33 The La, which seems to have been celebrated separately from the Zha by the seventh century bc at the latest (Chunqiu Zuozhuan 12.93c), was dedicated to family ancestors and the Five Household Deities known as ‘Five Sacrifices’ (wusi) (Liji 17.154a–b).5 Significantly, a spirit medium called shi would be selected from among the grandchildren of the deceased ancestor as his personator, to represent him to receive offerings from his descendants and to re-enact his life story at the commemoration ceremony (Liji 3.20b). Likewise, the shi-medium played the role of a dead person at funerals, and represented a wide range of deities and spirits, from Heaven and Earth and the Soil and Grain (sheji), to the Four Directions (siwang) and the Five Household Deities, to mountains, rivers, seas and lakes, in a great variety of religious rituals (Liji 3.20c). The dramatic scene in which shi-mediums impersonated ancestors, gods and spirits and represented them to receive offerings was a very popular part of the La festival, finding colourful expression in ‘Thick Star-Thistle’ (‘Chuci’) – a six-stanza-of-twelve-lines-each hymn from the ‘Lesser Elegantiae’ (‘Xiaoya’) of the Book of Songs (Shijing) (Moshi 13/2.199b–202b [no. 209]): The rites have all been accomplished, The bells and drums are ready. The pious son goes to his seat And the skilful recitant conveys the messenger: “The Spirits are all drunk.” The august Dead One [shi] then rises And is seen off with drums and bells; The Spirits and Protectors have gone home. Then the stewards and our lord’s lady Clear away the dishes with all speed, While the uncles and brothers All go off to the lay feast. (Waley 1996: 195) This song, as Kern (2000: 52) notes, embodies a true-to-life account of ‘an original ritual drama,’ and as such, may be read as ‘both a descriptive/prescriptive account and a text to be performed in an ancestral sacrifice’ in its own right. The ancestral rite performed during the La begins with the preparations of sacrificial grain, meat and ale, then threads its way through each and every step of the ritual proper and ends with a sumptuous banquet held in honour of the Dead One and the Spirits and Protectors, all impersonated by shi-mediums (Figure 1.9). The banquet as well as the ritual reaches the highest point as the intoxicated Dead One rises and is sent off with bells and drums.6

Ritual performance in early China: evidence and explanation Xiqu is typical of total theatre that includes almost all the theatrical elements such as music, dance, song, spectacle (costume, make-up and special visual effects),

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Figure 1.9 Mural features an old couple (tomb occupants) receiving offerings from their descendants and servants. Size: 200 cm × 282 cm. Excavated in 2005 from M7, a Northern Wei (386–543) tomb dated 435, in Shaling Village, Datong City, Shanxi Province. Source: Datong City Museum.

action/plot, characters/performers and thoughts/themes/ideas. This form of theatre has its roots traceable to shamanic rituals. Available to us are basically two types of evidence for the earliest forms of Chinese theatre: archaeological and textual. Archaeological evidence Archaeological evidence for ancient shamanism comes mainly in the form of prehistoric cliff and rock paintings, burial sites and funeral objects or inscriptions on Shang-Zhou oracle bones and bronze vessels. Valuable as it is, archaeological evidence tends to be elliptical and vague, and needs to be collated and compared with textual evidence from early China. Rock art China boasts an enormous wealth of rock art (Chen 2002). The first known record of parietal art is found in the Hanfeizi (11.276), a pre-Qin politico-philosophical work by Han Fei (d. 233 bc), but it is in the Commentary on the Classic of Water (Shuijing zhu), a geographical book written by Li Daoyuan (d. 527) during the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535) that we find the earliest scholarly descriptions of rock art in China (Shuijing zhu 3.87–90n4). Then a long silence followed, albeit with random mentions in literati jottings (biji), until the first half of the twentieth century, when there appeared the first few serious attempts to discover, describe and discuss rock art in China. Beginning in the late 1980s, there was an explosion of archaeology on cliff and cave paintings. This period witnessed numerous significant archaeological discoveries, such as the Cangyuan Rock Art in Yunnan, the

Ritual and ritual performance 35 Yinshan Rock Art in Inner Mongolia, the Jiayuguan Heishan Rock Art in Gansu, the Tianshan Hutu Rock Art in Xinjiang and the Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape in Guangxi. The discovery sites are largely scattered over remote mountainous areas and cover a span of more than ten thousand years from the Paleolithic Age (before ca. 10,000 bc), through the Neolithic Age (ca. 10,000–ca. 2000 bc) and the Bronze Age (ca. 2000–ca. 450 bc) to the late imperial period.7 ‘The cave art suggests theatre, dance, and music’ (Schechner 2003: 263), as does the rock art. Many rock paintings prominently feature shamans performing ritual dances. There are three basic forms of dance – solo, duet and group. Ritual dances as depicted in prehistoric rock and pottery paintings tend to take the form of group dance. They are essentially ritual enactment of shamanic beliefs in the hope of a good hunt, good fishing, a good harvest, good weather or good reproduction, as shown in the Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art (Wang et al. 1989: 219– 230). This is the largest rock art panel ever recovered in China with more than eighteen hundred images, approximately fifteen hundred of which are anthropomorphs. Situated on the precipitous limestone cliffs of the Huashan Mountain, the Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art is distributed over thirty-eight sites along more than 100 km of the Zuojiang River in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. These images were created to represent rituals and ritual dances performed by the prehistoric Luoyue people, who are believed by scholars to be the ancestors of modern Zhuang people (Qiu 2015). As shown in Figure 1.10, the anthropomorphs in the cliff painting are all portrayed, in frontal or in profile, as assuming the same posture with head tilted slightly forward, arms stretched up at the elbow and legs half-squatting as if ready to jump. Dotted thickly over the virtually vertical cliffs are also red-painted zoomorphs and images that probably represent musical instruments (drums and bells), hunting and fighting tools (swords, daggers and arrows) and animals. Most distinctive of these motifs is a human figure that stands imposingly at a prominent central position, carrying a sword at the waist and holding a dagger in the raised right hand. Under its feet is a dog and to the immediate left is a drum-like disk, identified as a bronze drum. The central human figure is surrounded by lines of similar figures of smaller size, some semi-dressed, some naked but all emptyhanded and posed in the same manner as the big central one. Over the past few decades, various theories have been developed to interpret the Zuojiang Rock Art, each with its own evidence and explanation (Xiao 2015). Little consensus has been reached among scholars, however, except on the interpretation of the posture of the red-painted anthropomorphic figures as humans mimicking frogs while performing ritual dances under the direction of a shaman who wears (tiger?) headdress and occupies the dominant central position over all the other figures in the rock artwork. Frogs were an ancient Chinese symbol of fertility, rebirth and renewal and were also closely related to the thunder god in the popular religion of the Luoyue people. Believing that frogs were the offspring of the god, they performed frog-dancing rituals to entreat the god to bring down rainwater or bring flooding water under control. This ancient tradition continues unbroken and is well preserved in the masked ritual dance known as the

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Figure 1.10 Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art.

Ritual and ritual performance 37 Ritual-Master Dance (Shigong wu) still prevalent among the Zhuang and other ethnic groups in China’s southwestern region of Guangxi (Liao 2002: 363). The daggers, swords, bells and drums that are shown in the Zuojiang Rock Art were widely used by wu-shamans in the ancient Nuo/La festivals and remain to be essential implements to folk and ritual performances even today in China. These semi-human and semi-frog figures on the cliff painting are exaggerated, distorted, transformed and abstracted. They are highly reminiscent of the earliest temples and temple theatres (Schechner 2003: 67–68) – the Paleolithic cave art found at El Castillo and Lascaux in Southwest Europe depicting dancer-shamans performing hunting-fertility and/or fertility-sexuality. The frog dance is not confined to the ritual-master dance in Southwest China. It is also a popular form of folk/ritual dance in Northwest China as represented by the Four-Tile Dance (Sipianwa wu), an ancient form of ritual dance popular among the Tu people in Datong County of Qinghai Province. With a frog painted on their face and camel bone tiles held in their hands, Datong dancers move their body swiftly, leaping, bouncing, crouching and crying while keeping beating the tiles to produce sounds like the cries of frogs. The four-tile dance has been performed during the Spring Festival since the Song dynasty (960–1279) to give thanks to frog spirits for ridding the fields of pests, bringing good harvest and boosting fertility (Chen 2006). Painted pottery This form of folk/ritual dance evolved directly from the ancient Zha/La festival, which itself has its roots traceable even further back to the late Neolithic Period, as shown in a painted pottery basin unearthed in 1995 at the Zongri site of Majiayao Culture (ca. 3300–ca. 2050 bc) in Tongde County, Qinghai Province (Qinghai sheng 1998). The interior of the Zongri pottery basin is painted with two groups of female figures dancing hand in hand. One group is composed of eleven figures, the other thirteen and in between are curved lines and geometric patterns (Figure 1.11). The most interesting feature of the painting is that all the female dancing figures are depicted as having a prominent belly like frogs. This seems to suggest that they are pregnant women or that the group dance is a sort of sexuality-fertility ritual. During the mid- to late Neolithic Period, there developed a sophisticated technology of pottery making along the Yellow River valley. A great number of pottery artefacts have been excavated at archaeological sites of the Yangshao Culture (ca. 5000–ca. 3000 bc) and the Majiayao Culture (ca. 3300–ca. 2050 bc) that are clustered around the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River in modern Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The earliest painted pottery unearthed at Dadiwan site of the Yangshao Culture in Shaodian Village, Qin’an County of Gansu Province, dates back to around 6000 bc. Painted pottery production reached its apex in the Yangshao and Majiayao cultures. Pottery wares from these Neolithic cultures show a great variety of figures, lines and patterns and also demonstrate a high uniformity in motifs and themes, giving a vivid account of social and spiritual life in prehistoric China.

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Figure 1.11 Painted Pottery Basin with Dancing Pattern excavated in 1995 from a Zongri site of Majiayao Culture in Tongde County, Qinghai Province. Dimensions: 12.5 cm × 24.2 cm × 9.9 cm. Source: Qinghai Museum.

Figure 1.12 Painted Pottery Basin with Dancing Pattern. Dimensions: 14.1 cm × 28 cm × 10 cm. Source: National Museum of China.

A case in point is a painted pottery basin, excavated in 1973 at the Upper Village of Sunjiazhai, Datong County, Qinghai Province (Qinghai sheng 1978: 48–50). With a dark red surface, the Sunjiazhai pottery basin is painted in blue on the interior below the rim with three groups of dancing figures (Figure 1.12). As shown in Figure 1.12, each group is composed of five slender female figures and separated by a lovely fishing-net and willow-leaf design. Like the female dancing figures on the Zongri pottery basin, the three groups of dancers on the Sunjiazhai pottery basin are shown to be joining hands and moving to the same

Ritual and ritual performance 39 beat in a circular direction. They all wear the same costume and the same headdress with the same tail curving over the back. The pottery painting brings to life a five-thousand-year-old ritual scene in which young women dress up as animals dancing a circle dance, most probably at a site close to water as suggested by the fishing-net and willow-leaf design. Floor painting The Dadiwan site of the Yangshao Culture also yields material evidence for ritual dancing dating from the late period of the Yangshao Culture (Gansu sheng 1986). The evidence is a floor painting datable to 3000 bc, which is widely acclaimed as the earliest ever recovered painting in the history of Chinese fine art (Zhang 1986). Measuring 1.2 m × 1.1 m, the painting was drawn using charcoal-made black pigments on the lime-covered floor of a small house (Gansu 1986: 14) (Figure 1.13). The painting depicts two human figures up above with two skeletons of smaller size lying down below in a (wooden?) frame. As is the case with the aforementioned painted pottery basins with dancing patterns, various theories have been advocated to interpret what this painting is about and for, what and who the two human figures are and in what kind of relation they are to the two skeletons in the frame (Ma and Wei 2016). Although they differ from each other here and there, they all agree that this floor painting reflects a religious ritual performed by members of the Neolithic culture to worship the departed souls of ancestors, to exorcise evil spirits and/or to facilitate shamanic journey to the world of the dead, and that the two human figures are probably shamans, who are dancing in pair while performing the ritual. Judging by their physical appearance, the one on the right is probably a female shaman and the one on the left a male shaman, whereas the two skeletons in the frame represent the two shamans entering into the realm of the dead with the rectangular frame symbolising the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead (Qu 2011).

Figure 1.13 Dadiwan Floor Painting.

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Musical instruments from Neolithic sites Musical instruments made in the Neolithic Age also provide important evidence for prehistoric rituals and ritual dances given the intrinsic relationships among ritual, dance and music. In ancient China, musical instruments for ritual performance were classified into eight categories known as bayin or ‘eight timbres’ in terms of the principal sound-producing material from which they were made. First mentioned in the ‘Canon of Shun’ (‘Shun dian’) of the Book of Documents (Shangshu 3.19c) and then elaborated on in the ‘Great Master’ (‘Dashi’) of the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 23.157b), the eight categories are metal, stone, clay, leather, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo, which are in correspondence with the eight (groups of) instruments, that is bells (zhong), chimes (qing), ocarinas (xun), drums (gu), zithers (qin), clappers (zhu, yu, muyu or paiban), mouth organs (sheng or yu) and flutes (di), respectively (Figure 1.14). Findings from archaeological sites of Neolithic cultures in China display a wide range of musical instruments from bone flutes and whistles to stone and pottery ocarinas to stone, jade and bronze chimes and bells (Figure 1.15–1.18) to stone,

Figure 1.14 Pottery figurines of an ensemble of players of konghou (harp), paiban, di, paixiao (pan pipe), pipa (lute) and sheng. Excavated in 1955 from a Tang dynasty tomb in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Source: National Museum of China.

Figure 1.15 Bronze bo bells (above) and stone chimes (below) dating from late Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 bc). Unearthed in 1988 from M251 (the tomb of Jin State Minister Zhao) in Jinsheng Village, Jinsheng Town, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. Source: Shanxi Museum.

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Figure 1.16 Stone chime (shiqing) decorated with tiger motif. Dimensions: 84 cm long × 42 cm wide × 2.5 cm thick. Unearthed at an archaeological site of Yinxu (ca. 1300–1046 bc), Anyang City, Henan Province. Source: National Museum of China

Figure 1.17 Teqing or texuan qing, a single large stone chime hung by a rope in a wooden frame and struck using a mallet. Dimensions: 79 cm long × 32 cm high × 5.5 cm thick in the centre × 1 cm at the base. Unearthed in 1978 at an archaeological site of Longshan Culture (3000–1900 bc) in Taosi Township, Xiangfen County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province. Source: Shanxi Museum.

Figure 1.18 Two bronze chime bells (zhong) originally from a set of sixteen chime bells. Excavated in 1992 from Tomb M8, the tomb of Jinhou Su or Marquis Su of Jin (d. ca. 845 bc) in Northern Zhao Village, Quwo County, Shanxi Province. Source: Shanxi Museum.

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pottery, alligator and bronze drums (Figures 1.19–1.21) to bronze cymbals (nao) (Figure 1.22) to mouth harps (kouhuang) (Figure 1.23). Notable among them are a group of bone flutes found in 1987 at an archaeological site of Peiligang Culture (7000–5000 bc) in Jiahu Village, Beiwudu Town, Wuyang County, Henan Province (Figure 1.24). They are ‘the earliest, complete, playable, tightly-dated multi-note musical instruments’ in the world that date as far back as 7000 bc (Zhang et al. 1999). Made from the ulnae of the red-crowned crane, this group of bone flutes vary from each other with the number of holes ranging from five up to eight, and the best preserved one is free of cracks and still allows musicians to play not only single notes but also music as well. The bone

Figure 1.19 Pottery drum (taogu) dating from Neolithic Age. Dimensions: 80.4 cm (slant height) × 25.6 cm (top diameter) × 41 cm (diameter in the middle). Unearthed in 1978 at a Longshan Culture site in Taosi, Shanxi Province. Source: Shanxi Museum.

Figure 1.20 Alligator drum (tuogu) dating from Neolithic Age. Unearthed in 1978 in Taosi, Shanxi Province. Source: Shanxi Museum.

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Figure 1.21 Pottery hourglass drum (xiyaogu) datable to the mid- to late Neolithic Age (5000–3000 bc). Unearthed in Zijin Village, Sanxian Township, Shangzhou City, Shaanxi Province. Source: Shaanxi History Museum.

Figure 1.22 Bronze cymbals (biannao) in a set decorated with animal motifs. Unearthed in 1976 from a late Shang dynasty tomb known as Fuhao at an archaeological site of Yinxu, Anyang City, Henan Province. Source: National Museum of China.

Figure 1.23 Mouth harp made of bone. Size: 4.63 cm × 1.6 cm. Excavated in 2016–2017 from a Neolithic site in Shenmu County, Yulin City, Shanxi Province. Source: Research Institute of Archaeology of Shanxi Province.

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Figure 1.24 A Jiahu bone flute (on the left) and a group of Hemudu (5500–3200 bc) five bone whistles (on the right). Source: National Museum of China.

Figure 1.25 Oval-shaped pottery ocarinas. Excavated in 1951 from a late Shang dynasty tomb numbered M150 in Liulige, Huixian County, Henan Province. Source: National Museum of China

flutes were excavated from a burial site, and may have been used for ritual, given that there was always a strong, special connection between ritual performance and musical performance in early China. Bone flutes were found not only at archaeological sites along the Yellow River in northern China, but also around the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in southern China, where a Neolithic culture called Hemudu flourished for nearly two millennia from 5000 bc to around 3000 bc. In the 1970s, as many as fortyfive bone whistles were excavated at a Hemudu site in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province, and they were all made of the ulnae of birds ranging from 6 cm up to 10 cm in length (Zhejiang 1978: 55–56) (see Figure 1.24). Archaeological findings from sites of Neolithic cultures also yield exciting evidence for other types of musical instruments employed for ritual performance. Numerous pottery ocarinas with one or more holes have been recovered at several ruins of the Yangshao culture located along the middle reaches of the Yellow River (Wang 2003: 59) (Figure 1.25) and also at sites of Hemudu culture in the

Ritual and ritual performance 45 lower reaches of the Yangtze River (Zhou 2009). Ocarinas have a long history in China and its invention is traditionally attributed to Fuxi, the first of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (Sanhuang wudi).8 Bronze masks The Xia dynasty was a transitional period in Chinese Civilisation from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age. In China, the Bronze Age began around 2000 bc and lasted until 450 bc when the Iron Age began to replace the Bronze Age. The making of bronze wares reached its peak during the Zhou dynasty when bronze objects with sophisticated designs were produced in great quantities to cater for ever-increasing needs for ‘ritual and war’ – ‘the two principal affairs of the state’ (Chunqiu Zuozhuan 27.209b). More bronzeware items have been excavated in China than everywhere else combined (Zhang 1999: 1). Notable among them are masks. There is a mass of archaeological evidence linking masks with shamanic rituals (Chai 1992; Liu and Huang 1993). In 1977, a total of twenty-three bronze animal masks were recovered at a Shang dynasty burial site in Sucun Village, Baoshan Town, Chenggu County of Shaanxi Province. The sample mask, numbered 76:147 in the archaeological report (Tang et al. 1980), measures 16.3 cm in length and 16.7 cm in width from ear to ear, which is about the size of a human face (Figure 1.26). The two eyes are hollowed out so that the masked shaman can see through the holes. There is also a hole left in each of the two ears for thread to go through to fix the mask. The bug-eyed bronze mask bares its fangs, giving itself a monstrous look as if in a feral snarl. The other twenty-two masks show similar features to the sample one. It is very likely that they were

Figure 1.26 Bronze animal masks from a Shang burial site. Source: Shaanxi History Museum.

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Figure 1.27 Bronze mask from the coffin of the Marquis of Ying. Dimensions: 15.7 cm high × 16.3 cm wide × 0.3 cm thick. Source: Henan Museum.

made for people to wear for ritual performance, most probably, for the rite of exorcism – Nuo. Masked ritual performance continued into the Zhou dynasty when humanface masks that represented personalised deities and deified ancestors began to appear in large numbers. In 1993, an archaeological excavation of a tomb numbered M84 of the state of Ying cemetery in Pingdingshan City of Henan Province, yielded one hundred and thirty funerary objects made of bronze, jade, ceramic, gold, bone or glass. Among them were eight bronze masks, all recovered from the coffin of the Marquis of Ying, dating from the late reign period of King Gong (927–908 bc) of the Western Zhou (1045–771 bc) dynasty (Henan sheng 1998). The eight masks may be divided into two sets with one set having curved hair and the other set having no hair. This difference aside, these masks share the common feature of having eye and ear holes so that the dancer-shaman can see and move with the mask on the face. Compared with the fanged, eye-bugged masks unearthed at the Shang dynasty burial site in Suncun Village, Chenggu County of Shaanxi Province, this group of Zhou dynasty masks display prominent features of a human face, as shown in Figure 1.27. We cannot tell for sure as to whether the mask is the image of a deified ancestor of the Marquis of Ying or of the marquis himself. But one thing is almost certain: that the marquis as the chief shaman of his state was engaged in masked performances of exorcistic and ancestral rites when he was alive.9 Bronze drums and gongs Ritual performances with shaman-dancers dressed up as animals, imitating animal appearance and actions, find their expressions not only on Neolithic cliff and pottery paintings but also on bronze artefacts, as exemplified by bronze drums and

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Figure 1.28 Kaihua bronze drum dating from the Western Han dynasty. Dimensions: 53.5 cm × 65 cm × 71 cm. Collected in Kaihua Town, Wenshan City, Yunnan Province. Source: Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Museum.

gongs of Shizhaishan type unearthed at burial sites of an ancient kingdom that flourished around the Dian Lake in the central region of modern Yunnan province from the fourth century bc to the first century ad. Since the 1950s, a very large number of bronze items have been excavated from this area, and many of them are ritual implements/musical instruments decorated with music-playing, dancing and drumming scenes (Ling 2005: 18). A good example of this is a Western Han dynasty bronze gong numbered M12:1 unearthed at the Shizhaishan site in Jinning County of Yunnan Province is adorned with a grand scene of ritual dance performed under the direction of a shaman tribal chief, who wears a full-length, button-front gown and carries a sword at the waist, followed by twenty-three dancers, all naked in the upper body, wearing straight-up feather headdresses and holding high a feather banner in one hand and a dagger in the other (Ling 2005: 29–31). Similar decorations are also found on the Kaihua bronze drum of the Shizhaishan type unearthed from a Western Han burial site in Kaihua Town, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (Figure 1.28). The top of the drum displays a ritual scene of dancers wearing feather headdresses, holding oxtails and dancing to the accompaniment of bronze drum and gourd-shaped mouth organ music. Textual evidence The oxtail dance as previously shown is strongly reminiscent of the ‘Music of Getianshi’ (Getianshi zhi yue) recorded in the ‘Ancient Music’ chapter of Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu), an eclectic work compiled under

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the aegis of Lü Buwei (290–235 bc) who was a powerful merchant and politician of the Qin state: As per the ancient music of Getianshi, three people would hold oxtails and stamp their feet while singing eight melodies: the first is ‘Bear and Rear People’; the second ‘Dark Bird’; the third ‘Grow Grass and Trees’; the fourth ‘Stimulate the Growth of Five Grains’; the fifth ‘Respect the Way of Heaven’; the sixth ‘Appreciate the Achievements of Lord on High’; the seventh ‘Follow the Virtue of Earth’; and the eighth ‘Encompass the Multiplication of All Birds and Beasts’. (Lüshi chunqiu 5.118) Getianshi was a legendary ruler of a clan by the same name in remote antiquity, with whom originated music (yue) as tradition has it. The music of Getianshi is not vocal and instrumental sounds or both, but instead a combination of music, song and dance or, more exactly, a musical dance suite. There are eight melodies in the suite, each dealing with a particular aspect of agrarian and sacrificial life. Its performance involves shamans dancing while grasping oxtails – a ritual and symbolic object like daggers and feather – and stamping their feet to produce rhythmic beats of music for songs, as shown earlier on the Kaihua bronze drum. Master Lü gives a list of melody titles and a structural outline – nothing more. Fortunately, we have archaeological evidence and so are able to reconstruct a fuller picture of the earliest form of Chinese musical dance (yuewu) embodied in the Music of Getianshi (Figure 1.29). Here, we find a good example of mutual corroboration of archaeological finds and literary texts. Early textual evidence for shamanic ritual and theatrical performance is, for the most part, preserved in fragments in Confucian classics such as the Book of Songs, the Rites of Zhou and the Book of Documents, and also in non-Confucian classics

Figure 1.29 Rock artwork featuring animal impersonation dance. Neolithic Age. Cangyuan Wa (Va) Autonomous County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province.

Ritual and ritual performance 49 including the Songs of the South (Chuci), the Book of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing) and the Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals. In the centuries-long process of oral transmission, original sources underwent repeated addition, deletion, distortion and reinterpretation before being recorded. It is therefore necessary for us to read between the lines to find out the hidden message in these sources and to search for corroborating evidence from other forms of source material. It must be pointed out, however, that drama, theatre and performance were hardly studied independently from music (yue), dance (wu) or musical dance in premodern China. The Chinese words ju, xi, xiju and xiqu, which are now used to refer to ‘drama/play/theatre’, tend to carry a denotation or connotation in classical texts that is so different from how they are understood in the modern context that no one would identify or associate them directly with Chinese theatre, even in its embryonic form. In no way, however, does this mean that there were no theatrical activities in ancient China. Rather, they were richly documented in early Chinese texts and were closely associated with music, dance and musical dance in the shamanic context.

Yue and Wu: definition and etymology Music in Confucian classics Music is at the core of the system of Confucian rites and is treated as a central subject in Confucian classics. In the early Confucian canon known as ‘Six Scriptures’ (Liujing), there was a book titled Classic of Music (Yuejing), but unfortunately, it failed to survive, so there are extant only ‘Five Scriptures’ (Wujing), that is the Book of Songs, the Book of Documents, the Book of Rites, the Book of Changes (Yijing) and the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu). The Classic of Music is lost, but parts of it are preserved in fragments in other Confucian classics, particularly in the ‘Record of Music’ (Yueji) of the Book of Rites. The ‘Record of Music’ offers a classic definition of yue or music: All sounds arise from the heart when the heart is touched by the world external to it. All voices are uttered as a response to the external world. Sounds and voices echo each other, giving rise to variants; when the variants are regulated, they become a melody. The melody becomes yue or music when played on instruments and accompanied by dance, as in the shield-and-axe (ganqi) dance and the feather-and- oxtail (yumao) dance. (Liji 37.299) This definition covers three components of yue, that is vocal music, instrumental music and dance, and also describes the conditions and procedures for the production of yue, namely, external stimulus, emotional response, rules and regulations, and instrumental and dance accompaniment. Noteworthy is the inclusion in the composition of yue of dance, which, however, finds no room in the modern sense of the word ‘music’ as defined by The

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Oxford English Dictionary: ‘The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds to produce beauty of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, expressive content, etc.; musical composition, performance, analysis, etc., as a subject of study; the occupation or profession of musicians’. Also noteworthy is the mention in this short passage of the three dances danced to make up yue together with vocal and instrumental sounds. Shields and axes were weapons and were also ritual implements, whereas banners made of feather and oxtail were both important tools for shamanic rituals, the former standing for martial dance (wuwu) and the latter for civil dance (wenwu) as noted by Zheng Xuan, the Eastern Han commentator of the Book of Rites (Liji 37.299a). Accordingly, the vocal and instrumental music played in association with the shield-and-axe dance is martial music (wuyue) and with the feather and/or oxtail dance is civil music (wenyue). The distinction made between martial and civil music/dance provides a basis for the conventional classification of xiqu into martial play (wuxi) and civil play (wenxi) and of theatre music into martial ensemble (wuchang, i.e. percussion) and civil ensemble (wenchang, i.e. string and woodwind) (Figures 1.30 and 1.31).

Figure 1.30 Brick relief carving of martial dance. Unearthed in 1958 from a fifth-century tomb in Xuezhuang Village. Dengxian County, Henan Province. Source: National Museum of China.

Figure 1.31 Brick relief carving of ‘drumming and blowing’ (guchui) musical dance ensemble that features suona and drums. Unearthed in 1958 from the fifthcentury Xuezhuang tomb. Source: National Museum of China.

Ritual and ritual performance 51 Music or yue, as defined in the Book of Rites, is well exemplified in the music of Getianshi. It is clear that yue is used in a sense much broader than the English word ‘music’ as is generally understood. The integration of song, dance and music in the Confucian conception of yue has its etymological rationale in the Chinese character for yue. This character also represents the word le, which means ‘joyfulness’ when used as a noun and ‘enjoy’ when used as a verb. The fact that these two Chinese words share the same form strongly suggests an inherent relationship between music (yue) and enjoyment (le) (Figures 1.32, 1.33 and 1.34). Ancient scripts for music and dance The close relationship between music or yue and dance or wu is also shown in the graphic evolution of this Chinese character from the oracle-bone script (jiaguwen) to the bronze script (jinwen) to small-seal script (xiaozhuan), which

Figure 1.32 Head of bronze belt hook (daigou) decorated with three figurines playing music. Unearthed in 1956 from a Western Han tomb in Jungar Banner (Zhunge’er Qi), Inner Mongolia. Source: National Museum of China.

Figure 1.33 Pottery musician figurines. Excavated in 1953 from a Northern Wei (386– 533) tomb in Caochangpo, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province. Source: National Museum of China.

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Figure 1.34 Bronze statuette features a non-Han dancing figurine dating from the Tang dynasty. Collected in Shandan County, Gansu Province. Source: Gansu Museum.

were the predominant forms of writing in the Shang dynasty, the Zhou dynasty (1045–771 bc), and the Eastern Zhou (770–256 bc) and Qin dynasties (221–206 bc), respectively. The Shang oracle-bone script for yue/le takes the form of . About its form, there are three possible interpretations: (1) shamanic dance: the upper part resembles an animal mask worn by a shaman-dancer ; (2) musical instrument: the upper part looks like two strings on the top of a wooden stand , which itself is the script for mu 木 (wood; tree); and (3) ceremony: the script as a whole represents the maturing of an ear of grain, thus expressing pleasure and excitement at a good harvest. The bronze script for yue/le gives the impression of a person dancing with hands stretching upwards or holding something. As for the small-seal script for yue/le, the Shuowen dictionary analyses it as an ideogram with the upper part ‘resembling a drum’ and the lower part ‘a wooden bell stand’ (Shuowen 11.808). We do not have much hard etymological evidence to confirm that these ancient forms of the script for yue/le have semantic relationships with shamanic dances, musical instruments or joyful celebrations of a good harvest, but given the yue as defined and described in the Book of Rites and the Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals and the context in which these ancient forms of the script for yue/le occur, it would be equally, if not more, difficult to deny such a relationship between them. Integrated with singing and dancing, yue shows itself to be a comprehensive art of ritual performance. The ritualistic connotations in the word yue are crystal clear, which is even more the case with wu 舞 or dance in relationship with wu 巫 or shaman. In the oracle bone inscriptions, the script for wu (dance) is , which resembles a person dancing with both hands grasping oxtails , from which is derived the small-seal script for dance (Chen 1936: 537). In the Shouwen,

Ritual and ritual performance 53 the word wu (shaman) is defined as a female shaman who brings down gods and spirits by dancing, and the small-seal script for this word is interpreted as resembling two shamans dancing with long sleeves (Shuowen 9.648). The close semantic and etymological relationship between wu 舞 or dance and wu 巫 or shaman strongly suggests an ontological relationship between music (song and dance) and shamanism.

Musical dance in ritual performance Xiqu is ‘essentially musical and choreographic in its basic structure’ (Scott and Mackerras 1993: 26). In early Chinese texts, dance is often referred to as ‘music cum dance’ (yuewu, lit. ‘musical dance’) or ‘song and dance’ (gewu). This is because dancing, singing and playing music were inseparable and intrinsic to ritual performance whereby proprieties (li) are acquired, manifested and transmitted (Liji 37.301b–304a). When discussing the relationship between ritual and music in General Treatises (Tongzhi), Zheng Qiao (1104–1162), a renowned historian of imperial institutions, refers to the Book of Rites, saying, ‘Ritual and music depend on each other to perform a function. Ritual is not performed unless accompanied by music, as is music which is not played unless accompanied by ritual’; ‘dance and song are mutually dependent’, for ‘the song gives voice to dance and the dance gives form to song’ (Tongzhi 49.625a, 49.625c). The mutual independence between dance, music and ritual finds full expression in the yuewu or musical dance of the Zhou court. Musical dance at the Zhou court The Chinese word ya means ‘correct, standard or elegant’, and accordingly, yayue means literally ‘correct, standard or elegant music’. In Confucian China, the word yayue was usually used to denote court ritual music that was first developed at the court of Zhou. The musical dance could be a single- or multi-part suite of dances set to a particular tune or melody from a limited musical repertoire that was associated with a particular legendary or historical figure and era, or with a particular religious ritual or ceremonial occasion. Compared with yuewu, the term gewu or ‘song and dance’ is a loosely defined one, which could refer to any form of dance that involves performers dancing and singing or dancing to the accompaniment of singing from a chorus. The song and dance might be presented during sacred and secular (e.g. birthday, wedding and courtship) rituals or simply performed impromptu for entertainment, and for this reason, the term gewu is often considered synonymous with sanyue (‘variety music’), zayue (‘miscellaneous music’) or suyue (‘popular music’) as opposed to the yayue (Figures 1.35 and 1.36). Performers of ritual musical dance were required to follow conventional movements and choreographies. They were trained to act in conformity with ritual procedures and to dance out extraordinary deeds and remarkable achievements of

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Figure 1.35 (Replica of) Dunhuang Grotto mural of musical dance. Source: Gansu Museum.

Figure 1.36 (Replica of) Yulin Grotto mural of musical dance. Source: Gansu Museum.

Ritual and ritual performance 55 sage kings, culture heroes and dynastic founders such as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Yu the Great of the Xia, Tang the Perfect of the Shang, and Kings Wen and Wu of the Zhou. The musical dance was thus performed as sacrifices at royal and princely courts or in sacred places such as temples, woods, mounds and riverbanks. Most of our knowledge about Zhou dynasty ritual musical dance comes from early Confucian ritual texts, the Rites of Zhou in particular. The Rites of Zhou records two types of musical dance – the ‘Greater Dance’ (dawu) and the ‘Lesser Dance’ (xiaowu). Six Greater Dances Called the ‘Six Greater Dances’ (liu dawu) or ‘Dances of the Six Eras’ (liudai wu), the ‘Greater Dances’ were composed of six suites of ritual dance performed under the supervision of the Grand Director of Music (Dasiyue), each associated with one of the six legendary or historical figures and their reign periods (Zhouli 22.149b–151b): 1

2

3

4 5 6

Grand Rolls on the Cloud Gate (Yunmen dajuan) Often abbreviated to Cloud Gate (Yunmen), this dance originated from the era of Huangdi or the Yellow Emperor and was performed at the Round Mound for the veneration of heavenly deities. Grand Harmony (Daxian) Also known as Grand Display (Dazhang) or Pond of Harmony (Xianchi), Grand Harmony was the musical dance of Emperor Yao and was performed at the Square Mound for the veneration of earthly deities. Grand Music (Dashao) Alternatively known as Nine-Movement Music (Jiushao) and Panpipe Music (Xiaoshao), Grand Music originated from the era of Emperor Shun and was performed at the Lineage Temple for the veneration of the Four Directions (siwang). Grand Vastness (Daxia) Performed at the Lineage Temple devoted to Yu the Great for the veneration of mountains and rivers. Grand Rainwater Trickling Down to the Impluvium (Dahuo) Composed by Yi Yin in honour of King Tang of Shang and performed for the veneration of the female ancestors. Grand Martiality (Dawu) Composed by the Duke of Zhou in honour of King Wu of Zhou and performed for ancestral worship.

The ‘Greater Dances’ was the earliest form of Chinese dance drama linked directly to mytho-historical traditions (oral and written) that had been passed down from one generation to another. Myths, legends and historical happenings provide source material for musical dances and, in return, are re-enacted and enriched through them.

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Six Lesser Dances Also recorded in the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 12.83a–b, 23.155b) is a set of six ritual dances that are collectively called the ‘Six Lesser Dances’ (liu xiaowu): 1 2 3 4 5 6

Five-Colour Silk Dance (Fuwu), performed as sacrificial offerings to the Soil and Grain (sheji) or for the worship of all minor deities. Feather Dance (Yuwu), performed at lineage temples or for the veneration of the Four Directions. Imperial Dance (Huangwu), also called Phoenix (fenghuang), performed for the worship of the Four Directions or for the rain-inducing ritual of Yu. Oxtail Dance (Maowu), performed for sacrificial rituals held at the Imperial College (biyong). Shield Dance (Ganwu), performed for military ceremonies or for the worship of mountains and rivers or of all minor deities. Human Dance (Renwu), also called Sleeve Dance (Shouxiu wu), performed in honour of the stars or lineage temples.

The ‘Six Lesser Dances’ were performed by younger members of the nobility under the supervision of Dance Masters (wushi) and Music Masters (yueshi) for minor sacrificial rituals and ceremonies on a smaller scale. Among the ‘Six Lesser Dances’, three (feather dance, phoenix dance and oxtail dance) were performed with dancers wearing feather headdresses and feather costumes and/or holding feather banners, as depicted on the bronze vessels discussed earlier. Kui, the first named Chinese shaman-musician The earliest recorded ritual performance that involved song, dance, instrumental music and animal and human impersonation appears in the ‘Book of Yu: Boyi and Houji’ (‘Yushu: Yi Ji’) of the Book of Documents: Kui announced: ‘Let us now play the jade chimes (qiu), beat the chaff-stuffed drums (bofu), pluck the seven-stringed qin zither and the fifty-stringed se zither, and sing songs. Ancestral spirits have descended [on the temple] and [Emperor Shun’s] guests have taken their places. They bow to and greet one another up on the terrace; reed pipes (guan) are blown and pellet drums (taogu) beaten down on the steps. An ensemble of musicians beat the zhu to mark the beginning of the ritual and strike the yu to indicate its ending; in between they blow the sheng pipes and beat the yong bells, alternatively. Birds and beasts dance in groups to the same beat of the ritual music. The phoenix comes flying when the ninth movement of the Panpipe Music (xiaoshao) is performed.’ Kui proclaimed: ‘Listen! Let me strike the stone chimes to get the dance of one hundred beasts started. Let us all join them dancing to the accompaniment of music.’ (Shangshu 5.32a–c)

Ritual and ritual performance 57 In early Chinese texts, as noted by Bodde (1975: 106–107) and Chan (1994: 12, 29n), the portrayal of Kui varies considerably, from a great music and ritual master serving at the court of the sage ruler Shun, to the personification of thunder, to a demon of drought, and from a human-faced, monkey-bodied and dragonhorned mythical humanoid to a bull-shaped, one-footed, hornless, legendary creature. It is recorded in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals that Emperor Shun appointed Kui as the Director of Music on the recommendation of Chong and Li, who were both shamans according to Discourses of the States (Guoyu), a fifth-century bc book of historical narratives. Kui was most probably also a shaman or a shaman-musician in charge of ritual and musical performance at the court of Shun.10 There are three points we may infer from the recorded ritual performance held in the seventeenth century bc during the reign period of Yu or Yushun: (1) the ritual was performed under the direction of Kui for ancestral worship with deified ancestors impersonated by ritual performers, (2) the ancestral rite was largely a musical performance, and (3) dancers all dressed themselves up as birds and beasts and mimicked their actions and movements, as often seen on prehistoric rock art, painted pottery and bronzeware. Ritual dance and dance drama in the Book of Songs First compiled around 600 bc, the Book of Songs is the earliest extant collection of Chinese verse and is the fountainhead of Chinese literature. Spanning an extended period from the eleventh century to the seventh century bc, the Book of Songs contains 305 shi poems and is also referred to as The Three Hundred Poems (Shisanbai) or simply The Three Hundred (Sanbai). Poems in it are of varying length and style, ranging from folk songs and ballads to laudes and elegies, to ceremonial and sacrificial hymns. The received text of the Book of Songs was edited by a Master Mao during the Han dynasty, who assigned numbers (1–305) to the songs and divided them into three sections or subgenres, namely, airs or airs of the States (feng or guofeng, nos. 1–160), odes (ya, nos. 161–265) and hymns (song, nos. 266–305). Since then, it has become a convention to refer to the poems by the titles and numbers in Mao’s edition (Maoshi). The airs, which are mostly folk songs collected from fifteen vassal states of the Zhou dynasty, deal with a wide range of subject matter concerning almost every aspect of contemporary social and spiritual life. The odes are subdivided into the lesser odes (xiaoya, nos. 161–234) and the greater odes (daya, nos. 235–265), with the latter sung during royal functions at the court of Zhou and the former at noble gatherings at princely courts of feudal states under Zhou rule. The hymns are songs for the music of ancestral rites and come in three subsections: the Zhou hymns (Zhousong, nos. 266–296), the Lu hymns (Lusong, nos. 297–300) and the Shang hymns (Shangsong, nos. 301–05). As the oldest poems in the Book of Songs, the Zhou hymns were composed for early Western Zhou ancestral sacrifices, whereas the Lu and Shang hymns are considered younger and associated with ancestral rites in the state of Lu (ca. eleventh century to 249 bc) and the state of Song (ca. eleventh century to 286 bc), the latter of which was a fiefdom granted

58 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre by the Duke of Zhou (1042–1036 bc) to Weizi, a direct descendant of the Shang royal family to carry on the Shang lineage. Poems in the Book of Songs were composed for performance, as were all poems produced in early China. Reciting and singing a shi poem would go hand in hand with dancing and playing music in what is called ‘the Shijing period’ of Chinese history. As noted in the Mozi – a non-Confucian philosophical work attributed to Mo Di (fl. 450 bc), ‘[The ritual specialists] recite The Three Hundred, play The Three Hundred on strings, sing The Three Hundred and dance The Three Hundred’ (Mozi 12.458). In terms of original source and subject matter, the Book of Songs may be divided into three groups: folk songs, folk ritual songs and court ritual songs. Many of them feature dance and musical performance. A good example is ‘Hollow Mound’ (‘Wanqiu’), a lovely folk song from the section of ‘Airs of Chen’ (‘Chenfeng’) (Maoshi 7/1.108a–b): How you make free, There on top of the Hollow Mound! Truly, a man of feeling, But very careless of repute. Bang, he beats his drum Under the Hollow Mound. Be it winter, be it summer, Always with the egret feathers in his hand. Bang, he beats his earthen gong Along the path to the Hollow Mound. Be it winter, be it summer, Always with the egret plumes in hand. (Waley 1996: 107) This song depicts a shamanic ritual scene in which a shaman dances to the accompaniment of the drum and the gong while holding bird feathers in his hands. The bird feather is an important implement for shamanic rituals, for it is believed to have the magic power to enable the (soul of) the shaman-dancer to fly up to Heaven and communicate with heavenly deities. This folk ritual song is from Chen, a vassal state located on the southern frontiers of the Zhou-ruled area, which was eventually annexed into the southern state of Chu. Culturally, Chen belonged to the Chu culture characterised by wu-shamanism, as will be seen in the Songs of the South (Chuci). The performative nature of shi poetry is conspicuous throughout the Book of Songs, particularly in the sections of odes and hymns (Kern 2000: 49), which are basically ritual and ceremonial pieces composed for the worship of gods and spirits including ancestor gods and spirits, or for the commemoration of significant historical events and figures. They were not merely to be recited but to be

Ritual and ritual performance 59 ritually enacted in musical dance. A case in point is a suite of six ritual songs from the ‘Zhou Hymns’ of the Book of Songs – ‘High Heaven Had a Firm Change’ (‘Haotian you chengming’, no. 271), ‘Wu’ (no. 285), ‘Libation’ (‘Zhuo’, no. 293), ‘Bold’ (‘Huan’, no. 294), ‘Bestowal’ (‘Lai’, no. 295) and ‘Celebration’ (‘Ban’, no. 296). This group of songs are identified as lyrics for the dance suite Grand Martiality recorded in the Rites of Zhou as one of the ‘Six Greater Dances’ in the system of Zhou court ritual music (Liu 2008: 27; Wang 1959: 2.104; Maspero 1965: 214–215). Tradition has it that the Grand Martiality was composed by the Duke of Zhou as instructed by King Wu to re-enact the king’s military achievements and his conquest of the Shang dynasty. As recorded in the Book of Rites, the Grand Martiality was a six-part dance with each part representing a scene from King Wu’s conquest of King Zhou – the last ruler of the Shang dynasty; Confucius saw its performance in the late Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 bc) and briefly outlined its structure in his dialogue with Binbian Gu, an Eastern Zhou court official (Liji 39.314b–c). The first part features King Wu gathering his troops in preparation for a military expedition against King Zhou of the Shang dynasty. The performance opens with soldier dancers coming onstage from the north to the beat of drums. They then stand still like mountains (shanli) while holding shields for inspection by King Wu. The second part shows the great victory of King Wu over King Zhou in the battlefield of Muye. The following two parts describe King Wu launching expeditions to pacify southern frontiers. The fifth part features King Wu’s two younger brothers, the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao or Shao Gong, ruling as the feudal lord over the east and the west in the Zhou domain, respectively. The sixth part re-enacts the triumphant return of King Wu in commemoration of his conquering the Shang dynasty and founding the Zhou dynasty. Among the three sections or genres of the Book of Songs, the section of hymns bears the closest relationship with wuism. The hymns are none other than ‘songs and music of ritual scribes, invocators, shamans and impersonators of the dead’ (Chen 1983: 26.1065) for the wu-shamanic rituals of ancestor worship (Huang and Kang 2009: 24–26). Ritual dance and dance drama in the Songs of the South The shamanic and performative nature of ancient Chinese poetry is even more evident in the Songs of the South or Chuci, a collection of poems composed between the third century bc and the second century ad in the form of sao. First compiled by Liu Xiang (ca. 77–6 bc) and later edited into a book under the title Songs of the South: A Commentated Edition (Chuci zhangju) by Wang Yi (fl. 114–119) of the Han dynasty, the Songs of the South is composed of seventeen texts, which can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of the earlier poems – the most important ones in the collection, most of which were composed and compiled by Qu Yuan (ca. 340–ca. 278 bc), the first poet known in the history of Chinese literature. The second group contains poems written by later poets in imitation of Qu Yuan’s sao style.

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The Songs of the South is for the most part a product of Chu wu-shamanism. The state of Chu (ca. ninth century to 223 bc) was noted for its widespread belief in animism and ancestor worship. Chu shamans made their influence felt in every aspect of social, spiritual and political life. In Chu, when shamans performed sacrificial rituals, they would sing, dance and beat the drum to entertain gods and spirits (Chuci buzhu 2.55). Indeed, many pieces in the Songs of the South were songs performed for shamanic rituals. Most representative of them is the ‘Nine Songs’ (‘Jiuge’), which is described as ‘a sort of shaman’s liturgy’ (Hightower 1965: 9), ‘meant for performance’ by ‘male or female shamans’, who, ‘having first purified and performed themselves and dressed up in gorgeous costumes, sing and dance to the accompaniment of music, drawing the gods down from heaven in a sort of divine courtship’ (Hawkes 1962: 35) – or as Wen Yiduo (2014a: 252) puts it, ‘an early form of shamanic musical dance drama presented on the sacrificial altar’. There are eleven songs in the ‘Nine Songs’, actually. The first seven of them are each dedicated to one or two deities – nine in total. They are the Sovereign of the East – the Supreme One (Donghuang taiyi), The Lord in the Clouds (Yunzhongjun), The Lord of the Xiang River (Xiangjun), The Lady of the Xiang River (Xiangfuren), The Greater Master of Fate (Dasiming), The Lesser Master of Fate (Shaosiming), The Lord of the East (Dongjun), The God of the Yellow River (Hebo) and the Mountain Goddess (Shangui). The whole set of songs presents us with a multi-part ritual dance drama (Wen 2014b; Aoki 1933).11 The first song and dance, which is dedicated to the Sovereign of the East – the Supreme One, serves as a prelude to the dance drama. This part opens with (female?) shamans or ling as called in Chu dialect performing a ritual dance to the Supreme One, inviting the god to descend on the sacrificial hall to attend the ritual performance. While singing and dancing with the god to the accompaniment of drums, pipes and zithers, the ling-shamans present a colourful description of the richly decorated sacrificial hall and beautifully dressed shaman-dancers. Vocal and instrumental music fills the hall, creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere. The second part is addressed to the Lord in the Cloud. This part begins with a female spirit-shaman (ling) purifying her body in orchid water and washing her hair with perfumes in preparation for a romantic union with the cloud god, and proceeds with a majestic-looking god descending from clouds to join her. This part ends with the god vanishing into thin air, leaving the spirit-shaman in deep sorrow. As suggested by the word ‘cloud’ which is symbolic of sex and love, ‘The Lord in the Clouds’ deals with love between deities and humans – a recurring theme in Chinese mythology and literature. The following two parts continue the theme of love and romance, this time, between the Lord of the Xiang River and the Lady of the Xiang River. The courtship between the divine couple is highly dramatic and full of joys and sorrows, fun and frustrations, and sometimes the mixture of two or three ingredients. The fifth part depicts a spirit journey made by a female shaman and the Greater Master of Fate, a powerful god who has the final say on the lifespan of individual human beings. This part begins with the god riding clouds and descending in a whirlwind to take aboard his dragon chariot the female shaman, who keeps looking up

Ritual and ritual performance 61 at the sky in great anticipation for his arrival. They fly through clouds over the Kongsang mountains and the Nine Lands. The spirit journey ends with a dramatic departure of the god, leaving the ling to lament the transience and impermanence of human fate. The sixth part describes the Greater Master of Fate courting the Lesser Master of Fate, a graceful-looking goddess who gives life and children. This part is made all the more romantic and dramatic through an erotic duet performed by the god and the goddess. Again, the sexually loaded cloud symbol appears in this song to refer to their romantic union. The following three parts are dedicated to the Lord of the East, the Lord of the Yellow River and the Mountain Goddess, respectively. Different from the previous six parts, these three parts have the focus of attention shifted to the inner world of human and divine characters: ‘The Lord of the East’ embodies pursuit of the ideal, ‘The Lord of the Yellow River’ depicts a lingshaman roaming with the river god through mountains and rivers in search of the meaning of life and ‘The Mountain Goddess’ reveals the solitude felt deep in the heart of the goddess. Dedicated to ‘the Spirits of the Fallen’ (‘Guoshang’), the tenth song and dance is performed in honour of the warriors who died a heroic death in battlefields and thereby achieved immortality. The next and last part is a chorus sung by all shaman-actors to complete the ‘Ritual Cycle’ (‘Lihun’): The rites are accomplished to the beating of drums; The flower-wand is passed on to succeeding dancers; Lovely maidens sing their song, slow and solemnly. Orchids in spring and chrysanthemums in autumn: So it shall go on until the end of time. (Hawkes 1962: 44) With the chorus comes to an end the multi-part shamanic dance drama. In this ritual cycle, ‘The Sovereign of the East – the Supreme One’ is performed as an opening melody to invite the god (qingshen) to descend from heaven to attend the ceremony meticulously prepared in his honour, whereas the choral music performed in the last part to ‘pay homage to the souls’ functions as a closing melody to see off gods and deities (songshen). In between are performances aimed mainly to amuse gods and deities (yushen). The three-unit structure that revolves around qingshen, yushen and songshen as embodied in the ‘Nine Songs’ is the most common structural principle of ritual performances still observable in contemporary China. The spirit-shamans in the southern state of Chu, together with their northern counterparts at the Zhou court, were the earliest professional dancers and actors in China. They play a triple role in the ‘Nine Songs’: as shaman-priests, they perform rituals to bring down gods and deities by singing and dancing; as shamanperformers, they impersonate deities and deceased ancestors and enact their deeds and needs; and as dramatis personae, they interact with other characters, divine and human, and become part of the drama they are performing. Their performance

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involves singing, speaking, dancing and drumming and highly symbolic and stylised action and frequent spatiotemporal translocation characteristic of xiqu (Zhao 2007).

Closing remarks The ‘Nine Songs’ seems to fit perfectly the classical definition of xiqu, that is ‘the re-enactment of stories through songs and dances’ (yi gewu yan gushi) (Wang 2009: 632). It seems also to possess all of Aristotle’s six elements of drama – plot, theme, character, diction, song and spectacle. Upon closer examination, however, the ‘Nine Songs’ appears more as ritual than as drama. Ritual differs from drama in some significant ways. Firstly, in drama, a performer personates a character, but neither the performer nor the spectator would identify the personator with the character. In ritual performance, a shaman-performer personates a deity or a deceased ancestor and both the shaman-performer and the audience believe that the personator is possessed and transformed into the personated deity or spirit. Secondly, ritual is performed to invoke gods and to provide efficacy, whereas drama is staged primarily to provide entertainment rather than religious experience. Thirdly, in ritual performance, the spectator can be an active participant and get involved in the performance at any time when needed, whereas during a dramatic show, the spectator is not expected to participate in the performance. That being said, shamanic ritual performances recorded in the early Chinese texts as represented by the ‘Nine Songs’ and the Grand Martiality display various theatrical elements such as music, dance, song, spectacle (costume, mask and make-up), action and impersonation organised into a coherent structure. They are not yet drama but lend themselves to being adapted into drama proper. Thus, it would not seem far-fetched to see them as an earlier form of xiqu.

Notes 1 The Chinese term wu is commonly translated as ‘shaman’ or ‘shamanism’, albeit with some controversy as noted by Boileau (2002: 351–352). Unless otherwise noted, however, wuism, shamanism and wu-shamanism are used interchangeably throughout this book, so are wu, shaman and wu-shaman. 2 Katō (1955: 43) even goes as far as to argue that every ancient Chinese wu-shaman was either a hunchback or a dwarf. 3 For a fully developed argument on the central role of shamanism in ancient Chinese politics, see Chang (1983: 44–55). 4 The Chinese word yang 佯, meaning ‘to simulate’, ‘to pretend’ or ‘to feign’, is written as 詳 and 陽 in the phrase yang kuang wei wu in the received texts of Shiji and Hanshu, respectively. 5 There are two major different theories about the five household deities in Eastern Han dynasty texts. In his Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall (Baihu tong), the Eastern Han scholar and historian Ban Gu (ad 32–92) interprets them as the gods of the Gate (men), the Window (hu), the Well (jing), the Hearth (zao) and the Impluvium (zhongliu) (Baihu tong 2.77–78), whereas Zheng Xuan (127–200), an erudite Confucian scholar of the Eastern Han dynasty, identifies them in his commentary on

Ritual and ritual performance 63 6 7 8

9 10 11

the Book of Rites (Liji 17.154a) as the gods of the Gate, the Window, the Impluvium, the Hearth and the Passageway (xing). For a brief historical survey of the Zha/La festivals in ancient China and their celebrations in association with Nuo during the Han dynasty, see Bodde (1975: 49–58, 68–72, 75–82). For a brief introduction to the research on rock art in modern and contemporary China, see Zhu (2012). For a detailed historical survey of archaeological discoveries of rock art in China, see Chen (2009). They are a group of mytho-legendary rulers of prehistoric China. Different sources from early China provide different groupings of them, the best known of which is perhaps the ‘Basic Annals of the Five Emperors’ (‘Wudi benji’) in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji, 1.1–48), which lists Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao and Shun as the Five Emperors (Wudi), and to which are added Fuxi, Nüwa and Shennong as the Three Sovereigns (Sanhuang), in the ‘Basic Annals of the Three Sovereigns’ (‘Sanhuang benji’) written by the Tang historian Sima Zhen (679–732) as a ‘Supplement to the Records of the Grand Historian’ (‘Bu Shiji’). For discussions of the dual role of kings in ancient China as political leader and chief shaman, see Chen (1936: 535–536) and Chang (1983: 44–55). Interestingly, Kui is also identified as a Nuo god and as an archetype of Fangxiangshi. For this note, see Li (2011: 231–234). I consult Wen (2014b) and Aoki (1933) in analysing the dramatic structure of the ‘Nine Songs’.

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The Hundred Shows

The Hundred Shows or baixi was the predominant form of entertainment for nearly eight hundred years from the Han (206 bc–ad 220) to the Six Dynasties (220–589). With its origin half in myth and shamanism and half in court and folk performance, the Hundred Shows displays itself as a perfect combination of religious ritual and secular entertainment on the one hand, and on the other hand, as a disparate mixture of a variety of shows ranging from singing, dancing to music and miming, to acrobatics and martial arts, which are to be synthesised into xiqu.

Entertainers and shamans Ritual musical dance that came into vogue during the Zhou dynasty nourished people’s awareness of theatre. When religious efficacy began to give way to aesthetic pursuit of entertainment, an early form of Chinese theatre emerged as marked by the appearance of changyou (entertainers) – the first group of professional actors in Chinese theatre and performance history (Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1 Grey pottery singing figurine from a tomb dating from the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 bc). Collected in Lixian County, Gansu Province. Source: Gansu Museum.

DOI: 10.4324/9781315460291-4

The Hundred Shows 65 Changyou were descended from wu-shamans as were shi (hierophant), gu (blind musician), yi (healer) and shi (scribe) (Feng 1944). Ancient shamans performed a wide range of rituals including the Nuo (exorcism), Yu (praying for rain) and Zha/La (end-of-year thanksgiving), and from them developed an embryo of Chinese theatre. The great Song dynasty prose-writer and poet Su Dongpo (aka Su Shi, 1037–1101) describes the ancient ritual performance of Zha as a ‘rite for entertainment’ (xili): The Eight-Fold Sacrifices (bazha) is the entertainment rite of the Three dynasties [i.e. Xia, Shang and Zhou]. It is natural and normal that people gather together at the end of the year for entertainment (xi). To have entertainment associated with ritual is simply to state that ritual performance is not merely for entertainment. ‘It is necessary to have the deceased person impersonated (shi) when sacrificial offerings are made to them. The ji (sacrificial ritual) shall be called dian if it involves no impersonation, hence [the difference between] the ritual of offering sacrifices to the new dead and the ritual of offering sacrifices to the long departed.’ Today the rite of Zha is called ji because it involves impersonations. As for [the spirits of] ‘cats and tigers’, who impersonates them? And who presents ‘deer and girls’ [as sacrificial offerings]? If it were not changyou, who else? ‘They wear sashes of vine and carry staffs of hazel’ to ‘lay aged people and exhausted things to rest’; they wear ‘yellow caps’ and ‘hats of straw or hats of bamboo splints’ ‘to honour [those clad in] the country dress’.1 And herein lies the principle of entertainment. Zigong did not delight in seeing people performing the rite of Zha. Confucius said figuratively, ‘To strike a balance in one’s life between relaxation and tension is the way of King Wen and King Wu.’2 This is what the rite of Zha is all about. (Dongpo zhilin 3.7b–8a) Su suggests that humans dressing up as animals and impersonating deceased ancestors when performing the Zha is rite (li) as much as entertainment (xi); he believes that professional entertainers (changyou) were engaged in the ritual performance of Zha, from which derived entertainment performance or xi. There were two main types of changyou: nüyue (female entertainers) (Figure 2.2) and youren or paiyou (jesters). The former evolved from female shamans who specialised in rain-inducing ceremonies in Shang-Zhou times. They developed highly sophisticated dancing and singing skills for rain rituals, which were inherited and adapted into yanyue (banquet music) by female entertainers, who served at royal and princely courts to provide musical entertainment at banquets and feasts (Figures 2.3–2.5). Like court musical dances, court banquet music was also part of the yayue (elegant music) or liyue (ritual music) system of the Zhou dynasty and had been first developed by wu-shamans to entertain gods at sacrificial rites (Chuci 2: 55).

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Figure 2.2 Painted pottery figurine of a female dancing entertainer. Unearthed in 1954 from a Western Han tomb in Baijiakou, Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province. Source: National Museum of China.

Figures 2.3–2.5 Pottery female entertainer figurines. Unearthed in 1981 from a Shu Han (ad 221–263) tomb in Tujing, Zhongxian County, Sichuan Province. Source: National Museum of China.

The Hundred Shows 67

Figures 2.3–2.5 (Continued)

Figure 2.6 Ceramic figurine of a drum-beating entertainer. Unearthed in 1957 from an Eastern Han tomb in Tianhuishan, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Source: National Museum of China.

The youren or paiyou evolved from ‘wu-shamans who invoke and bring down gods and spirits’ (Zhou 2007: 11). Like nüyue, paiyou also served at royal and princely courts to provide entertainment (Figures 2.6 and 2.7). But different from female entertainers, they seem to have had a dual function to perform: to amuse their lord by mime and music and to advise and admonish him by wit and wisdom.

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Figure 2.7 Pottery figurine features a male entertainer playing the vertical end-blown xiao flute. Excavated in 1981 from a Shu state tomb in Tujing, Zhongxian County, Sichuan Province. Source: National Museum of China.

In this sense, they were not only court entertainers but also court attendants, albeit at a lowly position as were their counterparts in medieval Europe. In a seminal essay on ‘Shang Dynasty Mythology and Wuism’, Chen Mengjia (1936: 566–572), a foremost archaeologist of his generation, traces the origin of changyou to the ancient rite of Nuo exorcism conducted by Fangxiang the shamanpriest/exorcist, identifying changyou as zhenzi (young court attendant) headed by Fangxiang in the grand court ritual of exorcism in early China. Chen Mengjia (1936: 569) further notes a close etymological relationship between wu and you, which he believes illustrates the historical link between shamans and entertainers: The Shuowen dictionary explains chang 侲 as kuang 狂 (‘frenzied’). ‘The four frenzied people (kuangfu 狂夫)’ mentioned in the Rites of Zhou under the entry of ‘Fangxiangshi’ are no other than ‘the four masked people (xiangren 象人)’ referred to as zhen 侲 (young court attendants/exorcists) in the ‘Eastern Capital Rhapsody’ (Dongjing fu) and the Continuation of the History of the Han Dynasty (Xu Hanshu, [i.e. Hou Hanshu]). People who impersonate ghosts believe themselves to be possessed by the ghosts, and so they act in a maniacal, weird manner. In his commentary on the ‘Self-Cultivation’ (‘Xiushen’) chapter of the Xunzi, Yang Liang [fl. 778–820] interprets the word yikui 倚魁 as pianpi kuangguai 便辟狂怪 (fawner/frantic freak), kuí 魁 as gui 傀 (freakish) and gui 傀 as gui 鬼 (ghost). The word changkuang 猖狂 (frantic/furious) is probably derived from changkuang 侲狂, and accordingly, a person who acts in a furious, frantic way (changzhe 侲者) should be understood as an entertainer (chang 倡). At the Han court, there were Entertainers of the Yellow Gate (huangmen chang 黃門倡), from whose children were selected young court entertainers (zhenzi 侲子). So we know that the Yellow Gate refers to entertainment/entertainers. ‘The Treatise on Rites and Music’ (‘Liyue zhi’) [of The History of the Han Dynasty] places court entertainers in

The Hundred Shows 69 conjunction with masked performers, because entertainers are the same type of people as [impersonators of] ghosts and Fangxiang the exorcist. The young court entertainers (zhenzi 侲子) impersonated ghosts in order to expel them, from which is derived the word chang 倀 as in weihu zuochang 為虎作倀,3 and from which is further derived the words ‘ghosts and spirits’ (guishen 鬼神) and ‘ghosts and monsters’ (guiguai 鬼怪). Based on a scrupulous examination of archaeological, textual and etymological evidence, Chen Mengjia (1936: 569) concludes: Skits and sketches, and song and dance performed by professional entertainers (changyou) in ancient times all had their origins in wu-shamanism, and Fangxiang the exorcist, the masked performers (xiangren) and young court attendants/exorcists (zhenzi) were forerunners of professional entertainers of later dynasties. In ancient China, court jesters were often mentioned in association with dwarfs (zhuru), and sometimes even identified with them, for many of them were, by origin, physically abnormal wu-shamans. Most striking and representative among the various forms of changyou performance of the time were acrobatics performed by dwarfs, who are frequently referred to in early Chinese texts as changyou zhuru (entertainer-dwarf) (Figure 2.8). For example, in his reply to an enquiry from Jin Wengong or Duke Wen of Jin (697–628 bc) regarding physically disabled court attendants, Xu Chen (d. 622 bc) said: Let the hunchbacked Qishi bend down to strike the bell; let the chickenbreasted Quchu straighten up to hold the jade chime; let the dwarf perform acrobatic feats; let the blind play music; and let the deaf take charge of fire. (Guoyu 10.363)

Figure 2.8 Earthenware figurine of a dwarf-entertainer from a Western Han dynasty tomb. Source: Shaanxi History Museum.

70 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre This is recorded in the Discourses of States or Guoyu – a fifth-century bc collection of historical and anecdotal accounts of the interlocution mostly between rulers and ministers. Qishi and Quchu were both professional entertainers famous for mimicking and merrymaking to entertain their lord. In the ‘Biographies of Jesters’ (‘Guji liezhuan’) of the Records of the Grand Historian, a famous court jester surnamed Zhan is described as ‘a dwarf entertainer from Qin’ (Shiji 66.3202). In the Guanzi, a collection of treaties on statecraft attributed to Guan Zhong (725–645 bc), Qi Huangong or Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 bc) is quoted as saying that Qi Xianggong or Duke Xiang of Qi (r. 697–686 bc) wrongly placed ‘dwarf entertainers up ahead and worthies and gentlemen down at the rear’ (Guanzi 8.397). The Household Sayings of Confucius (Kongzi jiayu), a third-century collection compiled as a sequel to the Analects of Confucius (Lunyu), records a historic alliance meeting in 500 bc between Lu Dinggong or Duke Ding of Lu (r. 509–495 bc) and Qi Jinggong or Duke Jing of Qi (d. 490 bc) opened with ‘musicians playing palace music in unison and dwarf entertainers performing in front’ (Kongzi jiayu 1.3a).4 Entertainers and performers were also referred to in ancient China as ling, lingren, youling and long in addition to chang, you, pai, changyou, youren and paiyou. These terms were used synonymously to define each other in early Chinese glossaries, dictionaries and commentaries on classics. The first-century Shuowen dictionary, for example, defines you 優 as chang 倡 and chang as yue/le 樂 (yue: music; le: entertainment or to entertain), pai 俳 as xi 戲 (entertainment; performance), lìng as long (to play) and long as wan (to play for fun) (Shuowen 15.1092, 15.1102, 11.808; 15.1102, 24.1803–1804; 15.1102, 5.378; 1.46). In his explanatory note on the Shuowen entry of pai, the eminent Qing philologist Duan Yucai (1735–1815) writes, ‘Pai 俳 is defined as [a person who] tells jokes and makes witty remarks (xiyan 戲言), chang 倡 as [a person who] provides music and entertainment (yinyue 音樂), and so is you – they actually mean the same thing’ (Shuowen 15.1102). This note covers three important aspects of changyou or paiyou performance: in form, it is a kind of comic talk in combination with other forms of entertainment including musical performance; in content, it is witty, funny and humorous; and in function, it is mainly for entertainment. Definition through synonyms, as frequently seen in the Shuowen dictionary, is insufficient by modern standard but helpful in that it allows us to see a semantic network. Needless to say, each of the previous terms has a spectrum of its own possible applications and connotations, but they are all related to the word yue/ le (music/entertainment). And it is in yue/le that we find the common semantic property shared by them all.

‘Jester Meng’s Robe and Hat’ and others ‘Jester Meng’s Robe and Hat’ (You Meng yiguan) is a famous story in the ‘Biographies of Jesters’ of the Records of Grand Historian (Shiji 126.3200–3202) about a court jester (you) surnamed Meng or You Meng, who is referred to as

The Hundred Shows 71 a yueren (lit. ‘music person’ or ‘person who entertains’) from Chu, a southern state noted for its deep and widespread shamanic tradition. Jester Meng served at the court of Chu Zhuangwang or King Zhuang of Chu (d. 591 bc). He found favour with the king because of his humour, eloquence and quick wittedness. The most interesting part of the story is that the court jester impersonates the late chief minister Sun Shu’ao (ca. 630–ca. 593 bc) as requested by Shu’ao’s poverty-stricken son to remind the king of the contributions his father had made to Chu’s hegemony. Sympathising with the miserable condition of Shu’ao’s son and his wife, Jester Meng agrees to help, and so he puts on Shu’ao’s hat and robe, setting about imitating his gestures and voice. The story moves on from this point to a vivid description of a sequence of dramatic events: King Zhuang celebrates his birthday; Jester Meng impersonates Shu’ao, presenting himself before the king at the birthday banquet; the king is shocked into believing that Shu’ao has come back to life, offering to reinstall him at the position of chief minister; Meng assumes Shu’ao’s voice, declining the king’s offer and singing a song full of lament and sorrow over the death of Shu’ao and the misfortune of his wife and son; Meng reveals his true self as a court jester; the king does not punish Meng for cheating but instead rewards him for impersonating Shu’ao and also grants a fief of four hundred households to Shu’ao’s son as a reward for Shu’ao’s contribution to the country. ‘Jester Meng’s Robe and Hat’ is full of drama but is not drama in itself, just as it is not drama that an undercover policeman impersonates a bad guy in order to infiltrate into a criminal organisation. Among various elements that constitute theatre, imitation or impersonation is undoubtedly an essential one, but impersonation/imitation alone does not make a drama. Theorist Eric Bentley provides a classic definition of drama: ‘A impersonates B while C looks on’ (cited in Carlson 2014: 2). While Bentley’s definition covers the essential matters of imitation and spectatorship, it excludes the crucial other component, ‘storytelling’, as correctly pointed out by Carlson (2014: 2), who proposes a formula of drama like ‘A imitates B performing an action while C looks on’, thereby distinguishing drama from storytelling or storysinging, and also from movement-based, non-narrative dance. Clearly, ‘Jester Meng’s Robe and Hat’ involves impersonation and imitation, narrative and narrative language including sign language and body language, and verbal and non-verbal actions, but it lacks an audience. King Zhuang is certainly not a spectator – nor are the guests at the birthday banquet party. The king is an interlocutor who does not maintain an aesthetic distance from Jester Meng the actor/impersonator. Without such a distance, ‘Jester Meng’s Robe and Hat’ can hardly make a drama although it contains all the other major components in Carlson’s formula of drama. Records about court jesters and entertainers were scanty and scattered in early Chinese texts because of their lowly social status. They were largely ignored by historians unless their performances were associated with an important historical figure or event. In 545 bc, for example, a political assassination took place shortly after a public performance by a group of household entertainers. This is recorded

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in Zuo’s Commentary on the Annals of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu zuozhuan) in an entry for the twenty-eighth year of Xianggong or Duke Xiang: The grooms of the Chen and Bao families were also engaged as entertainers (you). Qing’s horses easily got frightened, and his men-at-arms took off their buffcoats and tethered the horses before going out for a drink. They then followed the entertainers watching them performing in procession all the way to Yuli. (Chunqiu Zuozhuan 38.298c) There are several important assumptions we may make about the you performance in Yuli. Firstly, apart from court jesters performing to admonish and to entertain in the palace, there were also family-owned troupes of you who provided entertainment for the family inside the house and also the general public outside; secondly, besides professional jesters and entertainers, people from other walks of life such as grooms could also be engaged as you to stage entertainment shows; thirdly, the Yuli performance is likely to have been a processional performance with you performing while proceeding through the street; and fourthly, Yuli was a place – probably a place of entertainment as suggested by its two componential elements, yu or fish, which is a traditional Chinese symbol for sexual pleasure, and li or neighbourhood/community – in Linzi the capital city of the northern state of Qi (ca. 1044–221 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, where performances were held to entertain urban residents more than twentyfive hundred years ago. No consensus has been reached among historians of Chinese theatre, however, with regard to the form and function of the you performance in Yuli. Some scholars believe that it was a form of farce skit (huajixi, lit. ‘funny play’) that might involve role-playing, impersonation and simple plot construction and development; others think that it is too far-fetched to consider it a xi or play in the modern sense of the word although it contains some theatrical elements, and for them, the Yuli performance is no more than an exchange of teasing, playful banter between you comedians – reminiscent of present-day cross-talk show (xiangsheng) (Huang and Kang 2009: 43). It is difficult to tell for certain exactly what the Yuli performance looked like. Based on the limited material about you performances of the time, we are inclined to believe the you performance in Yuli, as elsewhere, to be neither a ‘funny play’ nor a ‘cross-talk show’, but a light improvisational theatrical entertainment performed in procession to entertain the local populace, and that their performance might be a variety show of song and dance, acrobatics, comic talk and musical performance. Professional entertainers or changyou arose in the Zhou dynasty. They provided entertainment by song, dance and music and by banter, humour and satire as well. They inherited from their wu-shaman predecessors various skills of performance and at the same time developed some distinctive forms of entertainment that featured revue sketches, song-and-dance skits, political satire and quick wit. As the first group of professional actors in China, they paved the way for the rise

The Hundred Shows 73 of an exciting new form of variety entertainment known as baixi (literally, ‘hundred shows’ or ‘hundred entertainments’) during the Han dynasty.

Baixi, sanyue and juedixi Baixi is the general term for variety entertainment consisting of music, song and dance, acrobatics, comic skits, circus games, martial arts, magic tricks and so forth. This comprehensive art of performance, popular from the Han through the Six Dynasties, had its origins in shamanic rituals and evolved into a loosely integrated form of performance called sanyue (variety music/variety entertainment), as contrasted with court ritual music or yayue in the Zhou ceremonial system of music (Figure 2.9). Among the numerous ‘Offices of Spring’ (chunguan) listed in the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 24.163b), there was a wu-shaman functionary called Maoren (lit. ‘yak’s tail person’) in charge of teaching the dancing of sanyue and yiyue (barbarian music). The great Confucian commentator Zheng Xuan (ad 127–200) interprets sanyue as ‘the music performed by country folk, similar to that performed by the Entertainers of the Yellow Gate’ (Zhouli 24.163b). Sanyue is further interpreted by Tang dynasty historian of rites and statues Du You (735–812) as ‘what was referred to as baixi in pre-Sui [581–618] times’ (Tongdian 146.762c). The ‘Treatise on Music’ (‘Yinyue zhi’) in the Old History of the Tang Dynasty (Jiu Tangshu 29.1072) defines sanyue as an alternative name of baixi: ‘Sanyue exists throughout dynastic history. It is not military sounds but comic skits, songs and dances and various other forms of performance [ . . . that are] collectively called baixi.’ The Hundred Shows were performed in Zhou courts, but baixi, as the term for the variety show, did not come into common use until the Eastern or Later Han dynasty (ad 25–220), when baixi became the major form of entertainment for

Figure 2.9 Brick carving of baixi performance. Excavated in 1953 from an Eastern Han tomb numbered M1. Yangzishan, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Source: National Museum of China.

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both nobles and commoners. The venue for baixi performance varied according to the occasion, audience and purpose. It could be outdoors in a public square (Figure 2.9), in an open (Figures 2.10 and 2.11) or enclosed courtyard (tingyuan) (Figure 2.12), and could also be indoors at the main hall (tingtang) of a royal palace or palatial mansion (Figure 2.13). During the Western or Former Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 25), baixi was usually referred to as or simply identified with juedixi (horn-butting show). The History of the Han Dynasty, for example, records a juedixi staged in Chang’an in 108 bc during the reign of Han Wudi or Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 bc). The juedixi attracted huge audiences, some of whom travelled more than 300 li (approx. 125 km) to the capital to watch it (Hanshu 5.194). In his commentary on The History of the Han Dynasty, Wen Ying (fl. ad 220) interprets the juedixi as ‘variety arts including Bayuxi and yulong manyan (lit. ‘fish-dragon extending’)' (Hanshu (5.194). The earliest known use of baixi in place of juedixi to refer to variety entertainment appears in The History of the Later Han Dynasty, which records an imperial decree issued on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month of the first year of Yanyou (ad 106) by Andi or Emperor An (r. 106–125), in which the newly enthroned emperor ordered that baixi including yulong manyan and Bayuxi be

Figures 2.10–2.11 Stone coffin from an Eastern Han tomb. Rubbing of relief carving on the left side of the coffin featuring five people sitting on the ground floor of a storeyed building while drinking and watching baixi performance outside in an open courtyard. Dimensions: 121.5 cm × 237 cm × 72 cm. Excavated in 1972, Xinsheng Village, Pixian County, Sichuan Province. Source: Sichuan Museum.

The Hundred Shows 75

Figure 2.12 Rubbing of a stone carving featuring baixi performance at the enclosed courtyard of a real estate compound. Size: 116.5 cm × 76.5 cm. Excavated from an Eastern Han tomb in 1972, Jiuxian Village, Dongfeng Township, Qufu City, Shandong Province. Source: Cultural Relics Administration of Qufu City.

Figure 2.13 Rubbing of relief carving on a stone coffin featuring a scene of baixi performance at the main hall of a mansion. Excavated from an Eastern Han tomb in 1972, Tanghe Knitting Factory, Tang County, Nanyang City, Henan Province. Source: Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Carvings.

canceled to mourn his recently deceased father, the King of Qinghe (Hou Hanshu 5.205). This record is very brief and contains no details about the baixi performance, but we may still infer from the laconic decree that baixi had been firmly established by the second century as a royal gala performance of variety show and that the variety show contained the yulong manyan and Bayuxi.

76 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre Yulong manyan was a processional and transformational performance with people dressing up as fishes and dragons, mimicking their actions, forming into lines and transforming and reforming in procession. From the fish-dragon procession evolved various forms of Chinese folk dance such as dragon dance, lion dance (wushi), land-boat dance (pao hanchuan), bamboo-horse dance (qi zhuma), horselantern dance (pao madeng) and so forth that are still commonly seen in contemporary China and among overseas Chinese communities in festival celebrations. Different from the processional yulong manyan, Bayuxi (Ba-Yu show) was a martial drum-dance skit performed by a team of actors who moved their step and body following a strong rhythm provided by drums while brandishing shields and spears. Also known as Bayuwu (Ba-Yu dance), Bayuxi was a predecessor of the Zhou court ritual dance suite called Grand Martiality or Dawu. It originated as a shamanic-military ritual dance performed in battlefields or ancestral temples by the ancient Ba and Yu peoples who lived in the Yu river valley in China’s southwestern region of Ba. Emperor Gaozu (r. 206–195 bc) the founder of the Han dynasty showed a strong interest in the martial drum dance and described it as ‘the song of King Wu fighting King Zhou’ (Hou Hanshu 86.2842). He introduced Bayuxi into the ritual music system of the Han court and instructed his Ba-Yu soldier-dancers to perform it to celebrate calendrical festivals and religious ceremonies. Bayuxi continued to be performed as part of baixi into the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589), albeit under different names such as Zhaowuxi and Xuanwuxi, both meaning ‘public display of martial arts’ (Songshu 19.534, 19.540), until the Sui dynasty when it was abolished as ‘unorthodox’ (Suishu 14.359).

Juedi and juedixi As mentioned earlier, baixi was generally referred to as juedixi during the Western Han dynasty. As a term for popular entertainment of the time, however, juedixi was understood in two different senses, narrow and broad. In its broad sense, juedixi refers to all sorts of popular entertainment including acrobatics, song and dance, comic skits, magic acts, circus and competitive games, and are thus synonymous with baixi and sanyue. In its narrow sense, juedixi refers only to competitive display of feats of strength and martial arts such as archery, weightlifting, horn-butting (juedi) (Figure 2.14), hand-to-horn or horn-to-horn combat (juedou) and wrestling with man (xiangpu) or with animal (doushou) (Figure 2.15). The first element jue in the compound juedixi may be used as a noun to mean ‘horn’ (jiao) and may also be used as a verb to mean ‘to compete’, ‘to resist’ or ‘to combat’ (jue). In this sense, jue is sometimes written as hu as in buhu, meaning ‘not to compete in strength’, a phrase that appears in the Hanfeizi (8.204), a poliophilosophical work by Han Fei (d. 233). The graph for jiao in the inscriptions on Shang and Zhou oracle bones ( ) and bronze vessels ( ) looks like an upward pointed, curved outgrowth on the head of an animal, and from it is derived the word ejiao (forehead). Di the second element in juedixi is a verb, meaning ‘to butt’, ‘to resist’ or ‘to repel’. So, the original meaning of juedi is ‘to butt/push with

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Figure 2.14 Illustrated Picture of Horn Butting (Juedi tu) in Assembled Pictures of the Three Realms (Sancai tuhui), an encyclopaedia compiled in 1607 by Wang Qi (1530–1615) and his son Wang Siyi (fl. 1600).

Figure 2.15 Rubbing of stone relief of man combating tiger. Unearthed from an early firstcentury tomb in Chenpeng Village, Nanyang City, Henan Province. Source: Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Carvings.

the horn/head’, and from it is derived the meanings of ‘wrestling’, ‘horn-butting’, ‘combat’ and ‘competitive games’ including ‘competitive martial performance’ and ‘competitive display of feats of strength’ and so forth. The third element xi in juedixi is the headword in the binome with juedi as an adjunct to modify it. No scripts for the word xi have been found in the oracle-bone inscriptions from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The earliest form of this script appears in the inscriptions on ritual bronzes from the Zhou dynasty. Written as , this bronzeware script has an overall upper-lower structure with the upper part being of a left-right structure built on the basis of gu , a bronze script for ‘drum’; the upper part consists ge (dagger-axe) on the left and hu (tiger) on the right, thus signifying a man with a dagger-axe in hands fighting a tiger to the accompaniment of drums (Gao and Tu 2008: 700). Given the original meaning of xi as encoded in this bronze script, we shall not have much difficulty understanding why juedixi was first and foremost used to refer to competitive display of feats of strength and combat skills.

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The three components that constitute the bronze script are largely retained in the seal script for the word xi, but with ge moved from the upper left part of the structure to the position for radicals, its reference to weaponry and martiality becomes even more prominent and overshadows its long original association with ritual combat between man and animal, hence the Shuowen (24.1803–1804) dictionary definition of xi as ‘referring to the branch of the three armies’ (sanjun zhi pian); weaponry; phonetically following [its radical] ge. Later, xi took in the sense of long (to play) and combined with it into xilong to refer to a form of comic skits popular during the Tang dynasty (Ren 2013: 4–6). By the eleventh century at the latest it began to take on its modern meaning of ‘drama, play or theatre’. Competitive displays of feats of strength and combat skills were occasionally referred to as xi during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 bc). For example, the Discourses of the States records ‘Shaoshi Zhou is Zhao Jianzi’s [d. 476 bc] Charioteer on the Right. Hearing that Niu Tan is a strongman, he asks to compete with him in horning strength (xi)’ (Guoyu 15.451). The use of xi to refer to ‘combat or compete in strength’ also appears in Zuo’s Commentary on the Annals of Spring and Autumn under the entry for the twenty-eighth year of Xigong or Duke Xi (r. 659–627 bc): ‘Ziyu sent Dou Bo to challenge [Chong’er, Jin Wengong or Duke Wen of Jin, 697–628 bc] to a fight, saying, “Let combat games (xi) be played between me and your warrior(s)” ’ (Chunqiu Zuozhuan 16.123b). Obviously, competitive displays of horning strength were not uncommon during the Spring and Autumn Period, but it was not until the Warring States Period (475–221 bc) that juedi began to be held regularly as martial rites, as noted in The History of the Han Dynasty: Towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, weak states were destroyed, and small states were annexed into the Warring States. Then there appeared a slightly growing tendency for martial rites to be performed to entertain and to impress. During the Qin dynasty, [martial rites] were renamed juedi. The rites of former kings were thereupon lost in the excessive entertainment. (Hanshu 23.1085) The earliest known staging of horn-butting entertainment in combination with jesters’ entertainment occurred at Ganquangong or the Palace of Sweet Springs during the reign of the second emperor of the short-lived Qin dynasty, as recorded by Sima Qianin (ca. 145–ca. 86 bc) the Grand Historian (Taishigong) in his ‘Biography of Li Si’, where we are told that the emperor so indulged himself in watching the performance that he turned a deaf ear to his Chancellor Li Si’s (d. 208 bc) request for an audience with him (Shiji 87.2559). This brief record contains a piece of important information: by the late third century bc, juedi was not merely a ritual performance of martial arts; rather, it had been integrated with popular entertainment performed by court jesters and entertainers, although it did not lose its original ritual-military function of promoting martial arts. Juedixi continued to be centred on competitive displays of martial arts and feats of strength including archery, chariot-driving, ritual bullfight and hand-to-hand

The Hundred Shows 79 combat until the reign period of Han Wudi (r. 141–87 bc) when more and more popular forms of entertainment such as song, dance, music and comic skits were absorbed into juedixi. At the turn of the second century ad, these popular forms of entertainment started to dominate the performance of juedixi. By the end of the Han dynasty, juedixi had transformed from martial rites into baixi or the Hundred Shows.

Baixi in Han literary and historical texts During the Han dynasty, baixi or juedixi was presented as a major celebration of the New Year, especially during the annual Reception of Court (chaohui) held by the Emperor to entertain his court officials, generals, feudal barons and foreign envoys, as vividly related by Cai Zhi (fl. 170) in his now partially extant Administrative Observances of the Han Official System Selected for Use (Hanguan dianzhi yishi xuanyong): On the morning of the first day of the lunar year, the Son of Heaven favours the Hall of the Virtuous Yang (Deyangdian) with an imperial visit. The Variety Music of the Nine Hierarchies (Jiubin sanyue) is performed. There comes from the east a sheli beast playing in the courtyard. Then the beast enters the gate of the Hall and transforms itself into a fish with mutual eyes (bimuyu) while splashing with water. It jumps and leaps about, spouting water to make vapour that obscures the sun. After that, the beast transforms itself into a yellow dragon, one point eight zhang5 tall. It emerges from the water and plays again in the courtyard, glistening and sparkling in the sunlight. A long rope is tied to two posts, several zhang apart. Two entertaining girls dance face-to-face while walking on the rope. They crouch down on one leg,

Figure 2.16 Brick carving, measuring 35 cm × 118 cm, features acrobatics, show wagon (xiche), chariot racing, hunting and fencing. Excavated in 1985 from a late Eastern Han tomb in Fanji Village, Xinye County, Nanyang City, Henan Province. Source: Henan Museum.

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In his ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’ (‘Xijing fu’), Zhang Heng (2014a: 227/ L675–235/L747), a great poet, scholar and scientist in the Eastern Han dynasty, offers the most detailed extant account of the ‘wondrous feats of competitive games’ (juedi miaoxi) during the reign period of Han Wudi. The juedi miaoxi is set on a cold, windy day in the first month of a lunar year. It covers almost all the possible forms of the popular entertainment of the time, namely acrobatics, circus, martial arts, magic tricks, song-and-dance skits and dramatic sketches. The performance of acrobatic feats ranges widely from climbing poles and walking on tightrope to juggling with balls and swords, plunging through hoops and making swallow dips. There is also a circus-like show of riding and racing horses and performing exotic animals (elephants, apes, monkeys, snakes, etc.) and a competitive display of martial arts such as weightlifting, wrestling, archery, chariot-handling and combat with weaponry. Magic acts are also well represented in the juedi performance. Significantly, large-scale props such as boulders, trees, plants and chariots are employed by magicians to create special effects – stage illusions of mountains, rivers, rising clouds, falling snowflakes, floating mists, thunderbolts and so on. Among the various dazzling sights of the magic show are also levitation illusions (of young lads gliding and flipping up and down in the air) and transformations (from a great sea-fish into a dragon and from a hanli beast into an immortal’s chariot pulled by four deer). Magicians change appearances within a wink as seen in modern Sichuan Opera or Chuanju; they swallow daggers, spit fire, make clouds of mist and vanish – all of sudden – into the darkness. The magic show also features the metamorphosis of a giant mythical creature called manyan, which often appears together with fishes and dragons in the processional and transformational show of yulong manyan. It is difficult to tell illusion from delusion, nor is it easy to tell how much illusion or delusion is. Like acrobatic feats that appear to have their antecedents in shamanic rituals of exorcism (Kirby 1974: 12–14), the miraculous transfiguration and transformation, the sudden appearance of mountains and rivers, apparitions and levitations, the flash of lightning with crashes of thunder, the rolling of boulders, the falling of snow, the rising of clouds, conjuring up visions of an immortal mountain, swallowing daggers and knives and eating and spitting fire are all derived from shamanic practices and therefore share the same aesthetic principles as shamanic illusionism. Historical sources from the Han dynasty indicate that many of the shamanmagicians engaged in baixi performances came from ‘barbarian’ cultures in the newly conquered Western Regions, a vast area in Central Asia including presentday Xinjiang, and some were sent to the Han court as tribute gifts from as far as

The Hundred Shows 81 Anxi or the Parthian Empire in modern Iran (Shiji 123.3173; Hanshu 61.2696). Undoubtedly, the magic transformations and grand-scale illusions created by the ‘barbarian’ shaman-magicians stimulated the imagination of Han audiences and greatly enriched their delusionary and theatrical experience. Acrobatics, magic tricks, martial arts and circus-like spectacles hardly have a story to tell, let alone impersonation or imitation, but they are not the whole of baixi. Significantly, there is a vivid account in ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’ of a song-and-dance skit called Zonghui xianchang (General Assemblage of Sylphine Entertainers) – an immense spectacle presented by a troupe of masked performers who are assembled to play and act beasts, deities and mythical creatures (Zhang 2014a: 229/L691–231/L706). Notable among the immortal characters shown onstage are Ehuang and Nüying.6 They sing a long aria – probably lamenting the death of their husband Shun in the Cangwu Mountain and their drowning in the Xiang River – to the accompaniment of the music played by the Azure Dragon (Canglong, the guardian spirit of the East) and the White Tiger (Baihu, the guardian spirit of the West) under the direction of Hongya, a shaman-musician of the era of the legendary Three Sovereigns. The shaman-musician is costumed in fur and feather, as are the shaman-dancers depicted on the Neolithic paintings and bronze drums discussed in the previous chapter. The performance of Zonghui xianchang presents itself as variety show that involves costuming, impersonation, facial and body make-up, music playing, somewhat of storytelling and, above all, role-playing. But upon the whole, there is lack of focus or central theme to organise the variety acts into a coherent dramatic piece with the notable exception of Master Huang of the East Sea (Donghai Huang gong) (Zhang 2014a: 233/L731–234/736) – a point I shall return to in detail. Written around two centuries after the death of Emperor Wu of Han in 87 bc, ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’ is a mixture of historical truth, the poetic imagination of Zhang Heng (ad 78–139) the author and his personal observation of Eastern Han performances in its description of the performance of juedixi in the Western Han capital of Chang’an.7 We are not certain as to how much it is true to history or how much it is Zhang’s imagination or observation, nor are we clear as to how the various forms and elements of performance are integrated and organised into baixi. Obviously, there is no thematic focus that governs the overall structure of the baixi performance. Each form of the Hundred Shows seems to have its own distinctive feature and function, may be performed individually and independently and may also be combined and integrated into the variety entertainment. In any case, the Hundred Shows manifests itself as variety stage and also shows a clear tendency towards total theatre that remains the most distinctive feature of xiqu – the dominant form of Chinese theatre and drama ever since the twelfth century.

Baixi in Han tomb pictorial art There is a wealth of material evidence to complement and corroborate scattered records and descriptions of baixi in Han dynasty literary and historical texts. Since

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the 1920s, hundreds of wall paintings, clay and wooden figurines and brick and stone carvings have been unearthed from Han tombs and ancestral temples. These archaeological findings are distributed over a vast territory including Inner Mongolia and Henan in North China, Sichuan in Southwest China and Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong in Southeast China. A considerable number of them illustrate the extravagant life that the tomb occupants enjoyed in their previous life and wish to continue to enjoy in their afterlife. The performance of baixi at aristocratic banquets is a recurring theme of these religio-artistic works. A good example of this is an Eastern Han tomb numbered M2 excavated in 1960–1961 at Dahuting Village, Mixian County of Henan Province (Figure 2.17). M2 is richly decorated with painted and carved relief images of plants and flowers, birds and beasts, historical, legendary and mythical figures, scenes of feasting, hunting, exorcising, horn-butting, ascending to heaven, processions and pageants. This tomb is particularly famous for its beautifully painted murals that cover a total of more than 300 sq m with approximately 200 sq m still visible. Particularly interesting to us is a ‘banquet-music scene’ painted on the upper part of the north wall of the central chamber (Henan 1993: 297–302). This coloured wall painting measures 734 cm long and 70 cm wide, depicting a wide range of popular forms of entertainment of the time (Figure 2.18). As shown in Figure 2.18, on the western/left side of the picture is a four-poster canopy, in which two people are seated, facing east, behind a black lacquer dining table with beautiful dishes and plates on it. Seven or eight servants stand on both sides of the canopy to attend to them, and a female attendant kneels down respectfully in front of them, ready to serve food. Judging by the seat arrangement and the direction they face, the person on the left is likely to be the host/tomb occupant and accordingly, next to him is the seat of honour for the person on the right – his distinguished guest known as xibin (lit. ‘western guest’) in Chinese dining etiquette. Immediately behind the canopy stand four black poles, each hung at the top with a black banner flying backwards. On the far left in the picture is part of a cooking scene in which three people are squatting on the floor preparing food, one standing nearby to look on and one walking facing east while holding a plate in his hands. In the lower-left-hand corner of the picture is a square mat with some ritual utensils and food containers on it. The main part of the picture is a lovely illustration of baixi being performed at the middle ground of the banquet hall with guests seated in a row behind a long narrow dining table on either (northern or southern) side of the hall. They are drinking, eating, chatting and watching. Visible – but not always clear – on the picture from left to right are scenes of baixi performances: magic show; drumtapping dance; drum beating; long-sleeve solo dance; trumpeting; juggling balls; balancing on sticks; animal masquerade show; and music playing on drums, pipe reeds and so forth Similar scenes are also found on a stone relief carving from the tomb of Feng Rujiu (d. ad 18), who served as Prefect of Yuping during the reign period of Wang

Figure 2.17 Central chamber of Mixian M2 Eastern Han tomb.

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Figure 2.18 ‘Banquet-Music Scene’.

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Mang (45 bc–ad 23) (Figure 2.19), and on a mural unearthed from an Eastern Han tomb in Xindianzi Village, Helin’ge’r of Inner Mongolia (Figure 2.20). The picture illustrates the tomb occupant and his guests sitting on a mat while baixi is being performed in front of them (Zhongguo xiqu zhi 1994: 464). Present at the household entertainment are approximately thirty people; among them, six are spectators, seven or eight musicians, and twenty-four actors. Besides acrobatics, feats of strength and drum dance, there seems to be a short skit featuring a man and a woman in combat. With her long sleeves flying backwards, the

Figure 2.19 Stone carving depicts two entertainers performing the pangu wu or ‘Dance on Plate-shaped Drums’ to the accompaniment of music played by two people on the left with two people watching on the right side. Excavated in 1978 from a Han tomb in Xindian Village, Huyang Township, Tanghe County, Henan Province. Source: Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Carvings.

Figure 2.20 Helin’ge’er mural of baixi performance.

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Figure 2.21 Rubbing of stone relief of baixi performance.

woman in black jumps to her feet, rushing forward to make a charge, whereas the man, with his hair tied in a single braid that points upward, stands in combating pose, bare handed, facing the woman fearlessly. The fight scene is probably a critical moment in a series of dramatic conflicts between the man and the woman. The woman is attacking and the man is defending, which makes a perfect comic show. Compared with tomb murals, more Han dynasty brick and stone carvings of baixi performances have been unearthed. These archaeological findings have greatly contributed to our knowledge of Han popular entertainments. The best known of them is perhaps the one from a late Eastern Han tomb unearthed in 1954 at Beizhai Village, Yinan County of Shandong Province (Zeng et al. 1956), as shown in Figure 2.21. This stone carving finds no match in size and scope and excels all in the vividness and richness of the pictorial images it provides of the popular entertainments of the time. The carving shows that a total of fifty people are engaged in the performance of baixi, some impersonating and acting beasts, real or imaginary, such as bears, leopards and phoenixes, some displaying chariot-handling skills, and others performing acrobatics including twisting and stretching body, backward flipping and somersaulting, juggling with balls and daggers and walking and dancing on ropes. Apart from acrobatics, martial arts, magic acts and circus games that are commonly seen on Han tomb murals and brick and stone carvings, the processional and transformational performance of yulong manyan also finds vivid expression here. Among the fifty performers, twenty-two are musicians. Musical instruments that are identifiable are bells (zhong), chimes (qing), ocarinas (xun), drums (gu), small drums with handles (tao), twenty-five stringed zithers (se), pan flutes (paixiao), pipe reeds (sheng) and end-blown flutes (xiao). The Yinan stone carving provides a powerful visual testimony to Zhang Heng and Cai Zhi’s descriptions of baixi performances during the Han dynasty. Chiyouxi: forerunner of juedixi Juedixi was testimony to the development of Chinese theatre into xi (entertainment) from li (rite), but its history goes even farther back than the martial rites of the Warring States Period to the pre-Xia (ca. 2100–ca.1600 bc) era of the Five Emperors (Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao and Shun), with its roots growing from shamanic rituals associated with the cult of Chiyou (Wenxian tongkao 147.1187b).

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Chiyou is a legendary chief of the ancient Jiuli tribe, who revolted against Huangdi or the Yellow Emperor according to the Records of the Grand Historian: Chiyou staged a rebellion and refused to obey the [Yellow] Emperor’s command. So, the Yellow Emperor levied an army of the feudal lords, fought against Chiyou in the wilderness of Zhuolu. He captured Chiyou and killed him. The feudal lords all venerated Xuanyuan [i.e. the Yellow Emperor] as the Son of Heaven in place of Shennong the Divine Farmer and conferred on him the title of Huangdi the Yellow Emperor. (Shiji 1.5) Chiyou is worshipped as a god of war and weapon (Shiji 8.350; 28.1367) and also as a god of rain (Chunqiu fanlu 74.431). He is credited with the invention of weapons of war (Figure 2.22) and is believed to possess the supernatural power of bringing down rain from heaven in times of drought. There are variant mythological accounts in early Chinese texts of the rebellion of Chiyou against Huangdi (Figure 2.23). Most of them are concerned with the Battle of Zhouluo which Chiyou lost to Huangdi because of Ba the drought demon. The earliest known mention of Ba as a vicious demon of drought appears in a ritual song titled ‘the Han River in the Clouds’ (‘Yunhan’) from the Book of Songs (Shijing 18.294b) – a prayer offered by Zhou Xuanwang or King Xuan of Zhou (r. 827–782 bc) during a rain-inducing ceremony to Shangdi or Lord on High. Also known as Nüba (female Ba) or Hanba (drought Ba) in Chinese mythology, Ba is the daughter of Huangdi and assists her father in suppressing the rebellion of Chiyou, as recounted in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing) – an ancient book of myth and mythic geography dateable to the fourth century bc: There is one dressed in green and known to be the Yellow Emperor’s daughter Ba. Chiyou makes metal weapons and fights against the Yellow Emperor, so the Emperor orders that Yinglong the Responsive Dragon attack him in the wilderness of Jizhou. The dragon stocks up all the water but Chiyou asks the

Figure 2.22 Rubbing of stone carving of a heavily armed Chiyou in a therianthropic form.

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Figure 2.23 Scene of Huangdi Fights Chiyou (Huangdi zhan Chiyou), an ancient form of Nuo dance drama performed by Shouyang Aishe Nuo Dance Troupe, Shouyang County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province.

Lord of Wind (Fengbo) and the Master of Rain (Yushi) to send forth strong wind and heavy rain. The Yellow Emperor then sends down his heavenly daughter called Ba. The rain stops, and Chiyou is killed. Ba cannot ascend back to heaven, but wherever she lives there will be no rain. Shujun informs the Yellow Emperor of this. [The Emperor] then places her north of the Red Water. Shujun thus becomes the ancestor of farming and cultivation. Ba often escapes from her confinement, however. In order to drive her away, a command (ling) is to be shouted: ‘Deity, go up north!’ Clear waterways and dredge ditches and canals in preparation [for rain].’ (Shanhai jing 17.319) The text stops short at the imperative exhortation to prepare for rain. The ling in the previously quoted passage clearly sounds an expulsion order issued to the drought demon by a shaman at a rain/exorcism rite. With the demon driven away and back into her confinement north of the Red Water, rain is expected to fall, so the shaman exhorts drought-affected people to clear waterways and dredge ditches in preparation for the fall of rain. Hereby, the ritual comes to an end. When commenting on the relationship between ritual and myth, Eliade (1959: 99–100) notes, ‘Rites are re-enactment of the deeds performed by gods in the primordial past and preserved in mythological accounts’ (cited in Bell 1997: 11). A primary function of myth is thus to provide an explanation for the origin of rituals (Malinowski 1926, cited in Segal 2004: 73). By origin, the cult of Chiyou as

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the god of rain with the Lord of Wind and the Master of Rain at his command is associated with the myth of Ba bringing down drought as requested by the Yellow Emperor. Ba is described in Chinese mythology as being a bald-headed, hideous female dwarf dressed in green with eyes growing on the top of the head and being exposed to the ten suns in the sky (Shijing 18.294b–c; Shanhai jing 7.204, 17.319). This explains the origin of the shamanic rain ritual in which female shamans dressed in green, clean and tidy in appearance, perform sacrificial rain dance in groups (Chunqiu fanlu 74.428), whereas a physically disabled female shaman (wuwang) impersonates Ba as the sacrificial incarnation of the demon to be exposed to the blazing sun (baowu) (Liji 10.89a; Chunqiu fanlu 74.427, 74.434). Even today in North China, the ritual of beating and killing Ba the drought demon remains to be performed during the praying-for-rain ceremony (Yuan 2001) and village festivals (Li 2009) (Figures 2.24–2.27). Mythological accounts of Chiyou abound and vary from one to one in early Chinese texts: some describe him as having a bestial body and a bronze head with a metal forehead, eating sand and stones and making weapons of war; some portray him as having eight forearms and eight toes and being capable of making and clearing clouds of mist; some depict him as having a human body with

Figures 2.24–2.27 Ritual performance of Beheading Hanba the Draught Demon (Zhan Hanba). Jiacun Village, Lucheng County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province.

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Figures 2.24–2.27 (Continued)

bovine hooves and a bovine head with two horns; and some picture him as having four eyes and six arms and wielding a sharp weapon in every hand (Duan 1998). Different as they are from one another, they all image Chiyou as somehow semibovine and semi-human in appearance, as attested by numerous Shang-Zhou bronze vessels bearing the theriomorphic motif of taotie that has been identified as the image of Chiyou in a mutant form (Chen 1936: 513–514) (Figure 2.28). The portrayal of Chiyou as having four eyes and a bronze bovine head with a metal forehead and wielding sharp sword weapons in his hands is reminiscent of the ‘four-eye-golden’ (huangjin simu) mask worn by Fangxiangshi the shamanexorcist, and opens a fascinating window into a masked ritual performance in which a shaman performer, clad in animal skin and wearing a bronze mask, wields weapons in imitation of Chiyou leading the Lord of Wind and the Master of Rain to fight the Yellow Emperor, who is assisted by the Responsive Dragon and the Drought Demon. The Yellow Emperor is worshipped as the initiator of Chinese civilisation. It is worth noting that he is portrayed as a cosmic ruler with four faces (simian) and four eyes (simu) in Chinese mythology (TPYL 79.369a–b). Scholarly opinions differ from one another as to what simian or simu refers to. I am inclined to interpret the simian simu as a face mask worn by a shaman who

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Figure 2.28 (Replica of) Ligui, the only one surviving example of the earliest Western Zhou bronze wares. The bronze vessel gui is decorated with a high-relief taotie motif and inscribed on the interior bottom with thirty-two characters in four lines commemorating King Wu of Zhou’s conquest of Shang. Excavated from a tomb dating from the eleventh to mid-tenth century bc in Lingkou Town, Lintong District of Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province. Source: Shaanxi History Museum.8

impersonates the Yellow Emperor, similar to those worn by shamans who impersonate Fangxiang or Chiyou in exorcism rites or rainmaking ritual performances. The Accounts of Anomalies (Shuyi ji), a fifth-century collection of historical and anecdotal accounts of rare and strange beings and happenings, offers a valuable corroboration of the above ritual scene reconstructed from fragmentary myths of Chiyou: There is a god named Chiyou. Legend has it that he has a human body, bovine hoofs, four eyes and six hands. Sure enough, the metal-like skeleton dug out today in Jizhou is the frame of his bones. Now there appear Chiyou’s teeth, two inches long, hard and unbreakable. There was widespread belief in Qin-Han times that Chiyou had ears like a sword or halberd, had horns on his head, and fought with Xuanyuan. He butted people with horns, so no one dared to face him. There is a performance called Chiyouxi popular in Jizhou these days. People there, by twos and threes, stage a show; wearing horns on their head, they headbutt against each other. It may well be that the juedixi that flourished during the Han dynasty was the remnant of Chiyouxi. (Shuyi ji 1.2a–3a) The myth of Chiyou provides an explanation for the shamanic origin of Chiyouxi and juedixi as well. Needless to say, juedixi incorporated many other forms of performance in its centuries-long evolution from religious-martial ritual to a great variety of entertainments or baixi.

The Hundred Shows 91 Juedixi: Master Huang of the East Sea Master Huang of the East Sea (Donghai Huanggong, hereafter Master Huang) stands out as a self-contained dramatic piece from among the various shows described in ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’, where we read: Master Huang from the Eastern Sea, With red knife and Yue incantations, Hoped to subdue the white tiger. But he could not save himself in the end. (Zhang 2014a: 233/L731–235/L734) Master Huang was a shaman-magician from the East Sea in the newly conquered southeastern costal area of the Han dynasty – a barbarian state called Yue (in what is now Zhejiang) with a strong shamanic tradition. He practised magic at a young age and achieved fame as a master at subduing tigers in his prime. He became a household name of the time, as shown in a popular Han proverb: Tiger, don’t snarl at me; for I have Master Huang; The ferocious beast returns; Master Huang comes. (Guyaoyan 70.791) The Tang literatus Li Shan (630–689) provides further information about Master Huang as a shaman-magician in his commentary on the early sixth-century Wenxuan (Selections of Refined Literature) compiled by Xiao Tong (501–531), a crown prince of the Liang dynasty (502–557). There was a person from the East Sea, who carried a red knife, performed Yu gait and chanted Yue magic spells to subdue tigers. He was named as Master Huang. (Wenxuan 2.77) Most noteworthy in Li Shan’s explanatory note about Master Huang is the Yubu or Yu gait.9 Yu the Great was the founder of the Xia dynasty well known for stemming the Great Flood. In Chinese culture, he was a sage king who stood at the apex of human society meditating between Heaven and Earth and also as a shaman-king of the Nine Lands or Jiuzhou and a divine lord of mountains and rivers with magic power over ghosts and spirits. Legend has it that Yu had the long neck and beak of a bird – strange and grotesque physiques such as commonly seen in other culture heroes – and that he did not walk but instead hopped along on one leg like a bird (Xunzi 3.75; TPYL 82.382). His birdlike footwork, which has come to be known as the Yu gait, is widely interpreted as a shamanic gait (wubu) (e.g. Fayan 7.2b; Chen 1936: 535 and Chang 1983: 45) – a dancing footwork performed by Yu in imitation of birds, later adopted as a special gait by wu-shamans (Baopuzi 11.209; Yunji qiqian 61.1355–1356; Dongshen badi DZ

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4.398),10 developed during the Six Dynasties into a Daoist ritual dance called gangbu (gait of the Dipper), bugang (pacing the Dipper) or ta jiuzhou (pacing the Nine Lands), and continues to be practised in present-day Daoist liturgy and shamanic ritual (Suwa 1997: 139–145; Andersen 2008; Zhao 2019). Notwithstanding Li Shan’s note on Master Huang, the level of detail presented in ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’ does not allow an in-depth analysis of this short combat play. Fortunately, a more detailed account of the story of Master Huang was cited by Li Shan from the Miscellaneous Notes of the Western Capital (Xijing zaji) in his commentated version of Selections of Refined Literature: There was a man from the East Sea known as Master Huang. He practised magic art at a young age and was able to tame snakes and subdue tigers in his prime. He carried a golden red knife and tied back his hair with a crimson silk ribbon. Standing up, he was able to conjure up clouds and fogs; sitting down, he was able to create mountains and rivers. When he grew old and became decrepit, his energy and strength declined and he was no longer able to exercise magic art due to excessive drinking. Towards the end of the Qin, a white tiger appeared in the East Sea. Armed with his golden red knife, he went forth to subdue it, but ended up being killed by the tiger because his magic failed to work. People in the Han imperial capital [Chang’an] adapted the story into a popular show (xi), and Han emperors included it in the programme of juedi. (Wenxuan 2.77) Master Huang was a household name of his time, from which we may assume that he was a real historical figure who lived during the transitional period of time from the Qin to the Han dynasty. We do not know, however, if Master Huang ever exercised his magic power to conjure up clouds and fogs, to create mountains and rivers or to subdue the white tiger as described in ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’, yet all the evidence that is available to us seems to point to Master Huang being a shaman-magician and Master Huang being a dramatic sketch with its roots in shamanic rituals of remote antiquity traceable to Yu’s times. Master Huang was by far the most famous juedixi among the variety shows of the Han dynasty, but far from being a magic show or a horn-butting game in the narrow sense of the word juedixi, Master Huang presents itself as a comic sketch with a complete dramatic structure built on a series of conflicts between man and himself and between man and animal that ‘easily could have grown into more elaborate plays or dramas’ (Dolby 1988: 12), as shown in the following dramatic scenes of Master Huang reconstructed from ‘Western Capital Rhapsody’ and Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital (Huang and Kang 2009: 48–49, citing Li 1993: 158): Scene I: A young shaman comes onstage, carrying a red knife at the waist and tying a crimson silk turban around his head. He dances with the gait of Yu while demonstrating his magic art of taming snakes and subduing tigers. Then, he performs magic tricks to create onstage illusions of clouds

The Hundred Shows 93 and fogs, and mountains and rivers. There seems to be nothing he cannot achieve. Scene II: Dressed as before, the shaman-magician comes onstage again. He looks old and decrepit and walks with a limp due to excessive drinking. He cannot help trembling with fear at sight of tigers because he knows that the power he used to be able to exercise in taming wild beasts has left him. Scene III: A big white tiger appears onstage. The beast roams over the East Sea, causing great damage and fear to locals. Scene IV: Mustering up courage, the shaman-magician carries his golden red knife and sets out on a journey to the East Sea in an attempt to subjugate the white tiger. A fierce combat ensues between Master Huang and the tiger, and with it the dramatic show reaches its climax. Master Huang tries in vain to work his magic, and eventually loses his life in the mouth of the tiger. The drama comes to an end with heavy sighs and ear-piercing screams bursting from audience members. Of course, the reconstructed four-scene play is far from being free of imagination, but it still allows us a quick glimpse of how Chinese theatre evolved from shamanic ritual performance to ritual drama to drama.

Baixi in the Six Dynasties China was plunged into chaos towards the end of the Han dynasty due to the Yellow Turban Uprising (ad 184–204) and the ensuing incessant wars among warlords for central power. Royal celebrations of festivals ceased to be held; baixi faded out during this period of time. The fall of the Han in 220 ushered China into the Six Dynasties era (220–589), which is often referred to as the Period of Disunity characterised by frequent dynastic changes and unbridled warlordism. Emerging from the ruins of the Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period (220– 280) witnessed a robust revival of interest in vaudeville and popular entertainment among the ruling elites, particularly in the Cao Wei dynasty (220–265) during the reign of Mingdi or Emperor Ming (r. 226–239). Under his patronage, large scale baixi performances were held every year in the imperial Garden of Fragrant Woods (Fanglinyuan) to celebrate the beginning of spring. Included in the Fanglin performance were such shows as the formation and transformation of huge beasts, processions of fishes and dragons and horse-driving and chariot-handling, as performed centuries earlier in the imperial park of Shanglinyuan during the Western Han dynasty (Sanguo zhi 3.105). Notwithstanding the internal division and civil strife, baixi flourished throughout most of the Period of Disunity and continued to expand in its diversity except for occasional official bans out of concern over its great expenditure and its deviation from Confucian ritual and music (Jinshu 23.719; Weishu 4.107, 108.2808–2809; Suishu 13.303; Zhoushu 40.722). In the following three hundred years, numerous eccentric and exotic acrobatic and circus shows and magic tricks such as ‘playing with a turtle’ (longgui), ‘conjuring up a yellow dragon’ (bian huanglong), ‘ripping

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up a well’ (bajing), ‘growing a melon’ (zhonggua), ‘slaying a horse’ (shama), ‘skinning a donkey’ (bolü) and so forth found their way into baixi and made baixi into ‘one hundred shows’ in name and in fact for the first time in history (Wenxian tongkao 147.1287b; Suishu 15.380). Most of the magic shows, if not all, were performed by magicians and illusionists from Tianzhu (modern India) and the Western Regions. They were staged together with native forms of entertainment and eventually integrated into a huge variety performance programme. The short-lived Sui dynasty (581–618) witnessed the largest-scale performances of baixi ever recorded in Chinese history. ‘The Treatise on Music’ (‘Yinyue zhi’) of the Suishu or The History of the Sui Dynasty presents a vivid account of a baixi performance during the reign period of Sui Yangdi or Emperor Yang of Sui (r. 604–618): In the second year of Daye [606], Rangan [Yаmi Khagan, d. 609] of the [Eastern] Turkic Khanate came to the capital to pay homage to Emperor Yang. In order to impress the khagan, the Emperor summoned entertainers and actors from all over the country and gathered them together in the capital. At first, they performed on the Emerald Green Pond in the Imperial Park of Fragrant Flowers and the Emperor watched it with his court ladies in a tent. The performance began with a sheli beast entering the ground and frolicking on it. Shortly, the beast jumped about, splashing water onto the ground, which was now crawling with alligators (yuantuo), turtles, tortoises, water denizens, various other reptiles and fishes. Among them was also a big whale. The whale sprayed mist that darkened the sun, and all of sudden, it transformed into a yellow dragon, about seven to eight zhang long, jumping and wriggling out of the water. There were also two poles planted ten zhang apart and two female entertainers danced along the tightrope between the two posts. They met halfway across but went on singing and dancing without a stop. There was also a weightlifting show by Xia Yu [famous warrior of the Warring States Period] who hoisted caldrons, lifted carriage wheels, raised stone mortars and juggled big jars while jumping and dancing around. Two men each carried a pole on the head with someone dancing at the top of the pole, and in a flying leap they exchanged the poles. A giant tortoise carried a mountain on its back; magicians spat fire and performed a great variety of magic tricks that filled Yаmi Khagan with awe. From then on, professional performers were required to be trained first at the Court of Imperial Ceremonials. On the New Year’s Day every year, foreign envoys from all over the world presented themselves before the Emperor to perform fealty. They were invited to stay in the capital for fifteen days. During this period of time, the street that ran as long as eight li [approx. 4.2 km]11 from the Upright Gate (Duanmen) to the Gate for the National Building (Jianguomen), was entirely converted into a huge theatre ground (xichang). Officials erected tents on both sides of the street and watched the performance day and night. Entertainers were all costumed in embroidered silk robes; singers and dancers were mostly dressed up as women with their

The Hundred Shows 95 hair bedecked with jade and jewelry and their heads with flowers and feathers. Approximately thirty thousand people were involved in the performance. (Suishu 15.381) In the years that followed, baixi continued to be performed on no smaller scale, which is also recorded in The History of the Sui Dynasty: In the third year [607] of Daye, the Emperor favoured Yulin with an imperial visit. Yаmi Khagan presented himself at the royal pavilion to pay his respects to the Emperor. As before, the Emperor entertained him with a baixi show. In the sixth year [610], a great many treasures and luxuries were brought to the court by Yаmi Khagan and rulers of other tributary states who travelled all the way to the capital to offer New Year’s greetings to the Emperor. Then a grand pageant of the hundred shows was held in Tianjin Street in return for their tribute, and all sorts of magic tricks and circus and acrobatic skills were presented to entertain them. The event involved eighteen thousand performers; the sound of music could be heard several tens of li away; and at night hundreds and thousands of people carried flaming torches to illuminate the whole world as though it were broad daylight. (Suishu 15.381)

Baixi at Buddhist temple fairs For centuries, the performance of baixi or juedixi had been largely confined to imperial parks and palaces or aristocratic gardens and banquet halls. This situation started to change around the mid-second century when Confucianism, which had been observed as state ideology since the reign of Han Wudi, started to lose its grip on the common people, due to the decentralisation of state power and the emerging influence of Daoism and Buddhism. This was particularly the case in the North as a result of the frequent foreign invasions and alien rule throughout northern China during the Six Dynasties. Beginning in the third century, baixi was performed in Buddhist temples. This trend continued throughout the Six Dynasties. Buddhism was introduced to China around the first century ad and spread rapidly across the country with irresistible momentum over the next few centuries. This foreign religion, born in India, took roots in Chinese culture during the Jin dynasty (266–420) and from then onwards, Buddhism was no longer considered by the general public as something heretical or alien from barbarian states. Buddhist temples and monasteries proliferated during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589). An oft-quoted poem by Du Mu (803–852) pays tribute to the Buddhist landscape in Jiangnan – the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River: ‘Of the four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasties, how many of their towers and terraces are enveloped in mist and rain?’ (‘Jiangnanchun jueju’ in QTS 522.5964). The actual number of temples was well beyond what

96 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre is described in the quatrain (jueju) by Du Mu. According to a memorial submitted to the throne in 522, Jiankang (modern Nanjing) the capital of the Southern Liang dynasty (502–557) alone had more than five hundred Buddhist temples and shrines (Nanshi 70.1721). The Northern Dynasties (386–581) far surpassed the Southern Dynasties (420–589) in the number of Buddhist temples. Take Luoyang the Northern Wei (386–534) capital for example. For a short period of forty years from 493 to 534, a total of one thousand, three hundred and sixty-seven Buddhist temples were built in and around Luoyang as noted by Yang Xuanzhi (fl. 547) in his Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Luoyang (Luoyang qielan ji 5.244) and a considerable number of them received sponsorship and patronage from nobles and high officials. The successful propagation of Buddhist teachings intensified a vogue among the broad mass of the people for Buddhist temple fairs. Initially, Buddhist music and song and dance from India were performed during Buddhist rituals and ceremonies. Later on, baixi was added to Buddhist musical performance to attract laypeople. Among the Buddhist temple festivals, the most popular was no doubt the Buddha Birthday Festival held in commemoration of the birth of Shakyamuni on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. The festival ran over fourteen days from the first day till the fourteenth day of that month, featuring the parade of the images of the Buddha through towns and villages and a variety of ritual and popular performances. A good example of this is the temple festival of Changqiusi in Luoyang, which was most famous for its gold and jade statue of Buddha riding a white elephant with six tusks, as richly described in the Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Luoyang: On the fourth day of the fourth lunar month, the statue will be carried out of the temple in a parade that is often led by lions to drive away evil spirits. [Magicians] swallow daggers and spit fire, presenting a fancy show on the spot; [acrobats] climb up a pole decorated with colourful ribbons, and walk a tightrope, demonstrating magic skills and acrobatic feats that are rarely seen. Their wondrous performance and outlandish dress have no rivals in the capital city. Spectators crowd around wherever the statue stops and block off the passage through. They jostle against each other and stampede for the performance, which often results in casualties. (Luoyang qielan ji 1.44) The Buddha Birthday Festival reached its apogee with a grand parade of Buddha’s images through the streets of Luoyang on Buddha’s birthday. The Jingmingsi Temple, which was built under the patronage of Emperor Xuanwu (r. 499–515), played a key role in the parade. The grand parade started, actually, on the seventh day of the fourth month with a general assembly in Jingmingsi of Buddha’s images – more than one thousand in total – from their home temples in the Luoyang area. On the eighth day, the images were carried from the temple to the royal palace. On the way, ‘Buddhist music was performed with the sound reaching Heaven and moving Earth; large-scale baixi was put on and attracted huge crowds from all over the city’ (Luoyang qielan ji 1.53, 3.124–125).

The Hundred Shows 97 Another major occasion on which baixi was performed was the Six Monthly Days of Fast (liuzhai), during which ‘drums, and song and dance are often performed’, as in Wangdianyusi Temple (Luoyang qielan ji 4.171). Baixi was also performed in nunneries as in Jinglesi – a Buddhist nunnery patronised by the Grand Tutor (taifu), King Wenxian of Qinghe (487–520): Female entertainers often perform in the temple during the liuzhai. Their singing voices reverberate around the beams; their dancing sleeves swing gently and gracefully. The loud and clear music produced by string and wind instruments shows a harmonious blend of wonder and charm. Jinglesi is a nunnery, so men used not to be allowed inside. Those who were let in to watch the performance felt as if they were in Heaven. The restrictions were eased after the death of King Wenxian and from that time on, commoners were free to come in and go out without any constraints. Later on, Yue, King [Wenxuan] of Runan [494–532] had the nunnery repaired and renovated. Yue is a younger brother of King Wenxian. He summons musicians and entertainers to perform in the temple. Rare birds and strange beasts jump and dance about in the courtyard; the magic trick of flying through the sky that is not yet known to the outside is shown here inside the temple. Included in the magic shows are also ‘skinning donkeys and throwing them into wells’, ‘planting jujubes’ and ‘growing melons’. The jujubes and melons become instantly ripe to be eaten. Men and women watch magicians and illusionists performing and are all astonished by the magic they conjure up. (Luoyang qielan ji 1.50–51) Buddhist music and song and dance from India were performed to amuse Buddha and to enlighten worshipers. But with professional entertainers and magicians invited to perform baixi for the general public, Buddhist temples turned themselves into theatres.

Baixi during community festivals The collapse of the Han dynasty in ad 220 resulted in an outflow of jesters and entertainers from the court into the community of commoners. They joined folk entertainers performing during religious and community festivals. Performances at the grassroots-level communities are poorly documented in dynastic history. Among the few scattered reports, the one included in the ‘Biography of Liu Yu’ of The History of the Sui Dynasty is particularly worthy of note: In recent years, commoners of the capital perform juedixi every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. They stage the performance in competition with each other and cause a tremendous waste of human and financial resources. Seeing this, Liu Yu submits a memorial to the throne. The memorial [written in parallel prose] reads: Your servant has heard it said that the sage kings of the past Educated their people and governed their country by setting an example

98

Ritual origins of Chinese theatre Through following legal rules and acting according to ritual codes So that people did not obey that which did not conform with the law, And did not practise that which did not conform with the Way. Ways are different, as are males and females. Prevent people from doing evil; and regulate them with codes of behaviour. Your humble servant notices That streets and lanes in the capital as well as districts in outer areas, On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Are crowded with people who gather together for fun and for games. The sound of their drums disturbs the heavens; Their lanterns and torches light up the earth. People wear animal masks; Men cross-dress as women; Entertainers put on variety shows, Assuming mysterious forms and extraordinary shapes. They entertain themselves with frivolous and whimsical skits, And amuse themselves with vulgar and indecent acts. Nothing is hidden inside from sight; Nothing is concealed outside from view. High tents are set up along the streets; Expansive curtains hang down from the clouds. People are splendidly attired and gaily painted; Carriages and horses block up streets and roads. Good wine is served with dainty dishes; Stringed instruments are coordinated with woodwind instruments into sophisticated ensemble, And no expense is spared for momentary pleasure. The whole household, whether old or young, High-born or low-born, dressed in black or in white, Men or women, all mingle together. Obscene filth arises from this; And this gives rise to robbery and theft. An imperial decree was soon issued to grant Liu’s petition [for ban on juedixi]. (Suishu 62.1483–1484)

Liu Yu was an influential court official during the reign of Sui Wendi or Emperor Wen (r. 581–604), Yang Jian the founder of the Sui dynasty. Liu was an ardent Confucian adherent and was antipathetic to baixi for it involved magic shows of ‘extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings’ (guai li luan shen) that ‘the Master never spoke of’ (Lunyu 7.27a). Besides, the performance of baixi on such a large scale became a heavy drain on the economic resources of the state. So he called for a ban on baixi in his memorial. Although granted by Wendi, the ban was doomed to failure this time as before. Over the past few centuries, bans on baixi was imposed and lifted time and again, and each time after the ban

The Hundred Shows 99 was lifted, baixi was quickly reinstalled and became even more popular. This time was no exception. Ironically, the edict issued by Emperor Wen to abolish baixi was overturned by his son Yang Guang (569–618) or Emperor Yang of Sui shortly after his death in 604. Different from his parsimonious father, Yang Guang was a pleasure-seeking ruler. His insatiable taste for spectacular entertainment and extravagance fueled an unprecedented boom in the history of baixi. During his reign, baixi developed into an all-inclusive form of performing arts. With more and more non-dramatic forms of performance incorporated into baixi, however, narrative skits with song and dance and topical sketches such as Master Huang and General Assemblage of Sylphine Entertainers were buried among a staggeringly wide range of magic tricks and circus and acrobatic feats.

Closing remarks As variety acts, baixi continued to be performed throughout most of dynastic history into the twenty-first century as in the annual splendid Spring Festival Gala show and in the ritual/theatrical performances during community and temple festivals in contemporary China. But the golden era of baixi was long over, ending with the end of the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui. With the rise in the Tang dynasty of gewuxi (song-and-dance skits) and canjunxi (adjutant plays) as represented by Playing the Adjutant, the Big Mask (Damian) and the Stomping and Swaying Woman (Tayao niang), baixi started to lose its dominant position in Chinese theatre and gradually disintegrated into various specialised forms of popular performance, from which evolved xiqu and modern magic, circus and acrobatic shows.

Notes 1 Here, Su Shi is quoting explanatory notes provided by Zheng Xuan (ad 127–200) on the Zha rite in Zheng’s commentary on the Book of Rites (Liji 26.226a–b). 2 This is part of a dialogue between Confucius and his disciple Zigong about the Zha rite recorded in the Book of Rites (Liji 43.339b–c). 3 In ancient times, people believed that a person who was eaten by a tiger would become a ghost called chang 侲, and the set phrase weihu zuochang, which means literally ‘to act as a chang ghost of the person for the sake of the tiger who has eaten the person’, is a Chinese equivalent to the English proverbial phrase ‘to hold a candle to the devil’. 4 This event is also recorded in the entry for the tenth year of Lu Dinggong or Duke Ding of Lu in Zuo’s Commentary on the Annals of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu Zuozhuan 56.445c) and Guliang’s Commentary on the Annals of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu Guliang zhuan 19.81b–c), the latter of which gives a brief account of Jester Shi performing in the tabernacle of Duke Ding of Lu as instructed by Duke Jing of Qi. 5 One Han zhang is equivalent to 231 cm, and so 1.8 zhang is equivalent to 415.8 cm. 6 Ehuang and Nüying, the two goddesses of the Xiang River, were both daughters of Yao, who married them to his successor Shun. Legend has it that they drowned themselves in the river when hearing that Shun died in Cangwu.

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7 For extensive, perceptive annotations and explanatory notes on the juedi miaoxi provided by David R. Knechtges in his translation of ‘Xijing fu’, see Zhang Heng (2014a: 228, 230, 232 and 234). 8 The genuine one is kept in the National Museum of China, Beijing. 9 Schafer (1951: 161) asserts that the Yu gait ‘suggests a ritual sacrifice of the kingshaman [i.e. Yu] for his people, resulting in his lameness or emaciation, his crookedness of back as complement to his crookedness of speech’, whereas Granet (1926: 550, cited in Chan 1994: 29–30n) suggests that the Yu gait was a form of animal dance. 10 Unless otherwised noticed, the Daoist scriptures I quote and refer to throughout this study are all taken from the 1923–1926 Baiyunguan 白雲觀 version of the Zhengtong daozang 正統道藏 (Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Reign Period), reprinted in 1977 by the Taibei-based Yiwen yinshuguan. Here, DZ stands for the Zhengtong daozang; the number following DZ is the sequential number of the text in the Schipper (1975) index. 11 One Sui-Tang li is approximately 350 m.

3

The Nuo theatre

Nuo, the rite of exorcism, is a living tradition with a written record in the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions of more than three thousand years. Together with the year-end thanksgiving sacrifice of Zhala and the praying-for-rain sacrifice of Yu, Nuo formed the ‘Three Big Sacrifices’ performed at various levels of society in ancient China. The rainmaking Yu sacrifice was more often than not performed in association with the Nuo-exorcism sacrifice during the Shang dynasty, when people believed that droughts were caused by drought spirits. The Zha ceremony was held to offer sacrifices to eight tutelary agricultural spirits known as bazha during the Zhou dynasty. The La sacrifice, which was performed separately from Zha in Zhou times, was later combined with Zha into the Zhala Festival (Liji 17.154a). During the Han dynasty, the exorcism rite of Nuo started to be performed on the eve of the Zhala Festival (Hou Hanshu 5.3127), hence the Nuola or Nuozha ceremony.

Early evidence of Nuo Nuo in Shang divination texts Nuo is the oldest shamanic ritual with an unbroken chain that extends for thousands of years back to the beginning of Chinese civilisation. Written records of wu-shamanic rituals of exorcism appear in oracle-bone inscriptions. There is no such graph for nuo in the surviving divination texts from the Shang dynasty, from which, however, three symbols ( , , and ) have been identified as earlier forms or graphic variants of nuo 儺 (Qian 1994). Chen Mengjia (1936: 561–562) interprets jin as an ideographic compound of top-bottom structure with the upper part representing a humanoid wearing what appears to be a sacrificial cap and standing above a fire that is represented by a graph underneath . Thus, this combined graph as a whole represents a sacrificial ritual in which a wu-shaman is exposed to the fierce heat of a fire – a sacrificial ritual for rainmaking called baowu or baowang in early Chinese texts (Liji 10.89a; Chunqiu fanlu 74.427, 74.434). The oracle-bone script gui is identified by Yu Xingwu (1979: 48–49) as or in its small-seal (xaozhuan) simplified form in the Shuowen dictionary (14.1000). Yu believes this combined graph found in the oracle-bone inscriptions DOI: 10.4324/9781315460291-5

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was the earliest form of the character for nuo that represents the ritual performance of exorcism conducted by a wu-shaman who wears an exorcist mask (qi , modern 魌), wields a bamboo-made weapon (shu , modern 戍) to beat ghosts (jiu ) lingering in a house (mian ) and drives them out.1 The third oracle-bone script that has been identified as an earlier form of nuo is shang , which Jao Tsung-I (1995) interprets as a graphic variant of shang (modern 禓) that represents the rite of exorcism performed at the court of Shangjia Wei – one of the six Shang ‘Pre-dynastic Kings’ (Eno 2009: 56).2 Noteworthy is that the Shiben (Roots of the Generations) – the first Chinese encyclopaedia of origins compiled around the third century bc, credits Shangjia Wei with ‘inventing the exorcism rite of shang 禓 and the Five Sacrifices (wusi)’, on which the Cao Wei (220–265) period commentator Song Zhong offers an explanatory note: The person named Wei is the eighth-generation son of the king of Yin 殷 [i.e. Shang]. That which is shang 禓 is the ghost of a person who died a violent death and refers to the nan 難 [i.e. nuo 儺] rite of the time, through which houses were searched, pestilences expelled, and ghosts of those who died a violent death exorcised. The Five Sacrifices refer to [sacrificial offerings made to the Five Deities of] the outer door, the inner door, the window, the well, the hearth and the impluvium (zhongliu). (Shiben 1.83–84) Chinese paleographers fail to reach an agreement among themselves as to from which of the oracle-bone graphs the character for nuo was evolved. Despite their different views, it is generally agreed that the Nuo rite of exorcism had been performed for centuries, most probably in association with or as part of the raininducing ritual of Yu, before it was (? re-)named Nuo and held independently from Yu during the Zhou dynasty (Figure 3.1). And it is not at all unlikely that nan/nuo was onomatopoeia in origin, suggestive of the sounds produced by exorcists when chasing and expelling evil spirits.

Figure 3.1 Rubbing of stone relief of Nuo performance from a late Eastern Han tomb. Unearthed in 1954 in Beizhai Village, Yinan County, Shandong Province. Source: Yinan Museum of Han Dynasty Tomb Stone Carvings.

The Nuo theatre 103 Nuo in early Confucian texts Textual evidence for the exorcism rite of Nuo abounds in sources from early China. The earliest mention of Nuo in a literary text known to us appears in the Analects of Confucius (Lunyu 10.39c), which states, ‘When village people performed Nuo (xiangren nuo), [Confucius] put on his court robes and stood on the eastern steps’ (Figures 3.2 and 3.3). Brief as it is, this record contains some very important information about nuo performed as li (rite) during the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 bc). In Zhou times, the eastern steps were reserved for the host who stood there facing west to welcome his guest, who walked up the western steps facing east to greet his host (Zhouli 2.10c), and court robes (chaofu) were officially designated for court meetings (Zhouli 21.144a) and sacrificial services (Lunyu 10.39c). The Confucian li is a system of social and religious rites that developed from ancient sacrificial rituals and ‘has come to mean ceremony, ritual, decorum, rules of propriety, good form, good custom, etc.’ (Chan 1963: 790), as embodied in the ‘Three Rites’ (Sanli) – the Zhouli (Rites of Zhou), the Yili (Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial), and the Liji (Book of Rites) in the Confucian canon. Confucius was an avid adherent and advocator of the rites and ritual system of the Western Zhou dynasty (1045–771 bc). In his response to his disciple Yan Yuan’s (521–481 bc) request for an explanation of ren (humaneness), Confucius says, ‘Never ever look at, listen to, speak of, nor take on whatever is contrary to the li’ (Lunyu 12.46c). Thus, we have every reason to believe that the Nuo performed by the local village people fell in compliance with the li of the time or at least, did not go against it. This statement is also quoted in the Book of Rites (Liji 25.220c) – a collection of Confucian ritual texts compiled during the Warring States Period (475–221 bc),

Figure 3.2 The ‘village-Nuo’ text in the Analects of Confucius from the Lunyu zhujie (Analects, with Commentaries and Annotations).

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Figure 3.3 Confucius dressed in court robes. Gouache on paper (ca. 1770).

where, however, the word nuo 儺 is replaced by shang 禓, a graph that occurs in the form of in the aforementioned divination texts from the Shang dynasty. The word shang, according to the Eastern Han Confucian commentator Zheng Xuan (ad 127–200), originally meant ‘the ghost of a person who died a violent death’ (qianggui), from which are derived the meanings of ‘exorcism/to exorcise’ (nuo) and ‘(to perform) roadside sacrifices’ (daoshang ji) (Liji 25.220c). When meaning ‘roadside sacrifices’, this Chinese character is pronounced as yang instead of shang. Significantly, the Book of Rites adds that Confucius stood on the eastern steps that led to his household temple ‘in order to keep the spirits of his enshrined ancestors from being disturbed’ by the village exorcism of Nuo. This seems to suggest Confucius’s ambivalence about Nuo. On the one hand, he showed due respect and reverence for the Nuo ceremony performed by his fellow village people, and at the same time, he kept alert and vigilant about it. Confucius’s ambivalence towards Nuo accords well with his customary attitudes towards supernatural beings: ‘Respect ghosts and spirits but keep them at a distance’ (Lunyu 6.23b). Nuo rites in the Zhou dynasty Nuo was institutionalised during the Zhou dynasty when three large-scale Nuo ceremonies, namely, the State Nuo (guonuo), the Son of Heaven’s Nuo (tianzi nuo) and the Grand Nuo (danuo), were held regularly as designated in the chapter

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Figure 3.4 The ‘State-Nuo’ text in the Book of Rites (Liji 15.136b).

of ‘Monthly Ordinances’ (yueling) of the Book of Rites (Figure 3.4). The State Nuo was performed in the final month of spring of the Chinese lunar calendar when ‘orders are given that the Nuo ceremonies be held against epidemic diseases and demons throughout the capital city and that animals be torn into pieces at the nine gates as sacrificial offerings’; in the second month of autumn, ‘the son of Heaven [i.e. king] performs Nuo ceremonies against epidemic diseases and demons’; and in the final month of winter, ‘[the Son of Heaven] issues orders to the proper officers to institute on a great scale all Nuo ceremonies against epidemic diseases and demons and to have sacrificial animals torn into pieces on all sides’ (Liji 15.136b, 16.146a, 17.155c).3

Fangxiang the Nuo exorcist Fangxiang in Shang divination texts The central figure in the rites of Nuo exorcism was no doubt Fangxiang or Fangxiangshi the chief shaman priest/exorcist, who made his earliest recorded appearance in a Shang dynasty divination text inscribed on an oracle bone as shown in Figures 3.5 and 3.6. The oracle bone carries three divination texts in six columns. The middle part (columns 3–5 from the left) constitutes the text on Fangxiang performing exorcism rites, and the first two columns from the left and the first column from the right form the other two texts. From left to right, the Fangxiang text reads:4 Cracking on the day of Guiwei, divining an answer from the oracle bone to the question as to whether there will be any disaster in the next ten days. The answer is ‘Yes. On the day of Dinghai, or the fifth day from the day of

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Figure 3.5 Rubbing of Shang oracle-bone inscription on Fangxiang. The fourth and fifth characters down in the fifth column from the left are identified as fang and xiang, respectively.

Figure 3.6 Modern interpretation of the Fangxiang text in the Shang oracle-bone inscriptions. No. 498 in Guo (1983).

Gui, there will be a disaster coming from the West.’ The King prognosticates, announcing: ‘There will be disaster in the next ten days so it is time to hold the exorcism rite of gui .5 Let the Giant Man (jia )6 impersonate Fangxiang, put on his big mask and drive the disaster to the four distant lands’. [Divined in] the thirteenth month. It is clear that the exorcism rite of gui/nuo during the Shang dynasty involved impersonation and masked performance, and it is very likely that Fangxiang was not the name of an individual person, but rather a form of address or official title for the gui/nuo exorcist impersonated by a wu-shaman of great size and strength, as suggested by the second and third characters down in the fifth column from the left on the oracle bone in Figure 3.5. The second character appears to represent a

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Figure 3.7 Pottery qi head dating from the Eastern Han dynasty. Unearthed in 1957 in Tianhuishan, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Source: Sichuan Museum.

Figure 3.8 Pottery qi-headed Fangxiangshi. Unearthed in 1957 from a late Eastern Han tomb in Taojiadu, Shuangliu County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. Source: Sichuan Museum.

ghost-like figure with a big head or a big mask on his head and is thus identified as the early graphic form of qi 魌 (‘exorcist mask’ or ‘ghost head’) (Figures 3.7 and 3.8), and the third one as a graphic variant of the oracle bone script jia (‘hold something under one’s arms’), representing a big humanoid (kuangfu) holding under its left arm (jia) a small humanoid (Guo 1983: 432). Fangxiang in early Chinese classics There are numerous references to the exorcist Fangxiang or Fangxiangshi in early Chinese texts. During the Zhou dynasty, an office within the Department of War called xiaguan (lit. ‘Summer Office’) was established with Fangxiangshi

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put in charge of the Nan (Nuo) exorcism, as recorded in the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 31.213a) – a pre-Qin (221–206 bc) Confucian text compiled to describe the bureaucratic system designed by the Duke of Zhou (fl. eleventh century bc) for the newly established dynasty. Here, Fangxiangshi is portrayed as a shaman priest/ exorcist dressed in black and red and costuming himself in a bearskin having ‘four eyes of gold’ (huangjin simu), ‘grasping a dagger-axe and brandishing a shield’ and leading one hundred and twenty young court entertainers/exorcists (zhenzi) to search the palace for demons and then to exorcise them (Figures 3.9 and 3.10).

Figure 3.9 Gold mask unearthed in 1986 at Sanxingdui No. 2 Archaeological Site. Sanxingdui, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province. Source: Sanxingdui Museum.

Figure 3.10 Rubbing of stone relief carving depicting a savage-looking Fangxiangshi, fully armed with a battle axe in the right hand, an iron fork in the left hand, a sword at either side of the waist and a crossbow on the head. Excavated in 1972 from an Eastern Han tomb in Wubaizhuang Village, Baizhuang Township, Linyi City, Shandong Province. Source: Linyi City Museum.

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Figure 3.11 Eastern Han tomb stone carving of bearlike Fangxiangshi. Source: Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Carvings.

Figure 3.12 Rubbing of stone relief featuring the bearlike Fangxiangshi fighting evil spirits. Unearthed in 1973 from an Eastern Han tomb in Changzhongdian Village, Dengxian County, Henan Province. Source: Henan Museum.

The mention of the bearskin bearing ‘four eyes of gold’ strongly suggests a historical link of Nuo exorcism with the shamanic cult of the bear in Siberia (Bodde 1975: 78) and also clearly indicates the use of skin masks (Zhouli 59.2493) (Figures 3.11 and 3.12). The use of masks for ritual performance, as Mackerras (1992: 10) notes, is widespread throughout Chinese history and remains one of the most distinctive features of Nuo theatre or Nuoxi to date (Figures 3.13–3.16). The masked performance of Nuo rites becomes an important source of inspiration for the development of Chinese puppet theatre (kuileixi) (Sun 1983: 212–218) (Figures 3.17 and 3.18) and also of xiqu facial make-up (lianpu) as commonly seen in Jingju or Beijing Opera and other forms of regional, ritual and folk theatre (Kirby 1974: 15; Kang 2011: 195; Gu 1996: 310–323),7 such as Guizhou Nuo Altar Theatre (nuotanxi) (Figure 3.19) and Shanxi Gong-and-Drum Variety Play (luogu zaxi) (Figure 3.20).

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Figure 3.13 Masked performance of Nuo dance by Shouyang Aishe Nuo Dance Troupe. Shouyang County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province.

Figure 3.14 ‘Face-mask Theatre’ (lianxi), a local form of Nuoxi prevalent in Wu’an County, Handan City, Hebei Province.

Nuo was held regularly at court as a religious ceremony of exorcism during the Han dynasty. The History of the Later Han Dynasty (Hou Hanshu 5.3127–3128) provides a fairly detailed account of a year-end Nuo rite performed in Eastern Han dynasty court and capital (cited in de Groot 1910: 975–978): One day before the sacrifice of the end of the year the great no [i.e. Nuo] is celebrated, called expulsion of epidemical disease. The ritual of it is the following: – From among the apprentices of the inner Yellow Gate of the Palace, one hundred and twenty of ten, eleven or twelve years are selected to act as ‘lads’; they are dressed with red bonnets and black coats, and they carry large hand-drums. The fang-siang shi [i.e. Fangxiangshi] with four eyes of gold and masked with bearskins, wearing black coats and red skirts, grasp

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Figure 3.15 Qimen Luxi Nuoxi locally called ‘Jumping Back’ (tiaohui), ‘Peace Theatre’ (Ping’an xi) or ‘Level-Ground Theatre’ (dixi). Qimen County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province.

Figure 3.16 Scene from The Dance of Vajra-Wielding Deities (Jingang shenwu), a Tibetan Nuo dance drama prevalent in Tibet, Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan.

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Figure 3.17 Scene from Four Generals Open the Stage (Sijiang kaitai), a ritual puppet play performed by Fujian Quanzhou Marionette Troupe as opening scene to the Chinese Mulianxi Show 2018 on 24 August 2018 at Prince Gong’s Palace, Beijing.

Figure 3.18 Lord Master the Patron God of Theatre (Xishen Xianggongye) performed on 24 August 2018 by Chen Yinghong of Fujian Quanzhou Marionette Troupe at Prince Gong’s Palace, Beijing.

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Figure 3.19 Head ritual master An Yongbo paints the mask of the chou clown on the face of his disciple Zhang Jin to prepare him for a Nuo-altar performance. 21 September 2016. Anjiadu Village of Dejiang County, Guizhou Province.

Figure 3.20 Facial make-ups/stage appearances (banxiang) in Shanxi Gong-and-DrumVariety Theatre (luogu zaxi) for major characters in Reunion at Old City (Gucheng hui), a historical play on the Three Kingdoms.

their lances and wield their shields. There are also twelve animals with feathers or hairs, and with horns. These people start their work at the inner Yellow Gate, under command of a Chamberlain in general employ, to expel maleficent spectres from the Forbidden Palace. When the waterclock of the night is at its highest level (towards sunset), the court officials assemble: Chamberlains, Chancellors, Co-ministers, members of the Board of Revenue, commanders and officials of the Body Guard,

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Ritual origins of Chinese theatre everybody with a red cap. The guards of the throne repair to the front hall with the imperial palankeen. Then the Commander of the Yellow Gate harangues the emperor in these terms: – The lads are ready; I beseech that the expulsion of contagious disease may be performed. On this a chant is commenced at the inner Yellow Gate, with which the boys chime in. It runs as follows: ‘Kiah-tso devours calamities; Fei-wei devours tigers; Hiung-poh devours mei spectres; T‘eng-kien eats mischief-making things, and Kiao-chu adversity; Poh-khi eats dreams; Kiang-liang and Tsu-ming together devour the dead whose bodies were mutilated, and Khi-sheng-wei-sui swallows what he sees; Ts‘o-twan gulps down a myriad, and Kiung-khi with T‘eng-ken together devour ku. These twelve divinities are herewith ordered to chase away evil and misfortune, to scorch your bodies, seize your bones and joints, cut your flesh in pieces, tear out your lungs and bowels. If you do not get quickly away, the stragglers among you will become their food’. Now the fang-siang are set to work. Together with those twelve animals (representing these twelve demon-devourers) they jump about screaming, making three tours round about the inner Palace buildings in front and behind, and with their torches they escort the pestilential disease out of the front gate. Outside this gate, swift horsemen take over the torches and leave the Palace through the Marshal’s Gate, on the outside of which they transfer them to horsemen of the fifth army-corps, who thereupon drive the spectres into the Loh river. In every mansion of the official world, men with wooden masks and representing animals may act as leaders of the performers of the no. When the ceremony is finished, keng of peachwood are put up, with Yuh-lei and ropes of reed, after which the performers and the officers in attendance on the throne

Figure 3.21 Ancestral shrine mural depicts a grand performance of Nuo exorcism. Wu Family Shrines (Wushici) built in late Eastern Han dynasty. Wuzhai Village, Jiaxiang County, Jining City, Shandong Province.

The Nuo theatre 115 stop their work. Ropes of reed, lances, and sticks of peach wood are presented by the emperor to the highest ministers, commanders, and special and general feudal rulers. Zhang Heng (ad 78–139), the great Eastern Han scholar, scientist and poet, offers a very vivid yet somewhat exaggerated description of Nuo ceremonies in ‘Eastern Capital Rhapsody’ (Dongjing fu), where a mention is made of Fangxiang the Exorcist performing the year-end Nuo ritual with the assistance of shamankas and shamans in the Eastern Han capital of Luoyang: The end-of-year Grand Nuo is performed To destroy and drive away a host of evil spirits. Fangxiang the Exorcist grasps his battle-axe; Shamankas and shamans hold their lie besom.8 Youths, ten thousand in number, Wear red turbans and black coats. With peachwood bows and jujube wood arrows,9 They shoot but aim at no targets. Flying stone balls pelt down like rain; Wicked demons are doomed to destruction. Flaming torches dash and flash across the starry sky, Driving the Red Pestilences to the Four Distant Lands. Then they soar high above the Heavenly Pond, And sweep past the Flying Bridge. They bash Chimei and chop Xukuang; They cut Weiyi and brain Fangliang. They imprison Gengfu the drought demon in the Qingling Abyss, And drown Nüba the drought demoness in the Shenhuang River. They destroy Kui, Xu and Wangxiang, And execute Yezhong and eliminate Youguang. The Spirits of the Eight Directions are all held in fearful awe, Not to mention Ji, Yu and Bifang.10 From the trunk of the peach tree growing on Mt Dushuo They carve the images of Yulü and Shenshu. Yulü keeps guard at the gate, assisted by Shenshu; They stand face to face, each grasping a reed rope.11 They keep a watchful eye examining corners and cracks, For they are charged with catching the ghosts still at large. The houses in the capital are now quiet and purified, And none remains under the influence of evil spirits. (Wenxuan 3.123–124) Clearly, Fangxiang played a key role in the exorcism rites of Nuo during the Han dynasty as did he in Shang-Zhou times (Figures 3.21 and 3.22). In medieval China from the Three Kingdoms (220–280) to the Tang dynasty (618–907), Fangxiang

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Figure 3.22 Rubbing of Fangxiangshi the Nuo exorcist. Source: Tengzhou Museum of Han Carved Stones, Tengzhou City, Shandong Province.

continued to perform a pivotal role in the rites of Nuo, but at the same time, more and more ghost-gods and deified human-ghosts (rengui) were involved in the rituals of exorcism. At the outset, they were impersonated by masked ritual performers and paraded through the street without much dramatisation. Later on, legendary stories about them were adapted into comedy sketches and enacted by professional actors for public stage performance, which constituted the earliest part of the repertoire of Nuoxi.

Nuoxi: from ritual to theatre Exorcism and entertainment The tenth century witnessed the transformation of Nuo from a heavily religious ritual of exorcism to a highly integrated form of ritual performance and theatrical entertainment known as Nuoxi or Nuo theatre. While exorcism remained at the core of Nuo with the transformation, Nuo incorporated Buddhist rituals of deliverance and salvation (chaodu), giving rise to great changes in Nuo ritual and theatrical performances, as noted by Suwa Haruo (2013: 152), an eminent Japanese scholar of theatre and religion in China, Japan and Korea. As a result, Nuo began to develop into a comprehensive art of ritual and theatrical performance that involved masking, costuming, drumming, chorusing, rattling, singing, dancing, miming, performing animals and spirits and their human impersonators. A major driving force for the transformation of Nuo was Mulianxi (Suwa 2013: 152). A religious ritual drama that enacts the myth of Mulian adventuring into

The Nuo theatre 117 Hell to seek and save the ghost of his sinful mother, Mulianxi was gradually integrated into Nuoxi during this period of time – a point we shall return to in the Closing Remarks section. In his comment on the village Nuo recorded in the Analects of Confucius, Zhu Xi (1130–1200), one of the greatest Neo-Confucian philosophers, notes, ‘Nuo is close to theatrical entertainment (xi), albeit derived from an ancient rite (li)’ (Lunyu jizhu 5.121). The earliest known association of exorcism (nuo) with theatrical entertainment (xi) appears in a poem ‘On the Eve of the Year of Dingmao’ (‘Dingmao chuye’) – a pentasyllabic regulated verse (wuyan lüshi) written in 1087 by the Northern Song (960–1127) scholar-official Feng Shan (d. 1094), who writes, ‘I watch a nuoxi performance in the courtyard until its end,/And collect coils of firecrackers delivered to the door by hand.’ (Anyue ji 10.326c). Obviously, the Nuoxi performance was put on and firecrackers were set off on the New Year’s Eve to drive out the demons and diseases of the Old Year and at the same time to create a festival environment to welcome the New Year. We are not certain as to what the Nuoxi looked like when it was performed in Feng’s courtyard, but judging from the use of xi as the headword in the new compound nuoxi, it appears that the performance was theatrical as well as exorcistic and ritualistic, as the word nuoxi is understood today (Figure 3.23). Beginning in the twelfth century, the word nuoxi came into common use with Nuo performed across the country in association with the end-of-year thanksgiving ceremonies of Zhala and New Year’s celebrations (Figure 3.24). The word xi, as mentioned in the previous chapter, originally meant ‘the branch of three armies’ and ‘weaponry’ (Shuowen 24.1803) and was also used to refer to a ‘competitive display of feats of strength and combat skills’ in pre-Qin (221–206 bc) texts (e.g. Chunqiu Zuozhuan 16.123b; Guoyu 15.451).

Figure 3.23 Picture of Grand Nuoxi Performance (Danuo tu). Size: 67.4 cm × 59.2 cm. Ink and colour on silk. Anonymous. Song dynasty. Source: The Palace Museum, Beijing.

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Figure 3.24 A Great Spring Festival Parade of Nuo organised by Guichi Nuo Society from neighbouring villages of Liujie to Qingshanmiao, a temple dedicated to Xiao Tong (501–531) Crown Prince Zhaoming of the Liang dynasty. 2 March 2018. Liujie, Meijie Township, Guichi District, Chizhou City, Anhui Province.

In the eighth century, xi started to be combined with long (enact, play, perform) into xilong to refer to a form of short, usually comic, theatrical performance called canjunxi (adjutant play) as represented by Playing the Adjutant (Long canjun) (Yuefu zalu 28) – a short satirical skit about a Han dynasty official that dominated Tang theatre. The word xi started to co-occur with ju (scurry, combat) (Shuowen 8.601) as xiju or juxi to refer to ‘theatrical entertainment’ performed by professional entertainers in sources from the late Tang and Song dynasties (e.g. Xianzhuan shiyi 3.839–841; Shaoshi wenjian lu 10.105; Rongzhai suibi 14.180),12 when there appeared on the stage a form of farce or sketch comedy called zaju (variety skit), from which evolved the two earliest mature forms of xiqu – Southern drama or nanxi and Northern drama or beiqu in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, respectively. From then on, xi, ju and xiju gradually took on their modern sense, meaning performance, play, theatre and drama and eventually became synonymous and interchangeable with one another.13 Zhong Kui the Demon Queller Nuo continued to be performed in a hybrid form of ritual and theatre, but Fangxiangshi started to give way to deified human-ghosts such as Zhong Kui, Lord Guan (Guan Gong) and King Yue (Yue Wang) and ghost-gods (guishen) such as the City God, the Village God of Soil (tudi), the God of the Hearth (zaoshen), King Yama (Yanwang) and the Infernal Judge (panguan). They were worshipped as Nuo gods (nuoshen) and impersonated by human actors in the ritual performance. Most notable of them was Zhong Kui, a grotesque-looking ghost catcher who began to rise to fame as the most formidable exorcist in place of Fangxiang in the Song dynasty. His story started in the Tang dynasty. Legend has it that he committed

The Nuo theatre 119 suicide by smashing his head against the palace steps because he was ashamed to return home after having failed the imperial palace examination (dianshi)14 during the Wude era (618–626) of the Tang dynasty, and that his ghost appeared two hundred years later in a dream of Tang Minghuang or Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756). In the dream, he introduced himself as an ‘advanced scholar’ (jinshi) from Mt Zhongnan (in present-day Shaanxi Province) and vowed to rid the world of all malevolent ghosts and spirits to repay the kindness of Emperor Gaozu (r. 618–626) who granted him an honourable burial of an official at the green-robe rank.15 He was thereafter posthumously awarded the jinshi degree and was deified as the Demon Queller.16 In an early twelfth-century nostalgic account of the social life and customs of the Northern Song (960–1127) capital of Bianliang titled Dream of the Splendour of the Eastern Capital (Dongjing menghua lu, hereafter Menghua lu), Meng Yuanlao mentions the performance in the imperial palace of Dancing Magistrate (Wupan), a dance skit that featured Zhong Kui as the Demon Queller (Menghua lu 7.687).17 He also notes a processional performance of Nuo exorcism held on the New Year’s Eve in Bianliang that involved the enactment of Zhong Kui, among other supernatural characters: On the New Year’s Eve, a grand Nuo ceremony would be held in the Forbidden Palace. Officers of the Personnel Guard Garrison and troupes of actors [of the Court Entertainment Bureau] all put on masks and dyed vestments decorated with embroidered pictures and held golden spears and dragon banners. Meng Jingchu, an actor from the Court Entertainment Bureau (Jiaofangsi), was tall and well-built and he was clad in a full suit of gold-plated bronze armour to enact the military general. Two Generals Guarding the Palace were assigned to enact the door gods (menshen) in armour. Nan Hetan, another actor from the Court Entertainment Bureau, was an ugly, big and fat man, and so he enacted the Infernal Judge. There were also people who enacted Zhong Kui, [Zhong Kui’s] Little Sister, the Village God of Soil and the God of the Hearth. A total of one thousand and more people took part in the performance. They chased evil spirits from the Forbidden Palace all the way out to the Southern Infusion Gate and further out to the Dragon Bay, and they did not make a stop on the way until they consigned all the evil spirits into the bay, an act called ‘burying evils’ (maisui). That night, firecrackers were lit off in the Forbidden Palace, letting out mountains of explosions that could be heard far outside. Ordinary families would sit in a circle around a stove and stay awake throughout the night, a custom called ‘guarding the age’ (shousui). (Menghua lu 10.958) The procession performance of Nuo exorcism that took place on the New Year’s Eve in the Song capital of Bianliang is highly reminiscent of that which took place in the Eastern Han capital of Luoyang on the New Year’s Eve when people expelled evil spirits and epidemic diseases into the Luo River outside the

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Figures 3.25 Huizhou Nuoxi play, Dancing Zhong Kui (Tiao Zhong Kui), performed by a local Nuoxi troupe on Yuliang Dam. 28 January 2018. Yuliang Village, Huicheng Town, Shexian County, Anhui Province.

walled city, as recorded in The History of the Later Han Dynasty (Hou Hanshu 5.3127–3128). The exorcist parade involved masking, costuming, making-up, singing, shouting and impersonating in both cases. That said, the processional performance of Nuo in the Song capital displays some important differences from that in the Eastern Han capital of Luoyang. Most notable of them are the disappearance of Fangxiangshi from the ritual performance and the engagement of professional actors from the court troupes to impersonate Zhong Kui the exorcist general, among many other gods and ghosts. This is significant, for the involvement of professional entertainers inevitably facilitated the transition of Nuo as a rite of exorcism to Nuoxi as a form of ritual theatre. Zhong Kui remains a central figure in various forms of Nuo threatre in contemporary China (Figure 3.25). Countryfolk and townsfolk Nuo The grand Nuo ceremony in the palace and the mass processional performance through the streets on New Year’s Eve in Bianliang continued to be performed in Lin’an (modern Hangzhou) during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), as recorded by Zhou Mi (1232–1298) in the Bygone Events of Hangzhou (Wulin jiushi 3.93).18 Zhou’s elder contemporary Meng Yuanlao also records an end-of-year townsfolk Nuo performance enacted in Bianlang by poor people and beggars, who, dressed as women, gods and ghosts and beating gongs and drums, went from house to house demanding alms and performing the dayehu 打夜胡, a folk ritual of exorcism (Dongjing menghua lu 10.943).19 As in Bianliang, the year-end exorcist ritual of dayehu in Lin’an was also performed by social marginals and outcasts. They impersonated tutelary deities and divinised exorcists such as Zhong Kui and in return, they received money, food

The Nuo theatre 121 and liquor from the household they exorcised. In his Record of the Millet Dream (Mengliang lu), Wu Zimu (fl. 1270) notes, [In the twelfth lunar month], in markets and streets [of Lin’an], poor beggars form troupes of three to five people to impersonate gods and ghosts, infernal judges, Zhong Kui, Little Sister and the like. They strike gongs and beat drums, begging for money at every door. Their performance, popularly called dayehu, is an exorcist rite of Nuo performed to expel evil spirits. (Mengliang lu 124) Also written as dayehu 打野狐, the townsfolk Nuo is traceable to the countryfolk Nuo or xiangren nuo recorded in the Analects of Confucius (Lunyu 10.39c). When local people performed the rite of exorcism, they passed through their village or town house to house and door to door while singing, screaming, chanting incantations and uttering threatening sounds to drive and scare away evil spirits. In medieval China, the exorcist ritual of Nuo was a masked performance (and remains largely unchanged today), as was it in the ancient times of Fangxiangshi, as noted by Zong Lin (ca. 501–565) in his Record of Yearly and Seasonal Occasions in the Jing-Chu Region (Jingchu suishi ji): The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the day for offering sacrifices to deities (lari). . . . As a saying goes, ‘When the la drum sounds, spring grass grows.’ [On that day], village people sound the hourglass drums (xiyaogu) all together. They wear exorcist masks (hugong tou)20 and enact the VajraWarrior (jingang lishi) expelling [demons and diseases]. (Jingchu suishi ji 1.26a) During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–589), the countryfolk Nuo continued its tradition of local people exorcising the community door to door while loudly shouting magic spells and curses at evils. Sources from this period refer to it as xiehu 邪呼 and yehu 野虖. For example, the ‘Biography of Cao Jingzong’ of The History of the Southern Dynasties (Nanshi) notes, Cao Jingzhong was a man who, by nature, loved drinking and providing entertainment. In the twelfth lunar month, [he] had his people perform the xiehu 邪狐 in his home to expel evil spirits and had [them] go from house to house performing and asking for liquor and food. (Nanshi 55.1353) Cao Jingzong (457–508) was a powerful military general of his time. He assisted Xiao Yan, Liang Wudi or Emperor of Liang (r. 502–549) in ascending to the throne and establishing the Liang dynasty (502–557). A slightly different account of the exorcism ritual is included in his biography in the Book of the Liang Dynasty (Liangshu 9.181), which, however, writes yehu 野虖 instead of xiehu 邪狐 when referring to Cao’s subordinates going from house to house performing

122 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre the exorcism ritual, in return for which they received food and liquor. The word yehu 野虖 sounds similar to xiehu 邪狐. This indicates their origin in the same oral form, although neither of them in their respective written form would hardly make any sense to us if taken out of context. This leads us to believe that they are most probably onomatopoeia, as is the word nuo, for the loud shouts given out at evil spirits by the ritual performers.21 There is also written evidence for the prevalence of this form of Nuo during the Tang and the Five Dynasties (907–960) thanks to the rediscovery of Dunhuang manuscripts in the early twentieth century (ter Haar 2006: 47n). Dunhuang had been a religious centre and a major stop on the ancient Silk Road in northwestern China since the Han dynasty. In the Dunhuang texts, performers of this form of exorcism rituals are referred to as yehu’er 夜胡兒, yehu’er 夜狐兒 and yehuer 野狐兒. A ritual song recorded in a Dunhuang manuscript, for example, is titled ‘A Poem Presented to the Yehu’ (‘Jin yehu ci’) (Pelliot MS 3468, cited in Huang and Wu 1995: 953–956). The terms yehu 夜胡, yehu 野狐 and yehu 野胡 in Tang and Song sources are all variant written forms of the same sound and like yehu 野虖 and xiehu 邪狐 in earlier texts, they are most probably also onomatopoeia for the loud shouts exorcists let out when chasing and expelling evil spirits. ‘Watching Nuo’: a thirteenth-century poem In A Thorough Examination of the Five Rites (Wuli tongkao), Qin Huitian (1702– 1764) notes, ‘No record is found of ritual performances of Nuo in post-Tang dynastic histories’ (Wuli tongkao 57.3326). They are denied a place in the section of ‘Treatises on Rites’ in dynastic histories because ‘they are simply viewed as theatrical (xi)’ rather than as ritual (Qian 2000: 50).22 This reflects a growing tendency in the Song dynasty to dramatise the rite of Nuo exorcism. The significant new development in the performance of Nuoxi finds vivid expression in a poem on ‘Watching Nuo’ (Guan nuo) by Liu Tang (ca. 1219–ca. 1307) – a native of Nanfeng in modern Jiangxi Province: The whole sky grows dark with layer upon layer of cold clouds; The candlelight in the painted hall casts a deep shadow over a red curtain. To the sonorous drumbeats accompanied by clear sounds of the guan,23 Ghosts and spirits change their form and appearance for a dramatic show.24 Jade flows into a golden pond, emitting running-water sounds; All before my eyes is suddenly turned into a nonhuman world. An unkempt yakṣa brandishes an iron quarterstaff; Wearing a brownish yellow cloak, the green-faced [yakṣa] keeps spouting flames from his eyes. All of a sudden, Yu and Wangxiang25 limp and falter into view; A sheep kneels down, bleating; and a pig stands up, grunting. Dressed in red, a beautiful girl holds a palm fan to hide her face; Clad in green, an old man with a ribbon-like beard wields a sword-shaped bulrush.

The Nuo theatre 123 An acrobat performs somersaults and mule kicks and stretches out his arms; A clown opens his mouth, sticks out his tongue and dries his lips. The acrobat shakes his head, looks around, makes a great jump and lands a hundred paces away; The clown shrinks his body thousand-fold into an empty vessel that may contain ten thousand cups of wine. A dancer dressed in a blue gown is suddenly seized by fear and trepidation; An iridescent cloud pulls open the curtain to reveal a forest of flags and banners.26 A purple-dressed official is seated alone behind a desk with a gold seal on it, Flanked on either side by Ox-Head and Horse-Face.27 He can read one’s fortune without consulting Heaven; He tries and decides cases in person, distinguishing the foolly from the worthy. Fiends wear spiked helmets; Imps put on masks. A man with his hair hanging loose squeals; A woman with her hair tied in a bun shrieks. The white-faced envoy28 grasps a bamboo spear; He hunts for devils, boasting that none can escape from his hands. Wearing an ox hat, a scholar-official clenches case files tightly in his hands; Wearing a tiger hat, an officer shoulders a halberd that glitters in the sunlight. The Five Directions29 assembles a miscellaneous troop of soldiers; An old woman is tied up like a monkey. The advanced scholar from Mt Zhongnan wears worn leather shoes and ragged trousers; A heavy drinker, he is lying in a stupor with ghosts gathering around to take a look. He raises his head staring back blankly and rises to his feet starting to dance; By what means can a good man deal with a group of evil spirits? He flips his long hair loose with a jerk of his head and casts a spell; A wind blows up to disperse the clouds and deaden the sounds of drums and end-blown flutes. All present watch in great dismay with the night wearing on; It is time that the host bade farewell to his grief-stricken guests. I return home to get a peachwood stick and a besom broom and sit down deep among clusters of orchids; The jade-green hawk and the yellow fox continue appearing before my eyes. The Songs of the South sung to summon souls30 keep ringing in my ears; I sit up late allowing my soul an easy and free wandering:31 Yu the Great did not cease to live in Mt Kuaiji,

124 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre For he cast the tripod cauldrons and controlled the floods with the growing soil.32 I have also heard that ghosts are evil that possess people, And that people are evil that possess ghosts and desecrate gods. Tomorrow I shall put on my hat and robe and dress up properly So as to keep up appearances in public places in broad daylight. (Jiangxi shizheng 24: 457–458) ‘Watching Nuo’ is an old-style poem (gutishi) composed of forty-eight heptasyllabic, rhymed lines. This poem is the fullest account extant of a performance of Nuoxi in thirteenth-century China, describing in vivid detail a variety of aspects of theatre from setting, stagecraft and structure to actor, audience and dramatis personae, and is therefore well worth a close examination from a theatrical perspective. I

Setting A B C D

II

Time: a cold, cloudy winter day from dusk till dawn Venue: a painted hall of a big house Sponsor: a wealthy landed gentry family Occasion: a ritualistic expulsion of demons that haunt the household and possess an old woman of the family

Form: masked performance in various forms A B C D E F G H

Short chase and combat plays Pantomimes Acrobatic acts Magic tricks Song-and-dance skits Animal masquerading Ritual and ritual drama Instrumental music (the drum and the flute)

III Stagecraft A

Stage make-up, lighting and costume 1 2 3

B

Masks and facial painting Candlelight A vast array of theatrical costumes (clothing and headwear in different colours and shapes)

Stage props 1 2 3 4

Prop weapons (sword/halberd/quarterstaff/bamboo spear) Hand-held objects (palm fan/bulrush) Flags and banners Furniture (chair and desk)

The Nuo theatre 125 C

Stage scenery/illusion 1 2

The spirit realm in which jade flows into a golden pond, producing water running sounds A red curtain with a deep shadow cast by candlelight

IV Audience and performer participants A B

V

Audience participants: family members and (possibly) friends, relatives and neighbours Performer participants: priests/exorcists and professional (?) entertainers including dancers, musicians, acrobats, clowns and magicians, male and female

Cast of characters A B

C D

Ghosts and spirits: Yu, Wangxiang, the Jade-green Hawk, the Yellow Fox, the old woman who is trussed up for trial in Hell, the man who squeals, the woman who screams, little devils, fiends, imps and so forth Deities of the Underworld: Infernal Judge, Yama King, Ox-Head, HorseFace, the White-faced Envoy and the White Impermanence, the scholarofficial wearing an ox hat, the military officer wearing a tiger hat, ghost court runners and so forth Gods and exorcists: the green-faced yakṣa, the Five Directions, Zhong Kui the advanced scholar from Mt Zhongnan, Zhong Kui the old man with a ribbon-like beard and so forth Sacrificial animals: a sheep and a pig

VI Programme: this is a multi-part Nuoxi performance consisting of a series of ritual and theatrical performances as follows: Part 1: magic show The opening part begins with beating on drums and blowing flutes. When the overture starts, the curtain rises for a magic show, in which a ghost world is conjured up and masked ghosts and spirits characters appear onstage performing magic transformation. Part 2: variety show The second part displays itself as a variety show or baixi, which consists of the magic trick of a yakṣa breathing flames from his eyes, masked performance by ghost and animal characters, short chase and combat scenes featuring a green-faced yakṣa fighting ghosts, an old man with a ribbon-like beard (Zhong Kui the Demon Queller) chasing after a girl dressed in red (ghost girl assuming human appearance) and acrobats and magicians clowning and showing off their acrobatic and magic skills. Part 3: ritual dance The dance suite consists of two shamanic dance skits, ‘Black-gown Dance’ and ‘Iridescent-cloud Dance’, which feature a black-dressed

126 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre female shaman being offered as a sacrifice to the God of Rain embodied in the iridescent clouds. Part 4: ritual drama This part is devoted to theatrical performance of Nuo exorcism – the most stirring and spectacular part of the nightly show that manifests itself as a multi-scene ritual play as follows: Scene I: Trial at the Court of Hell (Mingpan) The ritual drama features the Infernal Judge or King Yama judging the squealing old man and the shrieking old woman with Ox-Head and Horse-Face standing on either side of him. Scene II: The Impermanence Reaps Souls (Wuchang gouhun) The White Impermanence holds a bamboo spear hunting for the souls of the dead and taking them down to the Underworld for trial. Scene III: The Assemblage of Troops by the Five Directions (Wufang dianbing) The Sovereign of the Five Directions gathers together his troops to recuse the soul of the old woman from Hell. Scene IV: Zhong Kui Catches Imps (Zhong Kui zhuo xiaogui) A group of five little devils taunt and tease Zhong Kui about his drunkenness but eventually fall under the magic spell of the ghost catcher. Scene V: The Summoning of Souls (Zhaohun) The Nuo drama ends with a shaman priest/exorcist performing a ritual to summon the soul of the old woman who has been possessed by the evil spirits of a hawk and a yellow fox. As this shows, the Nuo performance witnessed by Liu Tang contains all the four essential elements to xiqu, namely acting, dancing, singing and storytelling. Actually, the performance involves almost all the aspects of theatre in general, such as the setting, story, plot, action, theme, music, imitation and impersonation, song and dance, dramatis personae, performers, performer-participants or actor-spectators, theatre (space/stage) and spectacle (scenery, sound, special effect, costuming, masking and lighting). And surprisingly, the previous scenes reconstructed from the poem are found in the current repertoires of Nuo theatre in many regions, such as Cengong, Sinan and Dejiang in Guizhou Province (Deng 1986: 27–28; Wang and Chen 2015; Dejiang xian 2003), Guichi in Anhui Province (Wang and Wang 1993), Wu’an in Hebei Province (Li and Chang 2010) and Nanfeng in Jiangxi Province (Yu and Liu 1996). The trend towards the dramatisation of Nuo-exorcism rituals continued almost unbroken throughout the late imperial period and Republican era (1912–1949) into the twenty-first century, standing as testimony to the historical development of xiqu from ritual to ritual theatre to theatre.

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Ritual, ritual theatre and theatre: a case study33 Theatrical performance has always been an essential component of religious rituals in China. Nuo is no exception. Over time Nuo developed great regional and ethnographical varieties while maintaining its core ritual function of exorcising demons and driving out epidemic diseases. Today in China there are more than thirty different local and regional genres of Nuo theatre. These are mostly distributed over vast rural and mountainous areas along the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, particularly in Anhui (Figure 3.26), Jiangxi (Figure 3.27), Hunan (Figure 3.28), Yunan (Figure 3.29) and Guizhou provinces (Qu 1989: 104–105, 110). Regional forms of Nuoxi in northern China are not as many as in southern China and are mainly concentrated in Hebei and Shanxi as in Hebei

Figure 3.26 Zhong Kui Catches Imps (Zhong Kui zhuo xiaogui), a popular highlight scene (zhezixi) from the Zhong Kui Play performed during Spring Festival in Huizhou, Anhui Province.

Figure 3.27 Jiangxi Wuyuan Nuo Dance. Shaman-actor wields an axe while performing the Ghost Dance (Guiwu, also called by locals Wugui or Dancing Ghost). 2 February 2015. Changjing Village, Qiukou Town, Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province.

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Figure 3.28 Scene from Hunan Chenzhou Nuoxi play, Earth God of Liangshan (Liangshan tudi), performed by a Tujia Nuo ritual master on 18 September 2018 in Qiliping Town, Yuanling County, Hunan Province. Also called Tujia Nuo, Chengzhou Nuoxi is the most popular form of Nuoxi among the Tujia-Miao peoples in western Hunan.

Figure 3.29 Three Visits to Kongming (Sanqing Kongming), a highlight scene from Yunnan Guan Suo Play (Guan Suo xi).

Wu’an Nuoxi (Figure 3.30) and Shanxi Quwo Fan-and-Drum Nuoxi (shangu nuoxi) (Figure 3.31). Among the numerous regional styles of Nuo theatre, the most representative is perhaps the Nuo altar theatre (nuotanxi) prevalent among the Han and ethnic minorities (Tujia, Miao, Yao and Dong) in western Hunan and eastern Guizhou of Southwest China, particularly in Sinan, Cengong, Jiangkou, Daozhen and Dejiang of Guizhou, where I conducted fieldwork in September 2016. The Chinese word tan meaning ‘altar’ also refers to Nuo theatre troupe in eastern Guizhou. A Nuo altar theatre troupe is usually composed of five to ten or more Nuo altar ritual masters (nuotan shi). The person in charge is called ‘head ritual master’ (zhangtan shi) and members of the troupe are mostly his relatives and disciples. Basically, the troupe is a family business and tradition.

The Nuo theatre 129

Figure 3.30 Scene from Wu’an Nuoxi play, Catching Yellow Ghosts (Zhuo huanggui).

Figure 3.31 Scene from Setting up a Shrine for Houtu the Goddess of the Soil (Zuo Houtu), a Fan-and-Drum Nuoxi play annually performed in the second lunar month by villagers of Renzhuang, Quwo County, to exorcise ghosts and spirits and pray for peace and happiness.

Also known as Nuo hall theatre (nuotangxi), vernacular-priest theatre (duangongxi) and ghost-face theatre (guilianxi), the Nuo altar theatre encompasses a broad range of performance from ritual to ritual theatre to theatre, all featuring singing, dancing, chanting and acting to varying degrees. When performing ritual theatre, Nuo shaman priests and other ritual/theatrical performers wear masks as a means of mediating with deities and of assuming divine authority over evil spirits. The Nuo altar rite is performed for two general purposes: to cleanse or rinse an individual or group (chongnuo) and to repay a Nuo vow (huanyuan nuo).34 The chongnuo rite is actually an exorcism inviting Nuo deities to free an individual person, a household or a village of diseases and devils. Before or during the chongnuo rite, the sponsor usually makes a vow (xuyuan), and if after the chongnuo service his or her wish is fulfilled, a ritual will be performed to repay the vow

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Figure 3.32 Head ritual master An Yongbo performs ‘opening a red mountain’. 22 September 2016. Dejiang Nuo Culture Museum, Yushui Sub-district, Dejiang County.

made to the Nuo gods. The huanyuan is thus a thanksgiving ritual, whereas the chongnuo is an exorcism. The chongnuo rite is relatively short and can be completed in one or two days, whereas huanyuan takes three to fifteen days. These ritual performances usually climax with a display of feats of strength such as ‘opening a red mountain’ (kai hongshan) and ‘climbing a knife mountain’ (shang daoshan). The ritual of ‘opening a red mountain’ is an ancient wu shamanic form of blood sacrifice performed as part of a chongnuo ceremony in which a Nuo priest thrusts a sharp knife into the crown of his head while chanting exorcism spells, as shown in Figure 3.32. The ritual of ‘climbing a knife mountain’ is usually performed as part of a huanyuan ceremony, in which a Nuo ritual master climbs a ladder of knives while carrying a child on his back (Figure 3.33). The master then leads the child by the hand around twelve bowls arranged in a circle (da shi’er taibao). In these special performances, barriers in life (guan) are overcome (guo); thus the whole sequence is called guoguan. The barriers are symbolically represented by the ladder of knives and the twelve bowls.

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Figure 3.33 Ritual master Zhang Jin performs ‘climbing a knife mountain’. 21 September 2016. Anjiadu Village, Dejiang County, Guizhou Province.

Both chongnuo and huanyuan can be a ritual performed for an individual villager or for the whole village. In either case, it is open to all in the village as well as relatives and friends from neighbouring villages or even from neighbouring counties. During the ceremony, food and drinks are provided for free. Of course, gifts, donations and voluntary work are appreciated. The Nuo altar rite as practised in eastern Guizhou, be it chongnuo or huanyuan, is made up of ritual, ritual theatre and theatre, all interrelated and organised in a relatively set pattern and performed roughly in this order: setting up a Nuo altar (jiantan), going up to the altar (shangtan), offering incense (shangxiang), opening the altar (kaitan), answering to the altar (hetan), submitting a memorial to Nuo gods (fawen jingzao), building a bridge (daqiao), erecting a tower (lilou), pitching camps to station troops (anying zazhai), making a mat (zaoxi),35 opening the cave (kaidong),36 dispatching the Five Furies (chai wuchang), slaughtering sacrificial animals (pansheng), cleansing sacrificial animals (tangbai) (Figure 3.34), offering cooked sacrifices (shangshu), making a boat (zaochuan), welcoming aboard the boat (shangchuan), parading Nuo gods (younuo), seeing off gods (songshen), blowing out joss sticks (an xianghuo) and closing the altar (bitan).37 While some less important rituals such as answering to the altar may be deleted from the programme, opening the altar, opening the cave and closing the altar are always performed no matter how big or small the altar/troupe is.

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Figure 3.34 Head ritual master An Yongbo performs ‘cleansing the sacrificial animal’. 20 September 2016. Anjiadu Village, Dejiang County.

Figure 3.35 Nuo-altar shrine, with the paidai hanging from bottom right, is set up in the house of An Qili and Feng Wanxia for the Nuo altar ceremony of ‘overcoming a life barrier’. 20 September 2016. Anjiadu Village, Dejiang County.

Nuo altar theatres in eastern Guizhou share a common structural pattern that revolves around the themes of inviting gods (qingshen), repaying gods (choushen) and seeing off gods (songshen). These are mainly manifested through the rituals of opening the altar, opening the cave and closing the altar. The rituals of opening the altar and closing the altar are ways of worshipping ancestor Nuo masters, Nuo gods and other local and national gods. Before the ritual of opening the altar, a shrine (shentan or shen’an) must be set up for the Nuo gods (Figure 3.35). As shown in Figure 3.35, the main shrine is usually an incense table (xiang’an) or incense altar (xiangtan) in the main room of a house. Hanging on the wall over

The Nuo theatre 133 the table are pictures of the Three Purities (Sanqing).38 At the back of the table are carved wood images of Lord Nuo (Nuogong) and Lady Nuo (Nuomu), as they are referred to by locals – the two ancestor gods (Fuxi and Nüwa) in Chinese mythology who are worshipped as Nuo’s highest deities. These are placed side by side against the wall facing the front door of the house with joss sticks burning in front of them. On either side of the wood figures is a ‘command banner’ (lingqi),39 and at the centre of the table is a spirit tablet (paiwei) for Lord Nuo and Lady Nuo, a stack of magic yellow paper (fulu) and two command banners. Frequently displayed at the front of the table are Nuo ritual implements such as the ritual-master sword (shidao); the oxhorn; bamboo clappers for divination (zhugua), joss (spirit) money, burning joss sticks; two-sided, necktie-shaped paidai, with the genealogy of ancestor Nuo masters written on a piece of fabric and attached inside; musical instruments such as cymbals, gongs and ‘wooden fish’ (muyu);40 as well as food and fruit offered to gods. Under the table is a flat, round bamboo basket (zhubian) containing soybeans, which are sprinkled on the ground to ward off evil spirits. In addition to the main shrine, there is usually a side shrine set up on the right side of the Nuo altar for ancestor Nuo masters with a picture of them (shitan tu) hanging above a smaller table. One can also find on the table ritual implements such as command banners, oxhorns and burning joss sticks as seen on the table for the main shrine. The ritual of ‘opening the altar’ starts when an unmasked ritual master enters, washes his hands and dips the middle finger of his hand into a bowl of rice wine, connecting the thumb and middle finger in a circle while holding the other fingers straight to flick the wine in four directions. While doing this, the ritual master recites the names and titles of Nuo gods and ancestor Nuo masters; he utters prayers and sings magical songs and incantations. He repeats the action of flicking the wine three times and then burns joss sticks and blows his oxhorn. He kneels down with the burning sticks in both hands to kowtow to the gods before rising to place the incense on the table. After that, he burns joss money and sets off firecrackers, declaring the opening of the Nuo altar ceremony. Amid the loud crackle and pop of firecrackers, the master quickly leaves the room but comes back in his ritual costume (fayi) with its polygonal ritual hat (famao). He dances on a mat with the gait of the Dipper (ganbu) – a birdlike footwork reminiscent of the Yu gait performed by the Han dynasty shaman-exorcist Master Huang of the East Sea as discussed in the previous chapter. While dancing on the magic mat, he sings songs and prayers in praise of Nuo gods and ancestor gods, chanting incantations and invocations and revealing to them the reason for performing the ritual on behalf of the sponsor. He invites the gods to descend onto the altar and entreats them to bless the rite (Figure 3.36). Ritual performances are theatrical performances. The whole event is divided into the main performance (zhengxi) and the embedded theatre (chaxi). The main performance, also called ‘indoor performance’ (neixi), is the ritual portion of the performance – a short, masked song-and-dance skit presented indoors by a small troupe of one to three Nuo priests/performers to entertain gods; the embedded performance, also called ‘outside theatre’ (waixi), is largely secular entertainment:

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Figure 3.36 Ritual master An Jun. Holding an oxhorn in his left hand and a ritual sword in his right hand, An Jun, the eldest son of head ritual master An Yongbo who is an ordained Nuo ritual master himself, dances to invite gods to descend onto the altar. 20 September 2016. Anjiadu Village, Dejiang County.

unmasked shows performed outdoors (wai) by professional or semi-professional troupes to amuse the people. There are approximately one hundred pieces in the repertory of the Nuo altar theatre in eastern Guizhou province. A complete show (quantan xi) must have twenty-four pieces, and a half-show (bantan xi) requires twelve pieces (Tuo 2010: 47–51, 210–211). The choice between presenting quantan xi or bantan xi depends on the wishes and wealth of the sponsor. In any case, the Nuo altar theatre starts with the ritual of ‘opening the cave’ to release the twenty-four divine plays (shenxi) locked in the upper cave, the middle cave and the lower cave, which are collectively called by the locals the ‘Three Peach Orchard Caves’ (Taoyuan sandong) – a place where immortals live in Chinese mythology. A Nuo goddess, Grandma Tang (Tangshi taipo) is in charge of the Three Peach Orchard Caves. The head ritual master appears onstage unmasked, summoning a Nuo god, SharpHorned General (Jianjiao jiangjun), instructing him to open the caves and let the plays out. The god turns to Grandma Tang and Immortal Lady Surnamed Tang (Tangshi xianniang) for help. On their way to the caves, they encounter one obstacle after another, overcoming them one by one. Eventually with the help of Thunder Mason (Lei shijiang), they manage to open the caves. Twenty-four masks are brought out to the Nuo altar. Each of the twenty-four plays locked in the Peach

The Nuo theatre 135

Figure 3.37 Nuo ritual implements and masks. A whole set of ritual implements for the Nuo altar rite and a total of twenty-four masks for the Nuo altar theatre that have been passed down through the family for six generations, now with An Yongbo. 23 September 2016. Fengxiang Village, Dejiang County.

Orchard Caves features a Nuo altar theatre god who is represented by a distinctive and unique mask, so the audience can easily identify which ritual drama will be performed (Figure 3.37). Like the Three Peach Orchard Caves, the main performance is divided into the upper-cave performance, the middle-cave performance and the lower-cave performance.41 The main performance usually concludes with the performance of a ritual drama titled Zhong Kui Slays Ghosts (Zhong Kui zhangui), which features Zhong Kui the Demon Queller brandishing a sword while searching the host household for evil spirits. This ritual drama shows itself clearly to be a surviving remnant of the Grand Nuo held in early and medieval China in which the masked Nuo shaman priest/exorcist Fangxiang searches rooms in the royal palace and the streets of the capital city looking for demons and evil spirits of pestilence in order to expel them and of that held in the Song capital cities of Bianliang and Lin’an in which Zhong Kui and other deified human-ghosts and ghost-gods – who were impersonated by court entertainers and court generals – leading hundreds of people searching for evils in the palace and in the streets in order to drive them out of the city. In the Nuo altar theatre repertory of Sinan county, the ritual dramas from the upper cave include Opening the Cave (Kaidong), General Pathbreaker (Kailu jiangjun),42 The Immortal Officer Gathers Together His Troops (Dianbing xianguan), The Village God of Soil Leads the Army (Yinbing tudi), The Fifth Son Escorts Troops (Wulang yabing) and so forth (Deng 1986: 51–53).43 They are all martial, mythical sketches performed by masked priests to invite Nuo gods to descend to the Nuo altar. The masked priest is an actor who plays the god in the drama and at the same time acts as a shaman who performs the ritual of bringing down the god he impersonates. His speech and actions are part of the drama and part of the ritual as well, and thus function both ritually and theatrically.

136 Ritual origins of Chinese theatre The first god that descends from the upper cave is General Pathbreaker. The martial god is ordered by Lord Nuo and Lady Nuo to cut five roads clearing paths to the Nuo altar for celestial warriors (tianbing) descending from Heaven to the altar. The Immortal Officer Gathers His Troops features Lord Guan – a deified military general in the Later Han dynasty, summoning one hundred thousand heavenly warriors and horses together with one hundred thousand earthly warriors and horses, ordering them to advance to the Nuo altar arriving there before daybreak. Then the Village God of Soil and Wulang the Fifth Son appear onstage, ordering their own troops to march towards the Nuo altar as instructed by Lord Guan. These main performance sketches are based on myths and legends and feature Nuo deities along with historical figures deified into the Daoist pantheon such as Lord Guan, King Yue and Wulang the Fifth Son. They give a vivid account of miraculous signs and supernatural happenings. Usually, these ritual dramas are short, simple and loosely structured; they do not have much plot development or characterisation. They exist on the threshold between ritual and theatre. Locked in the middle cave is a serialised drama, Scholar Gan Leaves for the Capital to Take the Imperial Examination (Gansheng gankao, hereafter Scholar Gan). Also known as Boy Attendant Qin Buys a Pig (Qintong maizhu), Scholar Gan consists of a series of comic skits: Scholar Gan the Eighth Son (Gansheng balang), The Wry-mouthed Boy Attendant Qin (Waizui Qintong), The Ninth Son Who Kills Life (Shasheng Jiulang), Mr Fortuneteller (Suanming langjun), Monk Jiuzhou (Jiuzhou heshang), Old Woman Wang Sells Wine (Wangpo maijiu), Niu Gao Sells Medicine (Niu Gao maiyao), An Immortal Woman Who Picks Vegetables (Dacai xiangu) and so forth (Deng 1986: 53). Scholar Gan involves more than ten characters and shows more dramatic structure and characterisation than do the pieces from the upper cave. Each of eight comic skits may be staged individually as an ‘extracted scene’ (zhezixi) or performed together as a drama series. Although there is no evident thematic or chronological link among the pieces in this set, they are connected with each other by the main character, Scholar Gan, who appears in all the playlets in the series, and they are grouped into an episodic structure typical of traditional Chinese narrative literature (Zhao 2005: 260–261, 271–272). This kind of structure allows insertions, additions and deletions; it is very flexible, stretchable and compressible. When an episode starts or ends depends largely on the mood and the taste of the sponsor and spectators. Take for example The Wry-mouthed Boy Attendant Qin (Figure 3.38). This comedy skit revolves around the strange and funny things that happen to Scholar Gan and Qin, his boy attendant, on their way to the capital city. The boy is a stock clown character, whose foolish, awkward and occasionally sexually suggestive actions and talk elicit laughter and excitement among the audience. Due to the lack of logical or chronological links with other skits, however, this episode may be pencilled in for any time slot, and it may be removed from the programme without spoiling the overall structure. Scholar Gan is highly improvisational even though performances include stock speeches and stylised and symbolic body

The Nuo theatre 137

Figure 3.38 Scene from Scholar Gan performed by Hua Jun, An Jun and Zhang Jin. 22 September 2016. Dejiang Nuo Culture Museum, Yushui Sub-district, Dejiang County.

movements. Impromptu actions occur spurred on by responses from spectators. Sometimes spectators participate in the performance directly: they are engaged in a comic dialogue with actors/characters from time to time, and sometimes they are even invited to come onstage to perform as extras or walk-ons; there is no fourth wall separating performers from audiences. In contrast, the lower cave in Sinan Nuo altar theatre is mostly devoted to shamanic rituals of subduing demons, slaughtering devils and chasing and beating ghosts and evil spirits (Deng 1986: 53–54, 72). Representative plays are The Valiant General Who Cuts into a Mountain (Kaishan mengjiang), The Second Son Who Stabilises Dwellings (Zhenzhai Erlang), Zhong Kui Decides a Case Playfully (Zhong Kui xipan) and Mulian Searches the Court of Hell for His Mother (Mulian zhuidian). These pieces feature supernatural characters (gods, ghosts and spirits) or human characters with supernatural powers. Masked Nuo altar priests/ exorcists enact them entirely through gestures and body movements accompanied by instrumental and/or choral music. In playing gods, the Nuo altar priests demonstrate their refined acrobatics and martial arts skills as they chase and fight ghosts and spirits. These dramatic scenes are strongly reminiscent of ancient Nuo exorcism. The main performance reaches its apex with the staging of a major drama (zhuxi), An’an Delivers Rice (An’an song mi). Although An’an Delivers Rice is a masked performance, it is very different from its cave counterparts in subject

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matter, characterisation, plot, structure and performance. The most distinctive feature of An’an Delivers Rice is that there are no supernatural elements whatsoever, let alone ritual exorcism. Rather, An’an Delivers Rice is highly realistic, dealing with the joys, sorrows, separations and reunions of ordinary people and strongly protesting social injustices against women. An’an Delivers Rice is a full-length drama with a well-organised structure and storyline, offering further evidence of the close relationship between ritual and theatre and illustrating how Nuo altar theatre occupies a liminal space between ritual and theatre. The outdoor performance (waixi) usually comes last during a Nuo altar rite. For this reason, it is also called ‘end-of-rite performance’ (houxi). The outside performance is so named because it is presented outdoors and also because its repertory is taken from outside the Three Peach Orchard Caves. Historical and military plays make up the bulk of the outdoor performance repertory. These plays feature historical or legendary figures, particularly generals and warriors exhibiting their heroic deeds in battlefields, as seen in Lady General Mu Takes Command (Mu Guiying guashuai), Xue Rengui’s Eastern Campaign (Xue Rengui zhengdong), Xue Dingshan’s Western Campaign (Xue Dingshan zhengxi), Generals of the Yang Family (Yangjia jiang) and Lord Guan Beheads Cai Yang (Guangong zhan Cai Yang) (Figure 3.39). These performances are therefore called ‘martial performance’ (wuxi) as opposed to ‘civil performance’ (wenxi), which features non-military figures such as the ‘three women drama’ (sannü xi): Mistress Meng

Figure 3.39 Scene from Lord Guan Beheads Cai Yang (Guangong zhan Cai Yang) performed by An Fei and Zhang Jin. 22 September 2016. Dejiang Nuo Culture Museum, Yushui Sub-district, Dejiang County.

The Nuo theatre 139 Jiang (Meng Jiangnü), Mistress Pang (Pangshi nü) and Little Dragon Maiden (Xiaolongnü). Included in the outdoor-performance repertory are also popular traditional dramas such as Mulian Searches the Court of Hell for His Mother, Lady General Mu Takes Command and Borrowing a Corpse to Resurrect a Soul (Jieshi huanhun). Their running time ranges from twenty to thirty minutes to two to three hours. These plays are either adapted from myths, legends, anecdotes, jokes and folk tales that bear no intrinsic relationship to the Nuo exorcism or are simply transplanted from Chinese popular theatre. They are not performed by Nuo priests or amateur performers but by professional or semi-professional troupes. There seems to be no difference between the outdoor performance and the commercial performance except that the former is produced to repay a Nuo vow or to clear out devils or diseases and is therefore expected to fit in with the overall function and structure of the religious Nuo rite. But although the outdoor performance has been greatly secularised, developing into full-length stage dramas that may be performed independently from religious ceremonies, close examination reveals traces and influences of the ancient rituals of praying for rain, reviving the dead, summoning or placating the soul of the dead and attaining immortality or reincarnation. Ultimately, the outdoor performance is rooted in or adapted from ancient rituals, as is the indoor performance.

Closing remarks Efficacy and entertainment do not contradict each other, but are dialectical, complementary points on a continuum of performance; there is no performance that is pure efficacy or pure entertainment (Schechner 2003: 130). The same holds true for ritual and theatre. Indeed, ‘it is hard to conceive of ritual without some element of drama or drama without some element of ritual’ (Csapo and Miller 2007: 4). They mingle with each other to varying degrees and are not so much separate as they are together on a continuum. In the case of Nuo altar theatre, the hypothesised continuum ranges from the burning of joss sticks by ritual masters at the very beginning of the Nuo rite to the staging by professional troupes of literary dramas at the end of the rite. The Nuo altar ritual performances and the outdoor performances are each at the extreme end of the efficacy/entertainment liminal continuum. In between is the ritual theatre as represented by the indoor performance, which comprises the vast middle range of the continuum. It is interesting to note that each group of the indoorperformance dramas is located at a different point along the continuum from ritual to theatre. As far as the Three Cave theatre in Sinan Nuo altar rites is concerned, the upper cave is on the ritual side of ritual theatre, whereas the middle cave is on the theatre side of ritual theatre, with the lower cave somewhere in between. As a whole, however, the Three Cave theatre is on the ritual side when compared to the major drama, An’an Delivers Rice, which is located very closest to the end point on the side of theatre. Except for the use of masks, An’an Delivers Rice is no different from unmasked outdoor performance. The different points on the

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continuum provide a clear delineation of the trajectory of Chinese theatre evolving from ritual through ritual theatre into xiqu – the dominant form of Chinese theatre using various theatrical elements such as music, dance, song, speech, acrobatics, martial arts, masks and painted faces. Also noteworthy is the lower cave in Sinan Nuo altar theatre, which is largely dedicated to shamanic ritual performances of fighting and subduing ghosts and spirits. Integral to its repertory is Mulian Searches the Court of Hell for His Mother, a highlight scene extracted from Mulianxi that enacts the shamanic journey of Mulian to the Underworld to search for the ghost of his sinful mother. Mulianxi ‘is many things, but fundamentally it is about ghosts: their omnipresence, their power, and their subjugation’ (Johnson 1989b: 26). It is no surprise that Mulian Searches the Court of Hell for His Mother is integrated into the Nuo altar theatre and performed as a Nuoxi play.

Notes

1 Xu Zhongshu (1989: 809) shares similar views with Yu on gui 鬼, interpreting this character as representing ‘a sacrificial ritual performed to expel evil forces from a house’. 2 For more about Shangjia as ‘the focus of a lineage cult’ in Shang state religion, see Eno (2009: 56–57). 3 A similar account of the Grand Nuo rites in a pre-Qin text is given in Master Lü’s Annals of Spring and Autumn (Lüshi chuqniu 12.114). 4 In interpreting this divination text numbered 6063 in the Collected Inscriptions on Oracle Bones (Jiaguwen heji) compiled and edited by Guo et al. (1979–1982), I consult Li (1970: 14.4542–4545), Guo (1983: 430–432), Xiao (1992: 110) and Qian (1994) in particular. 5 See note 1. 6 Qian (1994: 63) interprets as ‘big frenzied man’ (kuangfu). Notably, kuang, the first character in this binome, is defined as ‘exorcist’ (chang) in the Shuowen dictionary (15.1098), as noted by Chen (1936: 569), who further explains kuangfu as xiangren or masked exorcists when tracing Zhou court jesters and entertainers (changyou) to Shang wu-shamans. 7 Nuo exorcism rites gave rise not only to masked performance in China, but also to the masked performance of Nō in Japan and that of Talchum in Korea. For more about the role of Nuo in the development of masked dance dramas in Japan and Korea, see Suwa (1997: 179–207, 2013: 42, 136–151), Chŏn (2014: 96–106, 239–248) and Tian (2003–2004). 8 Lie is a kind of grass used to make brooms or whisks, but here it refers to a ritual implement in the shape of a besom that is used by shamans to sweep away evil spirits. 9 Peachwood and jujube trees are believed to have the magic power of warding off evil spirits in Chinese folk belief. 10 Chimei, Xukuang, Weiyi, Fangliang, Gengfu, Nüba, Kui, Xu, Wangxiang, Yezhong, Youguang, Ji, Yu, and Bifang are all the names of evil demons and spirits to be exorcised in the Nuo rite. 11 In Chinese mythology, Mt Dushuo is a mountain in the Eastern Sea, on which grows a huge peach tree with its branches covering an area as large as 3,000 li (approximately 1,000 sq m). On its northeastern side is a gate through which a myriad of demons pass. At the gate stand two gods, Yulü and Shenshu, who capture the evil spirits passing by with reed ropes and feed them to tigers. For this note by Zhang Zhenze, see Wenxuan (3.124n).

The Nuo theatre 141 12 It is worth noting that the word juxi makes its earliest recorded appearance in Romantic Adventure into the Grotto of Goddesses (You xianku 44) – a chuanqi story written by Zhang Zhuo (660–732). Judging by the context, the word juxi was most probably used to mean ‘game play’ rather than ‘theatrical performance’. As for xiju, the first known appearance of the word is found in a poem titled ‘Meditation on the Ancient Past by the Western River’ (‘Xijiang huaigu’) by the famous late Tang poet Du Mu (803–852) (QTS 522.5964), in which xiju is treated as synonymous with huangtang (absurd, ridiculous). 13 For more discussions of the Chinese conception of xiju and its evolution in history, see Zhao (1996) and Zeng (2008: 12–20). 14 This was the highest level of the civil service examination (keju) in imperial China, and successful candidates of the palace examination would be awarded the degree/title ‘Advanced Scholar’ and also receive an official appointment in most cases. 15 In the nine-rank system (jiupin) of the Tang dynasty, the official robe was designated for officials of the sixth or lower ranks. 16 The earliest known legendary account of the ghost of Zhong Kui appearing in the dream of Tang Minghuang occurs in Shen Kuo’s (1031–1095) Supplement to Brush Talks from the Dream Brook (Bu bitan 3.14b), which, having been slightly revised, is included in Origins of Things (Shiwu jiyuan 8.300–301), an encyclopaedia compiled by Gao Cheng (1078–1085). An enlarged version of this legendary story is found in the Notes from Mt Tianzhong (Tianzhong ji 4.118) by the Ming scholar Chen Yaowen (jinshi 1550), who claims to have cited it from An Anecdotal History of the Tang Dynasty (Tang yishi), which, traditionally attributed to Lu Zhao (818–882; jinshi 843), fails to survive intact. 17 The Eastern Capital or Dongjing refers to Bianliang (modern Kaifeng). 18 Hangzhou, renamed in 1129 Lin’an, meaning ‘temporary settlement’, served as the capital of the Southern Song dynasty from 1138 to 1276. Hangzhou was alternatively known in history as Wulin, which was the name of the northern city gate of Hangzhou. 19 The main and primary meaning of Chinese word da is ‘to beat/hit/strike’, so the phrase da yehu has been – wrongly – translated as ‘beating the nightly barbarian’ (see, e.g. ter Haar 2006: 45–52), but when da is used in reference to a game or play, as noted by Tan Zhengbi (1985: 215) and Liu Xiaoming (2007: 397), the word is usually taken to mean ‘to play/perform/enact’. There are numerous examples of this kind of use of da, as in Da Lunyu, Da Qingti, Da Mulian and Da Chenghuang, which should be understood as ‘to perform a play about the Analects of Confucius/Madame Qingti/Mulian/the City God’ rather than ‘to beat the Analects of Confucius/Madame Qingti/Mulian/the City God’, so should be da yehu. 20 Ter Haar (2006: 47) translates as ‘the head of Mr Barbarian’ the phrase hugong tou, which, however, is interpreted by Ren (2013: 198–199) as qitou 魌頭 (exorcist mask) worn by Nuo performers. In his etymophonological study of the oracle-bone script qi 魌 in the Shang divination text on Fangxiangshi, Guo (1998: 20) classifies hu 胡 as belonging with the same rhyme group as qi 魌 in Old Chinese, interpreting hu as a phonetic loan character of qi, and hutou 胡頭 as a variant form of qitou first recorded in Shang oracle-bone inscriptions. 21 Ter Haar (2006: 46) correctly points out that ‘the different terms reflect the same oral form’, but ter Haar (2006: 47) wrongly treats ye 夜 (‘night/nightly’), ye 野 (‘wide/ wilderness’), xie 邪 (‘evil’), hu 胡 (‘barbarian’), hu 虖/呼 (‘shout/shouting’), and hu 狐 (‘fox’) in the compound yehu 野胡/夜胡/野虖/ 夜狐/野狐 and xiehu 邪呼/邪狐/邪胡 as content words each containing a specific referent, interpreting the variant forms of the compound as referring to ‘a demon creature that can no longer be identified’. For a detailed discussion of the sources and uses of these terms, see ter Haar (2006: 45–52). 22 Qin’s observation is correct with the only exception of The History of Song Dynasty (Songshi 282.9555), which records in the ‘Biography of Xiang Minzhong’ (‘Xiang

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28

29 30 31 32

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Minzhong zhuan’) an end-of-year grand Nuo rite performed by soldiers in the western region of China during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song (r. 997–1022). For this note, see Li (2011: 99–100). The guan, also called bili, is a cylindrical double reed wind instrument made of either bamboo in southern China or hardwood in northern China. The word juxi in the original is translated as ‘dramatic show’. See note 12 about the use of juxi in Tang and Song sources. Yu and Wangxiang are both fabulous creatures, the former being said to be like a turtle and blow poisonous sand in a man’s face, and the latter a man-eating monster that lives underwater. These two lines each refer to a popular song and dance of the time, namely ‘Blue Gown’ (Qingshan) and ‘Iridescent Clouds’ (Caiyun). The phrase ziyi jinzhang in the Chinese original text is a metaphorical reference to the Infernal judge or King Yama, who is often portrayed in Chinese folk and religious art as dressed in a purple robe, seated behind a big desk with a gold seal on it and flanked by Ox-Head (Niutou) and Horse-Face (Mamian), the two security guards at the Court of Hell. ‘The white-faced envoy’ (baimian shizhe) refers to ‘the White Impermanence’ (Baiwuchang), a grim reaper in Chinese folk religion who serves as a court runner and assistant to Infernal Judge and/or Yama King and shares the responsibility with the Black Impermanence (Heiwuchang) of catching the spirits of the dead and escorting them to the Court of Hell for trial. The Five Directions (wufang, lit. ‘the five directions of east, south, west, north and centre’) are collectively personified and worshipped as the ‘Sovereign of the Five Directions’ (Wufangdi) in Chinese Daoism and folk beliefs. This line alludes to ‘Summoning Souls’ (‘Zhaohun’), a shamanic song in the Songs from of South or Chuci, which is traditionally attributed to the fourth century bc poet Qu Yuan. Here is an allusion to the ‘Easy and Free Wandering’ (‘Xiaoyao you’) chapter of the Zhuangzi – a pre-Qin philosophical work by Zhuang Zhou (ca. 369–286 bc). Yu the Great or Dayu is the legendary founder of the Xia dynasty (ca. 2100–ca. 1600 bc) best known for subduing the Great Flood, making the Nine Tripod Cauldrons (Jiuding) as a symbol of his unification of the Nine Lands (Jiuzhou) and his rule over all China before he died at Mt Kuaiji south of present-day Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. He is said to have been born from the belly of Gun, who was beheaded at Mt Yu (Yushan) by the Heavenly Emperor as punishment for stealing a magic soil called xirang (growing soil) from Heaven to cover the flooded lands on the Earth and whose body transformed into a yellow bear and entered the Yu Abyss (Yuyuan). This section is adapted from Zhao (2019). For an illuminating study of the cultural significance of the Miao performing the huanyuan rituals and dramas, see Katz (2013) and Riccio (2019); see also Li (2015: 75–100) for her fieldwork-informed case study of Tujia Nuo rites in Guizhou Province. The bamboo mat, which is about the size of a king-size bed, covers the floor in front of the Nuo altar and is believed to transmit magic power from the Nuo altar to the Nuo priest when he performs rituals on it. The cave is not a physical one but rather exists only in local myth; it is where dramatic pieces and gods/spirits represented by masks are kept. For a convenient summary of the Nuo-altar ritual performances, see Dejiang xian (2003: 246–414). The ‘Three Purities’ refers to ‘Great Emperor of the Jade Purity’ (Yuqing dadi), ‘Great Emperor of the Highest Purity’ (Shangqing dadi) and ‘Great Emperor of the Greatest

The Nuo theatre 143 39 40 41

42

43

Purity’ (Taiqing dadi), respectively, and they are worshipped as the highest deities in the Daoist pantheon. The lingqi (lit. ‘command banner’) is usually a triangular banner on which is written Chinese characters ling (to command). It is an important ritual tool symbolising the power and authority given by the heavens to Nuo ritual masters. The wooden fish is a hollow percussion instrument made of wood widely used for Buddhist and Daoist services. In Dejiang Nuo altar theatre, locked in the lower cave are all demons and devils who would plague the theatre and haunt the host household if released, so only the upper and middle caves are opened with the lower cave – a Pandora’s Box – left locked forever. Trail-Blazing General, also called Trail-Blazing Lord (Kailu shenjun), is identified in the early fifteenth-century Great Compendium for the Search of the Origins of Deities in the Three Teachings (Sanjiao yuanliu soushen daquan 7.89a) as Fangxiangshi in the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli 31.213a). See Deng (1986: 148–163) for a full list of Nuoxi plays in the repertory of Sinan Nuo altar theatre.

Part 2

The Mulian myth From scripture to storytelling

4

Scriptural origins of the Mulian myth

Mulianxi is widely acclaimed as the ancestor of one hundred theatres. As ‘the greatest of all Chinese religious operas’ (Johnson 2000: 95), it stands as a living testimony of the evolution of Chinese theatre from myth and ritual. With its origin in the Yulanpen Sūtra (Yulanpen jing, T16n0685),1 a Buddhist scripture translated into Chinese during the Western Jin dynasty (266–316), the myth of Mulian (Skr. Maudgalyāyana; Pali. Moggallāna)2 rescuing his mother from suffering in Hell (Figures 4.1 and 4.2) was ritualised through the Yulanpen Ceremony (Yulanpen hui) during the Six Dynasties (220–589), adapted for dramatic show for the first time in the Northern Song capital of Bianliang, and has since been performed across the country in a huge variety of regional genres and versions. They differ from each other in theatrical form and musical style, but they all share the same origin in the sūtra – the Yulanpen jing.

Figure 4.1 Woodblock print of Tortures of Chinese Buddhist Hell. Unknown artist (fl. 1912).

DOI: 10.4324/9781315460291-7

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Figure 4.2 Mulian Rescues His Mother. The 1881 woodblock illustrated Complete Manual of the Secret Deeds and Traces from the Incarnation of Tathāgata Śākyamuni (Shijia rulai mixing huaji quanpu 3.29).

Yulanpen Sūtra The earliest known official Yulanpen Ceremony was held at Tongtaisi Temple in the Liang dynasty capital of Jiankang (modern Nanjing) (Figure 4.3) in the fourth year of Datong (538) during the reign of Liang Wudi (r. 502–549) as recorded in the thirteenth-century General Chronicle of the Buddhas and Patriarchs (Fozu tongji, T49n2035_037). The ceremony soon spread to other parts of China and developed into a grand religious festival – Yulanpen Festival (Yulanpen jie) – of making offerings to the Buddhist monks, Daoist gods and deified ancestors on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. At the core of the festival is the reenacting of the myth of Mulian adventuring into the Preta realm or the realm of hungry ghosts to rescue his mother. The primary source of the Mulian myth is the Yulanpen Sūtra, a scripture in the ‘correct-and-equal’ (fangdeng) or vaipūlya category of the Chinese Buddhist Canon (Figure 4.4). This is a fairly short text of approximately eight hundred Chinese characters and is worth citing here in its entirety because it is crucial to our understanding of the evolution of the Mulian performance or Mulianxi from myth to ritual to ritual drama to drama: Yulanpen Sūtra3 Translated into Chinese by Zhu Fahu (Dharmarakṣa), Tripiṭaka Master from Gandhāra in the Western Jin Dynasty Thus have I heard, at one time, the Buddha is dwelling in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary in the Jetavana Monastery in Śrāvastī when Maudgalyāyana had just obtained the six spiritual penetrations

Scriptural origins of the Mulian myth 149

Figure 4.3 The Jimingsi Temple, first constructed in 527 during the Liang dynasty, was rebuilt (arguably) on the old site of the Tongtaisi Temple in the twentieth year (1387) of Hongwu in the Ming dynasty.

Figure 4.4 An illustrated woodcut print book of Mulian Saving His Mother. Unknown artist (fl. nineteenth century).

(liutong).4 He wished to deliver his parents from rebirth into a lower realm to repay their kindness for raising and nurturing him. Thus, he regarded the world with his divine eye (daoyan) and found that his deceased mother had been reborn into the Preta realm. With nothing to eat or drink, she was but skin and bones.

150 The Mulian myth Feeling deep pity and sadness, Maudgalyāyana filled a bowl with cooked rice and went forward to feed his mother. Having received the bowl, his mother screened it with her left hand while taking some rice with her right hand. But before it entered her mouth, it turned into burning charcoal that could not be eaten. Maudgalyāyana cried out in agony and rushed back to the Buddha to tell him what had happened to his mother. The Buddha said, ‘Your mother’s sins are so grave and deeply rooted that it is beyond your individual power to save her. Although your filial devotion (xiaoshun) and your sound of crying move Heaven and Earth, there is nothing that heavenly gods, earthly deities, Māras (xiemo), non-Buddhist monks (waidao), Buddhist monks (daoshi) and the Caturmahārājikādeva (Sitianwangshen) can do to save her. However, the supernatural power of the assembled Saṃgha of the Ten Directions is great enough to deliver her from the Preta realm. Now I shall teach you the dharma of delivering all those in distress from worries and sufferings.’ The Buddha told Maudgalyāyana, ‘The fifteenth day of the seventh month is the Pavāraṇā Day for the assembled Saṃgha of the Ten Directions. For the sake of your ancestors of seven generations and your present parents who are in distress, you should make an offering of bowls full of hundreds of flavours and the five fruits, vessels for drawing and pouring water, incense, oil, lamps, candles, beds and bedding, all the best of the world, to the greatly virtuous assembled Saṃgha of the Ten Directions. On that day, all the holy assembly – those who practise dhyāna samadhi (chanding) in the mountains, those who have obtained the fourfold fruits, those who practise walking meditation beneath trees, those who edify śrāvakas (shengwen) and pratyekabuddhas (yuanjue) by means of the six penetrations, or the Great Bodhisattvas who have already attained the tenth bhūmi (shidi pusa) but provisionally manifest themselves as a bhikṣu – all in the great assembly shall receive the Pravāraṇa food with one mind. If one thus makes offerings to the Pravāraṇa Saṃghans, one’s present parents and one’s ancestors of past seven generations, as well as one’s six kinds of relatives (liuqin), will escape the suffering in the three paths (santu), attain salvation immediately from rebirth into a lower realm, and will be clad and fed spontaneously. If one’s parents are still alive, they will have wealth and blessings for a hundred years. If one’s parents are deceased, [they as well as] one’s ancestors of past seven generations will be reborn in Heaven. They will be reborn as they like and enter the light of celestial flowers and enjoy limitless bliss.’ At that time the Buddha commanded the assembled Saṃgha of the Ten Directions to chant mantras and recite vows on behalf of the family of the donor, for their ancestors of past seven generations. After practising dhyāna concentration, the Saṃgha received the food with a settled mind. When they first accepted the bowl, they placed it before the Buddha in the stupa. When the assembled Saṃgha had finished chanting the mantras and reciting vows, they helped themselves to the food.

Scriptural origins of the Mulian myth 151 At that time Bhikṣu Maudgalyāyana and the Assembly of Great Bodhisattvas all greatly rejoiced and the sorrowful cries of Maudgalyāyana relievingly died out. Then, on that very day, Maudgalyāyana’s mother obtained liberation from one kalpa of suffering in the Preta realm. Maudgalyāyana returned to the Buddha and said, ‘Now the parents of your disciple are able to receive the power of the merit of the Triple Jewel thanks to the great spiritual power of the assembled Saṃgha. If in the future all disciples of the Buddha practise filial devotion by offering up the yulanpen, may they be able or not to deliver their present parents as well their ancestors of past seven generations?’ The Buddha replied, ‘Excellent – a very good question indeed! This is just what I am about to preach. Oh, good man, if bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, kings, crown princes, ministers, chief ministers, the three ducal ministers (sangong), officials of all ranks (baiguan), and the tens of thousands of commoners all wish to practise compassionate filial conduct, for the sake of their present parents who bore them and their ancestors of past seven generations, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the Day of the Buddha’s Delight, the Day of the Saṃgha’s Pravāraṇa, they all should place hundreds of flavours of foods in the yulanpen and offer them up to the Pravāraṇa Saṃgha of the Ten Directions. They should then request the Pravāraṇa Saṃgha to pray that their present parents live a hundred years without illnesses, without sufferings, afflictions or worries. They should also pray that their ancestors of seven generations be free from the suffering in the Preta realm, be born in the realm of Devas and enjoy blessings and bliss without limit.’ The Buddha told all the good men and good women, ‘The disciples of the Buddha who practise filial devotion should constantly think of their present parents and make offerings to their ancestors of up to seven generations. And every year, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, they should, out of their filial devotion and compassionate consideration, think of their parents who bore them, and their ancestors of up to seven generations, and for their sakes, perform the offering of the yulanpen to the Buddha and the Saṃgha, thereby repaying the loving kindness of the parents who raised and nourished them. All the disciples of the Buddha should uphold this dharma.’ At that time, Bhikṣu Maudgalyāyana and the four-fold assembly of disciples rejoiced in the hearing of what the Buddha had preached and practised it with delight.5

Indic origins of yulan/yulanpen The Chinese version of the Yulanpen Sūtra bears the compound word yulanpen in its title. The headword pen is a common noun, meaning ‘basin’, ‘vessel’ or ‘bowl’ in Chinese, whereas its disyllabic dependent yulan does not make any sense in and of itself except as a transliteration of an Indic word that relates to the offering ritual performed on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, but it is not clear as to what is exactly meant by yulan in its Indic origin because of lack of the original text of the sūtra for reference. Around the mid-seventh century, the Tang

152 The Mulian myth dynasty (618–907) monk scholar Xuanying (fl. 645) provided a detailed explanation of the word yulanpen in the Sounds and Meanings of All Scriptures in the Buddhist Canon (Yiqiejing yinyi): This word [yulanpen] is misleading. Its correct form is wulanpona, meaning ‘hanging upside down’ (daoxuan). As is the custom in the western country (Xiguo [i.e. India]), laypeople prepare abundant offerings and donate them to the Buddhist monks on the Day of the Saṃgha’s Pravāraṇa in order for their deceased ancestors to be rescued from being suspended upside down. As a nonBuddhist book there says, ‘If a deceased ancestor committed sins and if he has no descendants so that no one offers sacrifices to gods on his behalf or pleads with the gods to save him, then he shall suffer the agony of being hung upside down in the realm of ghosts.’Although Buddhists there also follow the custom by performing the offering ritual, their purpose is to teach [laypeople] to sow the merits deep in the field of the Triple Jewel. The traditional interpretation of yulanpen as ‘a vessel for the storage of food’ (zhushi zhi qi) is thus wrong. (Yiqie jing yinyi, C056n1163_013) Clearly, Monk Xuanying considers yulanpen or wulanpona not a native Chinese word but a transliteration of an Indic word or phrase, meaning ‘hanging upside down’. He further points out that wulanpona, instead of meaning ‘food vessel’ as has been traditionally understood, refers to an ancient Indian custom – a form of ritual performed on the Pavāraṇā Day by both laypeople and Buddhists to save deceased ancestors from torture in Hell. Xuanying also cites a non-Buddhist (probably a pre-Buddhist) book as evidence for the origin of the Buddhist wulanpona ritual in the ancient Indian belief in karmic retribution and in the transference to the sinful ghost of the deceased ancestor the merits accumulated by his descendants through performing the ritual of offering sacrifices to gods for the sake of his rescue – a standard part of Buddhist spiritual discipline known as pariṇāmanā in Sanskrit and pattidāna or pattānumodanā in Pali. Monk Xuanying’s interpretation of yulanpen or wulanpona as ‘hanging upside down’ is accepted by Monk Fayun (1088–1158), who further interprets wulanpona as ‘saving [somebody] from being hung upside down’ (jiu daoxuan) in his Collection of Translated Buddhist Terms (Fanyi mingyi ji, T54n2131_004). Like his predecessor, Monk Fayun does not provide any evidence from Indic sources for this explanation, leaving behind a question of what the Indic form of yulanpen/ wulanpona is. There has been much discussion and speculation about the Indic form of yulanpen or wulanpona over the past two centuries. Stanislas Julien made the first known attempt in modern Western scholarship to trace wulanpona to its Indic root. Based on the interpretations provided by Xuanying and Fayun, Julien (1861: 165) reconstructed wulanpona as avalambana but he did not give any evidence from Indic sources for his reconstruction, either. Ten years later, Ernest John Eitel (1904: 185–186) published an important work titled Handbook for the Student of Chinese Buddhism, where he proposed ullambana as the Indic form for the

Scriptural origins of the Mulian myth 153 Chinese transliteration of wulanpona, followed by a fairly detailed account of the Chinese ‘festival of all souls’. Although he did not deny the influence of Confucian ancestor worship on the ghost festival, he ascribed the origin of the ghost festival to the Yulanpeng Sūtra, stating: This agrees with the known fact that a native of Tukhâra, Dharmarakcha (A. D. 265–316), introduced in China and translated the Ullambana Sūtra, which gives to the whole ceremonial the (forged) authority of Śâkyamuni and supports it by the alleged experiences of his principal disciples, Ānanda being said to have appeased Prêtas by food offerings presented to Buddha and Saṃgha, and Mâudgalyâyana to have brought back his mother who had been reborn in hell as a Prêta. This was perhaps the first time that the Chinese Yulanpen jing had been referred to as ‘Ullambana Sūtra’ in Western language publications. Shortly afterwards, Samuel Beal (1880: 86) published the first English translation of the scripture under the title of ‘The Avalambana Sûtra’. In an explanatory note on his translation, Beal (1880: 85) expressed his objection to Eitel using ulambana instead of avalambana to render yulanpen/wunapona for the reason as follows: This title Ulamba [sic] should doubtless be restored to Avalambana, as Julien gives it in his Méthode (1315), and as the Encycloædia Yi-tsi-kîng-yin-I fully explains (Kiwen xiv., fol. 25). This title Avalambana seems to be derived from the idea of the suspension, head downwards, of the unhappy occupants of the Limbus patrum. Beal cited Julien and Fayun to back up his objection without providing new evidence from either Chinese or Indic sources, so the original Indic form of yulanpen or wulanpona remains unclear. In Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of Buddhist Tripiṭaka compiled on the basis of Catalogue of the Republished Tripiṭaka of the Great Ming (Daming chongkan sanzang shengjiao mulu), Nanjio (1883: 78) provided the hitherto most detailed explanation of yulan and yulanpen: The phrase 盂蘭 yü-lân in the Chinese title is generally understood as a transliteration of Ullambana, and translated by 倒懸 tâo-hhüen, ‘to hang upside down,’ or ‘to be in suspense.’ At the same time the character 盆 phan, ‘vessel,’ is explained as not a part of the transliteration. But this character may have been used here by the translator in both ways. On the one hand, it may stand for the last two syllables of Ullambana; on the other, it may mean the ‘vessel’ of eatables to be offered to Buddha and Saṃgha for the benefit of those being in the Ullambana. The Chinese word yulanpen or wulanpona has since been generally believed to be a transliteration of ullambana, but the problem is that there is no such word

154 The Mulian myth as ullambana in Sanskrit, although there are two Sanskrit words, in respect to lambana (hanging down, causing to hang down) or avalamba (hanging down, depending) that may be related to ullambana. Also noteworthy is the Pāli word ullumpana (saving, helping), which is a noun derived from the verb ullumpati (to take up, to help, to save). It seems also likely that yulanpen or wulanpona is a transliteration of this Pāli word, as suggested by Karashima (2013: 301–302), who traces the Indic origin of yulan to the Middle Indic form *olana (