Dance History of China
and the great art "Nishangyuyi"
Yaron Margolin

 
Researching the source of dance in generally and the elements of the Chinese dance specifically, is a complicated and almost impossible mission. This is about an ancient culture, which has developed in a central piece of land, during millions of years and had never stopped. It survived the exile and the destruction of the dance ideas in china. Farmers created it and the emperors joined them. Both they developed a theory and a deep thoughtful dancing, which brought some of the great arts of china. We'll discuss one of them later.
 
6 Thousand years ago
The first important evidence of the ancient Chinese dance was found in the 'Sun Chia Chai' archeological excavations in the 'Ta Tung' state in west china. Some pottery were found and recognized as from the Neolithic Yang-Shao culture in the 4th millennium B.C.
The pictures that were painted on them were of dancers that were in a middle of a mimetic process connected to their hunting. They were painted with weapons in their hands. Some of them were singing.
Dancing with a musical orchestra is very popular in south china, even today.
'You Hui-hai' ,one of the authorized characters in the research of the Chinese dance, claims that dancing has been part of the everyday life in china since the beginning of the civilization. He tells stories about the 'mature tests' that the kids made to each other which contained dancing.
 
The foundation of the dance- a mimatic phenomenon
The first choreography in china was made of leaping and locomotion. The great enthusiasm of the ancient people from the world around them has created that first dance.
Inside today's dances in china, we can feel the spirit of the ancient dances, like we see in "Yangko" and "Gaoqiao". In those, the dancers describe the course of the stars in the sky and bring the idea of heaven. In "Yangko" we can see the great movements of the dancers' hands and legs, which express the admiration to the universe. Those mimetic expressions has, developed during the passing years and became an important part of the everyday life in china.
The dance was inspired by everyday relations between the regular Chinese man and his emperor, his friends or his body. It became very physical and acrobatic dance and after a while the classic dance came out of this. Until now, we saw only joy and happiness in the ancient dances, but there were also bad feelings as fear and evil, which were expressed through those dances. It was of the war's inspiration.
 
1st thousand B.C - Shang and Chou dynasty
At the 1st thousand B.C, at Shang and Chou times, there were 2 different kinds of dances: the religious dance and the military dance.
Evidences of dancers with sticks full of feathers in their hands were found from this age. There were also flags, weapons, hunting or fishing equipments that took part in those dances. It seems that there was some kind of military dance that was accompanied by a military orchestra and included stepping back and forward like in a march.
The experts assume that the worship dances of the emperors took place outside the cities, but have developed from those hunting dances. Today, we can find in Taiwan island some dances which contain the 'dancing with objects' phenomenon too.
 
The farmers dance - Shang dynasty
Prof. Liv-you-lan, a teacher in the Dance Academy of Beijing, expert of the Chinese ancient folk dance, says that the first evidences of the Chinese dance are from the 11-16 centuries B.C (Shang dynasty). He points about two different kinds of dances: the classic dance 'Gudian WuDao' and the folk dance 'Minjian WuDao'.
Most of the folklore dances were connected to the farmers' life. North people called those dances "Yangge" and the south people called it "Huagudung". Similar to the farmers' life in Israel and Europe, at the winter time, the work in the field stops, so there is a lot of time left for other thing- such as dancing
 
Stealing a Pumpkin
To the list of the great dances of china joins 'Stealing a Pumpkin'. This is one of the folklore dances of the "Yangge", dealing with 'forgiveness'. This is not a collective dance. It came from Taiwan, but we can find it also in Shanghai. It's about the forgiveness of the village's leader, who catches a young girl with her lover and decided not to kill her at the end. It was affected by the classical dances which have developed later. It was one of the greatest dances in china.
The farmers preferred to dance in groups. Among the years, some of them became professional and danced in front of the others. It seems that they adopted Confutsius's ideas and didn't let their women dance at all. Men took the feminine characters in the dances. According to Confutsuis, it's not appropriate for a man to meet a woman in public or make a physical contact with her, also not during a dance.
 
Han folk dance
Two thousands years ago, at Han dynasty times (206 B.C-220 A.D) and due to the royalty garden's influence, a cultured organization for the documentation of the Chinese culture has been founded. Thanks to this organization, the arts of dance and paint got a new position in china. The folklore dances reached a very high class, considering the qualifications and the physical abilities that were required.
Today, we can recognize from the Han dances - the drum dance, the dance with scarves (from "Yangko"), the lion dance, the dragon dance, the dance with a hand-held fan (from "Yangko" too) and the dance with a flashlight and umbrella. Those dances are considered as Han dances in china until today.  
Moving to the North
In the 3rd century, right after the Han dynasty, north china was mortgaged by the Hsiungnu, Sienpi and the people of west-china. Due to the new situation, the north and west's arts moved to the north and mixed with the north culture.
Today, the dances and paintings are in all of china, although each area has its own style. This is the reason for the different Han dances styles in each area.
That leads us to the next age, the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D). That period was influenced by the phenomenon of mixing cultures, which took place at the Han Dynasty.
 
The Pear Garden Academy
At the times of the Tang dynasty, one of the most important cultured events took place, the foundation of the academy for dance and music. The documentation process, which has begun at the Han dynasty age, proceeds and got a new turn: the foundation of high cultured schools by the emperors. The emperors of the Tang dynasty began to look for the good dancers and brought them into the royal garden to perform there. Three institutions of art were built: "The Imperial Academy", "T'ai-ch'ang" Temple and "The Pear Garden Academy". The last one was built by the emperor "Hsuan Tsung" at 712-755 inside the royalty garden. It brought the first professional group of dance and music in china.
This group became into the "Peking Opera" and the participants were called 'the sons of the pear garden'. Those dancers made up the 'Ten Movements Music "dance"' and made a new systematic uniformity. This new method created the "Classic Dance" and helped choreographs to make the first dance's performances.
The classic dance has developed. The Chinese dancers started to develop a new technique of a movement exercises. This technique was made of motions from the Chinese, Korean, Indian, Iranian and Italian dances. In those days the set and the clothing elements started to appear.
Today, we have some dances from this age: Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin and Nanbei.
 
The Tang's esthetics
When china opened her gates to the traders and the Buddhist's monks on one hand, and to the Romans on the other hand, it was also an opening for a deep philosophy. It was the philosophy of dance, which interested the Tang house the most. It included the poetry ideas of the dancing tale
development. The process, which was shown on stage, is of mimetic emotions that are accumulated and stored until they burst out of the dancers' bodies by special movements.
This process continues by a refinement stage of the physical movement. The process includes an examining of the feelings that were a cover of the real noble feelings. This process created a new attitude for the ground music during shows and a whole different characters' personality. There are 4 kinds of characters: sheng, tan, ching and ch'ou.
The Tangs dance describes the dramatic, romantic and lyric feelings, based on the character's gender (male, female, animal or goddess) and age (childhood, youth, mature or old). The feelings develop by the inspiration of the events, and the music contributes to the whole harmony of the show and become an integral part of the dance.
The dance's philosophy made the special harmony, first in the history of art. After a while, the painting got into the picture too. This had happened 1000 years before Bakset and Picasso made the "Bella Rose".
 
The first famous choreograph - the emperor of china
The first dancing emperor, Li Shimin (618-907), from the Tang dynasty, Li Yan the second, was the first dancer 1500 years ago and not Lewis the 14th, like they teach in the west world. Lewis founded the Academy of Ballet in France and the Opera of Paris, but it was 1000 years after Li Shimin's.
time Li Shimin, the emperor, was aware of the dancing in his garden and joined it. His great creation was the composition of the song 'Pozhenyuetu'. The Chinese people danced to this song and it became part of the dance festival of the time. Tang Minhuang, the next emperor (712 AD-755 AD), known also as Li Lonji, promoted the dance of Li Shimin and brought it into Japan an India too.
 
Li Lonji and 'Nishangyuyi' - Song of enduring sorrow
A great artist is a person who has a sense of criticism, honesty and the ability to adore other's arts. Li, the emperor, had all of those and more. He was a great creator too. His first famous creation was the composition of the great song "Nishangyuyi" - "The Song of the Enduring Sorrow", known as the "Song of the Lute" too. It was written in memory of Bai Ju Yi. Later he, made choreography for that song, and the dance called "Nishangyuyi" too.
"Nishngyuyi", the dance, includes some periods, which were processed later. The main idea of it is the virgin women, which remind the romantic ballet "Giselle". The movements and the dressing style are very different from "Giselle". The movements of "Nishangyuyi", the characters and their clothes, are suitable for the Chinese culture. The girls move like they are in a magic world. The choreograph combines dancing abilities with high virtuous technique, which came from the Indian dance on one hand, and from the emperor's garden's classic dance, on the other hand. Together, it gives the feeling of flying and of infinite flow from some inside energetic, power noble and delicate, which its performance on the stage is dreamily. It gives the idea of the "youth magic" and the infinite of movement.
The emperor's mistress, Yang Guei-fei, was known as the most beautiful girl in china. She gave him the inspiration to dance and compose, and she danced in "Nishangyuyi" too.
Today, "Nishangyuyi" is considered as a great art and one of the most important achievements in the Chinese history.
 
Here are some lines from the song "Nishangyuyi":
Twice or thrice the strings were swept in tuning, Already the emotion was betrayed before her song was played. Every note was filled with pathos deep and strong, Telling of a life full of woes.
Her head lowered, she played with flowing finger movements, Pouring forth her endless sorrows in melody.
Plucking lightly stroking slowly, sliding and climbing, First she played the rainbow skits ,and then six minor notes. Now loud as drumming rain, now soft as whispered secrets loud and soft, Soft and loud ,like the pattern of pearls and pearl-lets cascading on the jade dish.
Now like an oriole warbling within the flowery branches, Now like a stream sobbing its way across its sandy shores. The stream turned ice, the stream is frozen, no more sound disturbs the wind, Hidden grief and secret regret perform .Now silence spoke more fluently than sound.
As water gushed forth from the shattered silver jar, And armored steeds charged into flashing swords and spears, He swept the plectrum across the strings to make an end, The four strings sounding together like a single piece of silk splitting.  

The "Nishangyuyi" esthetics
The great art "Nishangyuyi" is the essence of the Chinese philosophy. The flow and the ability of changing in that dance were like a uniting force of two opposite ideas. It was a creation of harmony. "Nishangyuyi" and 'The esthetics of Saint Leon' are sharing similar colors and characters Contrary.
to the west dance, here the values of the dance are pure and noble and each one of the several arts can be found: emotion, philosophy, movements, paint and music.
Jean Yu, the ancient dance expert says that the dance at Tang's times was not only uniting forces in the art, but also in the country. "In ancient china", says Jean Yu, "the dance was used to teach the values of patience and united between opposite ethnic groups." The Tangian dance is human. It is not using the animals like lion or dragon or abstract characters with drum or hand-held fan, like.
before Its characters are specific and individualists. basic characters, like an old woman, an old man, a young man, an ugly woman and a stupid boy are being danced by experienced dancers, who react to each other in a dramatic, lyric and emotional way, and turn the art of dance into a creative, personal art. The new dance, unique and individualistic, reminds the esthetics of Diagilev-Pukin-Nizinsky, which was founded 1500 years after, at San-Petersburg.
 
The Feudal Dance, The Feudal Esthetics - Shaoshu Minzu Wu dao
The feudal dance came after the gold period, and as a period which comes after a great one, it has to look for new ways to express its qualifications. When we talk about the feudal period, we're talking about the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD). At these times, there were 2 kinds of new methods in dance and theatre.
 
18/06/03