Maogusi and Baishou Dance in Zhangjiajie: Lifting the Veil on the Mysterious Tujia Ancestors
'Maogusi and Baishou Dance' is a primitive theatrical form in which the Tujia people commemorate their ancestors' pioneering feats of clearing wilderness, fishing, and hunting. It has been called a 'living fossil' of human theatrical culture by drama circles at home and abroad. Maogusi is the oldest Tujia dance and also a folk martial art for teaching hunting skills, embodying the life of the Tujia ancestors.
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"Maogusi and Hand-waving Dance" is a primitive theatrical form of the Tujia people commemorating ancestors' pioneering of wilderness, fishing, and hunting and other world-founding achievements. It is called by theater circles at home and abroad the "living fossil" of human theatrical culture. Maogusi is the oldest dance of the Tujia people and also a folk martial art that teaches hunting skills, embodying the living conditions of the Tujia ancestors.
Although Maogusi is not yet a mature theatrical form, it already has plots simulating the labor and life of ancient ancestors and expresses content through dance and spoken lines. It is usually performed by 15 people. The performers wear pointed straw hats that reach the neck, have straw braids tied on their heads, and are wrapped all over with rice straw, symbolizing ancestors whose whole bodies were covered with hair. During the performance there are simple stage settings. One person leads the dance onto the stage, and several Maogusi follow, jumping joyfully, shaking the straw all over their bodies, swaying the straw braids on their heads, and speaking and singing in altered voices. The performance content includes slash-and-burn farming, encircling hunts, fishing, welcoming the bride, the teacher teaching, and throwing torches. From form to content, Maogusi performance is unique. From beginning to end the performance speaks the Tujia language and sings Tujia songs, but dialogue is the main body, and the audience may also answer and interject. The performers either sing or dance, or jump about, turn somersaults, and play games. Or they advance and retreat in quick small steps, bend their knees and shake their bodies, jump left and sway right, shake their heads and shrug their shoulders, all imitating the rough and simple bearing of the ancients. The forms are comical, humorous, and amusing.
The traditional dances of the Tujia people include the Hand-waving Dance, funeral drum dance, Eight-Treasure Copper Bell Dance, Horse-Jumping Dance, Eight-Panel Skirt Dance, Wan Shua Shua, and Xiushan Flower Lantern, among others. Among them, the Hand-waving Dance has the widest influence and is a traditional song-and-dance form loved by the Tujia people.
"Hand-waving" is called "Sheba" in the Tujia language. It was originally a collective dance with a primitive religious character, in which "men and women gather together to sing and dance, to drive away evil and misfortune." In the past it was mostly held after dinner from the sixth to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. At that time people gathered in front of the Hand-waving Hall, first held a sacrificial ceremony, then beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers, and everyone danced in a circle, joyfully leaping to their hearts' content. The specific manner had no limit on the number of people. One person in the circle beat the drum and sounded the gong, while the male and female dancers formed a circle and advanced and retreated according to the drumbeat, changing dance postures. Generally the hands and feet moved in the same direction at the same time. In pairs, facing each other, they kicked and stepped and waved their hands, danced lightly forward and back, twisted their waists and spun, vigorous and powerful. The patterns and content were varied. Every one or several rounds of dancing changed to another set of routines, expressing different content such as warfare, hunting, labor, and daily life.
Although the form of the Hand-Waving Dance is simple and unadorned, its dancing posture is graceful, its movements vigorous, and its atmosphere joyful and lively, so it has always been deeply loved by the Tujia people. After the founding of New China, the Hand-Waving Dance, excavated, organized, and innovated by the broad ranks of ethnic literary and art workers, has become an indispensable outstanding program on the stage and in the daily life of the Tujia people.
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