Zhangjiajie Gaohuadeng: A Living Fossil in Chinese Dance History
Gaohuadeng, also known as Gaohuangdeng, is a dance with strong ethnic characteristics popular in the Yuanguping area of Yongding. Performances involve 12 to 24 people, accompanied by gongs, cymbals, suona, and drums. Each performer holds a paper lantern lit with two candles, topped with a small wooden figure, and decorated with colored paper cutouts.
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Stilt flower lanterns can only be glimpsed as a faint memory in old photographs.
Zhangjiajie High Flower Lantern, also known as the High Emperor Lantern, is a dance rich in ethnic characteristics popular in the Yongding Yuanguping area. During performance, there are anywhere from 12 to 24 performers. It is accompanied by gongs, cymbals, suona, drums, and other instruments. Each person holds a paper lantern, inside which two candles are lit, and on top is tied a wooden idol, with colored paper cut into theatrical stories such as the "Eight Immortals," "Wagang Fort," and "Heroes of Liangshan." The High Flower Lantern performance has a set of procedures, requiring that it start in the east and end in the west, enter with a "Half Moon," exit with a "Full Moon Reunion," and dance a "Taiji Diagram." It can also be performed entering people's homes, called "Votive Lanterns," mostly for blessings, fulfilling vows, or adding to the festivity of a family's happy occasion. Shouting and whistling can only be done in outdoor performances, called "Crowd Lanterns," which are for everyone to watch. Its forms are further divided into Civil Lanterns and War Lanterns. The former performs the migration, reproduction, labor, and life of ancient ancestors; the latter performs battles and breaking formations. The formation changes include "Weaving a Fence," "Rolling Pillar Heads," "Eighteen Fights," "Snail Turning to the Top," "Eight Trigrams Formation," "Crossing the Sky Star," "Single-Line Long Snake," and more than twenty other kinds. For example, in breaking the "Chessboard Formation," the host inserts thirty-two sticks of incense to form a chessboard formation; during the performance, the host raises a red umbrella, and the lantern players raise black umbrellas, entering from the river channel and "eating" the pieces one by one (that is, stepping on the incense), which is a contest of wits. One sees the lantern lights darting and dancing like meteors, accompanied on the side by dragon lanterns dancing with each other (pairing dragon lanterns with lantern playing is one of the main features of the High Flower Lantern). The aroused sound of gongs and drums, shouts, and whistles raises rhythmic waves of sound, lively and joyful.
Zhangjiajie High Flower Lantern originated in areas such as Yuanguping Town in Yongding District of Zhangjiajie City, and the neighboring districts and counties bordering the Yuanguping area, such as Yuanling, Taoyuan, and Cili, also have a small custom of playing High Flower Lanterns.
The lanterns of the High Flower Lantern represent brightness and happiness; 12 lanterns represent the 12 months, with peace and safety in every month. Every Spring Festival, each village must practice a troupe of High Flower Lanterns to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. When making them, artisans use bamboo strips and paper to paste together 12 or 24 lanterns, add a long-handled lantern support beneath each lantern, and tie colorful "stories" onto the lanterns, such as the "Eight Immortals" and "Geng Shi Presenting a Child." At night, wood-oil candles are lit inside the lanterns, and each person holds one lantern, dancing while forming various formations. At a glance, the flowing light flickers like the Milky Way dancing in play.
Zhangjiajie High Flower Lantern is not only loved by local audiences, but also highly praised by friends from home and abroad and international friends. Because it is a representative of China's ancient folk dance, with its own systematic notation method, it continues the bloodline of Chinese dance. With its long dance history and multicultural characteristics, it is regarded by the dance world as a "living fossil in the history of Chinese dance," possessing extremely high academic research value and very high aesthetic value. It has been included in the first batch of the province's intangible cultural heritage protection list.
The High Flower Lantern is said to have originated in the early years of Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, the "Zhong Man" Qin Erjian raised a rebellion against the Han in the middle and lower reaches of the Lishui River, and fought the Han army "at Hongxia" (said to be present-day Dayong Hongtuping, pending verification). The "Man people" of Hongxia danced with torches to cheer and support the rebel army. In the end, because the Han army was numerous, Qin Erjian and the entire rebel army died in battle (to this day, ancient battlefield relics such as Xuangu Ping, Yujia Ya, Zhaying Mountain, and Beacon Tower remain). Afterwards, the local Man people every year during the post-New Year period (from the first day of the first lunar month to the Lantern Festival) would light torches, gather, and dance, and perform "planting yang stakes" (in local dialect, tumbling), to commemorate the "Battle of Hongxia." Over time, torches evolved into lanterns and tied figures and scenes, and the performance also acquired certain rules. To this day, this dance art still retains its ancient, primitive, rough, bold, and solemn characteristics.
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