Details of walking on stilts

There is a legend in the Han nationality that Yan Ying, who was famous for his antics during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, once went to a neighboring country. People in the neighboring country laughed at his short stature, so he put on Shuang Mu legs and suddenly became tall, which made the country's monarch and ministers look ridiculous. He also used this topic to make sarcastic speeches to foreign ministers, which still embarrassed them. Accordingly, stilt walking activities spread among the people.

Another legend is that walking on stilts is related to cracking down on corrupt officials. Once upon a time, there was a county called Liangjincheng. People inside and outside the city are very friendly. During the Spring Festival every year, they will hold a social fire together to wish each other a prosperous business and a bumper harvest. Unexpectedly, a corrupt official thought it was an opportunity to get rich, and said that everyone who went in and out of the city to run social fires must pay San Qian silver. If people don't pay, he will close the city gate and hang the suspension bridge. But it's still hard for smart people to walk on stilts. Climb over the city wall, cross the moat, continue to celebrate the Spring Festival and enjoy it. Scholars believe that the origin of stilts is related to the totem worship of primitive clans and the fishing life of coastal fishermen. According to the research of historians, the Danzhu clan, which took cranes as its totem in the Yao and Shun period, had to dance on stilts in the ceremony to imitate cranes. (See Sun Zuoyun's Talk about Dani); Archaeologists believe that some characters in ancient Oracle Bone Inscriptions were similar to the image of walking on stilts. (Fang Qidong Dance of Shang Dynasty in Oracle Bone Inscriptions) The two can prove each other.

There is a description of "long-share country" in the ancient document "Shan Hai Jing". According to the notes of the ancients, we can know that the "long-share country" is related to walking on stilts. It is not difficult to imagine the image of fishing in shallow water with long wooden stilts tied to feet and primitive fishing tools made of long wood from the annotation "Long-legged people often take long-armed people to fish in the sea". More interestingly, today's Jing fishermen living in the coastal areas of Fangcheng, Guangxi still have the habit of fishing with long stakes in shallow waters. With regard to the origin of stilts, the late historian Sun Zuoyun (A.D. 19 12 ~ 1978) put forward the origin of stilts for the first time in the article "Talking about Danzhu —— A study of ancient crane families in China —— Talking about the totem of stilts dancing", based on the ancient documents such as Shan Hai Jing. Guo Pu, a native of A Jin, commented: "It is said that there is a country of Joe, and now a musician's Joe built this statue", while Wu Renchen, a Qing Dynasty, commented: "Two pieces of wood continue to be enough for Joe's play, and now it is called (the same) stilts". Both kinds of notes think that China people with long legs are long-legged people tied to their feet with wooden stilts. In Talking about Dani, people believe that stilts originated from primitive totem beliefs and were used in religious sacrificial ceremonies, and then evolved from acrobatic performances to dance forms that played the role of traditional operas. Danzhu in the Yao and Shun period was a clan with cranes as its totem, and stilt play directly originated from the dance of the ancient crane totem clan. Recently, some scholars think that there is a word in Oracle Bone Inscriptions that can be interpreted as "dancing like a person dancing with a stick in his foot". If established, this unique stilt dance form of Han nationality will appear in the late Shang Dynasty at the latest. This is a supplement from totem worship. Moreover, in the religious ceremonies of Chokwe tribe in Zaire, Africa, there are stilt walking performances. A wizard walked slowly on long wooden stilts and danced slowly with his hands. This is another proof that the art of "totem worship" and "religious ceremony" originated from nature. In fact, walking on stilts is the product of the struggle between human beings and natural conditions. The origin of labor theory can be based on another note by A Jin Guo Pu: China people with long arms are in the east of Chishui, and their bodies are like ordinary people, but their arms are three feet long. "Or, people with long legs often go fishing with people with long arms." From this, it is associated with wooden stilts with long legs and fishing tools with long hands, and depicts the image of Jing fishermen living in the "three islands of Jing nationality" in Fangcheng, Guangxi, stepping on wooden stilts and casting nets in shallow water for fishing. According to 1930' s Art Style magazine, "Chopsticks Street and Tielong Street in Wuchang are often flooded because of their low status. Whenever the flood floods, the residents there almost walk on stilts. This is a record of stilts from work and life. Stilts originally belonged to one of the hundred ancient operas in China, which appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. In China, stilts were first introduced in Liezi Fu Shuo: "People who owned Zilan in Song Dynasty used their skills to dry the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Song and Yuan dynasties summoned them to see their skills. There are two branches that are twice as long as its body and belong to its tibia. They go hand in hand, making the seven swords overlap and jump. Five swords were always hanging in the air. Yuan Jun was afraid, so he presented gold and silk. "As can be seen from the article, stilts were popular as early as 500 BC. Performers can not only walk with long wood tied to their feet, but also jump and dance swords. Stilts are divided into three types: stilts, middle stilts and running stilts, with the highest being more than ten feet. In the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, stilts were called "stilts" and in the Song Dynasty, they were called "stepping on a bridge". Known as "stilts" since the Qing Dynasty, it is made of 1 to 3 feet long wooden strips with wooden supports. Performers tie their feet to sticks, dress up as various figures, and one or more people dance together, accompanied by suona, performing interesting actions or stories. Beijing is known as the "stilt club". The Yellow River basin is called "sticking high feet" and can be divided into literary stilts and military stilts. Wen Qiao mainly performs walking and singing, with simple dance movements. Wuqiao performed handstand, high jump, stacked arhats and splits.

According to records in ancient books, stilts in ancient times were all made of wood. Make a fulcrum in the middle of the planed wooden stick to put your feet, and then tie it to your leg with a rope. Performers can dance swords, splits, stools, cross tables and yangko on stilts. The characters in the northern stilt yangko are fisherman, matchmaker, fool, second brother, Taoist and monk. A performer's funny appearance can arouse great interest of the audience. In the south, stilts play the role of China's traditional drama, including Guan Gong, Zhang Fei, Lv Dongbin, He Xiangu, Zhang Sheng, Matchmaker, Jigong, Immortal and Clown. They sang while performing, and they were very lively and entertained themselves. It is said that this form of walking on stilts was originally developed by ancient people in order to collect wild fruits from trees as food and tie two long sticks to their legs. Most stilts used by people today are made of wood, and performances can be divided into double stilts and single stilts. Double stilts are often tied to the calf to show their skills; Holding the top of wooden stilts with both hands, it is convenient to go up and down, and it is dynamic and interesting. Its performances can be divided into "Wen stilts" and "Wu stilts". Literary stilts emphasize pretending and teasing, while martial stilts emphasize personal skills and unique skills. Stilts around the country have formed a distinctive regional style and national color.

Wushu stilts in northern Henan originated in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is a unique dance art of Han nationality in China.

The height of stilts varies from a few inches to seven or eight feet in Shanxi Province. In Ruicheng County and Xinjiang County of Shanxi Province, the height of stilts reaches 15 feet or even 18 feet. Usually, the height of stilts is about four feet. Stilts have a long history in Shanxi, and pictures of stilts and acrobatics can also be seen on the sarcophagus of the Northern Wei Dynasty unearthed in Yushe County, Jinzhong area. Although stilts are not recorded in writing, they should start from the Northern Wei Dynasty at the latest. There are two kinds of stilts in Shanxi: Wen stilts and Wu stilts. Wen's stilts are more important than twisting and stepping, and Wu's stilts mainly perform stunts.

In Fushan County, the first stilt is the conductor, the second stilt is the leader, the opera characters are in the middle, and finally the ugly ones are behind. The performance begins with twisting various field maps, and then performs various difficult movements, such as "crossing Xianqiao", "jumping on a table", "jumping on a double stool" and "splitting".

In Hucun, Yuanqu County, stilts mainly perform stunts. The stilt performances here not only have tricks such as turning, bumping, backflip, fork dropping, table jumping and somersault, but also have difficult lifting methods such as lifting two knots, three knots, sitting lifting, standing lifting and combination lifting, and can form the shapes of "horse-drawn cart" and "crossing the overpass". Walking on stilts in this county, the most difficult thing is to "climb the tiger ladder".

"Butterfly" in Bai Bi Village, Xinjiang County and Shuangchi Town, Jiaokou County is a stilt-walking program with both storylines and many difficult movements. This program is performed by three people. Young women play the role of angels, carrying butterflies on their backs, young men play the role of niche, holding butterfly fans, and clowns play and chase with rattles. It is very vivid, lively and interesting. In the performance, these three people have some skills, such as squatting, jumping on the table, kite flipping, jumping over the head, rolling backwards and jumping on one leg.

The "animal stilts" in Jishan County and Youyu County are conjoined stilts performed by two people. The stilt performers have wooden stilts tied to their feet, animal skins tied to their waists and animal heads tied to their foreheads. Their upper bodies play corresponding numbers to form a set of shapes. They dance and move forward to the sound of music and gongs and drums.

It is very difficult for three people to step on four stilts in Xiaxian and other places, and four people need tacit cooperation in performance to tie five stilts.

The stilts in Yuanping, Pingding and Dingxiang counties are called "stilt yangko", which is called "stilt yangko" by twisting yangko steps and changing formation, and then commenting and singing. In Ganjiazhuang, Xixian County, there is also a performance mode of "singing stilts" with a small bell tied at the joint of stilts.

In Shanxi Province, stilt performances are varied and eclectic. The performance time of these stilts is generally in the "red fire" activities around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and stilts are a form of performance in the whole activity. This kind of activity is flexible in content and relatively free in action. It can perform in a big field or walk up and down the street.

It is the Lantern Festival, and the countryside in Cangzhou, Hebei Province is full of joy. Dancing yangko, walking on stilts, dancing long dragons and running dry boats, the farmers spent the Lantern Festival happily. The picture shows the stilt team performing stilts in Nanxiaoying Village, Cang County. Stilts are very popular in Northeast China, the most famous of which is "Southern Liaoning Stilts". Its form is complete and its performance is standardized. At the beginning, you need to "build an elephant" (fold the shape of two floors) to sing yangko, which means "there is an elephant in peacetime", then run to the big field to change the formation pattern, and then perform duets, "butterfly flapping", "fishermen fishing" and perform folk operas in groups.

On the stilts of ethnic minorities, actors all wear their own clothes and perform in a unique way. For example, Buyi people have both double stilts and single stilts (also known as single stilts), which are easy to make by holding both ends of stilts with both hands, and their single stilts are especially popular with children; In the Bai people's "stilts playing with horses", the actors also stepped on wooden stilts and performed with horse-shaped props; It is refreshing that the Uygur "double stilts" integrate national dance into it.

Walking on stilts is also called "crutches" in Wubao area.