1th CHIME, 2006: July17-25 Yúlín Northern Group Expedition - Marnix Wells
Our coach followed the Míng Great Wall’s line from Yúlín northeast to the south-flowing Yellow River of the Shanxi border at Fûgû, then north to Mâzhèn. On the way back we made an excursion to the border of Inner Mongolia by a great fresh-water lake on the desert edge, before returning southeast to the Yellow River at Jiaxiàn. The itinerary was: 18th Tuesday Yúlín-Fûgû, 19th Wednesday Mâzhèn-Fûgû, 20th Thursday Dong Húlúsù-Hóngjiânnáo ‘Red Soda Lake’, Friday 21st Shénmù, 22nd Saturday Jiaxiàn, 23rd Sunday Yúlín.
Everywhere along the highways we saw evidence of impressive development, agriculture, reforestation, and electric generation from exploitation of vast coal reserves. We witnessed restoration of a cultural street with its old multi-story wooden gate towers in Yúlín, functioning Daoist and Buddhist temples, open-air performances by Shânbêi folk singers, local opera performances at temple festivals and a riverside funeral. There were glimpses from our air-conditioned coach among roadside foliage of the hoopoe (dàishèng niâo), a bird painted on the walls of a imperial Táng tomb.
At the concluding conference in Yúlín, Chinese participants endorsed the goals of cultural conservation, while some ‘post-modernist’ Europeans argued that such preservation was a form of colonialism and impediment to progress.Traditional forms can continue to thrive, Hâihâi remarked by updating content, as in old songs with new words.
Such adaptations have been successful in political propaganda, like the anthem “The East is Red (Dongfang Hóng)”, sung to a traditional a Shânbêi folk tune. This method, greatly developed during the communist anti-Japanese resistance of the 1930s, was discredited by the excesses of the late 1960s ‘Cultural Revolution’. Yet its contributions to revitalising traditional folk forms, instrumental and vocal, offer lessons for today. Past cultural forms, if conserved and re-interpreted, may provide a virtual gene pool for future generations to tap and develop. .
Northern Shânxi bears witness to the interaction of at least five main different cultures:
a) Mongolian nomadic culture is based on sheep-herding, Bactrian camels in the desert areas, and
horses. Its influence is seen north of the Míng Great Wall in place names such as the Hàn village
of Dong Húlúsù, where folksong containing Mongolian phrases, and a shaman frame-drum ritual dance, was performed.
b) The military culture of a long demobilised frontier survives in the traces of the mud-brick cored
Great Wall, with its fortresses and beacon towers, first built here in 1472 to protect against Mongol cavalry raids.
Yúlín was a major base behind the Wall, with its triple tiered fortress guarding a gateway in it through which horse
trading with Mongols was conducted. At Fûgû a map showed the intersection there of the Qín north-south Wall
with the Míng east-west wall.
Yangge dances, with their great suônà reed-trumpets and big drum percussion bands, follow complex manoeuvres
in single files, of both sexes, holding umbrellas and fans, seem to recall military drills of past peasant
armies (like the Trojan game in Virgil’s Aeneid).
At Jiaxiàn one night we found ourselves dancing to the tune of the old Maoist favourite ‘Sailing the Great
Sea depends on the Helmsman’ (Hángxíng Dàhâi kào Duóshôu). It turned out to be one of the simpler patterns,
‘Eight Horse Paired Rings’ (Ba-mâ Duìhuán), interweaving turns of ‘clockwise, clockwise, anti-clockwise’
when passing a member of the opposite sex.
c) Hàn peasant culture grows maize and sorghum, but just jujube dates in the barren hills of Jiaxiàn.
Reforestation planting has been vigorously implemented in recent years. A new economy, centred on Shénmù,
is exploiting huge coal reserves for electric power generation and conveyance by pylon cables to the
southeast litoral.
Cave houses, hollowed from the loess cliffs are still inhabited, but appear to be generally in the
process of replacement by less picturesque conventional housing. Traditional houses maintain old
brick beds, heated by hot-air flues, and wood lattice windows, originally pasted with translucent
paper on which women displayed skill at scissor-cutting intricate red paper figures.
Courtship is the main theme of North Shânxi’s xìntianyóu (‘trust heaven roving’) folksong, often
frankly physical in uncensored duets, such as the Eighteen Touches (Shíbamo) and its result in Song of
Pregnancy (Huáitaiqû),which we heard in a temple courtyard in Mâzhèn and above the Yellow River by the
Confucius temple at Fûgû. It thus relates to the mountain song (shan’ge) genre of spring outdoor
romantic festivals. Revolutionary songs during the ‘Cultural Revlution’ readily channelled these
feelings into love for the political leader.
d) Daoist and Buddhist temples operate, mostly on hill or cliff tops. The most dramatic of these
are Báiyúnguan ‘White Cloud Hermitage’ in Jiaxiàn, and Èrlángshan at Shénmù. Daoism predominates
but coexists with Buddhism, often sharing adjoining shrines. Martial deities like Guan’gong and Zhenwû,
with shrines to mother goddesses on the side, tend to be the main focus. Impressive Qing dynasty wall
paintings survive in many temples, though the images appear to be new.
At Báiyúnguan, a Daoist reed (sheng, guan, suônà) and percussion (drum and cymbals) played as
two acolytes waved red scarves in an attempted ritual dance revival, while the head priest made
circling gestures with empty hands as if holding cymbals.
Many temples had covered stages, on their south facing the shrine, and the audience in the
courtyard, which included a few white-hatted Moslems, watched operas and story telling performed
at festivals. Temporary stages were erected for operas at a major funeral by the Yellow River at Fûgû.
At Mâzhèn we witnessed a brief rain praying ceremony with leafy boughs in the courtyard.
e) Confucian relics survive in the restored Wénmiào, ‘Temple of Literature’ to Confucius, with its
deserted school, at the top of the town of Fûgû. A small private archaeological museum at Shénmù holds
the remains of a 2000 year old wooden instrument, thought to be a seven string Hàn dynasty qín.
Yúlín’s ‘Folk Museum’, an old courtyard home off Culture Street, has few exhibits but provides an
elegant venue for performance of Yúlín Xiâoqû, the southern-style string ensemble (with Jiangnán Sizhú affinities)
to which literary lyrics (qûpái) are sung. Just outside the city on the cliffs of Red Rock Gully (Hóngshíxiá), beside
ravaged cave temples, is a fine display of engraved calligraphy by Qing scholar officials.