She is the god of earth, and Shehuo is the fire sacrificed to the earth god. The sacrificial society is a legacy of the Twelve Years of Decoration Festival in my country. In ancient times, on the day of Shehuo, villagers held a meeting to welcome the gods, using drums, ceremonial sticks, and miscellaneous performances to welcome the gods out of the temple and around the streets. Volume 4 of Wang Mingqing's "Hui Chen Qian Lu" contains: "Li Dingwen is also curious and wants to meet with Sai Shen." Volume 8 of Gao Cheng's "Shi Ji Yuan" introduces "Saishe" (i.e. Shehuo): "Farming is over." , Chen wine and food are used to worship the gods of the fields, and they drink and have fun together." There is a poem in the second and third volumes of "Shihu Collection" by Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty: "Dancing in the Diankuangshe" and notes: " The folk drum music is called Shehuo, which cannot be fully remembered. It is mostly used as a joke.
The above-mentioned Shehuo activities in ancient my country still have obvious traces in Umbrella Yangge. Local folk have always referred to Yangko as "making society", "making society fire", "making Honghuo", "making society", etc. The "social" and "hui" mentioned here are obviously the same as those in ancient my country. The "Saishe" and "Saihui" sacrificial activities are closely related to each other. In terms of activity time, Umbrella Yangko is concentrated during the Spring Festival. This is when people celebrate the harvest and pray for good weather and abundant harvests in the coming year. In addition, there are many similarities in the form of activities. According to the customs of "Linxian Chronicle" (the 57th edition of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty): "On the Lantern Festival, lanterns and colorful decorations are put on, performances are performed, and after the competition, each community has a bowl of gold and preserved meat. It breaks the market. "The "bottle of gold and preserved meat" mentioned here means that after the theatrical performance, each community paid for everyone to eat and drink together. This custom still exists today, which is consistent with the ancient "Meetings and Drinking and Having Fun". According to "Lin" "County Chronicle" (sixth edition of the Republic of China) Liu Rulan's "Bamboo Branch Poetry" in the art and literature chronicle:
The Yangko troupe performs as village farmers,
The flower drums and spotted clothes are marching all the way,
Going from the East Society to the West Society,
The first thing to do is to sing with great joy.
The end note says: "In the new year, the Tian family often perform Yangko to entertain each other. "This Zhuzhi Ci more accurately records the performance form, singing content, activity time and performance customs of Umbrella Yangko in the early years of the Republic of China. "Yangko Team Team" shows that there are many places where Yangko is performed, and "Huagu Spotted Clothes" refers to the Yangko Team The costumes also reflect the form of mutual communication and the custom of singing blessings and congratulations before entering. This is consistent with the form of the current Umbrella Yangko and many Shehuo Yangko in Shanxi. Among them, "Dongshe Chuanlai". "Going to the West Society" is the same as the custom of "traveling around the streets" during the ancient gods-welcoming games in my country.
From the analysis of the activity content, worshiping gods and temples has always been one of the important activities of Umbrella Yangko. This book Since the 1940s, although there have been many anti-superstition campaigns, this custom has still spread among the people. On the first day of the Yangko performance, the community leader or leader must join the Yangko team and bring water, wine, and sacrifices. Outside the village, people worship the wind god, rain god, field god, grain god, river god, etc., and pay homage to temples of all sizes. During the sacrifice, everyone kneels down together, the owner burns incense and offers wine, and kneels under the umbrella to sing sacrificial Yangko. The gods bless the grain harvest and the population's safety. Mr. Guo Pihan has collected many such Yanggge lyrics during his interviews with the people. Here are a few selected ones:
"Worship the Wind God"
Grandpa Fengshen showed his spirit,
The rain cannot be carried out without you spreading the clouds,
Half the door of your hometown is covered,
Don’t scream Yellow dust.
"Worship at the Guanyin Temple"
The gongs and drums beat the general's order,
The old mother Guanyin is listening,
You always give us more Appear,
bless the whole village with peace.
From the above two Yangko songs, we can see that it has strong sacrificial customs. In addition, it is particularly worth mentioning the custom of "sacrifice to the god of plague" in Umbrella Yangko, which is very similar to ancient Chinese Nuo dance. According to "Lu's Spring and Autumn Period." "Jidong" contains the sentence "Mate has Si Da Nuo", and Gao Yuan comments: "Da Nuo drives away the yin energy to guide the yang. Today, people beat drums to drive away epidemics on the day before their twelfth year, which is called driving away." Book of the Later Han Dynasty. "Book of Etiquette" records: "On the first day of the first month of the year, Da Nuo was called Da Nuo, which is called chasing away the epidemic. The ceremony selected the disciples of the Huangmen... one hundred and twenty people were the maidens, all made of red silk ribbons, holding fire, and named Fang Xiangshi. With four golden eyes, covered with bear skin, wearing black clothes and red clothes, holding a spear and raising a shield, the twelve beasts have clothes and horns... Because he danced with the twelve beasts in a square shape, there were cheers everywhere, and the former and the latter passed three times. Five battalions of knights outside the door spread fire and throw water." This kind of singing and dancing activity to ward off evil spirits and diseases was only held in the palace at first, but by the Spring and Autumn Period it had spread throughout the countryside. "The Analects of Confucius. The chapter "Xiang Party" contains: "The villagers perform Nuo and stand on the steps in court clothes." It refers to Confucius wearing court clothes and standing on the steps to watch the Nuo dance in the countryside.
So far, in some remote mountainous areas, people who perform yangko must first offer sacrifices to the plague, and then go to the courtyard to watch the plague. At the end of the yangko (usually after sunset), a ceremony to send off the plague is also held. That is, the community members make a small boat in advance, mostly made of sorghum poles and pasted with colored paper. The special places are made of wood, and lights and a paper figure are placed on the boat to symbolize the god of plague, or just a tablet with the god of plague written on it. They were escorted to the river by the Yangko team. After people burned incense and knelt down, they sang a farewell Yangko on the umbrella head and then put the paper boat (or wooden boat) into the water and floated away. After sending off the plague, the Yangko activity comes to an end. When we returned to the village, all the flags and drums were silent, and no one spoke anymore. According to this custom, every village on the edge of the Yellow River sends the god of plague into the Yellow River. In mountain villages far away from the Yellow River, a big red rooster is used instead of a paper boat to send the plague god. They go to the top of the highest mountain and release the rooster into the ditch.
The Umbrella Yangge, a traditional custom of "sending away plagues", is so similar to the ancient Nuo dance of "chasing plagues", it cannot be said that there is no connection between them. At this point we can say that Umbrella Yangko is a very ancient folk art, which originated from the sacrificial activities in ancient my country.