Xu Ning, a poet from the Tang Dynasty who you may not be familiar with, once wrote a poem about the beauty Zhao Feiyan:
Jade frost flows in front of the water curtain,
< p>Zhao Jiafei Yan serves Zhaoyang.The sound of the flute after dancing in the palm of my hand is endless,
The autumn night in the thirty-sixth palace is long.
This poem involves a short story:
Once, in the viewing pavilion on the island in the Taiye Pool behind the palace, Zhao Feiyan performed a dance for Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty used jade rings to beat the music, and the eunuch Feng Wufang played the sheng to accompany him.
While Zhao Feiyan was dancing "Returning Wind and Farewell Song", a sudden gust of wind blew up, and Zhao Feiyan almost fell into the pool. Thanks to Feng Wufang's hold on her thin cloud water skirt, she escaped.
At this time, Zhao Feiyan, with Feng Wufang's hands holding her ankles, was still intoxicated in the dance state of "flying like feathers and ascending to immortality".
When Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty saw this scene, he suddenly had a whim and ordered the palace maid to come over with a crystal tray in her hands. Zhao Feiyan actually jumped onto the tray and sang and danced at the same time. All the viewers marveled, "Feiyan can dance on the palm of her hand." "That's where it comes from.
Dancing in a Crystal Plate
So, Zhao Feiyan is indeed able to dance on a plate as legendary in history?
Zhao Feiyan’s peerless dancing skills
Zhao Feiyan was born as a commoner, but because of her poor family, she was sent to the palace to become a maid. She later became a queen and was favored by Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty Liu Ao. In addition to her personal beauty, she was also inseparable from her superb dancing skills.
In the third year of Hongjia (18 BC), Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty was bored in the palace, so he visited Princess Yang'a's house. Princess Yang'a called out a group of dancers she had carefully trained to please Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, and Zhao Feiyan was among them. With her captivating eyes, beautiful singing voice, and graceful dancing posture, she immediately captivated Emperor Cheng. Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty took her back to the palace.
Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty (resemblance or resemblance is all imaginary)
There is also a record in the book, saying: "The waist bones of Empress Zhao are slender, and they are good at walking [jǔ], as if they were holding hands." The branches of flowers are trembling, and no one else can learn from them." "Zhenbu" is Zhao Feiyan's original creation. When dancing, his hands tremble like holding a flower, and his body moves like the wind, which shows that he has profound dance skills.
The "Palm Dance" mentioned by the poets of the Tang Dynasty was also an original creation of Zhao Feiyan.
The Han Dynasty, the Dynasty of Dance
We know that the Han Dynasty was an era of good dancing. From the perspective of cultural inheritance, the Han Dynasty mainly continued the Chu culture. Chu people advocate witchcraft, and an important form of witchcraft is dance, in order to achieve communication between heaven and man. "Although Chu has three households, the Qin will be destroyed by Chu." Xiang Yu was from Chu, Liu Bang and many of the people who followed Liu Bang to conquer the world were also from Chu. During the siege of Gaixia, the music played by the Han army was also "embarrassed on all sides".
Besieged on all sides
As a result, the subsequent Han Dynasty became a dynasty of singing and dancing. After Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, put down the rebellion of King Tingbu of Huainan, he "passed Pei and stayed there. He set up the Jiupei Palace and summoned his old friends, fathers and children to indulge in drinking. He got a hundred and twenty people from Peizhong and taught him the song. After drinking heavily, Gaozu built it and since then He wrote a poem: "The wind is blowing, the clouds are flying, and we are returning to our hometown in the sea, and the warriors are here to guard the four directions!" The emperor then danced in harmony, feeling generous and sad, and wept for several lines. "Historical Records: The Benji of Emperor Gaozu") This style of dance that moves with emotion and improvise has become a trend since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and there is no shortage of books in history.
The emperors of the Han Dynasty after Liu Bang often entertained guests from all over the world with large-scale music and dance with magnificent scenes. For example, in the second year of Emperor Xuan's reign in Yuankang, when Xie Yue, the granddaughter of Liu Wu, the king of Chu, married King Wusun, he performed "Dajiao Dui" in Pingyuan, played music to send the princess away to marry, and entertained the Huns envoys and other foreign guests (see "Han Shu· Biography of the Western Regions"). During the reign of Emperors Wen and Jing, he once "set up a wine pool and a meat forest to entertain guests from all over the world, and performed plays such as "Bayu", "Dulu", "Dangji" in the sea, many fish and dragons, and horns to watch."
The "Book of Han·Biography of Su Jian (Fuzi Su Wu)" records that Su Wu was detained for nineteen years as an envoy to the Xiongnu. After going through hardships, he was released back to the Han Dynasty in the sixth year of the First Yuan Dynasty (81 BC). Before leaving, Li Ling, the Han general who had surrendered to the Huns, held a farewell banquet for him. During the banquet, Li Ling danced and sang: "After traveling thousands of miles, I have crossed the sand curtain, and I am fighting for the Huns as a general for the king. The road is dead, the arrows are driving, the soldiers are destroyed, and my name has been obscured. My mother is dead, although I want to repay my kindness, will I return home safely?" Song and dance Bi. Farewell to Su Wu.
Su Wu and Li Ling
In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the style of Shangwu remained the same. In the sixth year of Zhongping (189), Emperor Ling died and the young emperor Liu Bian came to the throne. Dong Zhuo, a warlord with real power, led his troops to Beijing, deposed Liu Bian as King of Hongnong, and established Liu Xie as Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. Later, he killed Liu Bian with poison, wine and medicine. When Liu Bian was having a farewell banquet with Queen Tang Ji and the palace people in the palace, he was filled with emotions, so he asked Tang Ji to dance and sing while dancing to express his feelings of separation between life and death. (See (Book of the Later Han·Queen’s Notes))
Dancing postures frozen for thousands of years
So can Zhao Feiyan dance on a plate? There was indeed a dance in the Han Dynasty that was danced on a plate , and drums are also used. Depending on the skill of the performer, the number of pans and drums will be different. This dance is called "pan-drum dance".
Fu Yi, a litterateur in the Han Dynasty, said in "Dance Fu": "Dancers may leap up in the air and hit the drum surface with their feet staggered forward and backward, with their front legs making a bow shape, and their hind legs half-kneeling, sometimes The upper body is tilted back greatly, the back is bent and the heels are rubbed. The waist is bent to a great extent, as if it is bent. Such dance skills have high requirements for dancers, who must have a slender waist and a flexible body. .
Han Dynasty Pangu Stone Portrait Unearthed in Nanyang
This portrait stone is like a colorful stage, performing a wonderful performance in the center of the stage, with a man waving. The long sleeves dance between the pans and drums on the ground, and the forward and backward curves and acrobatic movements are perfectly combined to form a unique art form.
< p>As the saying goes, "Long sleeves are good for dancing." In order to enhance the expressive effect, dancers in Han Dynasty dance would wear clothes with long sleeves. When dancing, one arm would swing upward, and the long sleeves would form a graceful arc above the head. At the same time, the other arm throws the long sleeve in front of the body in the opposite direction, and the two long sleeves show a beautiful rhythmic effect.Zhengzhou Xintong Bridge Han Dynasty long-sleeved dance portrait tiles
(There is also a swallow in the upper left corner. Could it have anything to do with Zhao Feiyan?)
On the stone portrait of Liang Gong Lin Han in Shandong, three dancers wear high buns and long skirts with narrow sleeves. , walking left and right, swinging their long sleeves and dancing, making a gesture of trying to grab the Cuju, while a band was accompanying them
Portrait of the Stone Cuju Sleeve Dance in Qufu, Shandong, Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty inherited Chu culture culturally, but in terms of system, the Chu people lived in the Yangtze River Basin and inherited the softness of water, so they developed Lao-Zhuang philosophy and Qu Yuan's Li Sao. ; The Qin people lived in the Yellow River Basin, were brave and strong, and unified the world by adhering to the techniques of Legalism. Therefore, the Han Dynasty was a combination of hardness and softness, and Han dance also fully reflected this feature.
Many times in the dances of the Han Dynasty, Men and women dance together, women are feminine and men are masculine.
In the following portrait of Han Dynasty in Nanyang, Henan, a slender dancer wearing a pointed hat dances with his sleeves raised, and a masked dancer on the right is naked. Upper body, leaning back and doing funny movements
Nanyang Sitting and Standing Dancing Portrait Stone
In order to increase the comedy effect, the image of the dancing man gradually turned into a clown and a beautiful woman. Dancing with the clown man creates another contrast between beauty and ugliness.
The most familiar clown is probably this Eastern Han Dynasty drumming and rapping figurine!
In addition, There are also similar depictions on many Han Dynasty portrait stones, pottery servants and jade pendants.
Henan Zhengzhou Long Sleeve Dance Portrait Stone