The Nuo Ceremony of the Military Examination in Dongling Village

“The Nuo ritual of Dongling Village is a living fossil of Chinese culture”

In March 1999, the Yangcheng Evening News reported on the full page that Dongling Village has a long tradition and is known as " After "Dongling Nuo Dance" (Yangcheng Evening News, Page 8, Visual News, March 6, 1999) "a living fossil in the history of dance", Dongling Village and Dongling Nuo Dance have received widespread attention from both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In the past ten years, many experts, professors, scholars and reporters have visited the village to inspect, interview and take photos. After the Lantern Festival in 2009, the Nuo dance in Dongling Village was reported by more than ten domestic media such as "Zhanjiang Nostalgia", "Zhanjiang Evening News", "Zhanjiang in Pictures", Guangdong Culture Network, Cultural China Network, Tencent, etc. attention at home and abroad. In November 2001, the academic paper "The Kao Bing Nuo in Dongling Village, Huguang Town, Zhanjiang City" was published in Taiwan's "Folk Customs and Folk Arts". Professor Kang Baocheng, director of the Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center at Sun Yat-sen University, also went to Dongling Village for field inspections and conducted research on the phenomenon of Nuo dance.

According to records, Nuo dance was a sacrificial ritual spread in the Central Plains area during the pre-Qin period to drive away ghost plagues. The Nuo dance in Dongling Village is called "Kaobing", or "training" and "exorcism", and is performed by five generals (Che), "Mai", "Li", "Liu" and "Hong" (the villagers also call them It is composed of the "fierce generals"), Tu Gong and Tu Tu Po. Legend has it that these five generals were the generals under Kang Huang, a famous anti-Liao general in the Northern Song Dynasty. It is understood that the Nuo dance in Dongling Village, Zhanjiang was caused by his ancestors who moved from the north to Putian, Fujian during the Song Dynasty. They entered Zhanjiang during the Ming Dynasty and settled here in the late Ming Dynasty. Kaobing Nuo masks were carved in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and have been around for 400 years. For many years, Nuo dance masks have been kept in Linggang Temple.

Every Lantern Festival, the Nuo dance performed by the five generals of Dongling Village will appear at the Lantern Festival ancestor worship ceremony, which will be held at the Linggang Temple and the square in front of the temple. "It starts from Chen hour and ends at Xu hour. Each household set up an altar to receive sacrifices. The land's father-in-law and land's mother-in-law held "divine sticks" in their hands to pray for the villagers. Five "war generals" walked through the fields and alleys, driving away diseases from house to house, eliminating disasters and receiving blessings, in order to seek peace and prosperity for the country and the people. All the Nuo rituals in this village are deeply influenced by the Central Plains and Wuyue cultures and inherit their characteristics. In 1992, Dongling Kaobing Nuo Dance was approved to be included in the national key scientific research project "Collection of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dances. Guangdong Volume". In addition, the mask images of the five Nuo dance generals who "examined the military" in Dongling Village were once adopted by Guangdong Telecom Co., Ltd. and printed on the cover of the 200 telephone card. In April 2007, the "Kaobing" Nuo dance was included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage masterpieces in Zhanjiang City. In January 2008, the Dongling Nuo Dance Team was rated as the most dynamic folk art team in Zhanjiang City.

“Looking at the Spring Festival folk rituals alone, Dongling Nuo rituals, Hakka festivals, Zhanjiang Donghai Island people and dragon dances, Chaoshan English singing and dancing, Panyu floating colors, and Lianping lanterns all demonstrate the culture from the Central Plains The inheritance, and its mixed animistic beliefs in the southwest jungle, make it even richer. It is not an exaggeration to call Guangdong the "last secret place" of the Central Plains civilization!"

Later, in recognition of it! The construction of rural spiritual civilization in Dongling Village further promotes the "three cultural" work in rural areas of our city, promotes the construction of a new socialist countryside, and creates a rural cultural brand. In March 2006, Dongling Village was designated by the Zhanjiang Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, Zhanjiang The Municipal Radio, Film and Television Press and Publication Bureau awarded it the title of "Zhanjiang Characteristic Cultural Village".

(Text/Lin Yanjun)