Lantern show (Northern Sichuan lantern show)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: dengxi (Northern Sichuan dengxi)

Applicant: Nanchong City, Sichuan Province

Project No.: 221

Project No.: Ⅳ - 77

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Nanchong City, Sichuan Province

Protection unit: Nanchong Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Brief introduction of the lantern show (Northern Sichuan lantern show)

Applicant: Nanchong City, Sichuan Province

Dengxi is not only a folk drama with local characteristics in Chongqing and Sichuan, but also one of the important tunes of Sichuan Opera. Because its performances are mostly combined with Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Shehuo, Qingtan and other folk activities, it has the characteristics of more small plays, more happy plays and more farce. Generally, the plays with large scenes, complex plots and many characters are not performed.

Before liberation, Liangping County was also known as Liangshan County, so the local opera was called Liangshan lantern opera, which has been in use today. Liangshan lantern opera originated from the folk "playing lantern" and "Yangge opera". The dance of the former is combined with the rap performance of the latter. The mid Qing Dynasty was the heyday of the development of Liangshan lantern drama. Now, local people also call it "Baotou opera" (before liberation, female roles were played by men, commonly known as "Baotou"), "Duangong opera" or "fat tube tune".

The northern Sichuan lantern shows the beauty, ugliness, good and evil, happiness, anger, sadness and joy of the world with the farmers' moral standards. Most of them show the thoughts, feelings and moral sentiment of the working people. The language is easy to understand, humorous and humorous, and full of local flavor and local characteristics.

Nanchong is its birthplace. Nanchong is located in the northeast of Sichuan Basin and the middle reaches of Jialing River. It is popular in Langzhong, Cangxi, Nanbu, Yanting, Jiange, Zhaohua, Jiangyou, Xichong, Yilong, Bazhong, Guang'an and some areas of Mianyang, Suining and Dazhou. It is one of the traditional folk art forms with the longest history, the widest coverage, the greatest influence and the deepest mass foundation in northern Sichuan.

It is recorded in the annals of Langzhong County in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1522-1566): "on May 15, the ancestral meeting was held, and the lantern play was performed for 10 days. Every night, the incense was like fog, and the fire was endless. The person who was the lantern mountain was the same as in the Yuan Dynasty." (this book is collected in the library of Peking University) in the Qing Dynasty, the performance was very active. According to Cangxi County annals in 1782 of Qianlong's 47th year, "in the Shangyuan Dynasty, lanterns were put on, lantern plays were performed, and platforms were built between counties and cities to compete day and night."

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, with the support of the party and the people's government, Nanchong District organized many people to investigate and collect the scattered lantern plays in the 1960s and 1980s, and excavated more than 300 plays and more than 90 pieces of music. He has participated in various national or provincial performances and competitions and won various awards from the Ministry of culture for many times.