Dragon, an amphibian in ancient legend, originated from totem culture in China. The three emperors and five emperors in ancient times all took dragons as totems. Beads, that is, pearls, luminous beads and dragon balls, can avoid fire and water and are symbols of good luck. People like to hold dragon dance performances during festivals to celebrate.
When dancing, one person holds colored beads (also called colored balls) and dances with Ssangyong, which is called Erlong Play Beads or Ssangyong Play Beads. This form of dragon dance, as well as the painting patterns of dragon dance that appeared later, all originated from a folklore story.
According to legend, there is a deep pool in Tianchi Mountain, where two green dragons practice. They care about the sufferings of the people nearby and often sow rain, so that the people can live a peaceful life without food and clothing. These two dragons are also loved by people. Tianchitan is also the place where the fairy of Tiangong bathes. Whenever the moon is bright and the wind is clear, fairies come here to take a bath and play.
Once, the fairies were having fun in the pool when a furry monster swooped down and molested the naked fairies. They shouted for help. When the two dragons heard the cry for help, they immediately rushed to Tianchi armed to the teeth. They saw a bear monster running wildly, and the two dragons fought bravely to kill the enemy, and the bear monster was defeated and captured.
The fairies told the Queen Mother about the rescue of Qinglong. At that time, the queen mother was merciful and took out a golden ball from the treasure gourd and gave it to Qinglong, so that they could practice successfully as soon as possible. There is only one golden bead, and no one wants to swallow it all You give it to me, I'll give it to you. Pushing it around, a golden ball jumped up and down between two dragons, shining. After a long time, this incident alarmed the Jade Emperor and sent Taibai Venus to visit him.
After the inspection, Taibai Venus reported to the Jade Emperor the virtues, kindness and loyalty of cultivating the two green dragons. The jade emperor was also moved, so he took out a golden ball and gave it to Qinglong. As a result, they each planted golden balls and became gods in charge of the fate of the people.
Folks don't forget the benefits of Qinglong to people, but also admire its virtue, so they build a temple to sacrifice at four o'clock. After a long time, from offering sacrifices to honoring dragons to entertaining dragon dancing, it has become a festive and auspicious dragon painting.
Dragon dancing and painted patterns in Shuanglong Opera are mostly in dragon walking posture, showing the shape of a golden ball raised by Shuanglong, and the golden ball dances between the two dragons. The patterns of Shuanglong pearls are mostly found in murals, dyeing, embroidery, carving and casting, which can be seen almost everywhere in daily life. The folk art form, which originated from two dragons playing with pearls, has a good wish to celebrate the harvest and pray for good luck.
Extended data:
Related extension of Shuanglong Pearl Opera: Shuanglong Pearl Opera is a folk dragon dance performance form.
Often performed in rural festivals, the two dragons are divided into female dragons and male dragons, so they are also called Shuanglong. The female dragon performer is 9 actresses, and the male dragon is 9 actors, plus 1 dragon ball (male). There are 19 dragon dancers in the whole program. The dragon body of Ssangyong is made of cloth and covered with scales of pigment. The tap is small, the dragon stick is short, and the dance is dexterous and light, which is also suitable for actresses to perform.
After the performance began, five accompanists struck big gongs, small gongs, drums, cymbals and other musical instruments. The Dragon Ball came out first, imitated the built high platform, and then jumped down and ran to the stage. After the male and female dragons stamped their sticks on the ground for three times, they danced on the stage from both sides and followed the dragon ball, which was called "Shuanglong Play Pearl".
After that, the dragon ball performed a performance of circling and piercing the array, or the dragon tail twisted, the faucet collided, or the dragon head twisted and the dragon tail swayed, all of which represented the deep affection of the male and female dragons. In the third stage, the Dragon Ball reappeared, leading the performance of Ssangyong until the end.
The characteristic of Qingcaowu Shuanglong is that it does not pay attention to the ups and downs of dragons, but pays attention to the performance of first arranging and then resolving. The biggest difficulty is that when the two dragons are intertwined, the actors should not make mistakes when dissolving the array, otherwise the double dragon knot will have ominous meaning (local legend).