Development of the Circus Acts and the Animal Plays

Among the varieties of acrobatics, the magic shows appeared comparatively late and developed relatively slow. Up to the Han dynasty did such shows attain a certain artistic level and a certain scale with the emergence of “Yulong Manyan”. But the other magic shows were on a small scale and were not so developed, and it was in theThree Kingdoms Period, the Two Jins and the Southern and Northern Dynasties that the magic tricks’ development gained momentum, which was largely benefited from the infusion of the acrobatics from the Western Regions.

Planting the melon was a classic magic show, which was transmitted from the Western Regions in the Western Han dynasty. By the Three Kingdoms Period it had beel transmitted into Kingdom Wu. According to Stories of Immortals by Gan Bao,a man named Xu Guang in Kingdom Wu often performed magic tricks at the fair. One servant asked for a melon from his master, but the master turned a deaf ear to the servant’s request. So the servant sowed the melon seeds into the earth, and it turned out that very soon the vines, flowers and melons all came forth. The servant made gifts of the melons to the audience. Such a technique of sowing the melon seed was an innovation on that of the Han dynasty and got refined in the Tang dynasty.

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