Myriads of Aerial Acrobatics
4 min readBy the Sui and Tang dynasties the aerial acrobatics made headway and myriads of aerial acrobatic shows emerged. The aerial acrobatics in the Southern and Northern dynasties were paled into insignificance compared with those in the Sui and Tang dynasties which were represented by “Dai Gan”and “Fei Sheng.”
In the Sui and Tang dynasties the acrobatics make great breakthroughs especiallyin Ding Gan skills which were performed as follows: there were two performers and two parallel poles; either performer stood atop a pole and in a twinkling of an eye the two performers leapt to switch positions. It is really incredible that such breathtaking actions could be executed at that time.
By the Tang dynasty it was more challenging to perform Dai Gan which had evolvedinto many patterns. In the reign of Tianbao Mrs. Wang was an ace performer of Ding Gan. Atop the head of Mrs. Wang was a pole 100 chi or 33.3 meters long and above the pole was a wooden hill in the shape of the fairy mountain of Yingzhou or Fangzhang and on the top of the mountain was a little actor with a red tally in his hand who kept dancing and singing quite at ease. Such super acrobatic skills were unparalleled. In the reign of Dezong there was another Mrs. Wang,a native of Sanyuan, who was in command of amazing acrobatic skills as well. The historical documents say this Mrs. Wang can manage to walk carrying eighteen people on the top of her head. Even if all of the eighteen people were kids, their weight must have added up to about 500 kilograms. The Anecdotes about An Lushan relates that an acrobat at An’s mansion could carry as many as 24 people on the top of his head. If not for his incredible strength it is impossible to execute such a show.
In the Tang dynasty the Ding Gan Skills attained an unprecedented level and the honor guards accompanying the aristocrats and noblemen were preceded by the Zai Gan performances. The Outing of an Noble Lady of Kingdom Song in the murals at Dunhuang depicts a woman in robes carrying four people on her head and dancing along. Some members in the honor guard could make shows with the long and narrow flags. Later on such skills were improved and polished, evolving into a new category of acrobatics.
What was even more breathtaking were the acrobatic shows integrating the Dai Gar and variety shows. The representative performer of such breathtaking shows was ShiHuohu in the reign of Emperor Tangjingzong. Her performance integrated dancing and singing, rope walking and carrying the pole atop her head. Shi Huohu,a Youzhou native, together with her five foster daughters at the age of eight or nine performed with a one-hundred-chi pole. Each of the five kids dressed in a unique color stood on one of the five rungs stretching from the pole to put on the Pozhen Performance by playing with the daggers and halberds. It can be said that Shi Huohu’s performance marked the apex of the Ding Gan acrobatics. Such a performance was alarmingly dangerous, striking panic into the hearts of the spectators. Besides Dai Gan, rope walking was also an important component of the aerial acrobatics in the Tang dynasty. The rope walking which took many patterns at that time, in most cases was combined with other varieties of acrobatics, that is, varieties of acrobatics were performed while the acrobat was walking on the rope.
“The Kid Walking on the Rope and Juggling the Jade”as portrayed in the Pictures of Xin Xi Gu Yue is a combination of juggling and rope walking. Besides being at home about the law of pitching and catching the jade balls the performer has to have excellent control of balance, otherwise his slightest negligence may cost him a falloff the rope. The rope-walker tried his best to display more sophisticated acrobaticacts so as to add appeal to his performance. Some female acrobats walked on the rope wearing getas, which was an innovation of rope walking. The poems in the Tang dynasty also make mention of the acrobats walking the rope on the high stilts. Sucha performance is extraordinarily challenging. Similar to the skills depicted in thelines of “two artists dancing face to face with their shoulders forming a tangent” in the Han dynasty were the skills of “sword dancing on the rope”in the Tang dynasty. On either end of the rope stands an acrobatic artist who walks on playing the sword; after meeting each other the two acrobats switch positions, which reflects that the rope walking skills reached a high level at that time in that it had developed into an independent acrobatic system integrating various categories of skills.
