According to Luo Wenheng, director of the Culture and Sports Bureau of Xuan'en County, Hubei Province, the eight-treasure bronze bell dance, also known as "Jie Qian", is a traditional dance of the Tujia people and is the most popular in the Xuan'en area of Enshi.
When the Tujia people worship their ancestors and pray for the harvest of grains and the prosperity of people and animals, they invite the Tu Laosi dance gods to "release money". In the minds of the Tujia people, the ancestors who have passed away are also "gods" who will always bless the future generations. Therefore, the Eight Treasures Bronze Bell Dance only has a festive and joyful atmosphere, and there is no gloomy and cold feeling in other sacrificial activities.
The Eight Treasures Copper Bell Dance regulates the rhythm of dance movements with crisp and pleasant bell rhythm, which has distinct national artistic characteristics.
Eight Treasures Copper Bell Staff, about 40 cm long, with a horse's head carved on the top, a half-arc fork as a horse's foot on the bottom, and 4 horse bells at each end. The props are also musical instruments used for sacrificing dance conductors. When singing and dancing, Tu Laosi wears a three-parent 50-fold crown on his head, wears eight Luo skirts (eight cloth skirts in red, yellow, and blue, just like today's foldable skirts), and holds a sword and a sword. The dance is performed while singing the divine song, and the movements are rough and agile.
In addition to a small amount of the content of asking the gods to repay the wishes of the bronze bell dance, a large number of dance movements are a complete set of historical content narrating the ancient ancestors of the Tujia people on horseback hunting and migration, such as feeding horses, teasing horses, mounting, dismounting, and galloping horses. , horse racing and other movements, there are no less than fifteen or six kinds of dance postures only for ringing the bell. The dance is rough and emotional, and the number of people performing the copper bell dance is generally eight, as many as ten or twenty.