At the Weinan Lantern Festival in 2010, the "Eight Immortals Drum" performance in Xintian Village, Tianshi Town, Linwei District, was popular among the citizens as the "Eight Immortals". So far, during Chinese New Year and festivals, the "Eight Immortals Drum" performance has become a popular folk art performance by local citizens, and it is also a must-have folk society fire performance for citizens of Weinan and surrounding cities to celebrate the New Year and hold happy events, and has become a provincial intangible cultural heritage to be inherited.

>>Origin

It has a deep relationship with ancient military exercises and martial arts
"The Eight Immortals Drum is a self-entertainment activity organized by the masses. In the Shehuo performance, a comprehensive dance team is often formed with stilts, cores, dry boats, big head monks and other programs, and they perform at the end of the Shehuo team." February On the 15th, Song Kejian, secretary of Xintian Village, Tianshi Town, Linwei District, introduced.
The "Eight Immortals Drum" is a form of folk encouragement, and it has deep roots in ancient military exercises. According to research, today's Tianshi Town, Linwei District, Weinan City was originally the fief of Tianwen, the emperor of Mengchang during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. destruction). Up to now, there are still four major scenic spots in Tianshi Town: "The Hulu Stream is winding and winding outside the East Gate, the Weizihao outside the West Gate is full of flowers and fruits, the Douli Terrace outside the South Gate is rare in the world, and the North Gate is like a treasure on a human wall." The Douli Terrace outside the door refers to the place where Tian Wen practiced martial arts for his disciples at that time. It is said that every time he practiced martial arts, he would beat the drums to cheer him up. After this kind of drumming activity was spread among the people, and gradually formed the Eight Immortals today. drum form.
Local legends also say that at the end of the Song Dynasty, a young man named Hongwa in Tianshi Town learned the Baxian drum and other juggling skills in the barracks. After returning home, he sorted out the Baxian drum and popularized it. Before 1950, when performing Spring Festival activities, the dancers performing the Eight Immortals Drums wore red triangle scarves on their heads to commemorate the red baby.
According to the introduction of the old artist Qiao Jiangsheng: "The Eight Immortals Drums have been circulated locally for a long time. It is said that during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, there were two Qiao brothers in Nanqiao Village, Tianshi Town, doing business in the town. The younger brother (known as "Second Uncle") ") He loved boxing since he was a child, and was good at playing the Eight Immortals Drum. He danced mightily and had a strong image. Later, he passed on the drumming skills to Qiao Daibao, Qiao Youjin and others who loved to make fire in the community. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, they passed it on to the lovers Qiao Yulin, a member of the Shehuo activity, has a good punch and deep kung fu, and has made great contributions to the skills of the Eight Immortals.
After the founding of New China, Qiao Jilong and Qiao Shucheng from Nanqiao Village, Tianshi Town, studied the Eight Immortals Drums. Subsequently, the Baxian Drum and Xinzi and other social fire dance teams performed on the streets and squares of Weinan City and were rewarded by the municipal government and the cultural department, and won many honors.

>> show

Named after eight drummers performing the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea
The "Eight Immortals Drum" is spread in Xintian Village and its surrounding areas, Tianshi Town, Linwei District, Weinan City. The "Eight Immortals Drum" is mostly performed by eight strong young people. The performers wear a triangle hero scarf on their heads and a hero flower on their foreheads. Drums, drumming and dancing. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in order to enhance the atmosphere of the performance and the effect of the square, it often formed a comprehensive dance team with the local community such as: core, stilt, stilt, yangko team, big head baby and other programs, and moved forward while hitting and dancing.
"The Eight Immortals Drum is a kind of social fire dance in which the flat drum is tied in front of the waist and abdomen. It is named after the traditional performance of eight drummers who disguise themselves as Eight Immortals to perform the myth and legend of the Eight Immortals crossing the sea." Song Kejian introduced. , The Eight Immortals Drums perform in the process of marching and jumping, with dense drum beats and bursts of drum sounds, sometimes agitated like ten thousand horses galloping, sometimes soothing like running clouds and flowing water. In addition to the dancers hitting and dancing, there are also accompaniments by big gongs and big cymbals to set off the atmosphere.
"Eight Immortals Drum" performances are divided into two types, stage type and column process type. When performing in a column, most of them are led by the drum head (that is, the one with the highest skill among the Eight Immortals, who is in front of the team) to perform in one or more ways; when performing on the stage, the basic team types are: "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Eight Immortals Gathering", There are 20 kinds of "Eight Immortals Visiting", "Eight Immortals Celebrating Birthday" and so on.
The original Eight Immortal Drums mainly consisted of eight drums. During the performance, each person performed one drum and marched while performing. At present, it has developed to forty drums to perform group performances at the same time, breaking through the original limitation of only eight people performing. The Eight Immortals Drum has been passed down to the present, and it is mainly performed in the common people to pray for birthdays, weddings and funerals, do dojos, and perform at temple fairs to set off a lively atmosphere. The Eight Immortals Drums are indispensable for the Shehuo performances during the festivals.

>>Inheritance

At present, there is a relative shortage of funds and production artists
In the early days of reform and opening up, most of the young and middle-aged rural people went out to work, leaving only women and the elderly in the village, making it difficult for the villagers to develop their cultural life. In 2009, just as the Linwei District government was working on the intangible cultural heritage project, Song Kejian, the village secretary of the village, organized mass self-play classes in order to enrich the mass culture. At this time, the villagers also gradually realized the drawbacks of not paying attention to cultural life, and became enthusiastic about the "Eight Immortals Drum" activity.
"At that time, in the face of the 20-year interruption of the 'Baxian Drum' and the young men in the village going out to work, we felt that the restoration of the Baxian Drum was very difficult." Song Kejian said that he was the director of the village committee at that time, in order to let the "Baxian Drum" Inheritance, he mobilized young and middle-aged women in the village to participate.
"They were not used to it at first, but after a period of time, some of them got used to it. Later, more than 30 women were trained by experienced artists. After several months of training, the results were very good. At the Lantern Festival in 2010, the Eight Immortals Drum Performance was performed with the style of the Eight Immortals. The appearance of the characters is very popular among the masses." said a woman surnamed Wang who participated in the training in the village.
It was also in 2010 that the "Eight Immortals Drum" performance was spectacular on the second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon raised his head and played with the core and other programs for two days. Today, the "Eight Immortals Drum" is passed on from Qiao Jiangsheng to Qiao Dongsheng. Since 2011, Baxian Drum has been performed very frequently, with more than 100 performances in cities, rural areas, birthday celebrations, and wedding celebrations, which has greatly activated the cultural and artistic life of the masses.
"In recent years, with the advent of the market economy era, folk arts have few successors, and folk art forms have a tendency to be submerged in the economic tide. It is very difficult to go against the current and protect local characteristics." Work at the Linwei District Cultural Center According to the personnel, today, the costumes and most of the props of the "Eight Immortals Drum" have long been worn out, and the funds and production artists are relatively scarce. Linwei District has increased capital investment, requiring the village to purchase new props and costumes, and hopes that more people will know about the "Eight Immortals Drum" so that it can be passed on.