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The Oldest Performance Art in China
 Acrobatics is a performance art that combines
physical strength and skill. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes acrobatics as
"the specialized and ancient art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing, often
using apparatus such as poles, unicycles, balls, barrels, tightropes,
trampolines, and flying trapezes."
Chinese acrobatics reached a high
level of sophistication as early as the Warring
States Period (475-221BC) during the third century BC, with acrobats
proficient at juggling seven daggers while manipulating 3-meter stilts.
Acrobatic performances are vividly depicted in brick paintings and stone
engravings dating back to the Han
Dynasty (206BC-220AD). Various works depict acrobats performing hand tricks
such as juggling with swords, balls, and bottles, as well as stunts using long
poles, barrels, drum carts, and galloping horses.
A brick painting
unearthed from a Han tomb in Pengxian County of Southwest China's Sichuan
Province portrays three acrobats -- one performing handstands atop 12
stacked tables; another dancing on drums; and a third juggling balls. A point
well worth mentioning is that modern acrobatic performances continue to feature
high-altitude handstands.
A stone engraved with "Bai xi tu" that was
discovered in a Han tomb in Yinan County of East China's Shandong
Province, provides a vivid picture of ancient Chinese acrobats performing in
a circus. The work entitled "Variety Show" was found in a tomb in Beizhai
Village some eight kilometers west of Yinan County. The work can be divided into
four parts viewed from left to right.
Part one features ball and dagger
juggling, as well as a man balancing a cross on his forehead while three boys
perform stunts such as tumbling and hanging upside down on the cross. The
performer possessed great skill in simultaneously balancing the cross and
avoiding seven plates placed at his feet.
Part two shows an orchestra of
15 musicians playing chime
stones, bells, jian-drums, zithers (a kind of stringed instrument), xun (an
egg-shaped wind instrument), and panpipes.
Part three depicts "Tightrope
Walking Over a Mountain of Knives" and "Yulongmanyan Dance." The former shows an
acrobat performing handstands on a tightrope above a series of upright knives
while a performer at one end of the rope appears to be spinning meteor-like
bulbs and a performer at the opposite end, juggling tridents (three-pronged
spears). The latter is a majestic demonstration of acrobatic performances
featuring imitations of laop fish (define what "laop" means), dragons, and
birds.
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