钩沉舞史 悟化究竟——书写蒙古族舞蹈史的思路与方法

Explore Dance History to Infer the Ins and Outs:On Thinking and Methods of Writing the Dance History of Mongolian Ethnic Minority

在中国内蒙古高原有史以来便有一个自成体系的游牧型舞蹈文化圈,通过对其探究阐释,可以揭示中国北方游牧民族在多种社会因素促成下的生存之谜。本文志于蒙古族舞蹈的研究,以求从中国北方游牧民族文化的探索向度、草原艺术的研究深度,揭示蒙古民族舞蹈这种集北方游牧民族舞蹈之大成的艺术形态、文化特质以及美学范式,从而弥补蒙古族舞蹈"有舞无史"的缺憾;并采用多维、多向、多度的跨文化、跨学科的研究方法,力求从结构框架到内容阐释都有一些新的拓展思路和在方法上的突破。本文认为,书写舞史的前提是有史可依、有理可据;"若无多年渐悟之功,便无瞬间顿悟之效",而从"渐悟"到"顿悟"的转变则需通过实践感悟、田野调查、文物实证、探颐索微等不可或缺的过程。

I. Origin and purpose The Mongolian plateau, a place of breadth and width, has been a self-contained system of nomadic dance culture circle since the ancient time. Relying upon the typical geographical environment, economic form, lifestyle, customary belief, and aesthetic, a great number of the northern nomads have created a dance art with unique ethnic cultural characteristics and deep historical and distinctive ethnic attributes. Through the exploration and analysis of the Mongolian ethnic minority dance in both ancient and modern times, we can know, indirectly or directly, some of the mysteries of dance origin, survival,existence, and continuation of Chinese northern nomads under the inf?luence of a variety of social factors, so as to f?ill the gap in the cultural foundation of today’s Mongolian dance art.There have been quite a few insightful discussions on the inherited Mongolian dance created by the northern nomadic people, made by both the domestic and foreign experts and scholars based on different academic principles since the modern times. However, there have been no scholars organizing and expounding the Mongolian dance, an art form epitomizing the characteristics of different northern nomadic dances, from the dimension of exploring China’s northern nomadic culture with indepth study on the grassland art, by using the aesthetic paradigms of both the characteristics of nomadic danceculture and the new characteristics of the modern times, and with an emphasis on the consistent ethnic discourse. In this regard, the author decided to write The Art of Mongolian Dance in China, based on his years of practice, understanding, and research results, aiming to explore what had not been explored so as to f?ill the gap of that the Mongolian dance has 'a dance without history.'II. Structure and content The framework of The Art of Mongolian Dance in China is an ever-changing comprehensive research category, a relatively broad one related to the constant exchange between clan and clan, tribe and tribe, ethnic group and ethnic group, people and society, people and nature, and dance and other arts.Upon structuring the framework, I started to collect the greatest materials and different thoughts. In the absence of either literature or rules, I adopt the multidimensionally cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research methods, in order to develop new ideas on both structuring the framework and interpreting the content and to have breakthroughs in writing technique.Part One of The Art of Mongolian Dance in China focuses on dances of the primitive society in northern China;Part Two on northern nomadic dances in ancient China;Part Three on Chinese Mongolian dance. The interpretations of the research objects are mainly about the historical development and contemporary status of the dances of the ethnic groups such as Xiongnu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, Chile, Kitan, and Mongols, who were residents of the Mongolian Plateau. The content of the interpretation is to trace back the 'quasi-dance phenomenon' in the primitive society, explore the origin of the northern nomadic dance, analyze the inheritance of the ancient Mongolian dance, and investigate the ins and outs of the contemporary Mongolian dance.III. Theoretical framework To make the research scope and research content of The Art of Mongolian Dance in China realistic and feasible from the theoretical perspective, the author structures the framework by adopting an interdisciplinary research method, containing references of latest research results from both domestic and foreign academia. Changing a single subject research to an interdisciplinary research, it tries to f?ind out certain regularity between the nomadic dance in Northern China and Mongolian dance so as to expand the dimension and depth of the research.IV. Experience and ref?lection The premise of writing a dance history is that there is a history as well as the well-grounded evidence. According to the author’s experience, 'if there is no effort in years’ gradual enlightenment, there will be no effect of sudden enlightenment.' The transition from 'gradual enlightenment' to 'sudden enlightenment' depends on one’s experience, comprehension, and quality in the following perspectives: Firstly, sentiments from practice. the author had engaged in practicing Mongolian dance art for many years. Under the cumulative inf?luence over times, he had been identif?ied with the idiosyncratic expressive forms and covert cultural connotation of Mongolian dance. Consequently, he came to realize that one needs to comprehend the dance culture so as to understand dance art. Secondly, f?ield research. As early as the 1980 s, he went to different areas in the Inner Mongolia to conduct comprehensive survey research for dance. Around 2004, the author also made special visits to provinces and autonomous regions such as Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, and Yunnan to conduct f?ield works, obtaining extremely valuable cultural evidence and artistic resources through comparison and conf?irmation. Thirdly, physical evidence as in cultural relics. Over the years, studying dance relics has been the author’s preference out of research needs and personal interest. Therefore, he has dedicated himself to studying and reviewing the dance relics in the places where they had been discovered as well as in some museums. These dance relics, though formed in different historical periods, have provided the image evidence for The Art of Mongolian Dance in China in terms of 'using history to explain the present' and 'deducing the past from the present.' Fourthly, to explore the profound and seek for the details. To better understand the process of historical development of Mongolian dance and explore its artistic nature and cultural causes, he has spent a great deal of energy in exploring and studying the literature of northern nomadic dance and Mongolian dance. In this way, it will result in a clear understanding and f?lowing writing style.It is the author’s sincere hope that people who have paid great attention to and are passionate about the art and culture of Mongolian dance, with their love for the grassland and ethnic dance, will stand on the academic frontier, f?ind the soul for the ethnic dance with modern ideas and practice, carry forward the course into the future, and open up a broader and more colorful world for the art of Mongolian dance.