"Nuo," also called the "nuo sacrifice" or "nuo ceremony," was originally a type of sacrificial and magical ritual held to expel evil spirits and pestilence. Its name is derived from one of such rituals, where people shouted "nuo, nuo" to drive away the devil.

The nuo dance was originally performed to drive away evil spirits at sacrificial rituals during ancient times. The nuo ceremony was first recorded on bones and tortoise shells

during the Shang Dynasty(16th-17th century BC), and flourished in the Zhou Dynasty(11th century-256BC). As the number of its participants increased from 100 to 1,000, the ceremony became more and more magnificent. At the time, besides the grand nuo ceremony held by the royal court, the folk nuo ceremony also appeared in the countryside.

With the development of science and technology, the dance gradually declined, and in the Central Plains in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, it disappeared completely after the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Today, the dance can only be seen during the Spring Festival remote mountainous areas, such as Guizhou,Hunan,Yunnan,Sichuan and Anhui provinces, inhabited mostly by minority ethnic groups.

The nuo dance gradually developed into a dance drama and became more of a recreation than a ritual during and after the Tang Dynasty(618-907). It is a masked drama enacted by a priest performing an exorcism, also known as "theater with a presentational aspect, a festival, and the idea of gatherings to establish ties and norms". The rituals have been incorporated into people's lives and are seen as commentaries on Chinese life.

The main characters in the dance dramas all wear vivid, lifelike, wooden masks, featuring the distinctive folk styles of the Yellow River Valley. Nowadays, the nuo dance drama still prevails in a number of Chinese provinces, including Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Anhui, Shandong and Hebei.

Nuo masks

In nuo sacrifices, masks play a very important role. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, when the sacrifice was prevalent, the emcee of the ritual wore a golden mask with four eyes to frighten away ghosts and devils. In nuo drama performances, masks are the most important prop and a major characteristic that distinguishes this drama from the others.

Each nuo mask has a fixed name, represents a certain role and has legendary stories to tell about its origins. In Guizhou, a province with the largest number of nuo drama repertoires, at least 24 masks are required to perform an entire nuo drama piece.

The masks can appear valiant and martial, stern and tough, or gentle and kind, and they come in various styles to represent different figures. For instance, since the responsibility of valiant gods is to emit awe and dispel ghosts and devils, their masks usually have horns and buck teeth, with a very ferocious countenance.

Nuo masks are the result of primitive religion and totem worship. From sun, to earth, to deity worship, nuo performances reveal the secrets of the evolution of ancient societies. After thousands of years of evolution, some heroic figures in history were deified and became the incarnation of kindness, bravery and justice. Thus, nuo masks became richer and more loved by ordinary people.

The masks are mainly made of poplar and willow since poplar is light and less prone to cracks, while willow is widely regarded as having the power to ward off evil.

Each simple and unsophisticated nuo mask, whose role has shifted from primitive totem worship to aspiration for kindness and justice, vividly interprets history. The mask has gradually shed the high shrines and entered the hearts of folk people. It is not only the incarnation and a carrier of gods, but also a mirror that reflects the lives of Chinese ancestors.

Nuo ritual: from sacrifice to entertainment

Wu Qianbi, a 42-year-old exorcist, performs the nuo ritual -- one type of the existing exorcism rituals -- yearly in a village of the ethnic Tujia people at the base of Fanjing Mountain in Southwest China's Guizhou Province.

A former "living god" in the eyes of the villagers, Wu now describes his role merely as "a player who entertains."

"I still remember very well what my master told me: 'Nuo is to relieve pain for others,'" recalls Wu. "But now, for me, the most essential thing is whether or not I can bring joy to my village folk."

The nuo ritual has been practiced in China for thousands of years -- from primitive society when early men performed sacrifices and conducted ceremonial services to pay tribute to ancestors, gods and goddesses while exorcising demons. It spread widely among people of various ethnicities in the Yangtze River Valley, the Yellow River Valley and the secluded southwestern region.

Wu has been a "spiritual tutor", believed to possess magical powers to disperse evil demons, spirits and pestilence, for 22 consecutive years. Besides training in ritual procedures and exorcism, Wu is also adept in nuo drama.

The ritual procedure includes inviting, welcoming and thanking spirits. Following the solemn ritual, nuo drama is performed to entertain the spirits.

Masked performers with whips dance to the sound of different mysterious tunes -- some wearing black, white or red masks with varied expressions -- from the amiable to the frightening and ferocious.

But with the passage of time and increasing popularization of science, the primitive, superstitious ritual has now been transformed into a theatrical performance for entertainment purposes.

"Formerly, the ritual gave expression to the uncertainty of primitive people towards the unknown world and universe, but, nowadays, the most fascinating part is the vivid nuo drama that follows," said Tuo Xiuming, a noted scholar and director of the China Southwest Nuo Culture Research Center.
Guizhou Province is famous for the greatest varieties of nuo drama. Wherever there is a Nuo drama performance in a village, farmers from surrounding villages will hike for dozens of kilometers to watch. Although some elderly people still have awe and reverence for the nuo dancing "gods", fewer and fewer are now familiar with the content and expertise of the ritual.

But in the eyes of researchers, nuo, which has a harmonizing force in village society life, is gradually fading away.

"The pressing issue now is how to protect it from extinction," said Qu Liuyi, director of the China Nuo Drama Research Association.

"The opera contains a general knowledge about religion, society and ethnic groups of the early stages of human development and provides an important reference value to the in-depth study of music, dance and painting, as well as other arts."

Nuo cultural studies have become a hot topic for academics. At a seminar held recently in Guizhou Province, more than 100 experts from China and abroad discussed protection efforts.

But experts say there is still much work to be done.

Qu said that the crux of the issue is how to protect the original state of the opera, including its costumes, masks, and, more importantly, the cultural environment where the opera developed.

Professor Koichiro Inahata from the prestigious Waseda University in Japan, acknowledged that some old nuo ritual masks have been lost or have sunk into oblivion over the long history.

Different nuo at a glance

** In Shiyou, a small village on the border between Jiangxi and Fujian provinces:

In Shiyou village, the nuo dance is performed only once a year. The village dance group begins the year's performances in their home village on the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar year. The next day, they set out for a performing tour at neighboring villages and don't return until the 16th day of the month. On that day, people from the area visit their relatives and friends in Shiyou village, where they are invited to enjoy a meal and nuo dances. The nuo dance in Shiyou village is performed to the sound of a beating drum and war cries of ancient times by the performers. On that night, the entire village is immersed in wild revelry veiled in mystery.

The dance is vigorous, unrestrained, well arranged, and dignified. The art played its part in helping establish the Chinese nation.

** Nuo drama in Guichi, Anhui Province

In Guichi, a nuo performance consists of three parts: the ritual, the dance and the drama, blending worship with recreation. Primitive features are reflected in the masks, costumes and props, as well as the overall performance style. This is the oldest dramatic form in China, regarded as a living fossil of Chinese drama.

In the evening, hundreds of villagers travel dozens of miles to fetch the nuo mask trunk from the temple or another clan, and carry it to their own ancestral hall. Every household makes offerings at the hall to honor their ancestors and the gods, and offers chicken blood to welcome the masks. A specially designated person arranges the sacred nuo masks in a prescribed manner.

The nuo drama begins around 7 pm and continues until early the next morning. When the drama is about to begin, guns are fired to announce the coming of the nuo procession. After the performance, the masks are carefully and cautiously counted and placed back into the trunk.

The worship of the god of earth is held during the day. During this ritual, villagers perform the nuo dance to pray for good weather and health. After the ritual, they return to the village to perform dramatic pieces on stilts.

At the Yuanxiao Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, all of the clan members carry the nuo mask trunk to Qingshan Temple to worship the nuo gods.

Nuo drama in Luoga village, Guizhou Province

Luoga village is located in the Weining Yi, Hui and Miao Autonomous County in the western part of Guizhou Province. Luoga villagers are the only people who can perform the nuo drama for "Cuotaiji." In the Yi language, Cuotaiji means an "era when mankind appeared."

It begins on the fifth day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The last section comes on the 15th day of the first month. The performances are usually staged in the evenings.

'Seizing the Yellow Devil' -- a repertoire

"Seizing the Yellow Devil" is a nuo dance drama from Wu'an County in Handancity, Hebei Province. The people of Guyi village in Wu'an perform the dance drama during the Lantern Festival(the 15th day of the first lunar month each year). They build temporary archways and stages throughout the village, injecting a festive atmosphere to the small region. The performance begins with several scouts riding on horseback along the village streets. A procession of 100 people holding flags and banners and beating gongs then follows the horsemen around the village to seize the "Yellow Devil." Again and again, guns are fired to announce the coming of the procession. The night before the performance, the Yellow Devil, which is acted out by a veteran of the art, begins to "haunt" the village, and the villagers carry weapons, such as sticks and knives, to chase the devil until it is caught the following morning. The Yellow Devil is then shackled and led by the "Elder Spirit" and the "Younger Spirit" to parade in the streets. After a trial, conducted by the "King of Hell" and "Justice Official of Hell," the Yellow Devil is sentenced to death and "executed" at noon.

Together with the dance drama "Seizing the Yellow Devil," other folk arts are also performed, such as the pair opera (including the mask opera), the lion dance, the land boat, and martial arts. The entire performance involves 600 performers and over 50 horses.

The Yellow Devil represents evil people who disobey their parents and persecute the weak; its punishment conveys people's moral concept of respecting the elderly and protecting the young, as well as their longing for a good harvest, harmonious family life and peace in the world.