京西太平鼓是門頭溝區一項民間舞蹈，以往農民多於農曆臘月與正月農閒時擊鼓跳舞，以祈求太平，蘊含深厚歷史與民俗意義。

 

太平鼓最早於唐代已有發現，除夕、燈節時人們會擊太平鼓，演唱舞蹈。擊打太平鼓乃取其「太平」之意，北京則稱之為「迎年鼓」。而門頭溝區的京西太平鼓則自明代起在北京流傳，清代趨盛行。有傳京西太平鼓是源於門頭溝一村有人在京官府上工作，學會了京城的太平鼓技，後傳入門頭溝。

 

太平鼓是一種有柄圓形單面鼓，以羊皮或牛皮紙為鼓面，鼓邊配上紅絨球，鼓柄下拴小鐵環。耍鼓人左手持鼓右手持鼓槌，鼓聲與敲環聲清脆。表演者以一對對的方式，一邊跳躍，一邊擊鼓抖環。京西太平鼓歌舞並重，一般是打一遍鼓唱一遍詞，稱之「唱繩」，內容豐富而貼近風俗。太平鼓的表演形式，有邊打邊舞，也有邊打邊唱。太平鼓蘊含民間肢體語言，婦女的基本動作是「扭勁」、「顫勁」，據與婦女纏足習俗有關；男性舞者的動作是「搧勁」和「艮勁」，充滿男追女逐的趣味。現存動作套路有十二套。

 

太平鼓音樂主要由兩部分組成，即「鼓點」和「唱曲」。「鼓點」既是套路，又是曲牌。鼓點節奏主要為四分音，或稱「單鼓點」，八分音符和十六分音符為主的則稱「雙鼓點」。唱曲一般是人物、典故、花草等風俗主題，曲為民間流行小調。鼓點有《大扇鼓》、《小扇鼓》、《追鼓》等。

 

1953年，西店村的太平鼓老藝人樊寶善舉辦了兩期學習班，編排了舞蹈《和平鼓》到北京市勞動人民文化宮參加了演出，始後太平鼓成為大型表演的常客，如1984年的國慶35周年的天安門遊行表演、1990年的北京第十一屆亞運會開幕式。由2005年至今，門頭溝區的太平鼓傳承學校授牌儀式中一共有三所學校被任為太平鼓傳承學校，教育下一代這傳統藝術的價值與技巧。傳承人高洪偉自2006年接手父親的京西太平鼓表演團，至今積極於國內推廣太平鼓，其後表演隊更到了澳州出席「北京風情舞動悉尼」表演太平鼓，可見不少人正著力宣傳與承傳太平鼓的工作。

 

由北京市門頭溝區申請，「京西太平鼓」於2006年列入第一批國家級非物質文化遺產代表性項目名錄。

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The Jingxi (Beijing West) Taiping Drum Dance is a folk dance popular in the Mentougou district of Beijing. In the past, farmers would play drums and dance in December and January of the Lunar calendar, to pray for peace and fortune.

 

The early forms of the Taiping (meaning “peace”) Drum Dance dates back to the Tang Dynasty, and it was performed on New Year’s Eve and during the Lantern Festival. The Taiping Drum Dance. The dance style spread to Beijing in the Ming dynasty, and became popular in the Qing dynasty, leading to the regional development of what is now known as the Jingxi Taiping Drum Dance. In Beijing there is another name for the dance, “New Year Drum Dance” (迎年鼓).  It is said that one villager from Mentougou who worked in an officer’s mansion in Beijing learned the dance and brought it to his village.

 

The Taiping drum looks like a fan, and is a flat, round, one-sided drum with a handle. The surface of the drum is made of parchment or kraft paper, with pompons sometimes around the frame of the drum, and steel ring(s) at the end of the handle, with smaller rings that can jingle. Performers play the drums with a stick held in their right hand. They jump, dance and play drums in pairs. The Taiping Drum Dance pay equal attention to singing and dancing.  “Chang Sheng” (唱繩) is the pattern of striking the drum, then singing. Performances will have both singing will striking the drum, and dancing will striking the drum. The basic moves of male performers are “shen jing” (煽勁) and “gen jing” (艮勁), while basic moves for female performers are “niu jing” (扭勁) and “chan jing” (顫勁), which are moves that were influenced by the practice of footbinding. There are 12 basic moves that exist.  

 

The music for the dance consists mostly of two parts: “gu dian” (鼓點) and “chang qu” (唱曲). Gu dian is the drum melody, and is mostly in quarter notes, called “dan gudian” (單鼓點), while music primarily with quaver or semiquaver notes is called “shuang gu dian” (雙鼓點). The contents of chang qu, or the sung part, are mainly folk stories and descriptions of the landscape. “Da Shan Gu” (大扇鼓), “Xiao Shan Gu” (小扇鼓), “Zhui Gu” (追鼓) are examples of Taiping Drum music.

 

In 1953, Fan Bao-shan (樊寶善), an old artist of Taiping Drum in Xidian Village (西店村), held courses for the villagers and arranged the dance “He Ping Gu” (和平鼓, The Drum of Peace) for a performance in the Beijing Working People’s Cultural Palace, which brought Taiping Drum into the spotlight. Taiping Drum performances were invited to be part of the 35th National Day celebrations in Tian’anmen, and the opening ceremony of the 11th Asian Games in Beijing.  Since 2006, three primary schools in Mentougou have been nominated as Taiping Drum Heritage Schools to pass on the tradition to the next generation. Since 2006, Gao Hung-wei (高洪偉), the inheritor of Xijing Taiping Drum, has led his father’s Taiping Drum team in promoting the intangible cultural heritage around the country. Moreover they participated in Beijing Traditions in Sydney (北京風情舞動悉尼) in 2006, drawing attention overseas to the dance form.   

 

Beijing West Taiping Drum has been included in the first batch of the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2016, applied by Mentougou district in Beijing.