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Lion dance () is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume. The lion dance is usually performed during the Chinese New Year and other Chinese traditional, cultural and religious festivals. It may also be performed at important occasions such as business opening events, special celebrations or wedding ceremonies, or may be used to honour special guests by the Chinese communities. The Chinese lion dance is often mistakenly referred to as dragon dance. An easy way to tell the difference is that a lion is normally operated by two dancers, while a dragon needs many people. Also, in a lion dance, the performers' faces are only seen occasionally, since they are inside the lion. In a dragon dance, the performers' faces can be easily seen since the dragon is held on poles. Chinese lion dance fundamental movements can be found in most Chinese martial arts. There are two main forms of the Chinese lion dance, the Northern Lion and the Southern Lion. Both forms are commonly found in China, but around the world especially in South East Asia, the Southern Lion predominates as it was spread by the Chinese diaspora communities who are historically mostly of Southern Chinese origin. Versions of the lion dance are also found in Japan, Korea, Tibet and Vietnam. Another form of lion dance exists in Indonesian culture, but this is of a different tradition and may be referred to as Singa Barong. ==History== There has been an old tradition in China of dancers wearing masks to resemble animals or mythical beasts since antiquity, and performances described in ancient texts such as ''Shujing'' where wild beasts and phoenix danced may have been masked dances.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Shang Shu - Yu Shu - Yi and Ji )〕 In Qin Dynasty sources, dancers performing exorcism rituals were described as wearing bearskin mask,〔 and it was also mentioned in Han Dynasty texts that "mime people" (象人) performed as fish, dragons, and phoenixes. However, lion is not native to China, and the Lion Dance therefore has been suggested to have originated outside of China from countries such as Persia, and introduced via Cental Asia.〔 According to ethnomusicologist Laurence Picken, the Chinese word for lion itself, ''shi'' (獅, written as 師 in the early periods), may have been derived from the Persian word ''šer''. The earliest use of the word ''shizi'' meaning lion first appeared in Han Dynasty texts and had strong association with Central Asia (an even earlier but obsolete term for lion was ''suanni'' (狻麑 or 狻猊)), and lions were presented to the Han court by emissaries from Central Asia and the Parthian Empire. Detailed descriptions of Lion Dance appeared during the Tang Dynasty and it was already recognized by writers and poets then as a foreign dance, however, Lion dance may have been recorded in China as early as the third century AD where "lion acts" were referred to by a Three Kingdoms scholar Meng Kang (孟康) in a commentary on ''Hanshu''.〔 In the early periods it had association with Buddhism: it was recorded in a Northern Wei text, ''Description of Buddhist Temples in Luoyang'' (洛陽伽藍記), that a parade for a statue of Buddha of the Changqiu Temple (長秋寺) was led by a lion to drive away evil spirits.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=伎乐盛境 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= 洛陽伽藍記/卷一 )〕 There were different versions of the dance in the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang court, the lion dance was called the Great Peace Music (太平樂, ''Taiping yue'') or the Lion Dance of the Five Directions (五方師子舞) where five large lions of different colours and expressing different moods were each led on rope by two persons, and accompanied by 140 singers. In a later version, the 5 lions were each over 3 metres tall and each had 12 "lion lads" who teased the lions with red whisks.〔 Another version of the lion dance was performed by two persons, and this was described by the Tang poet Bai Juyi in his poem "Western Liang Arts" (西凉伎), where the dance was performed by ''hu'' (胡, meaning here non-Han people from Central Asia) dancers who wore a lion costume made of a wooden head, a silk tail and furry body, with eyes gilded with gold and teeth plated with silver as well as ears that moved, a form that resembles today's Lion Dance.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=《西凉伎》 )〕 By the eighth century, this lion dance had reached Japan. During the Song Dynasty the lion dance was commonly performed in festivals and it was known as the Northern Lion during the Southern Song. The Southern Lion is a later development in the south of China, most likely originating in the Guangdong province. There are a number of myths associated with the origin of this dance: one story relates that the dance originated as a celebration in a village where a mythical monster called Nian was successfully driven away; another has it that the Qianlong Emperor dreamt of an auspicious animal while on a tour of Southern China, and ordered that the image of the animal be recreated and used during festivals. However it is likely that the Southern Lion of Guangzhou is an adaptation of the Northern Lion to local myths and characteristics, perhaps during the Ming Dynasty.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lion Dance )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=South Lion: the Guangzhou Lion Dance )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lion dance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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