The Survival and Development of Master Yifanjie of the Mulao Nationality in Luocheng County

: Shigong is the holder of the music culture of Yifan Festival in Luocheng County. Their existence is very important to the intangible cultural heritage of the Mulam Yifan Festival culture. Shigong's performance is a key part of the inheritance and development of Yifan Festival. The performance of Mulao teachers shows variability with the development of the times, which is a lack for the protection and inheritance of traditional culture, and it is also necessary for Taoist teachers to survive.


The Importance of Shigong in the Sacrifice of Yifan Festival
The predecessor of Shigong in Yifan Festival music can be understood as a Taoist priest. Taoist monks are monks who practice Taoism, and their origins are very early, probably in ancient times. Taoism has a very profound influence in China, and many people have published books and treatises on this religion. Among them, the academic circles believe that the earliest classic on Taoism, the Taiping Jing, was completed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is also known as the beginning of Taoism. Period, Taoist priests have discussed in this book. Like Taoism, Taoist priests have a profound history, which can be understood as Taoism has a great influence in China.
Taoism began to decline during the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, and Taoist priests also began to diversify during this period. Perhaps due to the needs of livelihood, Taoist priests searched for vitality and combined with local folk sacrifices. For example, Taoism and Yifan Festival are the products of this diversion. After the Taoist priest and the sacrificial music of the Yifan Festival were combined, the Taoist priest changed his title to a name that was very in line with the characteristics of the Mulao people in Luocheng County -Taoist Teacher Gong.
When the Taoist teacher was just formed, it was especially popular in the Mulao area, and people liked the teacher very much. The reason is that the ancient Mulao people worshiped religion very much, and attached great importance to religion, especially after the great religion at that time was diverted to the Luocheng area, the Mulao people who were originally backward and had a poor living environment had vitality and spiritual support. According to the Taoist sacrificial music activities on the Fan Festival to obtain more possibilities for survival, the Mulao people pin their hopes on God. This kind of thinking was very common in the past era. It can be seen that the Mulao master has a high status in the hearts of the Mulao people, and it is a status related to survival.
Master Yifan Festival can connect people with gods through his own unique skill -Taoist sacrificial activities. This connection allows the Mulao people to communicate directly through Master Master on the spot. When God receives Master Master's message After conveying it, it can immediately help the Mulao people to achieve their wishes, and their wishes will come true. Every 3 to 5 years or every year in a harvest year, the Mulao people will invite the Guru to perform, which is to provide the Mulao people with the opportunity to communicate with the gods, so that the Mulao people have a window to achieve their wishes. It is conceivable that Shigong has become the cultural holder of the Yifan Festival activities and has the right to control the entire event situation.
The Master of Yifan Festival controls the power of inheritance and development of the Yifan Festival. The reason is that the Yifan Festival belongs to the living inheritance. The Master performs activities based on his own ancestral way. When the Master performs, there is no fixed language except for the singing texts in Chinese. Text inheritance, Shigong's inheritance method is mainly word of mouth, which to a certain extent makes Shigong possessing this technique a high prestige. However, the times are changing, and the elements of Yifan Festival and its teachers are also undergoing micro changes. That is, the mysterious halo of Yifan Festival is no longer there. As Yifan Festival gradually becomes an entertainment culture, Shigong is the entertainment culture. holder. Of course, even if the nature of Yifan Festival has changed, it still cannot change the dominance of Shigong in Yifan Festival activities.

Decrease in Demand
Mulao people believe more and more in science and technology. The existence of science and technology reduces Mulao people's dependence on God. Mulao people believe that only science and technology can make their lives happier. Mulao people gradually reduce their spiritual dependence on Yifan Festival, and over time, the demand for Yifan Festival teachers also decreases. First of all, it is reflected in the number of events held. In the past, as soon as winter came, each village started to organize Yifan Festival activities. The village wanted to use the Shigong's Yifan Festival performance to stimulate the atmosphere of the village and make the village warmer after winter. However, the arrival of the epidemic in recent years has made the economy sluggish. Everyone is living a conservative life and has no spare money to hold Yifan Festival activities. If there are villages holding activities, it is only a small one, because during the epidemic Gathering is not allowed, and holding the Yifan Festival requires everyone to gather together. Therefore, many villages will not hold them during the epidemic even if they are able to. According to the fact that there are few events held at the Rice Festival, the demand for Shigong is greatly reduced.
The main job of Master Shi is the annual Yifan Festival activities. On weekdays, he keeps learning Yifan Festival performances from his master or grandparents. The second is to make the Mulao people respect themselves more and gain a certain status in the clan. However, with the decrease in market demand, Shigong's status has plummeted. In the eyes of many people, Shigong's profession has become less respected than before, and the Yifan Festival activities are also developing towards a more entertaining direction.
Population migration has brought new ideas and understandings to the Mulao people and their ethnic groups. In the period of underdeveloped transportation and lagging economy, the Mulao people could only rely on the Taoist sacrificial music activities of Yifan Festival as their survival reliance, and placed their hope in the gods, so they were full of respect for religion. With the rapid development of China's economy, the survival mode of the Mulao people has undergone tremendous changes. Population migration broke the inertia of the original life of the Mulao people, and the floating population brought a lot of fresh blood, and the way of life of the Mulao people became rich and colorful. Many people went to work in big cities through the narrow mountain road in Luocheng County. Mulao people found that in other big cities without sacrificial music activities, they could survive with their hardworking hands, so they no longer had the same desire for sacrificial ritual activities as before. This situation is most obvious among the younger generation of Mulao people. The younger generation There are already fewer people watching the ceremony. Coupled with the thinking impact brought by population migration, some young Mulao people even have a disconnect with the Taoist sacrificial music culture of Yifan Festival.
At the same time, many foreigners came to work in Luocheng County for various reasons. They brought a lot of their own culture, such as the folk song culture of the Zhuang people, the dance culture of the Miao people, etc. The foreigners got along with the Mulao people day and night. Influence each other subtly, these foreign cultures make the thinking and concept of Mulao people who are unable or do not want to go out to work begin to change. It can be said that the population movement has brought about a huge collision of ideology and culture, which has weakened the status of Yifan Festival in the hearts of Mulao people to a certain extent.

Decrease in Income
The normal thinking logic is that Yifan Festival Taoist sacrificial music activities will be effectively developed with economic development, but in fact, Yifan Festival music activities are facing the opposite situation. It is mainly reflected in the fact that the Mulao people no longer pay attention to the Yifan Festival activities, and the Mulao people's life is getting better and better. The Mulao people's money is not spent on the Yifan Festival, but chooses to diversify their life and entertainment. The teacher's salary also decreased. Sometimes, the meager income is not enough to support living expenses.
With the decrease in income, the teacher cannot have enough money to buy the props needed for the performance, and the props cannot be replaced, which directly affects the quality of the performance of the entire event. This is a vicious circle model. Economic income is very important for the whole Yifan Festival performance. The decrease in income makes Shigong unable to devote himself to the performance as before. Shigong's performance has some personal factors that are trapped in life. Shigong may have to think about how to solve the problems of life tomorrow while performing. In the case of financial difficulties, Mulao people's Yifan Festival performances need to expand their talents, and they need more exciting performances to attract audiences.

Competitive Pressure From Peers
The Yifan Festival activities are currently in a downturn as a whole. Especially in the current situation of severe epidemic, the villages of the Mulao ethnic group will basically not hold Yifan Festival performances. Even if it is rare to hold an event, there are only a few Yifans The inheritors of the festival, the Taoist teachers, became rivals with each other. The profession of Taoist teachers has lagged behind in the current development, but there is still competition. For the few remaining inheritors of the Yifan Festival event, they have to fight hard. Sometimes, in order to win a performance opportunity, the teacher They also have vicious competition, and even use fists and feet. This phenomenon of teachers is relatively common. It can be interpreted as a competition in the market demand, or it can be interpreted as being forced by life. The survival market of the teachers is getting narrower and narrower.
In order to publicize the good performances of their Yifan Festival performances, some teachers have received more praise and brought more income. The teachers practiced hard at home and continued to deepen their strength. At the same time, they are still thinking about how to make their own Yifan Festival Festival performances add more exciting elements to attract people's attention, especially to win the attention of the younger generation and make their profession more popular. During the practice, Shigong constantly updated his martial arts movements, and replaced all the movements that Shigong himself felt as "earth", becoming popular movements that people like now.

The Future Career Development Direction of Shigong
Shigong should establish a correct professional outlook. Regardless of whether the development of the festival is good or not, Shigong, as the inheritor of the country's intangible culture, should do well in his traditional performances, show the best performance skills, and leave the ancestors behind. The traditional culture that came down has flourished.
When the mysterious halo of Yifan Festival fades with the development of the times, Shigong should accept the status quo, change his mentality, and accept the process of this profession from noble to ordinary. Only when Shigong puts himself in the right position can he get more development opportunities. As the inheritor, the master should take his performance skills and inheritance as his own task.
Shigong should put forward ideas to Mulao and corresponding government agencies, so that more people can pay attention to Yifan Festival activities. It makes people feel that in such a developed era, the Yifan Festival still has its own development significance and is worthy of attention. The Yifan Festival has been taken seriously, and the teacher will also be valued, which has promoted the professional development of the teacher. Shigong added the original solemn Yifan Festival activities into the entertainment culture that modern people like, so that they can follow the development of the times. For example, when Shigong performed, he added elements of popular music into the singing session. The younger generation would like it very much, and the older generation would also find it fresh, which greatly improved the pace of development. Secondly, Shigong's clothes can also be improved. Following the development of the times, elements of modern clothes can be added to Taoist robes, which not only increases the beauty, but also improves their own development.

State and Local Government Support
For intangible cultural heritage, the state implements the sixteen-character policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational utilization, inheritance and development". As the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage, Yifan Festival Taoist Teacher Gong is an important object of our protection. The state should increase its efforts to supervise and control the economic income of the local government and cultural units in Luocheng County for the Yifan Festival Taoist priest. , so that the teacher has a stable source of income.
The Luocheng County Government should pay more attention to the Taoist sacrificial music activities of Yifan Festival, and regard this unique traditional culture as a major platform for the development of the county. Local governments should seize the opportunities and development brought by the Taoist sacrificial music culture of Yifan Festival, and actively expand the income of the industrial chain brought by the Taoist sacrificial music activities of Yifan Festival. The county government should attach importance to the development of the Taoist teachers of the Mulao ethnic group. If the economy allows, a special inheritance post should be established. In the post station, the teacher can receive a fixed monthly income every month, which can at least guarantee his basic living needs.

Summary
Shigong is the cultural holder of the entire Yifan Festival music activities, and it can even be understood that Shigong is the hub of the cultural heritage of Yifan Festival music activities. Shigong's profession is respectable, but Shigong is also a man of flesh after all. He also has his own family, parents, and children. A certain source of income is very important to Shigong. Shigong absorbs new elements in the development of the times and leads the Yifan Festival activities to a better tomorrow.