Taoyuan County's Confucian Temple has hosted memorial rituals every Sept. 28, Confucius’ birthday, since the structure was completed in 1988.
Local principals, academic directors and teachers at primary and secondary schools formed a Confucian rituals association to study the development of these rituals over time.
One of the traditions is the yi dance, which has been performed by children from the Dong Men Elementary School for the past 21 years. Dong Men Principal Tang Hua-ying stated that yi refers to a type of ancient music and dance. The liu yi dance refers to six dancers in six rows, meaning a total of 36 people involved in the performance, which is held to pay respects to princes and chancellors, and it focuses on subtle gestures.
The ba yi dance, on the other hand, refers to eight dancers in eight rows, comprising a total of 64 people. This dance is held to pay tribute to the emperors' ancestors, and it consists of three types of dance—gestures, movement involving martial arts steps or props, and a combination of the two.
Although the ba yi dance has been associated with the celebration of Confucius's birthday since ancient times, Taoyuan organizers decided to perform the liu yi dance during the ceremony due to the small size of the stage.
The liu yi dance has 96 movements. It is a tough task for the instructors, not only to make sure that the students become totally familiar with the movements, but also that the performance is well-received by the audience.
You Zhao-zhi, a retired teacher, was the first to take the job of teaching the students. Over the years, he has handed the baton to other retired instructors, including Fan Li-lin, Wu Yue-xia, He Ming-hua and Xu Xiu-ying. These individuals, some of whom still come back from time to time to help out, have been instrumental in keeping the tradition of the Dong Men style alive.
Xu Hui-qin, an yi dance instructor, also pointed out that the liu yi dance is an important ritual each year to pay tribute to Confucius, stressing that the students involved must learn to move in line and in step with the music. This is quite challenging for elementary school students, who have shorter attention spans, Xu said, adding that it is extremely tough for the kids not to make some error in the course of the nearly hour-long ceremony.
Consequently, two classes of sixth-grade students began training back in the beginning of this year, and two hours a day of rehearsals have been held daily starting from this semester. They all hope that their efforts will pay off with a flawless performance during the ceremony.
(This article originally appeared in The Liberty Times Sept. 27.)