Xuantan Lion Dance in Lu County is also known as "lion dance", "lion lantern", "lion dance", "lion dance", and commonly known as "playing with lions". Lions are regarded as auspicious animals in people's minds, symbolizing good luck and good fortune, and thus people express their good wishes to eliminate disasters and seek good fortune through lion dance activities. Xuantan Lion Dance is one of the representative works of traditional folk dances of the Han nationality in Lu County. It has fixed performance routines, basic dance steps and steps, and basic accompaniment forms. It belongs to the martial lion school of the northern lion faction of Chinese lion dance. In 2009, it was included in the Sichuan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List. According to the "Lu County Chronicles", "In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, lion lanterns were popular in the county, often performed in groups with dragon lanterns and Yaogu lanterns, and performed in the streets and households during the Spring Festival." During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, playing with lions was very popular in Lu County, and there were schools such as high-platform lions, ground lions, and moving lions. The performances were divided into two major systems: literary lions and martial lions. During the Daoguang reign, the artist Long Dezhang from Liren Township, Lu County, based on the art of Xuantan Lion Dance, learned and refined the essence of the central hall lion, stilt lion, and banda lion with strong local characteristics, and formed his own school, forming the current Xuantan Lion Dance, and became the famous "Dragon Lion" in the local area. Later, Li Shiyu learned from Wang Daochang, a disciple of the "Dragon Lion", and learned the true art, and carried it forward, gradually standardized its routines, fixed its basic dance steps and steps, and systematized the process of lion dance performances. From flying in the clouds to monkey performances, from monks to lion dances, adding folk martial arts performances such as high-platform lions, drilling fire rings, spitting fire, and stacking Arhats, and citing puppet shows such as "Xiaoshua", the entire Xuantan Lion Dance is rich in content, diverse in form, and colorful. At the same time, it also increased the difficulty of Xuantan Lion Dance, enriched the connotation of shock, danger, wonder, beauty, and beauty of the performance, and became a precious cultural heritage of the Han ethnic folk traditional dance performance in Lu County, and was deeply loved by the general public. Xuantan Lion Dance in Lu County belongs to the martial lion school of the northern lion dance in China. The lion looks like a real lion, and usually performs in pairs of male and female. The lion with a red knot on its head is a male lion, and the one with a green knot is a female lion. When performing Xuantan Lion Dance, there is often a pair of small lions, the small lion teases the big lion, and the big lion loves to feed the small lion, showing the beauty of natural harmony. According to the needs of the performance scene and content, monkeys, monks and others are also set up to participate in the performance to reflect the characteristics of Xuantan Lion Dance and enhance the highlights. In particular, the lion dance performance has a unique artistic personality and rich connotations after more than 150 years of inheritance and development. Xuantan Lion Dance consists of three parts: music, lion dance and martial arts. The lion dance scene is passionate and unrestrained, and the performance routines are mostly based on imitating the habits of lions. The lions are both cute and playful, and fierce and powerful. There are more than 20 routines that have been standardized, including: lion coming out of the cave, stretching waist, stretching legs, brushing, looking for things, eating fruits, falling, rolling, crossing the bridge, shoulder, leg, handstand, single stand, jumping, scratching, plum blossom pile, double lions grabbing the ball, catching the thrown ball, somersault front seat, stilts, etc. The routines are interspersed with movements, and the imitation of the body is very realistic, like a living lion in motion. Through long-term performances and accumulation, Xuantan Lion Dance has sorted out the basic steps and steps of lion dance. The basic steps are bow step, horse step, empty step, kneeling step, jumping step, grab step, broken step, chasing step, unicorn step, Panlong step and large and small two-step shift, totaling more than 10 types. The basic steps are: leap, move, dodge, pounce, spin, jump, flip, roll, lie down, 9 categories. The coordination of basic steps and steps makes it truly reach the realm of lion dance, sublimating unconscious animals to conscious humanization, and enhancing the artistic charm of lion dance. Especially in the process of lion dance, the lion's eyes, ears, mouth, limbs and the whole body of the lion are used to show the lion's 12 moods of "joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, drunkenness, sleep, surprise, doubt, fear, exploration, play, and hope" during the activity, reflecting the lion's psychological activities in the posture language, which is really unique. In addition, the high-platform lion and stilt lion are also two unique skills of Xuantan lion dance, which are thrilling and show extraordinary artistic charm. When performing the high-platform lion, 8 tables can be stacked, which is 6 meters high. Especially when performing the "yinhe" lion dance, the tables are re-selected foot to foot, and the lion walks on the plum blossom pile on the top layer, which is very thrilling. In the performance of Xuantan lion dance, monkeys and monks are often interspersed, and folk martial arts are performed. When performing the cloud, running and kicking, spinning, front somersaults, back somersaults, side somersaults, stacking Arhats, and drilling fire curtain circles are exquisite and elegant, often making the audience cheer and applaud. The monks perform with light steps, playful and lively performances. They often tease and communicate with the audience, often making the audience laugh and feel extremely happy. The "fire-breathing" performance integrates skills into the lion dance and infiltrates culture into the stunts, which is a unique performance. The entire accompaniment instrument is Sichuan opera gongs and drums, and the body sound instruments include hall drums, big gongs, big cymbals, horse gongs, small gongs, and small cymbals. Small gongs and small cymbals are not used in lion dance martial arts performances. The percussion music is "Lion Lantern Festival" and "Lion Rolling". Small gongs and small cymbals are used for monk performances and small shows, but not horse gongs. The music is "Out of the Hall" and "Double Turn". The music is passionate and unrestrained with a brisk rhythm during the lion dance performance, and the music is playful, playful, melodious and soothing during the monk performance. The whole performance scene is relaxed and fast. In the performance of Xuantan Lion Dance, the shock, danger, strangeness, uniqueness and beauty are highly unified and perfectly displayed. Another highlight of Xuantan Lion Dance is that it combines lion dance and folk martial arts in one performance. The performances such as playing with clouds, folk martial arts, small play, spitting fire, drilling fire curtain circle, stacking Arhats, etc., skillfully combine folk martial arts with traditional lion dance, so that the audience can relax in the thrill and enjoy the lion dance. Xuantan Lion Dance uses Sichuan opera gongs and drums as accompaniment, so that music, lion dance and martial arts are integrated and complement each other. It is deeply loved by the people and has made Xuantan Lion Dance flourish for a long time. It has become one of the representative works of the traditional folk dance of the Han nationality in Lu County and is a precious cultural heritage of traditional Chinese dance. It is recognized by many experts and experts as "rich in expression, unique dance steps, majestic lion shape and pleasant accompaniment". The production of Xuantan Lion Dance props, masks, etc. is all handmade. The lions are mostly made of bamboo to make lion heads, with colored paper and cloth mounted on the back, and painted with pigments. The mouth, eyes and ears on the lion's head can be moved to facilitate the performance of various lion gestures. The lion's body is covered with silk or animal hair and painted to make it look like a lion. The masks of monkeys and monks are also made of thick cardboard with fixed color paintings. Other clouds, fire curtains, etc. are all handmade. The lion dancers wear homemade clothes and pants made of imitation lion hair, which are shaped like the four legs of a lion. The performers of playing with clouds wear double-breasted clothes with yellow or blue bottoms. Monkeys wear tight-fitting clothes with yellow dots, and monks wear yellow or green long gowns, holding patterned brooms and feather fans. The band wears white double-breasted clothes. Xuantan Lion Dance in Lu County is an important part of Han ethnic culture, a very precious cultural heritage of Han ethnic folk traditional dance, and a special form of Chinese folk dance. In terms of its performance routines, basic steps, performance gestures and accompaniment, it has a strong personality and unique style, and is very representative among the many lion dance performances in Lu County. The Xuantan Lion Dance in Lu County conforms to the laws of the generation and development of traditional folk dance art. Its entire development process is in tune with the changes in history, social progress and people's needs. Its development process witnesses the life course of the people and reflects people's desire for a better life. It is an important basis for studying the social development, progress and civilization process of Lu County, as well as Lu County's folklore, sociology, aesthetics and anthropology for thousands of years. The Xuantan Lion Dance in Lu County has superb acting skills and great aesthetics, so it is widely circulated among the people. It has developed from funeral performances to wedding receptions, New Year banquets, opening celebrations and festival performances, becoming an important part of Lu County's traditional folk culture.