Cuotaiji - Bendi Yi Ethnic Village

　　Luojia is situated in the Luhong Mountain area at an altitude of over 2,800 meters in Bandi Township, Weining Yi, Hui and Miao Autonomous County in western Guizhou Province. It is a small Yi ethnic village with just over 60 households. The region is characterized by high mountains, deep valleys, and a cold climate. The locals mainly rely on potatoes, buckwheat, and corn for sustenance, living under very harsh conditions. As recalled by local elders, “Cuotaiji” has been performed in Bandi Township for hundreds, even thousands, of years, but now only Luojia Village continues the tradition, as it has been lost in other villages.

　　In the Yi language, “Cuotaiji” means “the time when humans first transformed” or “the play of human transformation,” often abbreviated as the “transformation play.” There are six characters in “Cuotaiji,” five of whom wear masks—except for the forest elder Rejia Abu, who does not. The masked characters are Abumo, Adamu, Mahongmo, Heibu, and A’an.

　　Abumo means grandfather. It is said he is 1,700 years old and wears a white-bearded mask. Adamu means grandmother, Abumo’s wife, who is 1,500 years old and wears a beard-less mask. Mahongmo means the Miao elder, aged 1,200, and wears a black-bearded mask. Heibu means the Han elder, aged 1,000, and wears a harelip mask. A’an means little child, the offspring of Abumo and Adamu, and wears a beard-less mask.

　　“Cuotaiji” is usually performed from the fifth to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, aiming to drive away evil, welcome good fortune, and pray for a bountiful harvest. Performances mostly take place at night, but in times of natural disasters or poor harvests, they may only occur every few years. The entire play is divided into four parts, with the fourth part performed only on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

　　I. Ritual Worship. Abumo leads Adamu, Mahongmo, and Heibu as they struggle out of the forest, leaning on wooden sticks. They wrap their heads with headscarves into cone shapes, wear all-black clothes, and bind their chests, backs, waists, and legs tightly with white cloth strips to symbolize nudity. They walk with bowed legs, stumbling along to represent how ancient humans couldn’t stand upright. They also produce guttural sounds like apes, arriving in the open field. The “Cuotai” elders then set down their wooden sticks, face westward (it is said that the Yi people migrated to Weining from the west), and pray to heaven, earth, ancestors, and the spirits of the four directions.

　　II. Farming. This is the core part of the play, reflecting the Yi ancestors’ history of migration, farming, and reproduction. The early part depicts, through dialogue between Rejia Abu and Abumo, how in ancient times, Luojia Village suffered consecutive years of famine. Abumo and others carried grain seeds from Goucoufa (located in Yunnan), traveling through many places before finally arriving at Luojia Village. The villagers then reclaimed land and planted crops to survive the famine. Next, Abumo and the others use dance movements to portray the Yi ancestors’ agricultural labor processes — buying cattle, plowing fields, harrowing soil, scattering ash, sowing seeds, harvesting, and threshing. During breaks in the work, there are interludes of smoking, nursing, and feeding babies. The latter part describes a bountiful harvest where the “Cuotai” elders fill up all the large and small storage barns. Rejia Abu spills wine on the ground, praying to heaven, the gods, and the grains.

　　III. Celebration. Lion dancers wave sticks to tease the lion, which dances gracefully on stage, celebrating the grain harvest. According to local Yi people, this section was not originally part of the performance but was added in modern times.

　　IV. Sweeping the Village. Also known as sweeping away fire disasters, in the Yi language it’s called “Miduoqiu.” As the performance on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month nears its end, Rejia Abu leads the “Cuotai” elders through the village to sweep away disasters and epidemics, wishing for the prosperity of both people and livestock, as well as a bumper harvest. At each household, Rejia Abu recites a blessing by the hearth and asks the host for eggs and hemp. When leaving, he pulls some grass from the four corners of the thatched house. Then, the group goes to the village crossroads, buries three eggs in the ground, lights thatch grass on fire, and boils the rest of the eggs to share. They shout, “The fire disaster is gone, the fire disaster is gone!” After some days, the “Cuotai” elders dig up the buried eggs and judge that year’s harvest and fortune based on their condition.

　　The “Cuotaiji” masks are made from hard alpine woods such as azalea and lacquer trees. The craftsmanship is very simple: first, a foot-long round wood is roughly chopped into a blank with an axe, then coarsely carved to form the shape. The facial features don’t distinguish gender or age, with only the presence or absence of facial hair used to differentiate. The colors are monochromatic, with no meticulous oil painting — just hasty strokes of ink or soot to make them black. Before performances, white lines are drawn on the faces and foreheads using lime or chalk. Its overall style can be summarized in eight words: earnest, naive, bizarre, and exaggerated.

　　of black,

　　, the forehead is marked with streaks of white lines. Its overall style can be summed up in eight words: earnest, naive, bizarre, and exaggerated.

　　Regarding the origin of “Cuotaiji,” due to a lack of historical records, it is now difficult to verify. Judging from the content of the play, it may have originated during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Through continuous revisions and additions, it became largely finalized by the mid-Qing Dynasty. For thousands of years, “Cuotaiji” has quietly survived deep in the mountain forests of western Guizhou, barely influenced by Han culture, thus preserving the essence of primitive art. Such an ancient drama is extremely rare in China. Therefore, once it was rediscovered, its significant academic and artistic value drew wide attention, with numerous foreign scholars coming each year to study and research it.