The Folklore Phenomenon Of Cockfight In Kaifeng And Its Community Meaning

Cockfighting is an ancient bird game. This traditional folk game has a long history in Kaifeng. Kaifeng gamecocks have become representative of the Central Plains, even the whole country, owing to their characteristics of being mighty, wild, aggressive and unyielding. The emergence of this fine gamecock variety is inseparable with the special historical, cultural and regional background of Kaifeng. As early as in Song Dynasty, Kaifeng has been a prosperous city. Through the development during Ming and Qing Dynasty, Kaifeng has developed its unique city style. In this city, the cockfighting game passes on from generation to generation. Gamecock-lovers cultivate aggressive and pleasant gamecocks which are carefully selected and trained for centuries with their cultivating and training methods orally passed down. Furthermore, the reason of the prosperity of cockfighting lies in"fighting", for it was connected with gambling from the very beginning. The results of fighting games can be victory or defeat, lotory thereof becomes another feature of cockfighting games. Kaifeng folks treat cockfighting as a medium of lotory, gain money and fame by gambing on gamecocks, which is the motive for gamecock-raisers to cultivate and train high-quality gamecocks with every effort. However, cockfighting is not simply a game, but the fighting between people especially the owners of the gamecocks as well. What it reflects is the relationship between people and all kinds of social phenomenon.This article can be divided into six parts:Part one: Introduction. Cockfighting has never been the main part of Chinese social life. However, for the individual cockfighting-lovers, cockfighting actually plays a major part in their social activities. The deep investigation into cockfighting in Kaifeng is useful for us to understand this ancient city and people here.Part two: Kaifeng gamecocks and the custom of cockfighting. The reason why gamecocks of Kaifeng can be famous in the Central Plains and the emergence of unique cockfighting custom is closely related to the cultural background of this city. In Qing dynasty, the gamecocks which are carefully trained in Manzhou District of Kaifeng and the cockfighting culture thereof takes root have formed the uniqur cockfighting custom.Part three: Cockfighting in history and in literati's works. In history cockfight has always been a game of royal members and nobilities. The earliest verbal record suggested that negative meaning has been associated with cockfighting from the very beginning. However, this did not affect its prevalence in society. Cockfighting is not only popular with the public, but also have been depicted by literati in their works.Part four: the training of Kaifeng gamecocks. The cockfighting-lovers have a unique way to train gamecocks and develop their own aesthetics value during the process of gamecock-breeding. To pick out excellent variety of gamecocks, they have to eliminate a large number of gamecock candidates. From the selecting stage, the cockfighting-lovers have to devote great efforts and enthusiasm to gamecock-training.Part five: the Gambling on cockfighting. The cockfighting ground is not only the fighting place for gamecocks, but also the one for the owners of gamecocks and the audiences. At the very beginning, the cockfighting had much to do with gambling. Now gambling on cockfighting has developed into an industry in Kaifeng, which attracted many people to join in. The cockfighting ground has become a lively party, and becomes a place in which the cockfighting folklore is demonstrated.Part six: Others. After the first folk cockfighting association has been organized, the cockfighting-lovers from all over the country begin to imitate. The cockfighting association has its role to promote the folk culture.