Qiao Yuan
Lineage & School of Heritage
Qiao Yuan began learning the art of scroll recitation in 1962 and is the third-generation inheritor of this tradition in the region.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1944, a native of Jiuquan, Gansu. The baojuan, also known as the "precious scroll," is a form of sung and spoken literature that has circulated among the people since the Ming and Qing dynasties, evolving from the bianwen and jiangjingwen texts of the Tang dynasty. The recitation of baojuan, commonly called nianjuan and also known as xuanjuan, differs from ordinary reading aloud: because the baojuan alternate between prose and verse, the recitation must give close attention to rhythm and intonation. For this reason, the recitation of baojuan is not a task that any merely literate person can undertake. In 1987, Qiao Yuan became the hall master of the Yuhua Hall in the Hongshui district, where he presided over the recitation of baojuan. Sessions of xuanjuan and changjuan are held mainly during the slack farming seasons and after the evening meal. The recitation takes the forms of singing, speaking, and chanting, and its venues range from temple fairs and public squares to fields and farmsteads. The content of the baojuan combines instruction with entertainment, aiming to exhort people to do good and honor their parents, to be diligent and frugal, to be honest in their dealings, and to be gentle and courteous. His representative works include the Golden Phoenix Scroll, the Cowherd Scroll, and the Scroll of the Woman Huang.
Honors & Recognition
A national representative bearer of the Hexi Baojuan, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In addition to his recitation work, Qiao Yuan has copied 150,000 characters of scroll texts and collected ten scrolls of various kinds, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the protection and transmission of this ancient culture.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Hexibaojuan Ⅰ-13
- Hexibaojuan Ⅰ-13
- Baojuan Sutra Telling Ⅰ-13
- Baojuan Sutra Telling Ⅰ-13
- Baojuan Sutra Telling Ⅰ-13
- Baojuan Sutra Telling Ⅰ-13
Profile
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。