Wei Shifa

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Wei Shifa, Male, Unspecified, from Lanzhou, Gansu, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Lanzhou Guzi (Ⅴ-24). The tradition is documented in Lanzhou, Gansu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lanzhou Guzi in Lanzhou, Gansu: Lanzhou Guzi is centred on the urban area of Lanzhou and the districts of Gaolan, Yuzhong and Yongdeng, and also spreads to Lintao, Baiyin and a few towns in the Hexi corridor. Its singers are mostly amateur enthusiasts from town and countryside alike, who form learning societies or associations by street, lane and courtyard and gather to sing at New Year and other festivals, at weddings and birthday celebrations, and at temple fairs. Because the singers are usually seated in a circle indoors without a raised platform, the local term is zuochang (seated singing) or xiaoqu (little tunes); once they move onto a raised platform, one person sings standing while beating a small moon drum, accompanied by several others on sanxian, yangqin, pipa, yueqin, huqin and the like. In the late Qing and early Republican period, Lanzhou Guzi was further influenced by the danxian bajiaogu (single-string octagonal drum) transmitted from Beijing and the mihuzi (meihu) transmitted from Shaanxi, and its artistic form took further shape. In the mid-1940s Li Haizhou (1907—1983), an enthusiast devoted to Lanzhou Guzi, organized the Nanshanxue Guzi Research Society, which investigated and preserved a good deal of artistic material on Lanzhou Guzi.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1940 in Gaolan County, Gansu Province. From childhood he was taught by word and example by his father Wei Wanyu and other veteran artists, and from 1960 he performed on stage. He mastered four of the ten major tunes of Lanzhou Guzi, namely gu, duo, bei and yue from the full set of gu, duo, bei, hai, yue, ping, fu, dang, ling and bai, and also overcame the two difficult tunes, hai and zhengping. His singing attends to the techniques of the five tones, to the level and oblique rhymes of the high ping mode, and to correct enunciation and rounded phrasing; his skill ranks among the foremost in the Lanzhou Guzi world. He has worked actively to pass on the tradition and now has more than ten disciples, some of whom have become leading figures in the field. He preserves a three-stringed xiaogu sanxian handed down in his family from the Qing dynasty and a manuscript notebook of Lanzhou Guzi lyrics in small regular script from the 1930s, containing more than thirty texts. Within the documented technical tradition of Lanzhou Guzi in Lanzhou, Gansu: Lanzhou Guzi is a form of quyi singing that took shape in and is mainly current in the Lanzhou area of Gansu Province, performed in the local Lanzhou pronunciation. It is said that the song yangge (rice-seedling sending song) form circulating in the countryside of Gansu, sung chiefly to [Dazao Ge] and [Qiediao], spread into Lanzhou and was then performed in a cappella style, forming Lanzhou Guzi in the middle and late Qing period. Its performance form is seated singing by several people each holding a sanxian, yangqin, pipa, yueqin, huqin, xiao, dizi and the like; once it moves onto a raised platform, one person sings standing while beating a small moon drum, accompanied by several others on sanxian, yangqin, pipa, yueqin, huqin and the like. The musical structure of the Lanzhou Guzi vocal system belongs to the linked-suite form built from tune patterns; the tune patterns most commonly used in the vocal style include [Po'er Xia], [Luojiang Yuan], [Bianguan Diao] and more than forty others. For a long time Lanzhou Guzi was sung mainly by amateur enthusiasts, with very few professional performers; Wang Yidao, Cao Yeru, Tang Jianghu, Ma Dongbashi, Zhang Guoliang, Lu Yingkui and others were the comparatively famous singers of early Lanzhou Guzi. The content of its traditional repertoire is extremely broad, comprising both medium-length and long pieces on historical stories and folk legends and short passages that praise scenery or celebrate occasions of rejoicing. The programmes most welcomed by listeners fall into two categories, boudoir sentiment pieces and heroic pieces. The former include Biehou Xinshang (Heartache after Parting), Kaohong (Beating the Matchmaker), Yingying Jianxing (Seeing Yingying Off) and Duzhan Huakui (Sole Occupant of the Flower Crown); the latter include Wusong Dahu (Wu Song Fights the Tiger), Linchong Yeben (Lin Chong's Night Flight) and Yanqing Dalei (Fighting the Ring at Yanqing). There are also works reflecting a passive attitude towards life, of which Hongchen Kantou (Seeing Through the Red Dust) and Yuqiao Wenda (Fisherman and Woodcatter Q&A) are the most typical. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lanzhou Guzi began to be performed on raised platforms, and a number of new programmes appeared, representative ones being Yangzirong Jianghu (Yang Zirong Subdues the Tiger), Duoqu Shanlan Zhan (Seizing Shanlan Station), Jie Xingche (Robbing the Prison Cart) and Han Ying Jian Niang (Han Ying Meets His Mother); well-known performers include Duan Shutang, Wang Ziying, Zhang Linyu and Wang Yalu. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Three tune titles": Three of some forty tune titles in the genre's linked-suite musical structure. "Boudoir and heroic songs": The two most popular categories, boudoir songs such as Cursing Hongniang and heroic songs such as Wu Song Kills the Tiger. "The ten modes": The ten modes named drum, seize, grief, sea, yue, level, ode, sway, order and hundred. "The small moon drum and sanxian": The genre's instruments: seated ensembles of plucked and bowed strings, with a small moon drum for the standing singer.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Lanzhou Guzi, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Wei Shifa · National Representative Bearer Archive