Zou Zhongxin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He began learning the art at the age of five, studying successively under the Jinqianban performers Yang Yongchang and Sun Hongyun. He assimilated the strengths of the various schools, undertook a systematic summation and in-depth exploration of the Jinqianban art, and formed the distinctive Zou school style of Jinqianban beating, singing and performance routines. Within the regional tradition and school record of Jinqianban in Chengdu, Sichuan: Jinqianban is transmitted in the Han areas of the Bashu region. It took shape during the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty and to this day has a history of close to two hundred years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He served as vice chairman of the Sichuan branch of the China Quyi Artists Association. He created or adapted more than two thousand Sichuan Jinqianban works, among them Leng Qiang Zhan (Cold Rifle Warfare) and Sichuan Bai Mao Nü (The White-Haired Girl of Sichuan). His performances took him throughout Sichuan Province, and he devoted himself continuously to popularising the Jinqianban art. Within the documented technical tradition of Jinqianban in Chengdu, Sichuan: At first it was nothing more than a plain vocal style used to recite admonitory texts for the world, with performers singing in the streets to earn their living. Through subsequent development and improvement it gradually became an independent genre of quyi. Jinqianban is performed by a single person, combining speech and song, and the final line of each passage is usually given with a slightly drawn-out cadence. While speaking and singing, the performer holds a striking board in one hand and a bottom board and a face board in the other, and strikes the three bamboo boards together to produce sounds in a great variety of rhythms to accompany the singing. Its vocal style is marked and highly individual: it adopts Sichuan opera tune patterns such as [laodiao], [gou nian yang], [fugui hua], [hong nao'ao], [mantanghong] and [jiangtougui], and at the same time absorbs music from kunqu as well as from Sichuan folk songs, mountain songs, xiaoqu and haozi labour chants. The lyrics are plain and easy to understand and rich in rhythm; the number of characters in a line is unrestricted, most pieces rhyme on a single rhyme from beginning to end, and change of rhyme occurs only occasionally. The traditional performing repertory of jinqianban is comparatively rich. Works such as Battle at Dongjia Temple, Battle at Dongting and Battle at Piludang, together with Rouge Match, Hibiscus Match, Dragon and Phoenix Match, Golden Cicada Match and Filial Piety Match, are the classics among them, conventionally called the "three battles and five matches". Besides these, there is also a large body of representative works such as Disturbing Ya'an, The Story of Despising the Poor, the Uprising of Lan Dashun, Wagang Stockade, Judge Bao's Cases and The Tale of Yue Fei. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Battle at Dongjia Temple": The traditional performing repertory of jinqianban is comparatively rich. Works such as Battle at Dongjia Temple, Battle at Dongting and Battle at Piludang, together with Rouge Match, Hibiscus Match, Dragon and Phoenix Match, Golden Cicada Match and Filial Piety Match, are the classics among them, conventionally called the "three battles and five matches". "Battle at Dongting": The traditional performing repertory of jinqianban is comparatively rich. Works such as Battle at Dongjia Temple, Battle at Dongting and Battle at Piludang, together with Rouge Match, Hibiscus Match, Dragon and Phoenix Match, Golden Cicada Match and Filial Piety Match, are the classics among them, conventionally called the "three battles and five matches". "Battle at Piludang": The traditional performing repertory of jinqianban is comparatively rich. Works such as Battle at Dongjia Temple, Battle at Dongting and Battle at Piludang, together with Rouge Match, Hibiscus Match, Dragon and Phoenix Match, Golden Cicada Match and Filial Piety Match, are the classics among them, conventionally called the "three battles and five matches". "Rouge Match": The traditional performing repertory of jinqianban is comparatively rich. Works such as Battle at Dongjia Temple, Battle at Dongting and Battle at Piludang, together with Rouge Match, Hibiscus Match, Dragon and Phoenix Match, Golden Cicada Match and Filial Piety Match, are the classics among them, conventionally called the "three battles and five matches".

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in April 1924 in Anyue County, Sichuan Province, and died in May 2013. He was a national representative bearer of Jinqianban, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2006 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Fourth China Quyi Peony Award, conferred by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Quyi Artists Association.

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. Zou Zhongxin · National Representative Bearer Archive