Liu Jun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Liu Jun, Male, Unspecified, from Xining, Qinghai, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Qinghai Pingxian (Ⅴ-92). The tradition is documented in Xining, Qinghai. Within the regional tradition and school record of Qinghai Pingxian in Xining, Qinghai: Qinghai Pingxian sings its stories in the local dialect; it is sung only, not spoken. Most of these works draw on historical stories, folk legends, Tang poems and Song ci, Yuan and Ming zaju, Ming and Qing chuanqi, and classic works of classical fiction, such as The White Ape Steals the Peaches, which derives from Sun Tzu's Art of War, Confucius Pays Respects to His Teacher, which derives from the Dunhuang bianwen, The Secret Construction of the Royal Palace, which draws on the Story of the Tang, and Flooding Jinshan Hill, which draws from The White Snake, and so on.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in April 1949 in Xining, Qinghai Province. He loved Qinghai local quyi from childhood. At the age of fourteen he began studying Qinghai Pingxian under his uncle Yi Jialong, and he subsequently studied the singing of Qinghai Pingxian, Pingxian xiaodian and other Qinghai local quyi forms, as well as accompaniment technique on the yangqin, banhu, erhu and other instruments, under Ma Zhaolu. His singing is subtle and refined, richly flavoured, sincere in feeling and rounded in timbre. He composed several dozen quyi song sections, including Da Jian Bie (The Great Farewell), Hui Shi Li (Ten Li Back), Zou Ma Jian Zhuge (Riding to Recommend Zhuge) and Xia Jing (Summer Scene). The quyi musical works he composed appeared successively in Qinghai Culture, Xining Evening News and other newspapers and periodicals. Within the documented technical tradition of Qinghai Pingxian in Xining, Qinghai: Qinghai Pingxian, also called 'Xining fuzi', is widely transmitted in the Haidong area centred on Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, and has a history of more than 200 years to the present. Its performing style is intimate and unadorned. Many of its tunes, when sung, carry a 'la qiao zi', that is, the 'bang qiang' chorus singing commonly so called, so that the audience can join naturally in the performance through the bang qiang, producing a special effect in the hall. Qinghai Pingxian is commonly accompanied by a small folk ensemble, with instruments including the sanxian, yangqin, banhu, yueqin, flute, erhu and so forth. The melody played is rich and highly varied, showing the course by which classical music has changed and transformed in the Qinghai region. Qinghai Pingxian has a large number of vocal styles and tunes and belongs to the linked chain of tune patterns; it has traditionally been known as 'eighteen miscellaneous vocal styles and twenty-four tunes'. It is formed on the basis of the changing tunes of the southern 'fuzi', absorbing tune patterns from northern and southern sanqu, from xiaoqu ancient and modern, and from other genres of quyi. The fuzi-type tunes are the principal tunes marking the character of the genre. Besides these, Qinghai Pingxian also has several other large classes of tunes, such as bei gong (back work), za qiang (miscellaneous vocal styles), xiao dian (small items) and xia bei gong (lower back work); it may indeed be called a musical treasury with rich reserves. The traditional repertoire of Qinghai Pingxian is varied and colourful. More than 200 items alone have been collected and recorded in various localities, their contents covering history, politics, culture, social customs, ethics and morality and many other fields. The texts of these tunes are neatly matched in couplet, strict in prosody and highly poetic in character; some items even sing famous lines of, or whole, classical poems, ci and fu directly. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Eighteen mixed tunes and twenty-four airs": Pingxian's arias form a linked-tune system popularly summed up as "eighteen mixed tunes and twenty-four airs", built on the southern fuzi strain. "The five tune families": The fuzi family defines the genre's character; beside it stand the beigong, zachang, xiaodian and xiabeigong families. "The laqiaozi refrain": Many airs carry the laqiaozi refrain, in which the audience joins in and is drawn naturally into the performance. "The pingxian ensemble": The genre is accompanied by a small ensemble of sanxian, yangqin, banhu, yueqin, flute and erhu, tracing the drift of classical music into Qinghai.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Qinghai Pingxian, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2007 he was engaged by the Qinghai Provincial Department of Culture as a member of the expert committee for intangible cultural heritage safeguarding in Qinghai Province, and in 2012 he was awarded the title of Veteran Artist with Distinguished Contributions by the Publicity Department of the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee and the Qinghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

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. Liu Jun · National Representative Bearer Archive