Bayanbaolige

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Born into a family of folk musicians, he began learning the sihu, a Mongolian four-stringed bowed fiddle, from his father at the age of six. In 1974 he became a disciple of Sun Liang, a master of his generation in sihu performance, and systematically mastered the entire technique, repertoire, and style of that school. In 1990 he and his teacher Sun Liang jointly released the sihu album Bayin (Eight Tones). Within the regional tradition and school record of Mongolian Sihu Music in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia: The Mongol four-string fiddle circulates mainly in the Mongol areas of settlement of Tongliao city and the Horqin grasslands of Inner Mongolia, and is also current in the Mongol villages of the three eastern leagues and of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang; Tongliao is the area where the art of the Mongol four-string fiddle is most flourishing. The Mongol four-string fiddle of Tongliao is called “houle”, “huwuer” and “huer” in Mongol, and was called the “tiqin” in the Lü Lü Zheng Yi Hou Bian compiled in the Kangxi reign. After the Yuan dynasty four-string fiddle art circulated widely and was once all the rage in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and the Han areas of settlement of north China, exercising a far-reaching influence on Han folk narrative-singing.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Mongolian ethnicity, born in March 1956 in Horqin Left Middle Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In 1975 he joined the Inner Mongolia Radio and Television Art Troupe. In 2005 he organized and founded the Inner Mongolia Sihu Association and served as its president. He has repeatedly organized and taught sihu artists' training courses of various kinds in leagues and cities across Inner Mongolia. His performance style is distinctive, grounded in a profound traditional foundation while embracing a broad modern outlook. His representative pieces include Bayin (Eight Tones), He Ying Hua (He Ying Flower), Asar, Pu'an Zhou (Incantation of Pu'an), Su Wu Mu Yang (Su Wu Herding Sheep), and Desheng Ling (Victory Command). Within the documented technical tradition of Mongolian Sihu Music in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia: The Tongliao Mongol four-string fiddle is one of the instruments most marked with Mongol character and is divided into three kinds, the treble, the alto and the bass. The treble fiddle has a bright, crisp tone and is mostly used for solo, duet and ensemble; the alto and bass fiddles have rich, round tones, are good at lyrical pieces and are mainly used to accompany the Horqin narrative-singing arts of uliger and holboo. They play a very important part in the cultural life of the Mongol people. Representative pieces of the Mongol four-string fiddle include Hurrying on the Road, Eight Tones and Asir (the above for the large fiddle) and Modeleima, The Winding Grape Vine and He Ying Hua (the above for the small fiddle). Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Hurrying on the Road": Representative pieces of the Mongol four-string fiddle include Hurrying on the Road, Eight Tones and Asir for the large fiddle and Modeleima, The Winding Grape Vine and He Ying Hua for the small fiddle. "Eight Tones": A representative piece for the large four-string fiddle, also among the traditional Mongol court music. "Asir": A representative piece for the large four-string fiddle, formerly indispensable in the performance of large court music. "Modeleima": A representative piece for the small four-string fiddle of the Horqin area.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Mongolian Sihu Music, a fourth-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. Bayanbaolige · National Representative Bearer Archive