Hu Qingxue

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He arrived at Zhihua Temple in 1991 and in May 1992 formally became a disciple of Huiming, a monk-musician of the twenty-sixth generation, concentrating on wind instruments. He also studied the gongche notation of Jing music and the performance of the sheng and yunluo under Benxing, Fuguang, and others, becoming the twenty-seventh-generation transmitter of Zhihua Temple Jing music. Within the regional tradition and school record of Zhihuasijing Music in Beijing: Zhihua Temple jing music is transmitted mainly by the monastic community of Zhihua Temple in Beijing. The temple was first built in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming dynasty (1444), originally founded when Wang Zhen, a eunuch director of the Directorate of Ceremonial, "gave his residence to become a temple". It became famous after it was studied by a number of well-known musicians from the 1950s onward, and from the 1980s it was jointly excavated and rescued by government departments, the music world and the Buddhist world. Its inheritors pass the art on in succession by monastic generation; most of the old artist-monks of the twenty-sixth generation have died, the inheritors of the twenty-seventh generation urgently need to improve technically, and the size of the ensemble and the layers of its timbre can no longer fully express the character of the original ancient music. Zhihua Temple in Beijing was first built in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming dynasty (1444), originally founded by Wang Zhen, a eunuch director of the Directorate of Ceremonial under the reign of the Ming emperor Yingzong, who "gave his residence to become a temple"; in 1961 it was listed by the State Council among the first batch of major historical and cultural sites protected at national level. From the 1950s onward a number of famous Chinese musicians have studied Zhihua Temple jing music, achieving fruitful results. Since the 1980s of the twentieth century Zhihua Temple jing music has been excavated and rescued by government departments, figures in the music world and figures in the Buddhist world, yet many problems remain difficult to solve to this day.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in June 1974 in Gu'an County, Hebei Province. He studied central Hebei sheng-and-guan music from childhood, concentrating on the sheng and guan. He completed his training in 1995 and subsequently returned to his home village for a time. From 2004 he served as a full-time performer at Zhihua Temple. He has mastered the guan performance and gongche-notation singing of more than forty extant qupai. His guan technique is highly accomplished and stands out among transmitters of his generation; he also plays the sheng and other instruments, and his singing has clear enunciation and a full, rounded tone. He is dedicated to transmitting, disseminating, and researching the tradition, and has repeatedly taught his skills in schools. Within the documented technical tradition of Zhihuasijing Music in Beijing: Zhihua Temple jing music has distinct artistic characteristics: its musical style is solemn, archaic and refined, its formal structure is large and regular, its performing techniques are rich, and it holds an enormous repertoire. Judging from the material available, the majority of scholars hold that jing music is related to the ancient music of the Tang and Song dynasties. In many respects, such as its repertoire, instruments, gong modes and performing methods, it preserves the old institutions of the Song and Ming. Traditional pieces include Xi Qiu Feng (Joy in the Autumn Wind), Na Tian E (Seizing the Swan), Qingjiang Yin (Clear River Leading Song), Mei Hua Yin (Plum Blossom Leading Song), Xiao Hua Yan (Lesser Huayan), Zui Weng Zi (The Drunken Old Man) and others. The enormous changes in present-day society make the development of Zhihua Temple jing music extremely difficult. In the past two years, through the efforts of many parties, the forty-five surviving pieces were promptly recorded. Nevertheless, Zhihua Temple jing music is still very short of inheritors in number, the ensembles cannot reach their original size, the timbre and the layers of content are monotonous, and it falls far short of expressing the character of the original ancient music. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xi Qiu Feng": Traditional pieces include Xi Qiu Feng (Joy in the Autumn Wind), Na Tian E (Seizing the Swan), Qingjiang Yin (Clear River Leading Song), Mei Hua Yin (Plum Blossom Leading Song), Xiao Hua Yan (Lesser Huayan), Zui Weng Zi (The Drunken Old Man) and others. "Na Tian E": Traditional pieces include Xi Qiu Feng (Joy in the Autumn Wind), Na Tian E (Seizing the Swan), Qingjiang Yin (Clear River Leading Song), Mei Hua Yin (Plum Blossom Leading Song), Xiao Hua Yan (Lesser Huayan), Zui Weng Zi (The Drunken Old Man) and others. "Qingjiang Yin": Traditional pieces include Xi Qiu Feng (Joy in the Autumn Wind), Na Tian E (Seizing the Swan), Qingjiang Yin (Clear River Leading Song), Mei Hua Yin (Plum Blossom Leading Song), Xiao Hua Yan (Lesser Huayan), Zui Weng Zi (The Drunken Old Man) and others. "Mei Hua Yin": Traditional pieces include Xi Qiu Feng (Joy in the Autumn Wind), Na Tian E (Seizing the Swan), Qingjiang Yin (Clear River Leading Song), Mei Hua Yin (Plum Blossom Leading Song), Xiao Hua Yan (Lesser Huayan), Zui Weng Zi (The Drunken Old Man) and others.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Zhihua Temple Jing 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. Hu Qingxue · National Representative Bearer Archive