Wu Bingzhi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From childhood he studied ritual music under his grandfather Wu Yusheng and his father Wu Jingyi, received the true transmission of the Zhengyi school lineage, and is the fourth-generation transmitter of the Macao Wu Qingyun Daoist Hall and of Macao Daoist ritual music. Within the regional tradition and school record of Daoist Music in Macao, China: Macao Daoist ritual music blends the Zhengyi school of Macao with the Quanzhen school of Guangdong; there are more than five hundred Daoist tunes in all, and among the ritual music of Daoist communities in various places it ranks among the foremost for the number of its pieces. In the ritual services, masters such as the gaogong and the jianzhai lead the singing and the instrumental performance; while singing the rhymed melodic lines with their mouths, they hold a drum and a small gong in their two hands respectively and strike out varied drum patterns and gong patterns. Apart from being carried on for two hundred years in the Zhengyi-school secular monastery, in the 1960s the Taoist priest Wu Yusheng of the Wuqingyun Taoist monastery, without regard to sectarian boundaries, introduced it separately into the Taoist altars and societies of Macao and of Hong Kong, widening the range over which Macao Daoist ritual music is disseminated. From the 1960s onward, as Macao's economy transformed and urbanisation intensified, traditional religious ceremonies were gradually simplified and rituals in the ritual halls no longer flourished; the number of Zhengyi-school Taoist priests therefore fell sharply, and Macao Daoist ritual music, with its distinctive local character, faced a crisis of being lost.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

His Daoist name is Dazhi; male, of Han ethnicity, born in February 1959 in the Macao Special Administrative Region. He currently works for the Labour Affairs Bureau of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region. In 2000 he received ordination at the Hereditary Celestial Master's Mansion on Mount Longhu in Jiangxi, and in 2001 he co-founded the Macao Daoist Association with fellow adherents and served as its president. As the senior officiant and the jianzhai master of the ritual arena, he is the lead singer and lead instrumentalist of the ritual music, able to sing the melodic chants while his left and right hands separately play the drum and the small gong, striking varied drum and gong patterns in accord with the score. While leading the Macao Daoist Music Ensemble in spreading the teachings and performing in China and abroad, he co-authored and published Macao Daoist Ritual Music and its sequel volume. Within the documented technical tradition of Daoist Music in Macao, China: Macao Daoist ritual music is religious music that blends the Zhengyi school of Macao with the Quanzhen school of Guangdong. There are more than five hundred Daoist tunes in all, and among the ritual music of Daoist communities in various places it ranks among the foremost for the number of its pieces. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Ritual CD recording": A CD of Daoist music recorded by the Macao Taoist Association in order to rescue this heritage. "Macao Daoist Ritual Music": A monograph compiled by the Macao Taoist Association, containing the more than five hundred scores recorded by Associate Professor Wang Zhongren when he came to Macao to carry out the transcription work. "Macao Daoist Orchestra": Immediately after its establishment in 2002 the Macao Taoist Association began its protective work, formed the Macao Daoist Orchestra, set up the ritual affairs team of the association and held Daoist music appreciation concerts. "Transcription project": In 2006 Associate Professor Wang Zhongren, formerly head of the Daoist music research office of the Wuhan Conservatory of Music and at the same time music adviser and tutor of the Singapore Taoist Orchestra, was specially invited to come to Macao to transcribe Daoist music, and more than five hundred scores were recorded in all.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Daoist Music (Macao Daoist Ritual Music), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University in 1981 with a bachelor's degree.

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. Wu Bingzhi · National Representative Bearer Archive