Xie Baoshen
01 · Lineage & Regional School
In 1956 he entered the Lisheng Troupe of Xianyou County, where he studied under veteran artists including Zheng Mudan, a drummer of the “Yuanli” school of Puxian Opera, and Yang Qingyuan, an inheritor of the “Yaoxia” school, learning the rich and varied tunes of Puxian Opera. Within the regional tradition and school record of Puxian Opera in Putian, Fujian: Puxian opera is mainly popular in the Putian and Xianyou area of Fujian and is also circulated in the xinghua-dialect areas of central and southern Fujian. In the Southern Song period, under the influence of Song zaju, the Xinghua zaju appeared in the Putian and Xianyou area of Fujian, combining song, dance, recitation and spoken dialogue to stage stories. In the early Ming dynasty, Xinghua zaju absorbed artistic elements of the vocal styles of Kunshan, Yiyang, Yuyao and Haiyan, forming the Xinghua register, used to perform xinghua opera. In the Ming and Qing dynasties this operatic form developed further. In 1954 xinghua opera was formally renamed Puxian opera.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
He has strictly transmitted the traditional music of Puxian Opera; while preserving the framework, musical style and savour of the traditional qupai, he has explored the modern modes of thought contained within them and has innovated by drawing on modern music theory. He has rescued more than a thousand Puxian Opera vocal melodies and various kinds of folk music, and has written several monographs and articles on music. Within the documented technical tradition of Puxian Opera in Putian, Fujian: Puxian opera was originally called xinghua opera and is one of the oldest surviving opera genres in China. Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera. In the performance system of Puxian opera there are conventional movements with a strong local colour, such as Snake-Stepping (Qianbu She), Sparrow-and-Bird Leap (Que Niao Tiao), Skirt-Sweeping the Floor (Sao Di Qun), Touching the Snail (Mo Tianluo) and Seven Slides (Qi Xia Liu), and some movements still carry traces of glove-puppet performance. The vocal structure of Puxian opera belongs to the tune-pattern system; it has more than one thousand musical tune patterns and more than three hundred gong-and-drum formula. Moreover, Puxian opera has also influenced the folklore, language, social psychology, habits of daily life and culture and art of the Putian and Xianyou areas. Since the beginning of the new century, for various reasons Puxian opera has lost talent severely and lacks successors; its traditional performance art is on the verge of being lost; its facial makeup, costumes and musical vocal styles are being assimilated by imported genres and other art forms; and its artistic distinctiveness is weakening. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Wang Kui": Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera. "Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan)": Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera. "Liu Zhiyuan": Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera. "Cai Bojie": Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera.
Wang Kui
Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera.
Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan)
Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera.
Liu Zhiyuan
Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera.
Cai Bojie
Puxian opera has more than five thousand traditional plays extant; works such as Wang Kui, Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuangyuan), Liu Zhiyuan and Cai Bojie preserve to some extent the artistic character of Nanxi, while Mulian Opera, performed over seven consecutive days, clearly preserves performance forms of the earliest period of Chinese opera.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
He was a man of the Han ethnic group, born in December 1934 in Xianyou County, Fujian Province, and died in August 2017. He is a national representative bearer of Puxian Opera, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. The Puxian Opera and song-and-dance narrative music he arranged received the National Excellence Award and the “Outstanding Music Design Award” at the provincial theatrical festival, among other honours, and he was named an “Outstanding Troupe Leader of the Province”.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
In the Southern Song period, under the influence of Song zaju, the Xinghua zaju appeared in the Putian and Xianyou area of Fujian, combining song, dance, recitation and spoken dialogue to stage stories. In the early Ming dynasty, Xinghua zaju absorbed artistic elements of the vocal styles of Kunshan, Yiyang, Yuyao and Haiyan, forming the Xinghua register, used to perform xinghua opera.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huang Baozhen | Putian, Fujian | 02-0422 | Same declared area |
| Zhu Shifeng | Putian, Fujian | 02-0423 | Same declared area |
| Wang Shaoyuan | Putian, Fujian | 03-0970 | Same declared area |
| Xie Baoshen | Putian, Fujian | 04-1594 | This page |
| Wu Zhenxun | Putian, Fujian | 05-2307 | Same declared area |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。