Yang Shengxiang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1958 he was admitted to the Qin County Art School, where he studied the erhu under Chen Zuzhen. The following year he was assigned to the Xiangyuan County Yangge Opera Troupe, where he became a disciple of the celebrated comic (chou) artist Wu Qifa and learned to sing sanhua (comic) roles. In 1960 he turned to the study of music under the accompanist Fan Maohe; building on a summary of his predecessors' artistic achievements, he developed the four-line two-nature metre (si ju er xing ban) from a tune used only for xiaodan into a vocal style shared by all role types, and created such new metrical patterns as the shaking metre (yao ban), the weeping metre (ku ban) and the guiding metre with huilong (dao ban hui long), enriching the expressive power of Xiangyuan Yangge. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yangge Opera in Xiangyuan, Shanxi: Xiangwu yangge is popular in the Shangdang and Jinzhong areas, centred on Xiangyuan and Wuxiang; through absorbing the artistic elements of Xihuo yangge and Shangdang bangzi its singing formed a banqiang form on a yangge-xiaodiao basis, making it, together with Huguan yangge and Zezhou yangge, one of the different branches of south-eastern Shanxi yangge. Xiangwu yangge is found mainly in the Shangdang and Jinzhong areas of Shanxi; it grew out of the folk shehuo activities of the late Ming and early Qing, beginning as a yangge called “tiaogao”, and later took shape on the basis of local narrative-singing and folk dance while absorbing artistic elements of Xihuo yangge and Shangdang bangzi, flourishing by the mid-Qing. Drawing on local opera annals, it flourished in the mid-Qing with professional troupes by the late Qing and early Republic, and in the 1950s Xiangyuan county formed a professional troupe and systematically collated its traditional repertory and music.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in July 1945 in Xiangyuan County, Shanxi Province. Within the documented technical tradition of Yangge Opera in Xiangyuan, Shanxi: Xiangwu yangge singing belongs to the banqiang form in the zhi mode; in its early days it sang mainly xiaoqu and xiaodiao, later forming a complete musical system with twelve basic ban patterns such as Liushui, Luantan and Gelianban together with various auxiliary patterns and qupai-system music, its singing brisk yet free and melodious amid high excitement. Its roles began with the “three smalls” of xiaosheng, xiaodan and xiaochou, later adding xusheng, qingyi and hualian. Its recitation is mainly in the Shangdang dialect and its performance plain, with a strong flavour of life. It preserves more than one hundred and fifty traditional and more than two hundred and fifty modern plays, mostly on family and social life, simple in plot and plain and humorous in language, fully displaying the joys and sorrows of ordinary people; among them such traditional costume plays as Jia Qi and Luohua Ji and such modern plays as Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang and Xiao Erhei Jiehun are its most influential representative works. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Jia Qi (Marrying Off the Wife)": One of the most influential traditional costume plays of Xiangwu yangge. "Luohua Ji (The Fallen Blossom)": One of the most influential traditional costume plays of Xiangwu yangge. "Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang": One of the most influential modern plays of Xiangwu yangge. "Xiao Erhei Jiehun (Xiao Erhei Marries)": One of the most influential modern plays of Xiangwu yangge.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He was a national representative bearer of Yangge Opera (Xiangwu Yangge), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He composed music for 186 Xiangyuan Yangge works and 58 Xiangyuan drum-singing (gushu) works; more than ten of these received provincial awards and four received national awards. After retiring he has remained active in arranging and adapting repertory for troupes and has taught at the Changzhi Culture and Art School, training several groups of xiqu performers with solid foundations and continuing to contribute to Yangge art.

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. Yang Shengxiang · National Representative Bearer Archive