Zhang Yonggui

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1945 he became a disciple of Zhao Youcheng, a representative transmitter of the Jia school of zhuqin, to study zhuqin performance. Within the regional tradition and school record of Sichuan Zhuqin in Chengduyishujuyuan, Sichuan: Sichuan zhuqin has many performing schools, among which “Jia-school zhuqin”, represented by Jia Shusan, has had the greatest influence. It originated in Taoist temple music and was in vogue for a time at the imperial court of the Tang dynasty. After the first year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty (1796), the art of zhuqin began to spread among ordinary people, and the number of singers and storytellers grew steadily. In the 1930s, Jia Shusan, hailed as one of the “three supreme masters of the Sichuan qutan”, created the single-performer form, in which one person renders several roles either seated (zuochang) or walking (zouchang). Over its long development, the music of Sichuan zhuqin diverged from a single tune into several schools and tune types of markedly different styles, among them the zhonghe diao and the yangqin diao. In the late Qing and the early Republican period, zhuqin guilds were founded one after another in various parts of Sichuan, promoting the development of this folk art.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in April 1933 in Mianzhu County, Sichuan Province. He completed his apprenticeship in 1949; within four years he had learned a large body of zhuqin repertoire and could sing more than 110 zhuqin pieces. His voice is powerful and resonant, impassioned in the upper register and rich in flavour in the lower, and he integrates the vocal characteristics of both yangqin and zhuqin. His representative works include Farewell at Xunyang, Baoyu Mourns Lin Daiyu, Three Kingdoms and The Warring States. Within the documented technical tradition of Sichuan Zhuqin in Chengduyishujuyuan, Sichuan: Sichuan zhuqin circulates in the Han-inhabited areas of Sichuan Province. It takes its name from the use of bamboo tubes and bamboo clappers as its principal accompanying instruments, and in folk usage it is also called da dao tong, chang dao tong or da chi pang pang. The earliest performing form of Sichuan zhuqin was for several singers to sit and perform in divided roles, generally four or five to a group singing together. The zhonghe diao, also called the “comprehensive diao” or the “middle-river diao”, circulates mainly in eastern, southern and northern Sichuan. It developed from the limen diao, the laonanyin diao and the nanyin diao, and in turn gave rise to several performing schools on the basis of those tunes. The yangqin diao, also called the “provincial diao”, circulates only in Chengdu and western Sichuan; its vocal style is mellow and flowing, and it is divided into a male and a female vocal type. Both the zhonghe diao and the yangqin diao belong to the banqiang type of musical structure. They have vocal styles such as the yizi, sanfa, sanban, yaoban and daqiang, together with auxiliary vocal types such as the duozi and the shuban, which are popularly called the kuqiang and the kupingqiang. Jia Shusan condensed the four-sentence tune pattern of zhuqin singing to two sentences, changed the man qiyanban (slow seven-beat metre) into the kuai sanyanban (fast three-beat metre), and boldly transplanted into zhuqin music the tanxi and huqinxi vocal styles of Sichuan opera as well as the vocal styles of Sichuan qingyin and folk minor tunes. He thus created the rich and varied “caiqiang” (coloured aria), which soon spread far and wide. The classical repertoire of “Jia-school zhuqin” is quite rich, with several hundred singing passages including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cases of Judge Bao, The Legend of the White Snake and Wind and Wave Pavilion. Most of the lyrics in these passages are refined and elegant, and are highly literary. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Romance of the Three Kingdoms": The classical repertoire of “Jia-school zhuqin” is quite rich, with several hundred singing passages including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cases of Judge Bao, The Legend of the White Snake and Wind and Wave Pavilion. Most of the lyrics in these passages are refined and elegant, and are highly literary. "Cases of Judge Bao": The classical repertoire of “Jia-school zhuqin” is quite rich, with several hundred singing passages including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cases of Judge Bao, The Legend of the White Snake and Wind and Wave Pavilion. Most of the lyrics in these passages are refined and elegant, and are highly literary. "The Legend of the White Snake": The classical repertoire of “Jia-school zhuqin” is quite rich, with several hundred singing passages including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cases of Judge Bao, The Legend of the White Snake and Wind and Wave Pavilion. Most of the lyrics in these passages are refined and elegant, and are highly literary. "Wind and Wave Pavilion": The classical repertoire of “Jia-school zhuqin” is quite rich, with several hundred singing passages including Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cases of Judge Bao, The Legend of the White Snake and Wind and Wave Pavilion. Most of the lyrics in these passages are refined and elegant, and are highly literary.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Sichuan Zhuqin, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. For many years he has actively cooperated with intangible cultural heritage protection departments at all levels, earnestly carrying out work in the protection and transmission of intangible cultural heritage.

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. Zhang Yonggui · National Representative Bearer Archive