Zhao Gengmei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

She is the twenty-sixth-generation transmitter of the Panwang Grand Song. Her transmission is both familial and social: from childhood she learned Yao songs from her grandfather, her father and her mother, and later she took Pan Caiyou and Zhao Rongqian as her teachers to study Yao songs. Within the regional tradition and school record of Panwang Grand Song in Jianghuayaozuzizhi, Hunan: The Panwang Grand Song is centred on the Jianghua Yao autonomous county of Hunan and circulates in the Yao areas of settlement in Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan. The Panwang Grand Song is the summation of Yao folk ballads, composed of prelude songs, inserted songs, main songs and miscellaneous songs; its main content concerns the Yao forebears' view of nature, of the cosmos and of history, and from the origin of mankind to the emergence of the Yao, from the Yao migrations to the pioneering of the ancestors, it comprehensively records the history, culture, customs and beliefs of the Yao, and may be called the “encyclopedia” of the Yao people. The Panwang Grand Song of the Jianghua Yao autonomous county includes mainly the following content: first, creation myths about the opening of heaven and earth and the origin of all things, such as The Flood Covers the Sky and The Gourd Song; second, heroic ancient songs about Yao history and migration, such as The Birth of King Pan and The Song of the Thousand-Family Cave; third, songs about labour and production, such as Releasing the Hunting Dog, reflecting the Yao hunting life, The Great Drought, expressing farming life, and Lu Ban Makes a Cart, describing handicraft labour; fourth, songs about love, such as The Sun Rises Early and The Sun Rises at Noon; fifth, songs reflecting the deities worshipped by the Yao, such as King Pan and the Thunder King; and sixth, songs showing a humorous and amusing life, such as Seeing a Great Marvel and The Song of What Thing. It was begun in primitive society, took shape in the Jin dynasty, was formed in the Tang and Song, and matured in the late Ming and early Qing.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Yao ethnicity, born in June 1950 in Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, Hunan Province. She is a singer of the Panwang Grand Song. She can sing more than twenty tunes, including those of the Gaoshan Yao, the jiangge tune sung at zuogetang singing gatherings, the guoshan sheng, lahua tune, waliu tune and diege tune, the mountain songs "Gaoshan Dishi", or Water Dripping on the High Mountain, and "Gaoshan Yin", or High Mountain Melody, the "Qiren Qu", or Seven Rites, chanted by ritual masters in the Panwang Grand Song, and the "Changsheng Pai", or Long-Tone Piece, "Duansheng Pai", or Short-Tone Piece, and "Daishi" sung by the female singers. In 1964 she brought Yao singing to the Great Hall of the People, and she has presided over Yao zuogetang singing gatherings and song contests more than twenty times. In 1979 Hunan Radio recorded the Yao song she had sung in Beijing, "Standing on the Yao Mountains Looking Toward Beijing", and broadcast it on the Central People's Broadcasting Station. Within the documented technical tradition of Panwang Grand Song in Jianghuayaozuzizhi, Hunan: The Panwang Grand Song circulates mainly in the Nanling (also called the Five Ridges) region, including the Jianghua Yao autonomous county of Yongzhou city, Hunan, the Yao autonomous county of Ruyuan and the Zhuang-and-Yao autonomous counties of Lianshan and Liannan in Guangdong, the Yao autonomous counties of Fuchuan, Du'an, Dahua, Jinxiu, Gongcheng and Bama in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and the Yao autonomous county of Hekou in Yunnan. The Panwang Grand Song of Jianghua county is a general collection of Yao poetry; the poems it gathers are mostly in the ancient style and use several forms together; their lines vary in length and their forms are diverse, mostly seven-character; the songs are inseparable from feeling and both song and feeling are rich; songs and tunes coexist, the songs having names and the tunes having labels, such as the “Seven-Tenure Tune”, the “Long Immortal Label” and the “Spoken Song”; it often uses the distinctive method of comparison and evocation to shape artistic images, describes history and figures in long-tempered language, and sings in traditional ethnic vocal style, and is deeply loved by the Yao people, with a broad popular base. The Panwang Grand Song of Jianghua county is an ancient song and historical lay widely collected, sorted and created by Yao folk artists and used to sacrifice to King Pan. The Panwang Grand Song is both an important oral cultural heritage and historical memory of the Yao and the wellspring of Yao cultural and artistic creation. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Flood Covers the Sky and The Gourd Song": The creation myths about the opening of heaven and earth and the origin of all things among the Panwang Grand Song. "The Birth of King Pan and The Song of the Thousand-Family Cave": Heroic ancient songs about Yao history and migration. "Tunes such as the Seven-Tenure Tune and the Long Immortal Label": The musical system in which the songs have names and the tunes have labels. "The Panwang Festival and the Sitting-Song Hall": The sacrificial and singing-contest occasions at which song masters and song maidens lead the singing of the Panwang Grand Song.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Panwang Grand Song, a fifth-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. Zhao Gengmei · National Representative Bearer Archive