Wu Mingchang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Wu Mingchang, Male, Han, from Wanrong, Shanxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Gong and Drum Art (Ⅱ-123). The tradition is documented in Wanrong, Shanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Gong and Drum Art in Wanrong, Shanxi: Soft-hammer gongs and drums are a traditional musical form current in the area of Gaojiazhuang, Wanrong county, Yuncheng city, Shanxi Province. They are one of the forms of Yellow River culture rooted in the Hedong area of Yuncheng, with a long history handed on without interruption, containing rich historical and cultural information and displaying a marked regional character. It originated in the late Western Han dynasty and has a history of more than two thousand years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1944 in Wanrong County, Shanxi Province. From childhood he loved gong and drum art. Through long-term study with folk artists such as Zhang Lizheng and Wu Qianfu, he mastered highly difficult movements and special skills, including playing several drums by one person, wrapping the head and winding around the neck, leaping and turning, and cross-striking. Through years of visiting veteran artists, he collected and organized all the ancient qupai (tune titles) that were on the verge of being lost, and compiled and printed them into a volume, leaving valuable artistic materials for later generations. The four pieces he arranged, including Fengxuezhan (Battle in Wind and Snow) and Jingu (Golden Drum), became important achievements representing the core techniques of Ruanchui Luogu (soft-hammer gong and drum), and won major awards at various exhibition and performance events in China. Within the documented technical tradition of Gong and Drum Art in Wanrong, Shanxi: Since the Ming and Qing the tune patterns have seen much innovation and the performance has become far richer in variety. Compared with ordinary traditional gongs and drums, soft-hammer gongs and drums differ to some degree in tune pattern, form of expression and artistic style. Soft-hammer gongs and drums take the drum as their main instrument, with cymbals and gongs ingeniously accompanying. Its drumming technique includes one player on several drums, the head twined with the mallet and turning, leaping on the leg and turning the body, and springing onto the drum and shifting position. Its performing formations include the “travelling drum” and the “set-piece battle”. The “travelling drum” is beaten while walking, its tunes simple and bright, short and succinct, with a strong sense of rhythm; the “set-piece battle” is arranged in a square, with the drummers in the centre, the cymbal players around them and the gong players ranged in a line on both sides, suited to relatively long special performances. The soft hammers used in soft-hammer gongs and drums are nimble and powerful, soft yet with firmness in them, and highly expressive in performance. The cymbals and gongs are large and heavy, their sound deep and sonorous, resonant and mighty, producing an artistic effect that shakes the heart and spurs people on. Its tune patterns deal mainly with the subject of war, chief among them Xin Ao Zhan, Feng Xue Zhan, Sha Gu and San Guan Dian Shuai. Its sound is mostly stirring and unrestrained, impassioned and resonant, displaying the spirit of the Chinese nation forging ahead and struggling stubbornly. The drumsticks of soft-hammer gongs and drums are eight-ridged knots carefully twisted from coarse hemp rope at both ends, soaked in cold water and kiln-dried over a gentle fire before performance. Each gong has a frame to support the bronze gong, commonly called the “gong handle”. The gong frame is extremely carefully made: its main shaft is about one metre high, its top curving outward, and its head entirely of metal, cast in the form of a dragon's head. The gong is hung beneath the dragon's head. In performance, eight bass drums, eight large cymbals and sixteen bronze gongs, with thirty-two performers in all, are arranged in a square formation. The gongs and cymbals of soft-hammer gongs and drums are noticeably heavier than those of traditional sets, generally weighing as much as 15 jin (about 7.5 kilograms). Soft drumsticks are dense, and the drummer has to produce eighth notes and even sixteenth notes; this highly difficult technique can be mastered only by those thoroughly trained, and anyone without long, rigorous training can neither lift the gong, raise the cymbals nor strike the drum loud and clear. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Xin Ao Zhan": One of the tune patterns of soft-hammer gongs and drums dealing mainly with the subject of war. "Feng Xue Zhan": One of the tune patterns of soft-hammer gongs and drums dealing mainly with the subject of war; after it was sorted out by the inheritor Wu Mingchang it became an important achievement representing the core technique of this genre. "Sha Gu": One of the tune patterns of soft-hammer gongs and drums dealing mainly with the subject of war. "San Guan Dian Shuai": One of the tune patterns of soft-hammer gongs and drums dealing mainly with the subject of war.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Gong and Drum Art (Ruanchui Luogu), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Over nearly fifty years of training and teaching, he has cultivated more than thirty successors through oral instruction and personal demonstration. In recent years he has also actively carried out activities bringing intangible cultural heritage into the primary school in his village.

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 Mingchang · National Representative Bearer Archive