Ma Fuqin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Ma Fuqin, Female, Han, from Linzhang, Hebei, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Henan Zhuizi (Ⅴ-20). The tradition is documented in Linzhang, Hebei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Henan Zhuizi in Linzhang, Hebei: Old artist Wang Yulan of Guoxiaotun Village, which bears the reputation of a “cradle of zhuizi”, recounted in the family genealogy of zhuizi artists as follows: around the twenty-fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1796) zhuizi was already flourishing throughout the county, and the predecessor of Linzhang Henan zhuizi was called “yingge liu”, a folk ditty learned from the area around Anhui Province. Henan zhuizi took shape in Henan and is widely current in Henan and in neighbouring provinces such as Hebei and Shandong. Linzhang County belonged to the jurisdiction of Anyang City, Henan Province, before 1953. Through long years of transmission it gradually took shape as the genre known as Henan zhuizi, and to the present day it has a history of more than 210 years. From the 1970s onward, with the disbanding of the Linzhang County quyi troupe, the performance activity of the professional Linzhang County quyi teams and storytelling clubs and associations largely disappeared, and the performances of folk artists also declined day by day.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1938 in Linzhang County, Hebei Province. She was born into a family of zhuizi singers; three generations, above and below her, made their living by singing zhuizi. From the age of sixteen she studied successively under the veteran artists Fan Xiucheng, Song Liancheng and Chen Laosi, laying a solid foundation and beginning to perform short pieces. At twenty-one she became a disciple of Liu Shaolan and learned medium-length narratives, refining her singing and acting skills, and formed her own troupe. In 2013 she supplied important documentation and libretti for the compilation of the volume Henan Zhuizi by the Linzhang County Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film, Television and Press and Publication. Her repertoire comprises more than thirty full-length serialised works in some twelve hundred instalments, eighty medium-length works and forty short works. Among the full-length serials are Da Wu Yi (The Five Righteous Heroes) in fifty instalments, Xiao Ba Yi (The Eight Young Heroes) in fifty-six, Ji Gong Zhuan (The Story of Ji Gong) in forty-eight, Shi Gong An (The Cases of Judge Shi) in sixty, Liu Gong An (The Cases of Judge Liu) in sixty, Yang Jia Jiang (The Generals of the Yang Family) in eighty and Bao Gong An (The Cases of Judge Bao) in sixty. Within the documented technical tradition of Henan Zhuizi in Linzhang, Hebei: It has a very deep mass foundation in Linzhang County, Hebei Province. Henan zhuizi shu is a performance form based mainly on singing and narration, in the Central Plains dialect. At first there was only one person, who both sang and accompanied himself; later two people appeared who sang in antiphon with a dedicated accompanist. Its vocal styles and tunes belong to the banqiang (metrical) system, the principal ones being pingban, jinban, duoziban, manban and yunbai; its vocal timbres being qiangdiao, dahanchang, xiaohanchang and woqiang; and its accompanying instruments the zhuihu (sanxian), jianban, waking block, foot clapper and storytelling drum. The format of the sung text is basically the nine-character and seven-character rhymes and tangkou ci (linking formulas). The story cycles of Henan zhuizi shu are counted in “hui”, one hui or several hui standing for one chapter or several chapters of the story. It normally takes an artist three or four hours to get through a zhuizi shu; a long book is made up of a number of hui and is called a “main book” or a “linked book”. Its representative traditional story cycles include “Judge Bao's Cases”, “Judge Liu's Cases”, “The Body in Cao's Camp and the Heart in Han”, “The Red Lantern”, “The Great Saber”, “Guns on the Plain”, together with such short works as “Wang Feilun the Matchmaker” and “Little Er Dreams a Dream”. In former times those who performed Henan zhuizi shu were all poor people, one person, or two or four banding together, with no society or troupe organisation. The villagers' sacrifices, thanks to the gods, thanksgiving vows, weddings, birthday celebrations and births were the principal occasions for performance; a “storytelling troupe” was engaged to tell stories for several days, three, six or nine days being regarded as the best. After the founding of New China, the Linzhang County Quyi Troupe was established, made up of six small quyi performing teams. It created and performed new story cycles such as “Guns on the Plain”, “The White-Haired Girl”, “The Story of Wind and Dust”, “Battle on the Plain” and “The Hui Detachment — Ma Benzhai”. Beyond the traditional way of performing while standing, the Linzhang County Quyi Troupe also developed a manner of performing while moving about. At the same time the accompanying instruments came to include the erhu, drum boards, clappers, electronic keyboard, sheng and the like. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Yinggeliu": The precursor of Linzhang zhuizi, a folk tune learned from Anhui and current there by about 1796. "The Great and Lesser Five Heroes": Long serialised tales sung by the inheritor Ma Fuqin, with recorded chapter counts for each title. "The county troupe's moving performance": After 1949 the county's storytelling troupe of six teams introduced moving performance and added new instruments. "Hiring the storytelling troupe": The rural custom of hiring a storytelling troupe for rites, vows, weddings and birthdays, for three, six or nine days.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Henan Zhuizi, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. After advancing age led her to stop performing, she turned to directing, coaching and running opera classes, training several hundred students, many of whom became leading performers.

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. Ma Fuqin · National Representative Bearer Archive