Tumure

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From the age of nine he learned to sing wuqin under Su Weixiao and Ao Shenghua. In recent years he has assisted the China Conservatory of Music, the Art College of Inner Mongolia University and the Manzhouli Mass Art Centre in singing and recording dozens of traditional wuqin pieces, jaendal songs, children's rhymes and folk tales. Within the regional tradition and school record of Daur Wuqin Narrative Singing in Molidawadawoerzuzizhiqi, Inner Mongolia: In Morin Dawa, uqin is mostly sung at gatherings on New Year days and at celebrations on auspicious occasions; listeners crowd onto the heated kang of village homes, sitting cross-legged, and listen to the artists for days and nights on end. The programme divides by subject into several lines — Morigen heroic stories, love and marriage, scenery and landscape, and myths and fairy tales — of which Shaolang and Daifu has the character of an epic; there are also long works adapted from Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, as well as short pieces such as Fishing, Woodcutting and Going to the Ganjur Temple Fair to Shop. Uqin was originally narrative poetry composed in Manchu and recited in a chanting style; in the Qing dynasty Daur literati used it to record campaigns, garrison farming and village affairs, and later folk artists began rendering these manuscripts aloud as spoken-and-sung performance, so that 'uqin' came to change from the name of a literary form into the name of a genre. The Nen River basin is its main area of transmission, and it is also current in Morin Dawa, Qiqihar, Fularji, Fuyu and Longjiang, as well as among the Daur settlements of Tacheng in Xinjiang.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The wuqin pieces he sings include Da Yu (Fishing), Fa Mu (Felling Timber), Dao Ganzhuer Miao Hui Gan Ji (Going to the Ganzhuer Temple Fair), Jie Jiu (Abstaining from Wine), Jie Se (Abstaining from Lust), Jie Qi (Abstaining from Anger) and E Er Gu Na He Liu Yu Xun Cha Ji (A Record of Patrols in the Argun River Basin). In addition, he has compiled and published works such as Daur Wuchun and Daur Folk Tales. Within the documented technical tradition of Daur Wuqin Narrative Singing in Molidawadawoerzuzizhiqi, Inner Mongolia: Uqin is a Daur genre, also called 'wuchun', meaning 'folk narrative poem'. It is sung in the Daur language and is widely current among the Daur people of the Nen River basin. Uqin mostly deals with productive labour, social life, resistance to oppression, and instruction and admonition; a single work may run from a few stanzas to more than a hundred. This minority genre has no fixed chanting tune, but its performing styles are rich and varied: some low and sonorous, some cheerful and bright, some plaintive and elegiac. Daur uqin was performed at first purely from the mouth; it later developed into a form in which the performer holds a 'huachangsi' (four-stringed fiddle) and both plays and sings it himself. The spoken-and-sung narration of uqin is chiefly in rhymed verse, combining unrhymed and rhymed passages. Its lines follow a fixed format: four lines to a stanza, rhyming on the head rhyme, with a rhyme falling every two lines or every four lines. No padding syllables are inserted among the lines, so that when chanted the sounds and the metre are harmonious and rich in rhythm. Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Wang Guo Wu Qin (The Kingdom Uqin)": Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression. "Ying Ying Zhi Ge (The Song of Yingying)": Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression. "Hong Lou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber)": Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression. "Shi Mei (The Thirteenth Sister)": Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Daur ethnicity, born in August 1927 and deceased in May 2018; a native of Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He is a national representative bearer of Daur wuqin, 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. Tumure · National Representative Bearer Archive