Liu Zhengkun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Liu Zhengkun, Male, Han, from Jingjiang, Jiangsu, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Baojuan Sutra Telling (Ⅰ-13). The tradition is documented in Jingjiang, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Baojuan Sutra Telling in Jingjiang, Jiangsu: The chanting of baojuan was once current over the vast area from Gansu and Shaanxi to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and most flourished in the Wu dialect area of the lower Yangzi, commonly called jiangjing or xuanjuan, with a history of nearly three hundred years to the present. Baojuan is a kind of popular preaching text evolved from the Tang transformation texts and the Song scripture-telling; from the Ming and Qing it embraced a great deal of folk legend, folk song and social custom, becoming a folk literary form at once sacred and secular, grave and humorous, chiefly narrative and combining verse and prose. In January 2007 Jingjiang was named by the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association a Home of the Transmission of Chinese Baojuan Culture.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Liu Zhengkun is anchored in the documented technical standards of Baojuan Sutra Telling in Jingjiang, Jiangsu. Within the documented technical tradition of Baojuan Sutra Telling in Jingjiang, Jiangsu: The old texts of Jingjiang baojuan number more than a hundred kinds, of which over sixty kinds of printed and manuscript copies survive. The city now has more than a hundred and twenty baojuan chanting artists, and more than three thousand sessions of scroll-chanting are held each year. The Jingjiang baojuan texts are mostly old block-printed, lithographed or manuscript copies; of great age, some are already incomplete, worm-eaten or lost, and have fallen from more than a hundred kinds in the past to more than sixty. Third, young listeners are decreasing. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Precious Scroll of the Three Mao": One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan. "The Precious Scroll of the Great Sage": One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan. "The Precious Scroll of the Guanyin of Fragrant Mountain": One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan. "Fourth Sister Zhang Makes Havoc in the Eastern Capital": One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Liu Zhengkun was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Baojuan Sutra Telling, with Jingjiang, Jiangsu as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Baojuan Sutra Telling in Jingjiang, Jiangsu: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Jingjiang, Jiangsu as its declared area, and Jingjiang Cultural Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Liuzhengkun (Jingjiang, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Liuzhengkun · China ICH Official Archive