Xiao Shiqin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Xiao Shiqin, Male, Han, from Yichang, Hubei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Weeding Gong and Drum (Ⅱ-27). The tradition is documented in Yichang, Hubei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Weeding Gong and Drum in Yichang, Hubei: The lyrics are mostly in a single rhyme throughout, and their content is divided into the parts of the “song head”, commonly called the “prelude”, the “invitation of the gods”, the “raising song” and the “sending off of the gods”. Because the people of Yiling are used to the two ways of singing “fitting the tune to the words” and “fitting the words to the tune”, the Yichang weeding gong-and-drum has formed four different “musical dialects”: the intonation melody, the rhyme melody, the song-tune melody and the song-manner melody. The Yichang weeding gong-and-drum is an important component of Yiling folk song; it is distributed mainly in the townships of Fenxiang, Xiabaoping, Wuduhe and Longquan in Yiling district of Yichang city, Hubei, and has a history of more than one hundred and fifty years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Xiao Shiqin is anchored in the documented technical standards of Weeding Gong and Drum in Yichang, Hubei. Within the documented technical tradition of Weeding Gong and Drum in Yichang, Hubei: The weeding gong-and-drum, also called the “racket song” and commonly known as “making a racket”, is a folk-song form current in the Tujia areas of settlement. In the weeding season the Tujia gather scores or even hundreds of people for collective labour, and at such times two singers are usually invited to perform facing the weeding crowd, one beating the drum and one striking the gong, singing and dancing to the sound of gong and drum while the weeding crowd joins in the chorus. In dancing, the hands sway with the steps, the left hand with the left foot and the right hand with the right foot—light and lively, soft yet firm. The tunes of the weeding gong-and-drum are flexible and varied, and the song master can change the lyrics according to the time of day and the hour, so as to enliven the atmosphere and turn the monotonous and toilsome farm labour into a fiery and cheerful collective activity. The Yichang weeding gong-and-drum may be named for the different farm activities, such as the rice-transplanting gong-and-drum, the weeding gong-and-drum and the firewood-cutting gong-and-drum; it may also be named for the number, or establishment, of gongs and drums: one gong and one drum is called the “one-gong drum” or “single-gong drum”; two gongs and one drum, or three gongs and two drums, is called the “mixed gong-and-drum”; two gongs and two drums is called the “paired gong-and-drum”; that made up of gong, cymbals, horse gong and drum is called the “four-kind gong-and-drum” or “beating the four pieces”; adding a suona to the “one-gong drum” or “four-kind gong-and-drum” is called the “wind gong-and-drum”; and so on. A large wind gong-and-drum ensemble of eight people and ten instruments is called the “silk-string gong-and-drum”, a rare kind among weeding gong-and-drums, current in Yaqueling and Longquan in Yiling. The Yichang weeding gong-and-drum belongs to the banqiang linked-qu form, generally made up of more than ten vocal styles and tunes, with as many as eighty-odd in the fullest cases, whence the saying “nine styles and eighteen beats, thirty-six calls and seventy-two kinds of tune”. A single three-note-mode song has the three structural forms “561, 612, 613”, commonly called the “three-note song”. In particular the three-note song formed of two minor-third intervals has the lingering manner of the ancient songs of Chu. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Rice-Transplanting Gong-and-Drum, the Weeding Gong-and-Drum and the Firewood-Cutting Gong-and-Drum": The categories of the Yichang weeding gong-and-drum named for the different farm activities. "The One-Gong Drum, the Mixed Gong-and-Drum, the Paired Gong-and-Drum and the Four-Kind Gong-and-Drum": The categories named for the number, or establishment, of gongs and drums. "The Silk-String Gong-and-Drum and the Wind Gong-and-Drum": The large ensemble of eight people and ten instruments, a rare kind among weeding gong-and-drums. "“Nine Styles and Eighteen Beats, Thirty-Six Calls and Seventy-Two Kinds of Tune”": The banqiang linked-qu system, whose vocal styles and tunes may reach more than eighty.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Xiao Shiqin was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Weeding Gong and Drum, with Yichang, Hubei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Weeding Gong and Drum in Yichang, Hubei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Yichang, Hubei as its declared area, and Yichang Yiling District 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. Xiaoshiqin (Yichang, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Xiaoshiqin · China ICH Official Archive