Baoyuming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Baoyuming, Male, Mongolian, from Fuxin, Liaoning, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Mongolian Morin Khuur Music (Ⅱ-35). The tradition is documented in Fuxin, Liaoning. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mongolian Morin Khuur Music in Fuxin, Liaoning: The Fuxin Mongol autonomous county of Liaoning was historically called “Mongoljin” (originally a tribal name, now become a regional name); it lies in the north-west of Liaoning province and is under the city of Fuxin. The Mongoljin horse-head fiddle music is distributed mainly in the Mongol villages of the county's thirty-five townships. As an important part of Mongoljin music it has accumulated and created a great many excellent works of different styles in its historical course; it is a vivid portrayal of the social life of the Mongoljin people and contains their distinctive aesthetic culture and humanistic thought, with a strong regional character and irreplaceable historical, cultural, artistic and social value. According to the Travels of Marco Polo, a two-stringed zither was current among the Mongols in the twelfth century, and the academic world for the most part identifies it as the predecessor of the horse-head fiddle.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Baoyuming is anchored in the documented technical standards of Mongolian Morin Khuur Music in Fuxin, Liaoning. Within the documented technical tradition of Mongolian Morin Khuur Music in Fuxin, Liaoning: The Mongoljin horse-head fiddle music is a traditional form of musical expression created in the course of the nomadic and farming life of the Lejin tribe of the Mongols. The county has thirty-five townships under it and a total population of 740,000, of whom the Mongols are more than twenty per cent. The Mongoljin horse-head fiddle music is melodious, deep, broad and lyrical and mostly adopts epic narrative-singing music, the storytelling music of the hurqin, folk songs and other folk instrumental pieces; the pieces often played number more than seventy, including Asiru, The Pu'an Incantation, Hai Xiu Hua, Chun Mei, Modeleima, The Bright Moon, Huo Ying Hua, Liu Qing, Noon Jiya, Yun Liang, Ten Thousand Horses Galloping, The Grassland Joins to Beijing, New Spring, The Rising Sun and Auspicious Blessing. Many of the pieces of Mongoljin horse-head fiddle music repeat their titles: Asiru, for instance, has eleven, and Altan Baga has four. The Asiru type of music is brisk in rhythm, its melody moving chiefly in stepwise thirds and also in leaps, cheerful and lively in atmosphere, mostly in the gong mode and also in the yu mode, and possessing the aesthetic character of court ceremonial music. The horse-head fiddle is a bowed string instrument that arose and circulates among the Mongols, named for the horse's head carved at the upper end of the neck. It has a long history and was already current among the people in the time of Genghis Khan. In its early period it was mostly used for solo, later becoming the accompanying instrument for the narration of heroic epics, and today it is used mainly for solo, unison and ensemble. The playing techniques of the Mongoljin horse-head fiddle fall into the two great kinds of the “chaor technique” and the “four-string fiddle technique” and into five skills: first the harmonic technique; second the chording technique; third the spiccato technique; fourth the plucking technique; and fifth the imitative technique. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "The Pu'an Incantation": One of the pieces often played by the Mongoljin horse-head fiddle. "Hai Xiu Hua": Mongol Lejin matouqin music is melodious, deep, broad and lyrical, drawing mainly on epic narrative singing, Hu'erqin storytelling music, folk songs and other instrumental folk pieces. Frequently performed numbers include Asiru, Pu'an Zhou, Haixiuhua, Chunmei, Modeleima, Mingyue, Huoyinghua, Liuqing, Nuenyiya, Yunliang, Wanma Benteng, Caoyuan Lianzhe Beijing, Xinchun, Chusheng de Taiyang, Jixiang Zhufu and more than seventy others. "Chun Mei": Mongol Lejin matouqin music is melodious, deep, broad and lyrical, drawing mainly on epic narrative singing, Hu'erqin storytelling music, folk songs and other instrumental folk pieces. Frequently performed numbers include Asiru, Pu'an Zhou, Haixiuhua, Chunmei, Modeleima, Mingyue, Huoyinghua, Liuqing, Nuenyiya, Yunliang, Wanma Benteng, Caoyuan Lianzhe Beijing, Xinchun, Chusheng de Taiyang, Jixiang Zhufu and more than seventy others.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Baoyuming was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Mongolian Morin Khuur Music, with Fuxin, Liaoning as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Mongolian Morin Khuur Music in Fuxin, Liaoning: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Fuxin, Liaoning as its declared area, and Fuxin Mongolian Autonomous County Culture Sports Tourism Service 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. Baoyuming (Fuxin, Liaoning) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Baoyuming · China ICH Official Archive