Suo Zhongxiu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Suo Zhongxiu, Male, Han, from Zhangzi, Shanxi, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Suona Art (Ⅱ-37). The tradition is documented in Zhangzi, Shanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Suona Art in Zhangzi, Shanxi: The Shangdang bayin hui circulates mainly in the area of Changzi county, Shanxi, and extends over the counties and districts under the two cities of Changzhi and Jincheng; it is mostly played in such folk activities as welcoming the gods and village sacrifices, weddings and funerals and festival celebrations, and the village communities transmit it from generation to generation in the form of troupes. Suona is a transliteration of the Arabic “surna” (zurna), called in antiquity “suoliao” or “su'ernai”, and widely current in many countries of Asia, Africa and Europe; it came into China at the latest in the Jin and Yuan periods. In addition, the small suona used in the performance of Fujian nanqu is called the “aizi” or “nan'ai”; the suona used to accompany Puxian opera is called the “meihua” or “chuibian”, and a larger kind is called the “dalong” or “dahaidi”; the all-wood suona of the Uyghur is called the “su'ernai”; and the Tibetan, Miao, Mongol and Korean peoples each have suona of different form. The Shangdang bayin hui is a form of folk instrumental music current in the area of Changzi county, Shanxi; it originated in the Tang dynasty, won relatively great development in the Song, and flourished to the utmost in the Ming and Qing.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Suo Zhongxiu is anchored in the documented technical standards of Suona Art in Zhangzi, Shanxi. Within the documented technical tradition of Suona Art in Zhangzi, Shanxi: In Chinese folk usage it also has the names of bronze flute, tin flute, pear blossom and sea flute. The suona is made up of the reed, the staple, the air disc, the body and the bronze bell; its finger-holes are arranged in order according to the heptatonic scale, the distances between them being basically equal, it can turn through seven modes, and its range is generally two octaves and a major second. It has such blowing techniques as portamento, tonguing, arched-breath tone, top-breath tone, the rolling “du-lu” and circular breathing (blowing without a break for a long time), and is a solo instrument of very strong expressiveness. Its volume is great and its tone high and ringing, making it one of the indispensable instruments of the wind-and-percussion band; in antiquity, besides playing military music, it was used for the drum-and-wind music of the yamen and as accompaniment to opera, song and dance, and in the daily life of the people it is mostly used for festivals, weddings and funerals and theatrical scenes. “Eight tones” is the ancient Chinese classification of musical instruments and is also commonly used as a general name for instruments; it refers to the eight types of instrument made of metal, stone, earth, hide, silk, wood, gourd and bamboo. The bayin hui troupes of the Shangdang countryside use mainly the eight instruments of drum, gong, cymbals, sheng, flute, whistle, guan and huqin, and are named for them. They are used mainly in such folk activities as welcoming the gods and village sacrifices, weddings and funerals and festival celebrations, and in the long course of development and formation they have blended the essence of many kinds of music—court great suites, operatic music, folk songs and ditties—forming an artistic character at once plain and grand, warm and unrestrained. The Shangdang bayin hui is led by percussion and lays equal stress on wind and percussion. Its playing is divided into the two kinds of “civil playing” and “martial playing”. Civil playing is ordinary playing, its content mostly folk ditties, operatic arias and dramatic texts (including the spoken parts of different role types); martial playing chiefly displays all kinds of stunts containing acrobatic elements and demands a very high standard of playing technique. Percussion is the most exciting, warm and brilliant part of the bayin hui: the players sit, stand or leap according to the mood of the music and produce every kind of drum timbre by such techniques as light striking, linked striking, heavy beating, striking the rim, scraping the drum studs and the crossing of flourished drumsticks, while the gongs and cymbals flutter up and down with a ringing sound. The whole performance is warm and unrestrained, high and ringing, sweet and drawn out, displaying a distinctively Jinbei style. The Shangdang bayin hui has such named tunes as Striking the Ground Drum, Urging the Golden Cup, The Great Granting of Blessings and Welcoming the Gods, and more than a hundred principal pieces, including The Overlord's Whip, The Great Ten Repetitions, The Small Ten Repetitions, Rising Higher at Every Step, A String of Bells, Peony Played, The Great Lantern Viewing, Ten Kinds of Scenery and The Old Flower Tune. During the Cultural Revolution the bayin hui suffered destructive impact and was nearly extinguished. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Striking the Ground Drum": One of the named tunes of the Shangdang bayin hui, alongside Urging the Golden Cup, The Great Granting of Blessings and Welcoming the Gods. "Urging the Golden Cup": A named tune of the Shangdang bayin hui of Changzi county, Shanxi. "The Great Granting of Blessings": A named tune of the Shangdang bayin hui, played at village sacrifices and festival celebrations. "Welcoming the Gods Drum": A named tune of the Shangdang bayin hui used in the folk activity of welcoming the gods.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Suo Zhongxiu was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Suona Art, with Zhangzi, Shanxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Suona Art in Zhangzi, Shanxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Zhangzi, Shanxi as its declared area, and Zhangzi County 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. Suozhongxiu (Zhangzi, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Suozhongxiu · China ICH Official Archive