Hou Tonggui
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Hou Tonggui, Male, Han, from Danjiangkou, Hubei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Lvjiahe Folk Songs (Ⅱ-83). The tradition is documented in Danjiangkou, Hubei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lvjiahe Folk Songs in Danjiangkou, Hubei: Lvjiahe lies at the junction of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi and has been deeply shaped by Ba-Chu culture, Qin-Chu culture and local Taoist culture, so the folk songs developed a marked individual character in transmission. Yinge is also called “filial songs”, “mourning songs” or “waiting-for-the-body songs”, and is divided into four main sections: the song head, songs exhorting to goodness, Fan Tian Beng and huanyang songs. It is used exclusively for funerals and is generally sung at night, which is why it is also called the “night gong and drum”. Yangge is closely tied to everyday customs and, by subject matter, is divided into festive songs, lantern songs, drinking-begging songs, longevity songs, labour songs, children's songs and the like. Lvjiahe folk songs are circulated in Lvjiahe Village of Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province. Almost every household here has singers, and singers are found on every hill of the village. The folk songs have a long history and were already widely current in the reign of King Xuan of Zhou; Lvjiahe lies at the junction of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi, and has been deeply shaped by Ba-Chu culture, Qin-Chu culture and local Taoist culture, so the folk songs developed a marked individual character in transmission.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Hou Tonggui is anchored in the documented technical standards of Lvjiahe Folk Songs in Danjiangkou, Hubei. Within the documented technical tradition of Lvjiahe Folk Songs in Danjiangkou, Hubei: Lvjiahe folk songs are circulated in Lvjiahe Village of Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province. Almost every household here has singers, and singers are found on every hill of the village. Lvjiahe folk songs have a long history and were already widely current in the reign of King Xuan of Zhou. They fall into several large categories such as yangge, yinge and long narrative poems; the Lvjiahe folk songs collected and collated so far number more than five thousand, with seventy-nine recorded tunes. Apart from yinge, all the other folk songs are called “yangge”. Long narrative poems are song texts that possess a plot, the main works being Long San Jie Bai Shou, Liang Shan Bo Yu Zhu Ying Tai and Qin Xue Mei Diao Xiao. These songs can be sung as yangge or as yinge; it is enough to change the tune. According to preliminary statistics, more than fifteen long narrative poems are currently circulated in Lvjiahe. In Lvjiahe folk songs the zhi mode holds an absolute advantage, followed by the gong mode. The melodies are built mainly on the pentatonic scale, with only a very few folk songs such as the xiqu tunes using a hexatonic scale. There are cases in which the zhi mode uses the two triads “zhi-yu-gong” and “zhi-gong-shang” and the gong mode takes the triad “gong-jue-zhi” as its skeleton tones, but these are not very marked. In terms of formal structure, Lvjiahe folk songs are characterised by three-clause forms, and the number of three-clause works is roughly equal to that of four-clause works. Representative works of Lvjiahe folk songs include Nao Wu Geng and Zhan Hua Qiang. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Long San Jie Bai Shou": One of the representative long narrative poems of Lvjiahe folk songs; it can be sung either as yangge or as yinge. "Liang Shan Bo Yu Zhu Ying Tai": One of the representative long narrative poems of Lvjiahe folk songs. "Qin Xue Mei Diao Xiao": One of the representative long narrative poems of Lvjiahe folk songs. "Nao Wu Geng": One of the representative works of Lvjiahe folk songs.
Long San Jie Bai Shou
One of the representative long narrative poems of Lvjiahe folk songs; it can be sung either as yangge or as yinge.
Liang Shan Bo Yu Zhu Ying Tai
One of the representative long narrative poems of Lvjiahe folk songs.
Qin Xue Mei Diao Xiao
One of the representative long narrative poems of Lvjiahe folk songs.
Nao Wu Geng
One of the representative works of Lvjiahe folk songs.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Hou Tonggui was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Lvjiahe Folk Songs, with Danjiangkou, Hubei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Lvjiahe Folk Songs in Danjiangkou, Hubei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Danjiangkou, Hubei as its declared area, and Danjiangkou 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
Historical origin
Lvjiahe folk songs are circulated in Lvjiahe Village of Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province. Almost every household here has singers, and singers are found on every hill of the village. The folk songs have a long history and were already widely current in the reign of King Xuan of Zhou; Lvjiahe lies at the junction of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi, and has been deeply shaped by Ba-Chu culture, Qin-Chu culture and local Taoist culture, so the folk songs developed a marked individual character in transmission.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yao Qihua | Danjiangkou, Hubei | 03-0864 | Same declared area |
| Hou Tonggui | Danjiangkou, Hubei | — | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。