He Jianxun
01 · Lineage & Regional School
He Jianxun, Male, Tujia, from Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Xiushan Folk Songs (Ⅱ-84). The tradition is documented in Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing. Within the regional tradition and school record of Xiushan Folk Songs in Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing: Xiushan folk songs fall into four large categories, labour songs, mountain songs, custom songs and daily-life songs, with the mountain song Huang Yang Bian Dan as the most outstanding representative. Labour songs include weeding songs, boatmen's chants, stonemasons' chants and farm songs, such as Shang Tian Hao and Hua Chuan Diao; mountain songs include antiphonal songs, pan songs and love songs; custom songs are divided into filial songs and marriage songs, such as Huang Hua Cao, which expresses young people's dissatisfaction with feudal arranged marriages; daily-life and current-affairs songs include works that reflect real life, such as Zhua Zhuang Ding, which accuses the old society of the crime of pressing men into the army. Xiushan folk songs are monophonic; most works have a regular rhythm, the overwhelming majority are in zhi mode, followed by yu mode, shang mode and gong mode, and there are a few in jue mode. Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County lies at the junction of Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei on the southeastern outer edge of the Sichuan basin. It has always been “remote within Shu” and, since ancient times, a land barred off for a hundred li. Xiushan folk songs have been circulated here for a long time, and their origin can be traced back to the Ba-Yu song and dance of antiquity, so their history is very long. In the course of their development Xiushan folk songs directly gave birth to the music of the Xiushan flower lantern song and dance; a preliminary survey shows that Xiushan folk songs number over a thousand, and the Xiushan flower lantern songs alone comprise twenty-four great tunes with more than a thousand pieces.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for He Jianxun is anchored in the documented technical standards of Xiushan Folk Songs in Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing. Within the documented technical tradition of Xiushan Folk Songs in Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing: Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County lies at the junction of Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei on the southeastern outer edge of the Sichuan basin. It has always been “remote within Shu” and, since ancient times, a land barred off for a hundred li. Xiushan folk songs have been circulated here for a long time, and their origin can be traced back to the Ba-Yu song and dance of antiquity, so their history is very long. In the course of their development Xiushan folk songs directly gave birth to the music of the Xiushan flower lantern song and dance; a preliminary survey shows that Xiushan folk songs number over a thousand, and the Xiushan flower lantern songs alone comprise twenty-four great tunes with more than a thousand pieces. Solos and antiphonal duets are generally sung without instrumental accompaniment, but in weeding gong and drum performances the song masters must sing in duet or in canon to the accompaniment of gong and drum. The accompaniment of the flower lantern songs is more complex, using mainly the hall drum, the bamboo flute, large and small suona and the datong; the datong is made from a bamboo tube covered with snakeskin fitted to a neck made of bamboo pole. The interjections and refrain cadences of Xiushan folk songs are very distinctive; common interjections include “yeli hou”, “nu de jiao”, “xiao qing ge” and “ge ya ha li ya”, witty and humorous and intensely local. Besides this, Xiushan folk songs are particularly fond of using flowers as auxiliary syllables. The refrain cadences vary in length and are used in flexible and various ways. In the course of long transmission Xiushan folk songs have produced many outstanding singers. A single song, Huang Yang Bian Dan, once carried Xiushan folk songs across the country and won them wide renown. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Huang Yang Bian Dan": The outstanding representative of the mountain song category of Xiushan folk songs, which once carried Xiushan folk songs across the country. "Shang Tian Hao": A representative weeding song in the labour song category of Xiushan folk songs, sung by the song masters in duet or canon to the accompaniment of gong and drum. "Hua Chuan Diao": A representative piece in the labour song category of Xiushan folk songs. "Huang Hua Cao": A representative piece in the custom song category of Xiushan folk songs, expressing young people's dissatisfaction with feudal arranged marriages.
Huang Yang Bian Dan
The outstanding representative of the mountain song category of Xiushan folk songs, which once carried Xiushan folk songs across the country.
Shang Tian Hao
A representative weeding song in the labour song category of Xiushan folk songs, sung by the song masters in duet or canon to the accompaniment of gong and drum.
Hua Chuan Diao
A representative piece in the labour song category of Xiushan folk songs.
Huang Hua Cao
A representative piece in the custom song category of Xiushan folk songs, expressing young people's dissatisfaction with feudal arranged marriages.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, He Jianxun was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Xiushan Folk Songs, with Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Xiushan Folk Songs in Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing as its declared area, and Xiushan Tujia Miao Autonomous 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
Historical origin
Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County lies at the junction of Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei on the southeastern outer edge of the Sichuan basin. It has always been “remote within Shu” and, since ancient times, a land barred off for a hundred li. Xiushan folk songs have been circulated here for a long time, and their origin can be traced back to the Ba-Yu song and dance of antiquity, so their history is very long. In the course of their development Xiushan folk songs directly gave birth to the music of the Xiushan flower lantern song and dance; a preliminary survey shows that Xiushan folk songs number over a thousand, and the Xiushan flower lantern songs alone comprise twenty-four great tunes with more than a thousand pieces.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| He Jianxun | Xiushantujiazumiaozuzizhi, Chongqing | — | 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。