Tang Xiangping
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Tang Xiangping, Male, Han, from She, Hebei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Sai Opera (Ⅳ-95). The tradition is documented in She, Hebei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Sai Opera in She, Hebei: She county sai opera circulates in the villages on both banks of the Qingzhang and Zhuozhang rivers in She county, Hebei; its representative plays include Chixian and Ningwu Guan, telling historical stories of the Shang and Ming dynasties; its troupes share an origin with the sai opera of Shanxi and Hebei yet lay emphasis on different plays. In Handan, Hebei, the plays staged are mainly Three Kingdoms plays, with Han and Song plays secondary; Wu'an performs several dozen, of which Youzhou, Sanguan, Guangwu Shan and Night Attack on Dengzhou are fairly representative; She county has Chixian and Ningwu Guan telling historical stories of the Shang and Ming dynasties; and Shuozhou in Shanxi has such plays, familiar to audiences, as Three Heroes Fight Lü Bu and Meng Liang Steals the Bones.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Tang Xiangping is anchored in the documented technical standards of Sai Opera in She, Hebei. Within the documented technical tradition of Sai Opera in She, Hebei: Sai opera, also called “sai” or “saisai”, is an ancient operatic genre popular in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei and Shaanxi; neither its historical origin nor its time of formation is recorded, but from such performance features as the wearing of masks and the chasing and driving out it may share the same historical origin as the “nuo” formed in the Zhou dynasty and the nuo opera derived from it. “Sai” originally meant the thanksgiving sacrifice, an activity of honouring the gods with insignia, drum music and hundred entertainments. The whole performance of sai opera includes sacrificial rites, dramatic performance and square shehuo, with male roles predominating and in some places no female roles at all, accompanied by such percussion as the great gong, great drum and great cymbals. Its plays differ from place to place but are mostly historical stories, with some on revolutionary themes. Sai opera is a dramatic form fusing folk ritual and performing art, primitive and plain in performance and relatively strict in form, of extremely important reference value for the study of Chinese operatic and folkloric history. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Youzhou": One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera. "Sanguan (The Three Passes)": One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera. "Guangwu Shan": One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera. "Night Attack on Dengzhou": One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Youzhou
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Sanguan (The Three Passes)
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Guangwu Shan
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Night Attack on Dengzhou
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Tang Xiangping was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Sai Opera, with She, Hebei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Sai Opera in She, Hebei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with She, Hebei as its declared area, and She 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
In Handan, Hebei, the plays staged are mainly Three Kingdoms plays, with Han and Song plays secondary; Wu'an performs several dozen, of which Youzhou, Sanguan, Guangwu Shan and Night Attack on Dengzhou are fairly representative; She county has Chixian and Ningwu Guan telling historical stories of the Shang and Ming dynasties; and Shuozhou in Shanxi has such plays, familiar to audiences, as Three Heroes Fight Lü Bu and Meng Liang Steals the Bones.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pang Xiaobao | Wuan, Hebei | 03-1095 | Other regional school |
| Tang Xiangping | She, Hebei | — | 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。