Ruan Shichi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Ruan Shichi, Male, Han, from Ruian, Zhejiang, is a second-batch national representative bearer of Wenzhou Guci Balladry (Ⅴ-13). The tradition is documented in Ruian, Zhejiang. Within the regional tradition and school record of Wenzhou Guci Balladry in Ruian, Zhejiang:

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1929 in Taishun, Zhejiang. At 12 he took the folk artist Wang Qifan as his teacher, and at 13 he took to the stage; by 17 his art had matured, and he became famous throughout Wenzhou for his singing of Shi Er Hong (Twelve Reds) and Wu Feng Tu (Picture of Five Phoenixes). In 1952 he was elected chairman of the Rui'an County Quyi Artists Association; in 1983 he was transferred to the Rui'an Cultural Center, and he retired in 1986. His singing is gentle and restrained, his enunciation clear, his language plain, his expression vivid and his feeling delicate; he excelled at portraying young ladies of prominent households, modest daughters of ordinary families, and farmers and village girls, and he formed the slender and ornate style of the Ruan school of singing. His representative works include Shi Er Hong (Twelve Reds) and Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang. Within the documented technical tradition of Wenzhou Guci Balladry in Ruian, Zhejiang: Wenzhou drum words are a quyi genre popular in Wenzhou, Zhejiang and its neighbouring areas, popularly called 'changci' (sung words). Because performers in the past were mostly blind, it is also called 'guci' (blind words) or 'mangci' (blind words). Wenzhou drum words alternate between speaking and singing; the music of its vocal style is of the banqiangti system, its basic melody is the 'yindiao', its rhythm is even and easily catchy, and it has a rich variety of ban formulas. Performances are mainly by a single performer, the 'dan dang'; there are also two-person forms such as husband and wife, brother and sister, or master and apprentice, and the performer sings and speaks while accompanying himself on the niujin qin (a plucked instrument with a thick gut string). Wenzhou drum words have a very deep artistic accumulation and a large number of traditional programmes, including the mythological 'Nanyou' and 'Fengshen', the judicial-case 'Justice Bao's Cases', the historical 'Conquest of the East' and 'Conquest of the West', the worldly 'Twelve Reds' and 'Eight Beauties', the chivalric 'Seven Heroes and Five Gallants' and 'Seven Swords and Thirteen Gallants', as well as newly written programmes such as 'Haiying', 'Railway Guerrillas', 'The Marriage of Xiao'erhong' and 'Qiuxiang's Love for the Community'. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Ox-tendon zither": The genre's chief accompanying instrument, strung with ox tendon, played by the singer himself with a full, mellow tone. "Solo and paired performance": Mainly a solo form, with husband-and-wife, sibling or master-and-pupil pairs, and since the 1970s occasional groups of three or more. "The intoning tune": The basic melody of the genre, in a metrical system with even rhythm and rich variation. "Traditional repertoire": Its traditional repertoire spans myth, court cases, history, domestic drama and martial tales.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Wenzhou Guci, a second-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 2001 the China Quyi Artists Association conferred on him the title of Distinguished Artist of Special Contribution to Fifty Years of Quyi in New China.

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. Ruan Shichi · National Representative Bearer Archive