Cai Yazhi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

At the age of sixteen she entered the Fujian Southern Min Experimental Xiqu Troupe and studied under the veteran Liyuan Opera artist Xu Maocai, initially specializing in the xiaodan (young female) and qingyi (virtuous female) roles; after 1962 she took the xiaosheng (young male) role in reverse-gender casting, studying under Lin Shupan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Liyuan Opera in Quanzhou, Fujian: It is divided into three schools: Xiaoliyuan (the 'seven-member troupe', qizi ban) and, within Daliliyuan, the 'Shanglu' (Upper Road) and 'Xianan' (Lower South) schools; each school has its own reserve repertoire known as the 'eighteen shed-heads' (shiba pengtou), preserving 25 nanxi plays including Zhu Wen, Liu Wenlong, Cai Bojie, and Wang Kui. Liyuan opera has preserved both documentary and living materials of Song and Yuan dynasty drama, from which the important characteristics of nanxi culture and of the regional culture of southern Fujian can be discerned. Liyuan opera originated in Quanzhou during the Song and Yuan dynasties; together with the nanxi (southern drama) of Zhejiang it is jointly known as the 'Min-Zhe sound' for 'performing the sung and recited vocal styles of the Southern Song play-texts'. With a history of more than eight hundred years to the present day, it is acclaimed as a 'living fossil of the ancient southern drama'. Unlike the 'one table and two chairs' arrangement of the general opera stage, only a long bench was placed at the rear of the shed (peng); the props (qiemo) of the Southern Song dynasty zaju Yanyao Suan (The Eye-Medicine Quack) can still be seen today in the performances of the jing (painted face) and chou (clown) role types of Liyuan opera.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in December 1937 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. Her timbre is splendid, and she is attentive to portraying character through vocal style. She has mastered the eighteen-step ke mu, the basic movement patterns of the Liyuan Opera dan role, and her range is broad, enabling her to undertake roles across the different role types, with particular distinction in playing young men in reverse-gender casting. She has won the first prize at the Fujian Provincial Vocal Competition of Major Local Opera Genres and an actor award at the Second Fujian Provincial Local Xiqu Joint Performance and Demonstration. She has devoted herself actively to teaching the traditional art of Liyuan Opera, passing on the celebrated arias of its traditional repertoire, and has traveled to Taiwan and Singapore for teaching exchanges, giving strong impetus to the inheritance and dissemination of traditional Liyuan Opera art at home and abroad. Within the documented technical tradition of Liyuan Opera in Quanzhou, Fujian: Liyuan opera circulated widely in Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xiamen in Fujian, in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, and in the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions, as well as in the settlements throughout Southeast Asia where Minnan-speaking overseas Chinese reside. Liyuan opera has preserved many of the plays, vocal styles, and performance regulations of the Song and Yuan dynasty nanxi. Liyuan opera still exists on the stage today, and has essentially preserved its original, unadorned style of theatre. It has a complete set of strictly regulated performance forms; its basic movements are known as the 'eighteen-step kemo' (the eighteen fundamental movement formulae), which every role type must observe. Liyuan opera music has preserved the nanxi practice of accompaniment chiefly by drum, xiao (vertical flute), and strings; its vocal style derives from the singing of the ancient music of the Jin and Tang dynasties and is sung in the Quanzhou pronunciation, with many notes sung to a single syllable, and belongs to the qupai (fixed-tune) system; to this day it still uses the ancient tune-pattern names such as Mokedoule (The Mo Reed Tune) and Nishang Yuyi Qu (The Melody of Rainbow Skirts and Feather Robes). The pipa used in Liyuan opera is the nanpa (southern pipa), held horizontally and plucked, similar in construction to Tang dynasty instruments; the manner of stringing is a survival of the Jin dynasty xiqin tradition; the dongxiao is the chiba (a flute one chi and eight cun long) of the Tang dynasty; and the percussion is led by the nan gu (pressed-foot drum), played in a distinctive manner. The 'shed' (peng) is the traditional performance space of Liyuan opera; before a performance, a 'shed-offering' (xian peng) ceremony must be held, in which Tian Du Yuan Shuai (Marshal Tian Du), the patron patriarch of the players, is worshipped; only afterwards do the actors begin to apply their makeup and perform the 'jia guan' (official of promotion) dance. In terms of historical and cultural significance, Liyuan opera is an intangible, comprehensive treasury of the arts. With the changes of the times, the audience of Liyuan opera has dwindled day by day, and the survival of the genre has fallen into serious crisis. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Zhu Wen": It is divided into three schools: Xiaoliyuan (the 'seven-member troupe', qizi ban) and, within Daliliyuan, the 'Shanglu' (Upper Road) and 'Xianan' (Lower South) schools; each school has its own reserve repertoire known as the 'eighteen shed-heads' (shiba pengtou), preserving 25 nanxi plays including Zhu Wen, Liu Wenlong, Cai Bojie, and Wang Kui. "Liu Wenlong": It is divided into three schools: Xiaoliyuan (the 'seven-member troupe', qizi ban) and, within Daliliyuan, the 'Shanglu' (Upper Road) and 'Xianan' (Lower South) schools; each school has its own reserve repertoire known as the 'eighteen shed-heads' (shiba pengtou), preserving 25 nanxi plays including Zhu Wen, Liu Wenlong, Cai Bojie, and Wang Kui. "Cai Bojie": It is divided into three schools: Xiaoliyuan (the 'seven-member troupe', qizi ban) and, within Daliliyuan, the 'Shanglu' (Upper Road) and 'Xianan' (Lower South) schools; each school has its own reserve repertoire known as the 'eighteen shed-heads' (shiba pengtou), preserving 25 nanxi plays including Zhu Wen, Liu Wenlong, Cai Bojie, and Wang Kui. "Wang Kui": It is divided into three schools: Xiaoliyuan (the 'seven-member troupe', qizi ban) and, within Daliliyuan, the 'Shanglu' (Upper Road) and 'Xianan' (Lower South) schools; each school has its own reserve repertoire known as the 'eighteen shed-heads' (shiba pengtou), preserving 25 nanxi plays including Zhu Wen, Liu Wenlong, Cai Bojie, and Wang Kui.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Liyuan Opera, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Cai Yazhi · National Representative Bearer Archive