Xu Shounian

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He studied the painted-face (jing) role of Sichuan Opera under the renowned Sichuan Opera artists Wu Xiaolei and Jin Zhenglei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) in Sichuan: Chuanju is centred on the two great cities of Chengdu and Chongqing and is popular in Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality and parts of Yunnan, Guizhou and Hubei Province; it is the most influential local operatic genre in south-west China. The Sichuan Provincial Academy of Arts and the provincial Chuanju theatre system have for long undertaken the work of collecting plays, recording vocal styles and training performers, forming an artistic line that is strong in gaoqiang while possessing all five vocal styles; the Sichuan side and the Chongqing side each have their own emphasis while also complementing one another. The formation of Chuanju went through a long process of vocal-style fusion. At the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing, external vocal styles such as Kunqu, Yiyang qiang, Qingyang qiang, Shaanxi bangzi, Hubei Handiao and Hui diao entered Sichuan one after another, and during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns they were gradually joined to the native haoyang diao (rice-transplanting tune), the Chuanjiang work songs, the local ditties and religious music, so that the transformation by which these imported styles became “Sichuanised” was essentially completed. Around the 1911 Revolution, gaoqiang, Kunqu, huqin and tanxi merged with the native dengxi in performance on the same stage, forming the Chuanju of “the republic of the five vocal styles”, which has continued down to the present day.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He is a National First-Class Actor. He is especially accomplished in singing. He inherited and developed his teachers' fine art of vocal resonance, explored methods of voice production in the Sichuan Opera jing role, and joined the artistry of jing-role singing to sound scientific principles, thereby enriching the jing vocal music of Sichuan Opera and forming a jing performance style marked by a deep, rich and sweet voice, melodious and pleasing singing, clear and distinct rhythm, crisp and lucid spoken passages, and well-modulated cadence. His representative works include Wu Tai Hui Xiong (Meeting His Brother at Mount Wutai) and Mu Hu Guan (The Pasture Tiger Pass). He spared no effort in transmitting his skills to young actors, bringing a steady stream of fresh talent to the transmission of Sichuan Opera. Within the documented technical tradition of Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) in Sichuan: Chuanju is popular in Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality and parts of Yunnan, Guizhou and Hubei Province; it is the most influential local operatic genre in south-west China. It has five principal vocal styles — gaoqiang, huqin, tanxi, Kunqu and dengdiao — and is a microcosm of the historical evolution of the vocal styles and genres of Chinese opera since the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing. At the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing, Kunqu, Yiyang qiang, Qingyang qiang, Shaanxi bangzi, Hubei Handiao, Hui diao and other vocal styles flowed into Sichuan, and during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns they were gradually fused with the local haoyang diao (rice-transplanting tune), the Chuanjiang work songs, the local ditties, religious music and other traditions, so that the process by which the imported vocal styles became “Sichuanised” was essentially completed. Around the 1911 Revolution, gaoqiang, Kunqu, huqin and tanxi together with the native Sichuan dengxi were fused into one another in performance on the same stage, forming the Chuanju of “the republic of the five vocal styles”, which has continued down to the present day. Chuanju has a rich repertoire of more than six thousand traditional and newly created plays, represented by Huangpao Ji (The Yellow Robe Record), Jiulong Zhu (The Nine-Dragon Pillar), Yougui Ji (Record of the Secluded Chamber), Chunqiu Pei (A Spring and Autumn Marriage), Dongchuang Xiu Ben (Revising the Text at the Eastern Window), Wuzi Gao Mu (The Five Sons Accuse Their Mother), Shennong Jian (The Shennong Ravine) and Qing Tan (A Search of the Heart). Many of these are classic plays preserved from the nanxi of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Yuan zaju, Ming chuanqi and a variety of ancient vocal styles and genres, and they have high literary and historical value. The plays collected and adapted after the founding of New China — Liuyin Ji (Record of the Willow Shade), The Brocade Tower, Xiuru Ji (The Embroidered Tunic Record), The White Snake, Lalang Pei (The Forced Match) and Dahongtai (The Red Terrace) — together with those adapted and created during the reform and opening-up period, such as Bashan Xiucai (The Scholar of Bashan), Face-Changing and Si Shui Wei Lan (Small Ripples on Dead Water), have all produced considerable social influence and reveal the deep traditional cultural foundation of Chuanju. Chuanju is divided into five role types — xiaosheng, dan, sheng, hualian and chou — each of which has its own self-contained system of performance skills and procedures. The performance of the wenwusheng, the xiaochou and the dan roles is the most distinctive of all. Chuanju has made many excellent inventions in the means of dramatic expression and in performance technique, and it fully embodies the aesthetic character of Chinese opera, in which the real and the imagined give birth to one another and the spirit is conveyed through the form. Chuanju performance is full of the flavour of everyday life, lively and vivacious, witty and humorous. In order to portray characters better, Chuanju artists have created many unique skills such as face-changing, the hidden knife, running through the fire hoop and opening the wisdom eye. The stage is boisterous and noisy, full of novelty and interest, which has become one of the great characteristics of Chuanju. Of the five vocal styles of Chuanju, the gaoqiang music, which belongs to the qupai system, is the most original; its structural form combining chorus, percussion and singing brought the union of drama and music to an unprecedented height, making it an outstanding representative of the development of gaoqiang music in Chinese opera. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Huangpao Ji (The Yellow Robe Record)": Chuanju has a rich repertoire of more than six thousand traditional and newly created plays, represented by Huangpao Ji (The Yellow Robe Record), Jiulong Zhu (The Nine-Dragon Pillar), Yougui Ji (Record of the Secluded Chamber), Chunqiu Pei (A Spring and Autumn Marriage), Dongchuang Xiu Ben (Revising the Text at the Eastern Window), Wuzi Gao Mu (The Five Sons Accuse Their Mother), Shennong Jian (The Shennong Ravine) and Qing Tan (A Search of the Heart). Many of these are classic plays preserved from the nanxi of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Yuan zaju, Ming chuanqi and a variety of ancient vocal styles and genres, and they have high literary and historical value. "Jiulong Zhu (The Nine-Dragon Pillar)": Chuanju has a rich repertoire of more than six thousand traditional and newly created plays, represented by Huangpao Ji (The Yellow Robe Record), Jiulong Zhu (The Nine-Dragon Pillar), Yougui Ji (Record of the Secluded Chamber), Chunqiu Pei (A Spring and Autumn Marriage), Dongchuang Xiu Ben (Revising the Text at the Eastern Window), Wuzi Gao Mu (The Five Sons Accuse Their Mother), Shennong Jian (The Shennong Ravine) and Qing Tan (A Search of the Heart). Many of these are classic plays preserved from the nanxi of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Yuan zaju, Ming chuanqi and a variety of ancient vocal styles and genres, and they have high literary and historical value. "Yougui Ji (Record of the Secluded Chamber)": Chuanju has a rich repertoire of more than six thousand traditional and newly created plays, represented by Huangpao Ji (The Yellow Robe Record), Jiulong Zhu (The Nine-Dragon Pillar), Yougui Ji (Record of the Secluded Chamber), Chunqiu Pei (A Spring and Autumn Marriage), Dongchuang Xiu Ben (Revising the Text at the Eastern Window), Wuzi Gao Mu (The Five Sons Accuse Their Mother), Shennong Jian (The Shennong Ravine) and Qing Tan (A Search of the Heart). Many of these are classic plays preserved from the nanxi of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Yuan zaju, Ming chuanqi and a variety of ancient vocal styles and genres, and they have high literary and historical value. "Chunqiu Pei (A Spring and Autumn Marriage)": Chuanju has a rich repertoire of more than six thousand traditional and newly created plays, represented by Huangpao Ji (The Yellow Robe Record), Jiulong Zhu (The Nine-Dragon Pillar), Yougui Ji (Record of the Secluded Chamber), Chunqiu Pei (A Spring and Autumn Marriage), Dongchuang Xiu Ben (Revising the Text at the Eastern Window), Wuzi Gao Mu (The Five Sons Accuse Their Mother), Shennong Jian (The Shennong Ravine) and Qing Tan (A Search of the Heart). Many of these are classic plays preserved from the nanxi of the Song and Yuan dynasties, Yuan zaju, Ming chuanqi and a variety of ancient vocal styles and genres, and they have high literary and historical value.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1940 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province; he died in May 2017. National representative bearer of Chuanju (Sichuan 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. Xu Shounian · National Representative Bearer Archive