Yiyangqiang
01 · Historical Records
In the mid-Southern Song period the nanxi (southern drama) that had arisen in Zhejiang was carried into Jiangxi along the Xinjiang River, and, combining with the local dialect and folk music in the Yiyang area, gave birth at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming to a new local vocal style, Yiyangqiang (the Yiyang tune), which together with the Kunshan tune, the Yuyao tune and the Haiyan tune ranked as the four great vocal styles of its time. Centred on Yiyang, Yiyangqiang was inherited and continued mainly in a number of places within Jiangxi Province — Guixi, Wannian, Leping, Poyang, Fuliang, Shangrao and so on. In the first and middle periods of the Ming it spread to Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou and Beijing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yiyangqiang is one of the ancient vocal styles of Chinese opera. The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on. Ever since its birth Yiyangqiang has circulated widely among the people for its multi-scene serial plays that 'invent a hundred fresh twists' and its artistic character of 'using dialect wrongly'. The role types of Yiyangqiang are divided into xiaosheng (young male), zhengsheng (main male), laosheng (older male), erhua (second painted face), sanhua (comic painted face), xiaodan (young woman), zhengdan (main woman) and laodan (older woman). Its vocal structure originally employed the linked-suite form of tune patterns; in performance it was accompanied only by gongs and drums, with no wind or string accompaniment at all. One performer sang the lead and several others took up the phrases to complete them, producing the highly characteristic singing method of 'tuge, bangjiang' (solo singing with chorus help-singing). In the middle period of the Ming it further developed the gun diao (rolling song), which broke away from the linked-suite system of tune patterns and further strengthened the dramatic quality and expressive power of its vocal music. In the course of its wide diffusion Yiyangqiang branched into many variants and thereby formed the gaoqiang (high-pitched tune) system, exerting an important influence on more than forty vocal styles and opera genres in the north and the south and promoting the development of Chinese local and folk opera. Yiyangqiang is an exotic flower of traditional Chinese culture; its contribution to the development of Chinese opera, and especially of Chinese local opera, is irreplaceable. Yiyangqiang has continued down to the present, displaying powerful artistic vitality. In the past twenty years or so, for a variety of reasons, the inheritance of Yiyangqiang has fallen into difficulty: the performing troupes have aged severely, many troupes exist in name only, and a large number of excellent plays and vocal tune patterns are on the verge of being lost. Even in the places where it is popular, Yiyangqiang has gone for years without meeting an audience and has fallen into the embarrassing condition of being forgotten by people. This situation must be given high attention by the departments concerned, and effective measures must be taken to change it.
Sanguo Zhuan: Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Shuihu Zhuan: Water Margin
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Yuefei Zhuan: The Chronicle of Yue Fei
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Mulian Zhuan: The Story of Mulian
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Fengshen Zhuan: The Investiture of the Gods
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Qingmei Hui: The Green Plum Meeting
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Gucheng Hui: The Meeting at the Old City
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Ding Tianshan: Holding Mount Tian
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Jindiao Ji: Chronicle of the Golden Minke
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Zhenzhu Ji: Chronicle of the Pearl
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
Maishui Ji: Chronicle of Selling Water
The plays of Yiyangqiang fall into two large classes, multi-scene serial plays and chuanqi-based plays. The former include Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Chronicle of Yue Fei, The Story of Mulian, The Investiture of the Gods and so on; the latter include The Green Plum Meeting, The Meeting at the Old City, Holding Mount Tian, Chronicle of the Golden Minke, Chronicle of the Pearl, Chronicle of Selling Water and so on.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Centred on Yiyang, Yiyangqiang gave rise to troupe communities in Guixi, Wannian, Leping, Poyang, Fuliang, Shangrao and other places within Jiangxi. In the first and middle periods of the Ming it spread far to Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou and Beijing; after combining with local pronunciation and folk music it gave rise to variants such as the Siping tune, the Qingyang tune and the Taiping tune, which together form the later gaoqiang system. Within Jiangxi itself the name 'Yiyangqiang' has continued in use, and its method of tuge and bangjiang singing accompanied by gongs and drums alone has long been preserved on the village ancestral-hall stages around Guangxin Prefecture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lin Xihuai (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, Han nationality, born in May 1944, from Yiyang County, Jiangxi Province. A national second-class performer. Specialising in the qingyi 'guimen dan' role, and also playing xiaosheng, caidan and laodan roles. Her principal achievements are: taking part in the Jiangxi theatre reform experiment and creating a series of Yiyangqiang characters on the stage; establishing a Yiyangqiang materials collation room, collating eighteen traditional scripts and collecting Yiyangqiang facial-makeup designs, headdresses and Qing-dynasty theatrical costumes, as well as collecting and collating gong-and-drum notation and tune patterns, thus preserving a great deal of precious Yiyangqiang material; and training a large number of Yiyangqiang performers, most of them active on the performing stage, who have become the backbone of Yiyangqiang inheritance and development. A representative inheritor of Yiyangqiang in the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. The Yiyangqiang play The Stele Sacrifice and the Setting Out for War in which she starred took part in the 1981 Jiangxi Province modern-drama and children's-play performance report show and won the first prize for performance.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lin Xihuai 05-2309
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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