Zhengzi Opera
01 · Historical Records
One branch of early Ming Southern Opera entered eastern Guangdong and became Zhengzi opera, taking root mainly in the Hailufeng area and later spreading to Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. For the civil (wen) plays there survive the Zhengzi Liuxibi Jinchai Ji of the seventh year of the Xuande reign and a Jiajing-era Cai Bojie manuscript together with a fairly complete set of Qing and Republican manuscripts and transcripts made in the 1950s.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhengzi opera was originally called Zhengyin opera and is sung and recited in the Zhongzhou official speech; it is an ancient, rare genre of many vocal styles. The “four great comedies” Sanyuan Ji, Wugui Ji, Manchun Hu and Yuehua Yuan; the “four great tragedies” Jingchai Ji, Kuihua Ji, Pipa Ji and Baitu Ji; and the “four great mounted-arms plays” Zhongyi Lie, Qianli Ju, Tiegong Yuan and Maling Dao together make up the twelve “true scripts”. The martial plays are mostly serial plays such as The Three Kingdoms and Sui-Tang. Zhengzi opera's performing style is archaic and grand, and it excels at serial plays. The singing of the civil plays preserves an ancient aspect, relying mainly on the qupai-based Zhengyin tunes and changpaizi, with luantan and popular tunes mixed in. Zhengyin tunes are led by the xiqin with large gong and drum accompaniment, while changpaizi are accompanied by flute and large and small suona. Many qupai in the Zhengyin tunes directly inherit the ancient Yiyang and Qingyang modes, and rolling-song (gunchang) is widely used. There are more than one hundred Kun melodies, some of which fully embody the strict, complete organisation of northern qu. The martial plays, or tigang plays, have no or little singing and are accompanied by wind-and-percussion paizi to heighten the atmosphere; they are fierce and fiery, featuring such showpieces as shaking the back banners, shaking the muscles, flicking the beard, running the cloth horse and displaying southern martial arts, and they represent historical and military scenes well. Zhengzi opera traditionally has twelve role types—red face, black face, white face, laosheng, wusheng, white fan, zhengdan, huadan, shuaizhu, gongmo, po and chou—some of which use painted faces in performance. Its facial designs include more than two hundred patterns such as hairy face, water-turtle eye, eagle beak and tiger eye. Zhengzi opera is a variant of ancient Southern Opera and provides strong evidence for research on the evolution of operatic vocal systems and the influence of local culture on xiqu.
Jingchai Ji (The Thorn Hairpin)
One of the “four great tragedies” of Zhengzi opera, sung in qupai-based Zhengyin tunes; its civil-play singing preserves an archaic aspect.
Pipa Ji (The Lute)
One of the “four great tragedies”, derived from Southern Opera and a staple of the civil repertory.
Baitu Ji (The White Rabbit)
One of the “four great tragedies”, a piece surviving from Southern Opera.
Kuihua Ji (The Sunflower)
One of the “four great tragedies”, named together with Jingchai Ji, Pipa Ji and Baitu Ji.
Sanyuan Ji
One of the “four great comedies” and a representative piece of the traditional civil repertory.
Manchun Hu (Sceptres Fill the Bed)
One of the “four great comedies”, telling of the wealth and reunion of the family of Guo Ziyi.
Tiegong Yuan (The Iron Bow)
One of the “four great mounted-arms plays”, noted for its martial combat and physical bearing.
The Three Kingdoms
A representative serial martial play, staging the historical and military scenes of the Three Kingdoms in tigang form.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhengzi opera has more than two thousand six hundred traditional pieces, divided into civil and martial plays.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present the survival of Zhengzi opera is in crisis and timely rescue and protection are needed. Peng Meiying (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in 1944 in Lufeng, Guangdong. From 1962 to 1976 Peng Meiying starred in such fine traditional Zhengzi pieces as Baihua Zengjian and Jingchai Ji; from 1976 she devoted herself to training successors. Her basic skills are solid and she can teach across role types including sheng and jing. She is a representative inheritor of Zhengzi opera in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, artistic adviser to the Lufeng Zhengzi opera troupe, Guangdong, and a national third-grade director. Huang Zhuangying (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1963 in Lufeng, Guangdong. Since entering the profession Huang Zhuangying has studied Zhengzi performance assiduously; his skills are solid and his portrayal vivid and finely drawn, and he is good at shaping varied characters and personalities. He has repeatedly won national, provincial and municipal awards, and his representative works include Jiang Wei Shoots Guo Huai and The Top Scholar and the Beggar. He is a representative inheritor of Zhengzi opera in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects and a national third-grade actor.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Peng Meiying 02-0458
- Huang Zhuangying 02-0459
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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