Puzhoubangzi

01 · Historical Records

Puzhou bangzi arose in the late Ming and early Qing at Puzhou, the district where the borders of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan run together; it is found above all in southern Shanxi and in parts of Shaanxi, Henan, Gansu and Qinghai. One of China's oldest bangzi qiang (clapper-tune) genres, it was known among the people as luantan or bangzi qiang when it first came into being, as Shanshan bangzi (Shanxi-Shaanxi bangzi) in the middle of the Qing dynasty, and as Puzhou bangzi in the early years of the Republic; since the 1930s its name has been shortened to Puju. Its repertoire is extensive, and the plays known at present number more than fourteen hundred; those with the greatest influence include Dou E Yuan (The Injustice to Dou E), Xue Gang Fan Chao (Xue Gang's Revolt Against the Court), Lin Gu Chuang (The Qilin Bone Bed), Sha Yi (Killing at the Courier Station) and Gua Hua (Hanging the Scroll Painting).

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Its singing is built mainly on the bangzi qiang, with kunqu, the chui qiang (blowing-tune) styles and folk ditties added to it. The bangzi qiang belongs to the banqiang (metrical) family and has seven basic ban patterns, together with upwards of three hundred suona tune patterns and three hundred-odd silk-string tune patterns. The vocal hallmark of Puzhou bangzi lies in its high pitch and its quick beat, in the great surges and plunges of its contour, and above all in its power to express emotions that are generous, stirring and impassioned. The singers employ the chest and the head voice together, and leaps greater than a tenth, or of two full octaves, occur again and again; the line carried by the voice is resonant, bold and unrestrained, and rich in passion. The accompanying ensemble is split into a civil band and a martial band. The civil band is headed by the banhu and joined by the flute, the two-string fiddle, the sanxian, the erhu and the like; the martial band employs the ban drum, the jujube clapper, the horse gong, nao and cymbals and the like, and it has an exceptionally rich repertory of gong-and-drum formulas (luogu jing). Puzhou bangzi assigns its performers to role types such as xusheng (bearded male), laosheng (older male), xiaosheng (young male), zhengdan (principal female), xiaodan (young female), laodan (older female), dahu lian (great painted face), erhualian (second painted face) and sanhualian (third painted face). Its performance art is backed by a long history and a deep tradition; what marks it out most is a fiery abandon, a vigorous breadth, an expansive brightness and a restrained delicacy. It stresses worked detail and has a gift for rendering characters through special techniques. Many of its performance techniques are technically difficult and highly attractive to watch — the stunt specialities alone number more than thirty — and its mao chi gong (hat-wing work), ran kou gong (beard work), ling zi gong (pheasant-feather work), shao zi gong (short-weapon work), bian zi gong (whip work), yi zi gong (chair work), shan zi gong (fan work), shua zhi fan (paper-pennon display) and cai gong (coloured-silk work) are celebrated throughout the country. Swept along by the advance of the commercial tide, Puzhou bangzi is now in crisis, audiences are leaving in great numbers and the acting force stands with a gap between the old and the young; this state of affairs must be reversed as soon as possible.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Puzhou bangzi is centred on Yuncheng and Linfen in southern Shanxi and is played in southern Shanxi and in parts of Shaanxi, Henan, Gansu and Qinghai; in its early days the people called it luantan or bangzi qiang. The troupes around Yuncheng give equal weight both to singing and to worked detail, while the Linfen side has priorities of its own in choosing repertoire; celebrated masters such as Wang Xiulan and Wu Junying all came out of the Yuncheng troupe system, and their singing styles each established a line of its own — one path through depth of feeling, clearness of diction, resonance and flexibility, the other through innovation in the vocal system.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Puzhoubangzi.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Of the bangzi qiang genres Puzhou bangzi is the earliest-born of the four great bangzi of Shanxi; it shares origins with Shaanxi bangzi, provides living evidence for tracing the way Chinese local opera has been handed down and has changed, and is equally useful to the study of Shanxi local culture. Wu Junying (as recorded in the official archival record of an associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1956, a native of Xinjiang County, Shanxi. Wu Junying has loved singing since childhood and has given herself throughout to innovating the Puju vocal system; through years of stage practice and study of folk songs and of sister genres she gradually formed singing features entirely her own, which audiences affectionately call the “Junying style”. Her singing is beautiful and lingering, and her voice and her feeling are equally expressive. Representative plays include Su San Qi Jie (Su San Released on Bail), Xi Xiang Ji (The Romance of the Western Chamber) and Song Nv (Seeing the Girl Off). Representative inheritor of Puzhou bangzi under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects; director of the Yuncheng Puju Troupe, a first-class actor, and a winner of the fifth China Drama Plum Blossom Award. Wang Xiulan (as recorded in the official archival record of an associated inheritor): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1932, a native of Shuozhou, Shanxi. Wang Xiulan entered the Jinfeng Society Puju troupe in Xi'an to begin her training at the age of eight, taking up the xiaodan role. She studied under the noted old Puju artist Yuan Xiaoting, inherited rather completely the representative plays and performance skills of the older generation, and improved and innovated in matters of the vocal style among others; in the 1950s she was chosen as the foremost of the five great Puju actors. Representative works include Gui Zhong Yuan (The Affray in the Chest), Xi Xiang Ji (The Romance of the Western Chamber) and Dou E Yuan (The Injustice to Dou E). Her performance is true to life and natural, her characterisation of characters is delicate, and her singing is distinguished by depth of feeling, clearness of diction, resonance and flexibility. Representative inheritor of Puzhou bangzi under the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects, and a first-class actor. Since taking up the post of principal of the Yuncheng Art School she has trained more than a thousand successors for Puju.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Zhang Feng 02-0467
• Ren Genxin 02-0468
• Guo Zemin 02-0469
• Wu Junying 02-0470
• Wang Xiulan 02-0471
• Kang Xisheng 04-1603
• Jing Xuebian 04-1604
• Wang Yihua 04-1605

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Puzhoubangzi (Yuncheng, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Wu Junying · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Wang Xiulan · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗