Yuju (Henan Opera)
01 · Historical Records
By the Qianlong reign of the Qing it had become a highly influential local opera genre in Henan and has been transmitted for more than two hundred years. Drawing on the Henan volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu, in the Qianlong reign Yuju was already the most influential local genre in Henan, and in the late Qing and early Republic it spread with trade routes and migration to Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and elsewhere; because Handan borders Henan, an active Yuju performing tradition took shape there over the twentieth century and gave rise to the Sang school, represented by Sang Zhenjun.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yuju is an especially important branch of China's bangzi vocal genres, also called “Henan bangzi”, “Henan high tune” and “Henan ou”, and in the mountains of western Henan known as “kaoshan hou”. Yuju is found in many parts of the country, and Handan in Hebei is one of its important areas of popularity. It has a rich repertory of nearly a thousand traditional plays—hence the saying “three thousand of the Tang, eight hundred of the Song, and endless plays of the Three Kingdoms and the Warring States”—among which Zhan Zi, Mu Yang Juan, Liu Quan Jin Gua, Bao Pipa, Zha Guo Huai, Hong Xia Shan, Da Ji Zhuang, Jie Qi, Hong Niang, Hua Mulan, Mu Guiying Gua Shuai, Dui Hua Qiang and Tang Zhixian Shen Gaoming are representative and perennially staged. Yuju has four main ban classes, dozens of singing ban styles and dozens of modes, and its singing not only includes many regional tunes but has produced numerous artistic schools in performance. Among them the Sang school, created by the Handan Yuju artist Sang Zhenjun, has long enjoyed high repute and been much welcomed by local audiences and continually staged. Its vocal music belongs to the banqiang system with the four ban classes manban, erbanban, liushuiban and feiban, and the Sang school stresses “tune following the words”, using narrative passages to carry lyric feeling.
Zhan Zi (Executing the Son)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, drawn from the Yang family saga, perennially staged.
Mu Yang Juan (The Sheep-Tending Scroll)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, perennially staged.
Liu Quan Jin Gua (Liu Quan Offers Melons)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, drawn from the Journey to the West cycle, perennially staged.
Bao Pipa (Carrying the Lute)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, perennially staged.
Zha Guo Huai (Beheading Guo Huai)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, a Judge Bao case piece, perennially staged.
Hong Xia Shan (Red Descends the Mountain)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, perennially staged.
Da Ji Zhuang (The Great Memorial Sacrifice)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, perennially staged.
Jie Qi (Borrowing a Wife)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, a well-known comedy, perennially staged.
Hong Niang (The Maid Hongniang)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, drawn from The Romance of the Western Chamber, perennially staged.
Hua Mulan
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, on the woman warrior Mulan, perennially staged.
Mu Guiying Gua Shuai (Mu Guiying Takes Command)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, drawn from the Yang family saga, perennially staged.
Dui Hua Qiang (The Floral Spear Contest)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, perennially staged.
Tang Zhixian Shen Gaoming (Magistrate Tang Tries the Lady)
One of Yuju's representative traditional plays, the well-known “petty official” comedy, perennially staged.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In its spread Yuju has formed the regional vocal styles Xiangfu, Yudong, Yuxi and Shahe, as well as artistic schools such as Chang (Xiangyu), Chen (Suzhen), Cui (Lantian), Ma (Jinfeng) and Yan (Lipin). The Sang school was founded by the Handan Yuju artist Sang Zhenjun; known for its deft wordplay and syncopated “stealing the beat” phrasing, it is deeply influential in southern Hebei and northern Henan.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yuju (Henan Opera) · Yuju (Henan Opera).
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Sang school preserves a large number of traditional plays and a highly individual singing style, and is an important subject for the study of Yuju schools; the inheritor Miao Wenhua has collated and recorded the Sang school's classic plays and vocal music and taken disciples, keeping the school alive in Handan, Hebei. Miao Wenhua (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in January 1965 in Xiping county, Henan. A national first-grade actor. Her representative works include Da Jinzhi, Dui Xiu Xie, Taohua An and Chaoyang Gou. She has collated and recorded the classic plays and vocal music of the Yuju Sang school, and has also taken and taught disciples, taking six in succession including Sang Yurui. She is a representative inheritor of Yuju (Sang school) in the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects and won the eighteenth China Drama Plum Blossom Award in 2001.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Jinfeng 02-0478
- Zhang Baoying 02-0479
- Humeiling 02-0480
- Wu Bibo 02-0481
- Jia Tingju 02-0482
- Zhang Meizhen 02-0483
- Li Shujian 02-0484
- Wang Guanjun 03-0997
- Feng Zhanshun 03-0998
- Miao Wenhua 05-2320
- Li Xianmin 05-2321
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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