Daxian Opera
01 · Historical Records
Daxian opera is generally held to have a certain connection with the Liyuanxi (Pear Garden play) of the Tang court, and in the course of its evolution and development it also inherited the tradition of the northern ququ of Song-Yuan zaju. Since the 1990s, as entertainment programmes have grown ever more varied, the performance market for Daxian opera has continually contracted.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Daxian opera, formerly called the Gongxing troupe and also called Xianzi opera, is an ancient and rare multi-vocal-style genre; it is centred on Kaifeng and Puyang in Henan Province and is current in north-eastern Henan, southern Hebei and south-western Shandong. Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain. The vocal music of Daxian opera belongs to the qupai (tune-pattern) system and consists mainly of five great suites such as Hailihua and Jiangtou Jingui together with sanqu such as Shanpo Yang and Bubu Jiao; in addition it has taken in part of the music of the Qingyangqiang, Shipaiqiang, xiansuo gaoqiang, Luoluoqiang and other folk suqu and xiaoling. It has more than four hundred qupai of all kinds, of which one hundred and eighty-odd have now been excavated and collated. The accompaniment of Daxian opera is divided into ruichang (soft field) and yingchang (hard field). The principal instruments of the soft field include the sanxian, xidi, dadi, hengdi and sheng; the xidi is an instrument peculiar to Daxian opera, and pieces accompanied by it are called xiqu (fine pieces), while those accompanied by the dadi, dizi and hengdi are called cuqu (coarse pieces). The hard field, besides the ordinary percussion instruments, also uses the sida shan (four great fans), the jianzi hao and the luohao (conch horn), to bring out a tense and stirring atmosphere. In the vocal style of Daxian opera the qupai change very frequently and the pitch intervals leap widely; the actors enunciate the words in the true (natural) voice, while the drawn-out passages are carried in the falsetto. The role types of Daxian opera are divided into five sheng, five dan and five painted-face types, and the painted-face designs are delicate and carefully worked out, rich in individuality. To this day Daxian opera still preserves in its original flavour the traditional “tiaojiaguan” play as well as the “huaji xi” (comic play), “shuanchu yanduan” and “chibo xi” of Song-Yuan zaju; its performance takes the plum-blossom boxing and hong boxing as its framework, and is rough, fiery, archaic and of deep power. The movement and special-skill passages are staged with real weapons and real danger, thrilling and stirring; some of the tour-de-force skills such as “xiao liuchuan” (shaving the willow pole), “da wubacai”, “da shangdiao”, “shui sankongqiao” and “zawa” leave the audience involuntarily exclaiming. At present Henan has only two professional performing troupes, the Puyang Daxian Opera Troupe and the Huaxian Daxian Opera Troupe. Because funding is tight, the actors' income has fallen year by year, the conditions for survival and performance have deteriorated sharply, performing talent is running out, and many plays, qupai and special skills have been lost. Some one hundred qupai and more than two hundred plays now await excavation; only one person still masters the great Tang-Song suites and the qupai music of Daxian opera, and he is already close to seventy, so protection is urgently needed.
Rebelling at Five Passes
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
Black Stone Pass
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
The Yang Mansion Selects Generals
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
The Battle of Luoyang
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
Marching Down to Southern Tang
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
Sun Wuzi Raises an Army
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
Yellow Flower Temple
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
The Romance of the Western Chamber
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
Liangjia Mountain
Daxian opera once had more than five hundred plays, of which about a hundred survive; their content centres on the struggle between loyal and treacherous ministers, on warfare and campaigns, and on ridding the people of local tyrants. Its representative plays include Rebelling at Five Passes, Black Stone Pass, The Yang Mansion Selects Generals, The Battle of Luoyang, Marching Down to Southern Tang, Sun Wuzi Raises an Army, Yellow Flower Temple, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Liangjia Mountain.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Daxian opera, formerly called the Gongxing troupe and also called Xianzi opera, is centred on Kaifeng and Puyang in Henan Province and is current in north-eastern Henan, southern Hebei and south-western Shandong. Among the troupes of the Puyang line there are further divisions such as the Limen and Wangmen mentou (lineage schools), and the qupai and role types that each lineage practises have their own emphasis; more than two hundred ancient vocal qupai of different vocal styles and different modes — among them the “Qingyangqiang” of the hongsheng vocal style, the “gougou qiang” and the “Luoluoqiang”, together with suqu and xiaoling — are preserved above all within the Puyang system.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Daxian Opera · Daxian Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Whether in its plays, its music or its performance, Daxian opera has basically kept the look of its original ecology, and it conveys the lingering resonance of the Tang-dynasty canjunxi (army-entertaining play), the great Tang-Song suites and Song-Yuan zaju, so that it has very high value for historical research. Dai Jianping (per the official dossier of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1948, native of Puyang, Henan. Dai Jianping joined the Daxian Opera Troupe of Puyang County, Henan Province, in 1964 and has worked there ever since. His representative works include Huo Long Zhen (The Fiery Dragon Array) and Huang He Yao (The Yellow River Ballad). He is a representative inheritor of Daxian opera in the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects, and a national third-class composer. In 2007 he was awarded the title of “Outstanding Inheritor of National-Level Intangible Cultural Heritage”. Yao Jichun (per the official dossier of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in January 1962, native of Puyang County, Henan Province. He joined the Daxian Opera Troupe of Puyang County in 1974 and became a disciple of Dou Ganfa, the noted da jing (painted-face lead) of the Limen line of Puyang Daxian opera, to study the da jing role type. In 1982 he became a disciple of Du Enrong, fifth-generation inheritor of the Wangmen line and a famous hongsheng, and systematically studied hongsheng vocal style and performance art. He studied more than two hundred ancient vocal qupai of different vocal styles and different modes, including the “gougou qiang” and the “Luoluoqiang” together with suqu and xiaoling, and mastered “Qingyangqiang”, the hongsheng vocal style that is hardest of all to sing. In performance he has inherited the Daxian opera hongsheng style based on the dahong boxing framework, his opening stances and pose displays are generous, and his yunshou (cloud hand) passes above the head in an exaggerated fashion. He is a representative inheritor of Daxian opera in the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. He has taken on twelve apprentices in all and has trained a group of inheritors of the new era.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Han Qingshan 02-0540
- Dai Jianping 02-0541
- Song Ziwu 03-1026
- Yao Jichun 04-1639
- Wang Xiulan 05-2352
- Song Feiyun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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