Sipingdiao
01 · Historical Records
Dangshan Siping diao is a local theatrical genre that originated in Zhouzhai Town of Dangshan County, Anhui Province, and evolved from 'Dangshan flower drum'; it radiates outward from Dangshan County as its centre. During the Ming and Qing dynasties the Yellow River within Dangshan County frequently overflowed and turned into disaster. Compelled by their livelihood, performers hung small drums at their waists and sang local ditties while singing and dancing; this was Dangshan flower drum. In the late Qing dynasty a number of performers from the Zou, Yan and Wang troupes of Dangshan County joined forces to form a comparatively large flower-drum theatre company, which toured such places as Heze in Shandong, Shangqiu in Henan and Bozhou in Anhui.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Siping diao is a traditional theatre form founded on the pingdian (level) mode of the flower-drum opera popular in northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu, north-eastern Henan and south-western Shandong; it absorbs vocal elements of pingju, Henan opera and Peking opera and adds string accompaniment, and was originally called 'sipu diao' (four-combined tune). Because its singing is level and steady, with the four phrases of the melody joining into a whole, it was later renamed 'Siping diao' (four-level tune). It is renowned for its singing; its body-movement performance forms a system of its own, and at performances the gaohu is the principal accompanying instrument. Here its makers drew inspiration from local genres such as Peking opera, Henan opera, pingju and erji axian, and engaged a Henan-opera qin player from Xiayi, Henan, to arrange the accompaniment for the flower-drum tunes; they took the hexagonal gaohu as the leading string instrument and the percussion of bangzi opera to set off the atmosphere, adopting the sense of the flower-drum opera's 'level and steady' singing, and so formed Siping diao. Dangshan Siping diao takes the prosody of the northern Anhui dialect and of Central Plains local tunes as its basic rule; the changes of its singing and rhythm are very free and flexible, and its basic modes include yuanban, manban, sanban and jijinfeng (commonly called 'luogu chongzi'). The medium-tempo mode of singing is called the yuanban of Siping diao, the slow-tempo one the manban of Siping diao; the other modes are free styles of singing set up according to changes in the plot and in the emotions of the characters. The singing of Dangshan Siping diao is level and steady, gentle and pleasing to the ear, and uses the 2, 1, 6, 1 pattern of ending notes for the most part. The accompanying instrument is the gaohu, with the bridge set low and the strings tuned to B flat, supplemented with the erhu, pipa, sanxian, bamboo flute and other ethnic instruments, with the gaohu taking the lead as the principal string. The configuration of the percussion instruments draws on that of bangzi opera. Representative repertoire includes Chen Sanliang, The Little Lord Bao, The Flower as Matchmaker and Zheng Xiaojiao; the lyrics are plain and readily understood, strongly flavoured with the soil of the locality, and have the character of folk oral literature.
Chen Sanliang
Representative repertoire includes Chen Sanliang, The Little Lord Bao, The Flower as Matchmaker and Zheng Xiaojiao; the lyrics are plain and readily understood, strongly flavoured with the soil of the locality, and have the character of folk oral literature.
The Little Lord Bao
Representative repertoire includes Chen Sanliang, The Little Lord Bao, The Flower as Matchmaker and Zheng Xiaojiao; the lyrics are plain and readily understood, strongly flavoured with the soil of the locality, and have the character of folk oral literature.
The Flower as Matchmaker
Representative repertoire includes Chen Sanliang, The Little Lord Bao, The Flower as Matchmaker and Zheng Xiaojiao; the lyrics are plain and readily understood, strongly flavoured with the soil of the locality, and have the character of folk oral literature.
Zheng Xiaojiao
Representative repertoire includes Chen Sanliang, The Little Lord Bao, The Flower as Matchmaker and Zheng Xiaojiao; the lyrics are plain and readily understood, strongly flavoured with the soil of the locality, and have the character of folk oral literature.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Dangshan Siping diao centres on the 'three small roles' (xiaosheng, xiadan and xiaochou), takes as its principal audience the middle-aged and elderly people and the women of the countryside, and is closely bound up with the life of the local people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sipingdiao · Sipingdiao · Sipingdiao · Sipingdiao.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Some of its plays that exhort goodness and pray for blessings have played a considerable part in regulating social conduct, influencing folk customs imperceptibly, and therefore have fairly high social and cultural value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zou Aiqin 02-0554
- Baijinrong 02-0555
- Cui Taixian 02-0556
- Zhang Xubin 02-0557
- Liu Yuzhi 03-1033
- Wang Fengyun 03-1034
- Fumei
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。