Yangge Opera
01 · Historical Records
Local gazetteers of the Ming and Qing contain such records as “the gentlemen of Qin sing of wind and elegance” and “the lingering charm of Lord Yao still survives”. By the Tang dynasty Qin yuan's folk songs flourished, with words and tunes, able to be sung and answered. In the Ming and Qing narrative songs reflecting the relations of two or more characters evolved from one singer into small performances for two or three characters, with simple props and costumes added, becoming a short opera. By the Qing the phenomenon of songs, tunes and plays sharing a name changed, forming one tune to a play or several tunes linked in a suite, such as Xixiang Zhuan and Shou Caomao, generally “three-small-role” plays of xiaosheng, xiaodan and xiaochou or two-person “paired plays”, also called “erren tai”. Since the Qing most villages and towns of Qinyuan have had yangge troupes.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qinyuan takes its name from being the source of the Qin river and lies at the summit of the Taiyue mountains, under the jurisdiction of Changzhi city. Each qupai has basic fixed forms of singing, word count and sentence pattern, generally in four-line form expressing the rule of “introduction, development, turn and conclusion”. Any tune can take words set to it. Its modes include all five—gong, shang, jue, zhi and yu—mainly gong and zhi. Its melodies vary greatly: some high and bold, some fine and melodious, some lively and humorous, some lingering and plaintive, able to express the feelings of different characters with ease. Its lyrics rhyme and scan, in forms of five, seven or ten characters or lines of uneven length, each with its own features of arrangement, syntax, rhythm and prosody. More than one hundred and sixty qupai of Qinyuan folk song have been collected, of which no fewer than several dozen suit opera. Some are one tune to a play, others several tunes linked in a suite. When Qinyuan yangge began is hard to ascertain. Its actors moved from singing with fans in the folk-song square onto the operatic stage with fan play. Whenever farming is slack they gather to rehearse and perform from the Spring Festival, popularly called “making yangge”, until the second day of the second month. It has performed forty-two traditional, thirty-two adapted and thirty-six newly created plays. Qinyuan now has one professional troupe, and almost every village has a yangge team, more than sixty of them regularly active.
Xixiang Zhuan (The Tale of the Western Chamber)
A representative play of Qinyuan yangge under its system of one tune to a play or several tunes linked in a suite.
Shou Caomao (Gathering the Straw Hats)
A representative play of the stage at which Qinyuan yangge moved from narrative song to short opera.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Qinyuan yangge is a traditional local genre developed on the basis of the folk ditties of Qinyuan county, Changzhi city, Shanxi, distributed across the southern, central and south-eastern parts of the province centred on Qinyuan county. It takes the local dialect pronunciation as its standard rhyme, its tunes each having a proper name. Its lines are mainly in the Qinyuan dialect, the lyrics or recitation mostly spoken off the cuff, natural and fluent, vivid and warm, plain and lively, with a strong flavour of life. Its musical rhyme takes the local dialect as standard and complements the lyrics. With a long history, lively and easy to remember and pass on, Qinyuan yangge is an important part of local folk culture, carrying the people's knowledge of nature and society and reflecting the social life, customs and aesthetic taste of each era; with a broad popular base and strong local flavour, it has relatively high historical, cultural and social value.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qinyuan yangge is now transmitted mainly through performing groups, with a documented lineage reaching five generations. At present it performs mainly modern plays together with medium and small semi-costume plays.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Qiaoju 02-0601
- Wu Niancheng 02-0602
- Zhang Zhanyuan 02-0603
- Zhang Yuanye 02-0604
- Zhang Fu 03-1060
- Zhang Runlai 03-1061
- Miao Gensheng 03-1062
- Bai Meiyun 03-1063
- Ren Senkui 03-1064
- Wu Yumei 04-1650
- Yang Shengxiang 04-1651
- Wang Zhilan 05-2381
- Sun Guiming 05-2382
- Li Yingying 05-2383
- Qu Dengmei
- Zhang Fenran
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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