Nuo Opera

01 · Historical Records

Nuo opera originated in remote antiquity; as early as the pre-Qin period there were shamanic songs and nuo dances that amused both the gods and the people. Chizhou nuo opera derives from a totem-worship consciousness. It is transmitted mainly in Guichi, Shitai and Qingyang counties (districts) within a radius of one hundred kilometres around the foot of Jiuhua Mountain, the sacred Buddhist mountain of China, and is concentrated especially among the large-family lineages of some dozens of surnames in the townships of Liujie, Meijie and Maotan in the Guichi district of Chizhou city; historical records say that “without nuo there is no village”.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Nuo opera, also called nuo tang xi (nuo hall play) or duan gong xi (Master Duan play), is a form of opera formed on the basis of folk sacrificial ritual by absorbing folk theatre. It is widely popular in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Hebei and other provinces. At the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty the various local operatic genres rose vigorously; nuo dance absorbed operatic forms and developed into nuo tang xi and duan gong xi. Nuo tang xi of Hunan and Hubei absorbed the performance art of huagu opera, nuo opera of Sichuan and Guizhou absorbed artistic elements of hua deng (flower lantern plays), while nuo opera of Jiangxi and Anhui drew nourishment from Hui opera and Mulian opera. The repertoire works performed in nuo opera include Meng Jiangnu, Lady Pang, The Dragon King's Daughter, The God of Taoyuan Cave and the Earth God of Liangshan, among others; in addition there are plays drawn from stories in The Story of Mulian, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West. The scripts are mostly sung with little spoken dialogue, being good at setting forth events, unfolding conflicts and shaping images through long narrative sung passages. Except in a few areas such as Yuanling in Hunan, where a suona accompanies the ends of phrases, most nuo opera uses only percussion instruments such as gongs, drums and cymbals. The role types of nuo opera are divided into sheng, dan, jing and chou, and most performers wear masks. Masks are carved and painted from woods that do not easily crack, such as camphor wood, lilac wood and poplar wood; according to their form they fall into two kinds, full face and half face. The full face carves and paints the hat worn by the character and the whole face, while the half face is carved only above the nose, with neither mouth nor chin. The basic step patterns of performance are that male roles walk zheng bu (square step) and gang bu (firm step), while female roles walk sui bu (short quick step) and yun bu (gliding step). Because nuo opera is performed in masks, its movements are large in amplitude and its style archaic, plain and rugged. Di xi (ground play) is a kind of nuo opera performed by tunbao people, the descendants of the soldiers who, at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, were transferred north to campaign south and stayed behind in Yunnan and Guizhou to cultivate fields and garrison the frontier, in order to sacrifice to their ancestors. It has no plays of folk everyday life and no plays of talented scholars and beautiful women; everything performed is a martial play reflecting a historical story. Yang xi (yang play), by contrast, is exactly the opposite: it is performed by the duan gong master after he has finished the rites, for the living audience to watch, so it consists mainly of small plays reflecting folk everyday life, and the melodies sung are largely absorbed from folk small plays such as huagu and hua deng. It has no professional troupes and no professional artists; to this day the clan is the unit of performance, its purposes are to sacrifice to the ancestors, to ward off evil and attract blessings, and to amuse the gods, the ancestors and the people, and wearing masks is the characteristic feature of its performance. Chizhou nuo opera has forms of expression such as nuo yi (nuo ceremony), nuo wu (nuo dance) and nuo xi (nuo play). A whole “main play” (zheng xi) presents the benxi (“authentic play”), which has both dramatic plot and performance formulae as well as operatic features such as role types and stage properties. It is transmitted by word of mouth and imitation, handed down within the clan from generation to generation, with regular “spring sacrifice” and “autumn sacrifice” every year: the “spring sacrifice” is held on an auspicious day from the seventh (Renri, the Day of Mankind) to the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar, and the “autumn sacrifice” is held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month; at other times there are no performances.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Nuo opera took shape in western Hunan during the Kangxi reign and then, by way of the Yuan River into the Yangtze, developed rapidly in all directions, forming different schools and artistic styles. Singing uses the local dialect; apart from the first category of repertoire works, which use the duan gong tune, all are sung in operatic vocal styles familiar to the local people. Characters are divided by status into civil officials, military generals, old men, young wives, immortals and so on. Because their historical backgrounds and the artistic influences they have received differ, nuo opera is divided into three kinds: nuo tang xi, di xi and yang xi.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Nuo opera is a composite of history, folk custom, folk religion and primitive drama; it harbours rich cultural genes and is of important research value. Nuo opera in every locality is transmitted mainly in the countryside; as society develops and recreational activities grow richer, those willing to watch nuo opera performances decline day by day, and its transmission is difficult. Chizhou nuo opera has accumulated and deposited a large amount of cultural information from every historical period from antiquity down to modern times, touching on many disciplines and many fields. Its connotations are extremely rich, and it conceals profound cultural content and very high academic research value in cultural anthropology, dramatology, religious studies, art history, historiography, archaeology and folklore. It still preserves an archaic and rugged primitive appearance; it is the oldest and most important folk ritual in China, the most distinctive national cultural symbol of China, and one of the “oldest and most complete” ancient operas still extant in China. Liu Chenyu (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han nationality, born in 1930, native of Guichi, Anhui. Influenced by the elders of his clan from childhood, Liu Chenyu took part in religious nuo affairs, went on stage at seventeen to play roles in nuo opera, was skilled at managing the drum, and served as the “nian shou” (head man or officer in charge) of his clan's nuo affairs; he thoroughly mastered the vocal styles and acting techniques of the various nuo plays of his own clan. Representative inheritor of Nuo opera (Chizhou nuo opera), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch. In the mid-1980s, in order to restore nuo opera performance, which had been interrupted for nearly thirty years, he wrote out from memory the nuo drama scripts and the recited passages of nuo dance performed by his clan; he trained more than ten successors in nuo opera, and in 2005 he took part in the “China Jiangxi International Nuo Culture and Art Week”, winning a gold award and an excellence award for street performance. Yao Jiawei (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han nationality, born in 1965, native of Guichi, Anhui. At twenty, under the influence of his father and the elders of his clan, Yao Jiawei began to learn and perform nuo opera and nuo dance. Representative inheritor of Nuo opera (Chizhou nuo opera), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the second batch. His voice is pure and high-pitched, full of ancient resonance, and his movements are rugged, vigorous, primitive and archaic. He is the outstanding performer who emerged in Yaojie Village of the Guichi district after nuo opera performances were restored there in the 1980s, and in 2005 he took part in the “China Jiangxi International Nuo Culture and Art Week” and won a gold award.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Li Zengwang 02-0653
• Liu Chenyu 02-0654
• Yao Jiawei 02-0655
• Long Ziming 02-0656
• Long Kaichun 02-0657
• Li Fuguo 02-0658
• Zhang Yuefu 02-0659
• An Yongbai 02-0660
• Jiang Pinsan 03-1074
• Guixunjin 04-1661
• Su Liwen 04-1662
• Ling Fengying 05-2398
• Tang Maohua 05-2399
• Deng Yushu 05-2400
• Long Jingchang 05-2401
• Nie Mane 05-2402
• Wang Taibao 05-2403
• Yang Chaozhong 05-2404

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Nuo Opera (Chizhou, Anhui) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Liu Chenyu · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Yao Jiawei · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗