Sai Opera
01 · Historical Records
In Handan, Hebei, the plays staged are mainly Three Kingdoms plays, with Han and Song plays secondary; Wu'an performs several dozen, of which Youzhou, Sanguan, Guangwu Shan and Night Attack on Dengzhou are fairly representative; She county has Chixian and Ningwu Guan telling historical stories of the Shang and Ming dynasties; and Shuozhou in Shanxi has such plays, familiar to audiences, as Three Heroes Fight Lü Bu and Meng Liang Steals the Bones.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Sai opera, also called “sai” or “saisai”, is an ancient operatic genre popular in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei and Shaanxi; neither its historical origin nor its time of formation is recorded, but from such performance features as the wearing of masks and the chasing and driving out it may share the same historical origin as the “nuo” formed in the Zhou dynasty and the nuo opera derived from it. “Sai” originally meant the thanksgiving sacrifice, an activity of honouring the gods with insignia, drum music and hundred entertainments. The whole performance of sai opera includes sacrificial rites, dramatic performance and square shehuo, with male roles predominating and in some places no female roles at all, accompanied by such percussion as the great gong, great drum and great cymbals. Its plays differ from place to place but are mostly historical stories, with some on revolutionary themes. Sai opera is a dramatic form fusing folk ritual and performing art, primitive and plain in performance and relatively strict in form, of extremely important reference value for the study of Chinese operatic and folkloric history.
Youzhou
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Sanguan (The Three Passes)
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Guangwu Shan
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Night Attack on Dengzhou
One of the fairly representative plays of Wu'an sai opera.
Chixian
A play of She county sai opera telling historical stories of the Shang dynasty.
Ningwu Guan
A play of She county sai opera telling historical stories of the Ming dynasty.
Three Heroes Fight Lü Bu
A representative play of the Shuozhou branch in Shanxi.
Meng Liang Steals the Bones
A representative play of the Shuozhou branch in Shanxi.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shuozhou sai opera centres on Shuozhou city, Shanxi; its representative plays include Three Heroes Fight Lü Bu and Meng Liang Steals the Bones, mostly historical stories familiar to audiences; adjoining Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, its drum-and-gong arrangement and performing conventions combine the vigorous temper of northern Shanxi and the frontier.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sai Opera · Sai Opera · Sai Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Sai opera fuses sacrificial rites, dramatic performance and square shehuo; its masked, chasing and driving-out performance form is in direct line with the “nuo” completed in the Zhou dynasty, making it an important living specimen for studying the genesis of Chinese opera and the history of folk custom. The Shuozhou branch is still performed in northern Shanxi shehuo, but artists are few and successors lacking, and it urgently needs rescue and protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Pang Xiaobao 03-1095
- Tang Xiangping
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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