Meihu
01 · Historical Records
The origin of Meihu has two accounts: one that it comes from Mei county and Hu county in Shaanxi, taking its name from the place; the other that it comes from Huayin and Hua county in Shaanxi, so pleasing in tune as to be called a charming play, shortened to “mi xi” and popularly “mihu”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Meihu, also called “mihu”, “quzi” and “qingqu”, is widely found in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. Meihu moved gradually from folk-song medley and ground-mat storytelling to stage performance, with two main forms of performance: one retaining the storytelling form of the ground-mat, its librettos mostly zhezi excerpts sung throughout with little spoken dialogue; the other the stage form, with speech, song and acting and freer choice of qupai. Meihu is a local operatic genre of distinctive character with rich tunes and a wide area of circulation, holding an important place in Chinese operatic culture. Mihu is the second largest local opera of Shaanxi with a long history, and Huayin is one of its earliest and most influential birthplaces. Huayin mihu is often performed in the ground-mat sitting form, mainly singing narrative suites, popularly called “bench quzi” or “unaccompanied quzi”. Influenced by the Song-dynasty tanci and zhuanci and the Yuan zaju, and while keeping the basic ground-mat form, part of it began to turn to “raised-platform” performance, gradually forming the dramatic form of Huayin mihu. Its singing is fine and soft, rich in lyricism, and embraces a great many qupai, said to number “seventy-two great tunes and three hundred and sixty small tunes”. Around the founding of New China the ground-mat “unaccompanied mihu” clubs in Huayin numbered more than a hundred, among which the self-enjoyment clubs of Zhaoping, Nanying and Kangying villages are already a hundred years old. Several principal Huayin mihu artists were engaged by the provincial mihu troupe, greatly raising its artistic level and contributing enormously to the flourishing of the genre.
Liang Qiuyan
A representative modern meihu play, its singing fine, soft and rich in lyricism.
Twelve Sickles
One of the representative modern meihu plays, plain in language and strongly rustic.
Zhang Lian Sells Cloth
One of the representative traditional meihu short plays, usually staged in a comic ground-mat or stage form.
Seventy-Two Great Tunes and Three Hundred and Sixty Small Tunes
The qupai system of Huayin mihu, embracing a great many tunes and forming the core of its singing music.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huayin mihu centres on Huayin city, Shaanxi, and is popular in eastern Guanzhong in Huaxian, Dali and Tongguan; because it is mostly sung sitting in the ground-mat and courtyard form of “bench quzi”, self-enjoyment clubs flourish locally, those of Zhaoping, Nanying and Kangying villages already a hundred years old.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Meihu · Meihu · Meihu · Meihu.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Huayin mihu preserves the intermediate form of meihu's transition from folk-song medley to stage drama; its qupai system of “seventy-two great tunes and three hundred and sixty small tunes” and its ground-mat sitting tradition make it an important specimen for studying Guanzhong folk music and narrative art, and the locality sustains the genre through self-enjoyment clubs and in-school transmission.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Yingjie 03-1099
- Pan Guoliang 05-2428
- Li Ruifang 05-2429
- Jiao Ruixia
- Yan Huifang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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