Erjiaxian
01 · Historical Records
Drawing on the Henan volume of the Annals of Chinese Xiqu and local Hua county materials, erjiaxian was first a cotton-spinning ditty and, through the artists' development and creation, formed on the basis of such folk performing forms as “huagu dingxiang”, “da wuyin” and “sigen xian”; by the mid-Qing it was already current in northern Henan, south-western Shandong and southern Hebei, named for being played with a four-string sihu clamping horsehair, with a history of more than three centuries; because Hua county had many temple fairs it became an important area of erjiaxian circulation in northern Henan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Erjiaxian, also called “liangjiaxian”, is a local operatic genre of long history widely found in the four provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui, named because the four strings of its chief accompanying instrument, the sihu, separately clamp the two strands of horsehair on the bow. Its singing music belongs to the “xuansuo vocal” system combining the banqiang and qupai forms, its chief feature being the alternation of true and falsetto voice, its qupai mostly drawn from folk music and many still fairly primitive. The erjiaxian around Hua county is mostly performed by semi-professional troupes at temple fairs, festivals and the farming slack, its repertory mainly “three-small plays” on subjects of folk life, sung with alternating true and falsetto voice, led by the sihu with erhu, banhu and percussion besides.
The Traditional “Three-Small Plays”
Hua county erjiaxian is mainly “three-small plays” on subjects of folk life, performed by semi-professional troupes at temple fairs and festivals.
The Pedlar Opens the Box
One of the representative plays of erjiaxian, often staged in northern Henan and south-western Shandong.
The Silk Floss Ruse
One of the representative plays of erjiaxian.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hua county erjiaxian centres on Hua county, Henan, and is popular in the northern Henan counties of Hua, Xun and Changyuan and in south-western Shandong and southern Hebei, its troupes mostly part-farming and part-artistic and its performances attached to rural temple fairs and festivals.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Erjiaxian · Erjiaxian · Erjiaxian.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Hua county erjiaxian preserves the primitive aspect of northern Henan's cotton-spinning ditties and the “xuansuo vocal”; its alternating true-and-falsetto singing and its accompaniment of big banhu and sihu make it an important sample for studying northern Henan folk operatic music, and the locality sustains the genre through amateur troupe performance and tune recording and collation, making it a precious survival of northern Henan folk opera.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tian Aiyun 03-1124
- Li Jinghua 03-1125
- Song Ruitao 03-1126
- Fuhongwei 05-2448
- Wu Li
- Zushuxian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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