Wudangshen Opera
01 · Historical Records
According to Wang Derong, one of the twentieth-generation transmitters, Wudang spirit opera has been passed down orally by the Wang family ancestors from the late Ming to the present. In the 1950s, of the more than four hundred people in Wangjiaying village more than a hundred could sing opera, and they toured the surrounding areas of Xiangyang and Yunyang, winning many honours.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Wudang spirit opera's feature is its close combination with the Daoist god-worship rites of Wudang mountain. Before the Daoist rite a god-honouring play must be sung to show sincerity, and this gradually developed so that pilgrim gatherings, vow-making and even secret-society activities all required the singing of “god-sacrifice plays”. It mainly performs great-scroll plays and serial plays, mostly on historical stories, noted for singing. Before the founding of New China the Wangjiaying Wudang spirit opera troupe had the jingle “Wan Rang can sing, Liu Si can frolic, Ma Changchun can swell”, where singing meant skill in huadan, frolicking skill in movement and swelling skill in amorous plays, so that “singing, frolicking and swelling” became the byword for Wangjiaying Wudang spirit opera. The historical plays and folk short plays staged by the Qingtang Wudang spirit opera troupe fuse east, west, south, north and centre and blend myth with reality, making it a fairly distinctive sacrificial operatic activity within Wudang mountain's Daoist activities. At present more than thirty traditional plays have been excavated and collated for the Qingtang village Wudang spirit opera in Xijiadian town, Danjiangkou city, Hubei, with nine arias and twenty-four tunes.
Great-Scroll Plays and Serial Plays
Wudang spirit opera mainly performs great-scroll plays and serial plays, mostly on historical stories and noted for singing.
Nine Arias and Twenty-Four Tunes
More than thirty traditional plays have been excavated and collated for the Qingtang village Wudang spirit opera, with nine arias and twenty-four tunes.
Singing, Frolicking and Swelling
The jingle of the Wangjiaying Wudang spirit opera troupe, referring respectively to skill in huadan singing, in movement and in amorous plays.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Wudang spirit opera centres on Qingtang village, Xijiadian town, Danjiangkou city, Hubei, and circulates in the Wudang mountain area of Danjiangkou, Yunyang and Xiangyang; because it is transmitted generation by generation by the Wang family and closely combined with Wudang mountain's Daoist god-worship rites, it is a family-transmitted opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wudang spirit opera is a folk operatic genre fairly completely preserved at Qingtang village, Xijiadian town, Danjiangkou city, Hubei; it is a distinctive genre evolved by the Wang family of Qingtang village on the basis of drawing on Wudang culture and local folk opera and ditties, and belongs to family-transmitted opera. Its nine arias and twenty-four tunes and its “singing, frolicking and swelling” division of performance are a precious record of family nuo opera transmission.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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