Xilubangzi
01 · Historical Records
Western-road bangzi is the embryo of today's Hebei bangzi and formed in the Daoguang reign of the Qing; in the later Daoguang period it was named “western-road bangzi”, ranked with the eastern-road bangzi likewise evolved from Shaanxi-Shanxi bangzi.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Western-road bangzi has complete sheng, dan, jing and chou roles and a rich content of singing, recitation, acting and combat, with rather more doing; its singing is ringing and vehement, its performance rough and bold, its recitation mostly in the dialect of the Haixing area, and its martial plays especially welcome, demanding extremely high martial grounding and masterly skill of the actors, as in such difficult movements as “walking as a dwarf”, “whirling the axle staff”, “suspending the queue”, “shaking the hat wings” and “the immortal takes off his clothes”. In performance the wusheng, wuchou and daomadan roles carry the greatest weight. Its chief-string accompaniment differs clearly in fingering from that of today's Hebei bangzi, and its lyrics are flexible in linguistic structure with lines not bound to one form and a fairly strong colloquial element. Its martial plays demand extremely high martial grounding of the actors.
Zhang San Fights with Fists
One of the traditional plays created by the famous wusheng Zhang San, widely circulated in Hebei and the Beijing-Tianjin area.
Zhang San Runs the Horse
One of the traditional plays created by the famous wusheng Zhang San, widely circulated in Hebei and the Beijing-Tianjin area.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its predecessor was Shaanxi-Shanxi bangzi, brought by merchants into what is now the Haixing area of Hebei, where the locals combined it with the local haha qiang, luoluo qiang, Liuzi opera, yugu opera, yangge opera and local folk songs and drum lyrics and with such folk skills as martial arts, acrobatics and dance to form western-road bangzi, which spread rapidly to Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai and to large parts of Hebei and Shandong and was extremely popular with audiences; for instance the traditional plays Zhang San Fights with Fists and Zhang San Runs the Horse created by the famous wusheng Zhang San circulated widely in Hebei and the Beijing-Tianjin area.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Excavating, collating, studying and transmitting western-road bangzi is of extremely important value for studying the development history of folk opera and folk music in Haixing and the Hebei-Shandong border area, and especially for studying the origins of Hebei bangzi, an important genre of our country.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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