Yang Opera
01 · Historical Records
Guizhou Yang opera is a traditional dramatic form that evolved on the basis of folk sacrificial rites. Its folk base is deep and it is distributed in all parts of Guizhou Province, with Zheng'an County, Suiyang County, Fuquan County, Luodian County and Qianxi County as its core areas of circulation. The earliest documentary record of this project is found in the Zunyi Prefecture Gazetteer compiled in the twenty-first year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty (1841 CE), which records: 'Songs and dances worshiping the Three Saints are called Yang opera.'
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Guizhou Yang opera consists of two parts, the inner altar and the outer altar. The inner altar centres on sacrifice to and the rewarding of deities, having the nature of the fulfilment of a vow, while the outer altar is mainly theatrical performance, centred on entertaining the audience and inviting good fortune. Repertoire works fall broadly into three categories. The first, full-text plays (zhengben xi), are the ritual procedures and formalities by which the master of the altar invites the deities and sees them off, with no story plot at all; the second, ritual-interlaced plays, stand between ritual procedure and drama, with simple plots and spoken lines; the third are plays with a higher degree of theatricality, rich in content and divided into large plays and small plays, the large plays being performed over several days while the small plays last only a few dozen minutes. The repertoire includes more than a hundred plays such as Chu-Han Contention, Farewell My Concubine and Locking the Sinful Dragon. Guizhou Yang opera has a high degree of theatricality. Its sheng roles are divided into laosheng, xiaosheng, wusheng and naisheng (child player); its dan roles include zhengdan, xiaodan and caidan; there are also chou roles that aim to amuse and provoke laughter, and jing roles that lay stress on bodily technique and stance. Performance uses two kinds of make-up, wearing masks and painting the face. There is no string or wind accompaniment at all, only gongs and drums to build up the atmosphere. The vocal style is high-pitched and rugged, divided into gaoqiang and pingqiang, and the linking together of melodic phrases is its principal structural characteristic. The opening of the altar and the sacrifice to the Three Saints are the most important part of Yang opera, while the humorous and vivid dramatic performance of the outer altar is the reason why Yang opera has long been loved by the local people. The prosperity of Yang opera in Guizhou rests on two factors: the indigenous sacrificial customs, and the influence of drama coming from outside. The History of Song, in its 'Account of the Barbarians', says: 'The southwestern barbarians, in the land of Zhangguo that belonged to the Han... when illness strikes they have neither medicine nor physician, and merely strike bronze drums and sand gongs to sacrifice to the gods.' Under the influence of the policies of transferring troops from the north to campaign in the south and of abolishing native chieftaincies in favour of the regular administrative system, and of migrant culture, and absorbing performing elements from nuo opera, Chuan opera and flower-lantern opera, Guizhou Yang opera gradually formed its own mode of expression. ...the record runs: 'for every calamity or illness, whoever has the strength to pray writes his vow, affixes the prayer to the god and promises to reward it with a performance of Yang opera.' In the same period the Dushan man Mo Youzhi (1811—1871) of southern Guizhou has the lines 'the shaman who goes first finds the illness unpropitious, the shaman who follows dances the rollicking dance in Yang opera' in his poem Zhuang Luo Xing (The Gong-Beating Procession). The Zhi (Records) of Chinese Theatre, Guizhou Volume, states that 'by the xinchou year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty at the latest, Yang opera was already in vogue in Guizhou'.
Chu-Han Contention
The repertoire includes more than a hundred plays such as Chu-Han Contention, Farewell My Concubine and Locking the Sinful Dragon.
Farewell My Concubine
The repertoire includes more than a hundred plays such as Chu-Han Contention, Farewell My Concubine and Locking the Sinful Dragon.
Locking the Sinful Dragon
The repertoire includes more than a hundred plays such as Chu-Han Contention, Farewell My Concubine and Locking the Sinful Dragon.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Choral support is inserted in the form of bangqiang, and large quantities of local folk-song elements are absorbed, which gives rise to the saying 'nine ban and thirteen qiang'. Guizhou Yang opera has a long history and even today still preserves with considerable completeness its archaic performance manners and ritual procedures. It preserves well the local social structure, life philosophy and cultural state, carries the knowledge and experience accumulated generation after generation by the local people, and entrusts to them their hopes for life and their intellectual aspirations. It has historical, cultural and artistic value that cannot be ignored.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhangjiajie Yang Opera · Yang Opera · Yang Opera · Yang Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Guizhou Yang opera has been handed down to the present through oral transmission and demonstration. As work on the protection of intangible cultural heritage has advanced, Guizhou Yang opera has gained a fairly broad reach; some plays and melodies have been reawakened, and in the core areas the state of continuity is currently good.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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