Zajuzuochang Opera
01 · Historical Records
Zaju zuochang opera is in the same spirit as the official zaju of Southern Song Hangzhou; it formed in central Fujian between the Song and Yuan and in the Ming circulated around Zhuban village and Huainan village, being a ritual play performed by clan sons to honour ancestors and thank the gods, opening at the Spring Festival. Zuo opera was performed at sacrifices in the early Ming when the court sent a eunuch to Zhuban to supervise silver mining, to honour the protecting deity Great Wide Lord Zhang, hence it is also called “Lord Wide opera”. After the play was restored in the 1980s Zhuban village changed from once every ten years to once every five, and Huainan village to once a year.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It is named because its performers call themselves “zaju sons” and its performance “zuo chang”. Its play forms, arias and tunes and performing forms fuse the folk sacrificial rites, nuo dance, hundred entertainments and music and dance since the Tang and Song, and it is a living survival of zaju at the budding stage of nanxi. Zaju zuochang opera is an important part of the sacrifice to the community god Lord Wide and coexists with the Daoist altar liturgy, the play within the rite, both rite and play, with a very strong flavour of folk custom. Each play is an independent zhezi or fragment, and except for a few items most perform stories of people's lives. The repertory of each troupe runs from fifteen to nine pieces, each independent, all taking high-stage moral teaching and blessing and disaster-averting as their main content. Its music and arias have a long history, singing the tunes of ancient folk songs and ditties with lyrics all being Tang and Song literati verse, embodying the original aspect of ancient zaju's “Song men's lyrics with alley songs added”. Make-up and masks coexist, and the distinctive “luolian team” and the opening chorus of “luo li lian” embody the features of ancient zaju. The zuochang opera is run by a council of clan elders responsible for fund-raising, sacrifice, boundary patrol and performance; its performing body is the “sons' troupe”, performing voluntarily, the roles hereditary among clan sons and the performing technique generally transmitted orally, the council chairman and teaching master being responsible for rehearsing the plays and the zuochang. The silver mining attracted many incomers and demand for entertainment grew, so zaju arose and performed in small troupes. At the same time the earlier rule that zuochang opera and sacrifice were inseparable was gradually broken, and the sons' troupes began to take part in public-benefit showcases. Zaju zuochang opera preserves and displays the clan system, social folk custom, community sacrifice ritual and local conditions of ancient central Fujian society; some of its content advocating traditional virtues still plays a positive part in contemporary moral education and rural civilisation building.
Lord Wide Opera
Performed at sacrifices to honour the protecting deity Great Wide Lord Zhang, hence zaju zuochang opera is also called “Lord Wide opera”.
The Fifteen-Piece and Nine-Piece Zhezi Sets
The repertory of each troupe runs from fifteen to nine pieces, each independent, all taking high-stage moral teaching and blessing and disaster-averting as their main content.
Luo Li Lian
The distinctive “luolian team” and the opening chorus of “luo li lian” embody the features of ancient zaju.
The Sons' Troupe
The performing body is the voluntary “sons' troupe”, its roles hereditary among clan sons and its performing technique generally transmitted orally.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zaju zuochang opera, also called “abundant-field opera”, “Lord Wide opera” and “people's-field opera”, is distributed mainly in Datian county, Yong'an city, Youxi county and Sha county in Sanming city, Fujian, its core transmission area being Zhuban village in Wenjiang town and Huainan village in Huainan town. The Ming History records that in the early Ming there were forty-two silver smelting furnaces at Yinping mountain in Youxi (today's Wenjiang and Qianping in Datian). In the thirteenth year of Zhengtong, when Deng Maoqi of Sha county rose in revolt and central Fujian was thrown into chaos, mining stopped and zuochang opera became the institutionalised performance of the clan sons of the Liao and Yu surnames of Zhuban, transmitted to this day.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The transmission groups of zaju zuochang opera are mainly the Zhuban village zuochang opera council, the Yong'an Great Wide Lord Zhang zuochang opera zaju troupe and the Huainan Great Wide Lord Zhang council. The poetry, folk-song lyrics, dramatic lines, Daoist altar verses and legendary stories contained in the plays have a certain historical and literary value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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