Ninghe Opera

01 · Historical Records

Ninghe opera is a traditional operatic genre of Jiangxi Province, formed in the north-west of Xiushui County, Jiujiang City, and current in the villages and towns of Quanfeng, Shangyuan, Gangkou, Xiaoxi, Zhajin and other places. In the early Ming dynasty Yiyang tune, which originated in north-east Jiangxi, was introduced into Ningzhou and was then called "yang xi"; it gave rise to great companies of actors, then called "xianghuo ban" (incense-and-fire companies) or "nuo'an ban" (nuo case companies), which sang the Yiyang and nuo gaoqiang tunes, with one person starting the tune and all the rest joining in, gongs and drums marking the rhythm and the suona accompanying, popularly called "dalu qiangxiang" (gong-striking tune). In the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty Kunqu spread throughout the country. From the founding of the first company, the Xiaoxi Sanyuan Company, in the first year of the Longqing reign of the Ming dynasty (1567) down to the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, Ninghe opera of Xiushui gradually flourished, bringing the prosperous scene of the Eighteen Companies of Ningzhou and the Thirteen nuo cases. In 1991 the Cultural Bureau of Xiushui County set up the Ninghe opera repertoire studio, collecting more than 220 manuscript copies of traditional plays, several dozen danqiang (lute-cavity) melodies, more than 120 named interlude pieces and more than 100 face designs. The project is transmitted above all through masters teaching apprentices; Xiushui still preserves five companies dating from the Ming dynasty, which perform on and on without declining.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Xiushui County lies at the sources of the three rivers Xiujiang, Gujiang and Juanshui below Mount Mufu in the north-west of Jiangxi, and it has a long history and a deep cultural foundation. Since the Tang and Song dynasties the various places of Ningzhou (that is, Xiushui County) have built ancestral temples on a grand scale, vied with one another in founding god-associations, danced the nuo to answer prayers and compete in offerings, and staged plays to welcome and to send off the gods. At the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty the chui (blowing tune) and Kun opera of Anhui moved westward and the Yihuang huqin tune of central Jiangxi moved northward; in the late Qing dynasty Han opera and Chu opera came here as well. The antang (hall) companies of Xiushui took an inclusive attitude and, under the influence of the above genres, fused many operatic elements into one, forming Ninghe opera, which is centred on pihuang and also incorporates the gaoqiang, chui, Kun and luantan styles. The repertoire of Ninghe opera falls into five main parts — Yiyang tune, chui tune, Xipi, Erhuang, Kunqu, together with miscellaneous cavity ditties — large and small items totalling 568, of which 420 copies survive today. Its vocal music comprises dozens of styles such as Erhuang, Xipi, Shipai chui tune, Kunqu and miscellaneous cavity ditties, with 136 wind-and-percussion qupai (tune patterns) and sixteen sets of luogu jing (gong-and-drum formulas). The role types of Ninghe opera are one mo, two jing, three sheng, four dan, five chou, six wai, seven xiao, eight tie, nine fu and ten za, commonly called the "ten tops of the fishing net"; there are in addition three supplementary colours for filling gaps, the patched painted-face, the patched sheng and the patched dan. Ninghe opera created its own distinctive form of tanqiang in which the bow is drawn the normal way but the words are sung in reverse; its performance techniques include instantaneous face-changing, rolling on the nail board, treading on the fire bricks, flying with a real knife, passing through a ring of fire, passing through a ring of knives, the tiger-claw stance and eating fire. In modern times, as the birthplace of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the performers of Xiushui Ninghe opera threw themselves into the speech-and-song troupes of the Soviet areas and created and performed such revolutionary plays as Sandā Caojia (Three Assaults on the Cao Family) and Huozhu Zhang Huizan (The Live Capture of Zhang Huizan).

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Ninghe opera was formed in the north-west of Xiushui County, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, and is current in the villages and towns of Quanfeng, Shangyuan, Gangkou, Xiaoxi, Zhajin and other places. Xiushui County lies at the sources of the three rivers Xiujiang, Gujiang and Juanshui below Mount Mufu in the north-west of Jiangxi; since the Tang and Song dynasties the various places there have built ancestral temples on a grand scale, vied in founding god-associations, and danced the nuo to answer prayers and compete in offerings. It began with the "antang companies" of the clan ancestral halls — one temple one company, one clan one company, where the temple is there the company is there, where the clan flourishes the company flourishes — and it carries the typical value of the folk-custom culture of north-west Jiangxi; at present Xiushui has set up five transmission institutes to advance its transmission.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The protection of Ninghe opera has received much attention; at present Xiushui has set up five transmission institutes and actively advances the transmission and dissemination of the project by carrying out activities such as sending opera into the villages and into the schools. Ninghe opera inherits the nuo culture of the Tang and Song dynasties, connects with both the refined and the popular of the Kun and Yiyang tunes, and draws widely on the luantan opera of the three provinces of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, so it is of important reference value for the study of the evolution of Chinese opera; its large and small plays preserved to this day have the dual literary value of plays for the desk and plays for the stage; the antang companies, begun in the clan ancestral halls, carried on the village nuo celebration activities of honouring the gods and staging plays, one temple one company, one clan one company, where the temple is there the company is there, where the clan flourishes the company flourishes, and they carry the typical value of the folk-custom culture of north-west Jiangxi.

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Ninghe Opera (Jiujiangshixiushui, Jiangxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗