Duangong Opera
01 · Historical Records
It adjoins Nanjiang county of Bazhong to the east, Chaotian district and Zhaohua district of Guangyuan to the west, Cangxi county to the south and Nan Zheng and Ningqiang counties of Shaanxi to the north. Wangcang duangong opera comes from court sacrificial song and dance and, after spreading among the people, evolved into a local nuo opera, flourishing in the middle and late Qing in Wangcang and the adjoining Qinba mountains. According to the Guangyuan County Gazette and surviving Qing manuscripts, it can be traced to the Kangxi reign of the Qing; at present Wangcang has twelve duangong opera altars, among which the lineage of the Sanjiang He family troupe can be traced to the seventh year of Kangxi (1668).
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Wangcang duangong opera is a traditional sacrificial drama presided over by the duangong, circulating in Wangcang county, Guangyuan city, Sichuan, and its surroundings, popularly called “nuo opera” or “qingtan”. Wangcang county lies on the southern slope of the western Micang mountains at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi and now belongs to Guangyuan city, Sichuan. Usually the host invites the altar and one or several men can set up the altar to perform, with no special requirement for the site; the viewers are mostly the host, neighbours and invited guests. Wangcang duangong opera has forty surviving masked main-altar plays and sixty playful-altar plays, mainly exhorting filial piety and goodness, teaching through entertainment. Its performance has many hand-drawn talismans and splendid feats, mainly using local mountain songs and ditties with drum, gong and cymbal accompaniment. It is good at entertaining the public in a witty and humorous performance that blends solemnity with jest, fusing blessing rite, feat performance and dramatic performance to bring about blessing and disaster-averting and vow-redemption and god-thanking, being both sacred and entertaining with a strong ritual sense and satisfying the people's spiritual needs.
The Main-Altar Plays (Forty)
Wangcang duangong opera has forty surviving masked main-altar plays, mainly exhorting filial piety and goodness and teaching through entertainment.
The Playful-Altar Plays (Sixty)
Wangcang duangong opera has sixty surviving playful-altar plays, its performance having many hand-drawn talismans and splendid feats.
Qingtan (Celebrating the Altar)
Wangcang duangong opera is popularly called “nuo opera” or “qingtan” locally, fusing blessing rite, feat performance and dramatic performance.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
For nearly two hundred years Wangcang duangong opera has been a fairly important spiritual mainstay and popular entertainment for the local people and still plays such roles as blessing and entertainment at weddings and funerals, house-building, births, school admissions and business openings; it preserves the locality's distinctive cultural elements and performs social functions of enriching life, reposing feeling and moral education, with some social and cultural value.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Duangong Opera.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Duangong opera once stressed the transmission of feats through hereditary family lines and now stresses that of performing technique mainly by master-disciple transmission. In 2015 the locality established one of the larger duangong opera training institutes in Sichuan, using various means to advance investigation, research, transmission and dissemination. Fusing blessing and disaster-averting with entertaining the public, Wangcang duangong opera provides field evidence for studying the origins of Chinese opera, social structure, folk religion and folk belief, with fairly high historical value.
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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