Suzhou Pingtan

01 · Historical Records

Suzhou Pinghua had already taken shape no later than the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. It entered its heyday in the mid-Qing period, when the guild organization known as the Guangyu Society was established. Famous performers of the early period included, from the Qing dynasty, Wang Zhoushi, Chen Yuqian, Mao Changpei, Yu Xiushan, Lu Ruiting, Yao Yuzhang, Ma Rufei, Zhao Xiangzhou and Wang Shiquan. A large number of female performers appeared in the late Qing and the early Republican period. From the 1930s onward, with the rise of radio broadcasting, Suzhou Tanci entered a golden age. Its repertoire became rich and its schools proliferated. Distinguished by the musical style of singing, there were more than ten of them, including the Shen (Jian'an) school, the Xue (Xiaoqing) school, the Wei (Yuqing) school, the Xia (Hesheng) school, the Zhou (Yuquan) school, the Xu (Yunzhi) school and the Jiang (Yuequan) school. Since the late twentieth century, however, audiences for Suzhou Tanci have fallen off sharply, storytelling houses have contracted, large numbers of performers have dispersed, and the survival and development of the art face a crisis, making urgent rescue and support necessary.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Suzhou Pinghua is a form of quyi storytelling performed by unaccompanied oral delivery in the Wu dialect represented by Suzhou dialect. It is popular in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, and in the Wu-speaking areas covering most of Shanghai, and is usually referred to together with Suzhou Tanci as 'Suzhou Pingtan'. In the regions where it is popular, Suzhou Pinghua is colloquially called 'da shu' (big book), Suzhou Tanci is called 'xiao shu' (small book), and the two together are called 'shuoshu' (storytelling). By the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns, famous masters such as Yao Shizhang had appeared, performing 'Water Margin'. The artistic tradition of Suzhou Pinghua is exceedingly deep. In performance the narration is governed by the voice of the third person, that is, the storyteller, into which is inserted the speech of the first person, that is, the characters in the story, imitating their words and actions. Imitating the speech and deportment of characters in the story is called 'qi juese' (raising a role); third-person narration is called 'biao', and first-person narration is called 'bai'. Biao and bai consist mainly of prose, but also include some versified passages used for chanting, among them fu zan (panegyric), gua kou, yinzi and yun bai. Performance places great emphasis on creating comic effects, hence the saying that 'the xue is the treasure of the book'. When the narration is rigorous and the wording basically fixed, it is called 'fangkou'; when the performer adapts to circumstances, flowers of speech spring from the tongue and improvisation is skilful, changing at will to suit different audiences, it is called 'huokou'; when the narration rolls out like strung pearls, ringing and powerful, it is called 'kuaikou', and the opposite is 'mankou'; when narration is the chief strength and few roles are raised, it is called 'pingshuo'. The sophistication of its art is rarely found among comparable forms of storytelling. There are some fifty or more traditional programs in Suzhou Pinghua. These include historical narratives such as 'The Western Han', 'The Eastern Han', 'The Three Kingdoms', 'Sui and Tang', 'The Golden Spear', 'The Biography of Yue Fei' and 'Heroic Martyrs', popularly called 'chang kao shu' (long-armour books) and also 'zhuojia shu' (armoured books); chivalrous works such as 'Water Margin', 'The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants', 'The Five Lesser Gallants', 'The Green Peony' and 'The Biography of the Golden Terrace', popularly called 'duanda shu' (short-fight books); and also supernatural tales and case-of-justice books such as 'Investiture of the Gods', 'The Biography of Ji Gong', 'The Case of Judge Peng' and 'The Case of Judge Shi'. The program forms of Suzhou Pinghua belong mainly to long-form stories, told chapter by chapter in daily instalments. Usually one session is performed a day, and each session lasts about an hour and a half. As a rule a single work can be told over for more than a month, and the longest can run to a year and a half or more. Its artistic expression relies mainly on a single line of sequential narration, using the method of 'speaking of the future first and raising the past again' to achieve links between what comes before and what follows, while constantly setting up 'guanzi' (pauses) to create suspense and hold the audience. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a new body of titles was written and staged for Suzhou Pinghua, important ones including 'Jiangnan Red', 'Railway Guerrillas', 'Tracks in the Snowy Forest', 'Tough Steel' and 'The Armed Detachment Behind the Enemy Lines'; medium-length and short pieces also appeared. Because it belongs to the same storytelling trade as Suzhou Pinghua and once shared the same guild organization, folk custom has grown up of calling the two together 'Suzhou Pingtan'. The performance of Suzhou Tanci is normally centred on speech, with singing interspersed. While singing it is usually accompanied by the sanxian or the pipa; during narration there are also cases where the xingmu (awakening block) is used as a prop to beat time and gather the spirit. The melodic material used in singing is the banqiang (metrical pattern) system of storytelling tunes, that is, the so-called 'shu diao' (book tune). Early performances were mostly 'dan dang', in which a single male performer plucked the sanxian and sang solo; later there appeared 'shuang dang', performed by two partners, and 'san ge dang', performed by three partners. The artistic tradition of Suzhou Tanci is exceedingly deep and its technique highly developed. It lays stress on 'shuo, xue, tan, chang', that is, narration, comic effect, string playing and singing. 'Shuo' means narration; 'xue' means 'fang xue', provoking laughter; 'tan' means using the sanxian or the pipa for accompaniment, either self-accompanied while singing or mutually accompanying and supporting one another; 'chang' means singing. Within these, the means of 'shuo' are extremely rich: there is narration, there is impersonation, and there is explanation and commentary. Through long practice in narration and singing, performers have formed devices and techniques of delivery with differing functions, such as guan bai, si bai, gu bai, biao bai, chen bai and tuo bai. These can express the mental activity of characters, their inner monologues and their mutual dialogue, and can also narrate, explain and appraise in the voice of the storyteller. Performers also borrow the speech-acting techniques of Kunqu opera and Beijing opera, using changes of voice timbre together with bodily movement and facial expression to 'manifest the speaker in the narration', to convey feeling and to shape characters. In its aesthetic pursuit Suzhou Tanci values 'li, wei, qu, xi, ji'. 'Li' means coherence. 'Wei' means the pleasure of prolonged reflection. 'Qu' means the joy of bringing smiles. 'Xi' means elegance. 'Ji' means craftsmanship. The repertoire of Suzhou Tanci consists mainly of long works, with several dozen traditional representative titles such as 'Three Smiles', 'The Japanese Robe', 'The Gilded Phoenix', 'The White Snake', 'The Jade Dragonfly' and 'The Pearl Tower'. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the art of Suzhou Tanci, following the performers' conscious efforts to reform the old and create the new, achieved a major leap forward. New programs emerged continuously. Long works include 'The White-Haired Girl', 'Heroes and Heroines of the New Era', 'The Rebel King Li', 'Song of Youth', 'Bitter Vegetable Flowers', 'Red Rock', 'Fighting the Ancient City in Wildfire and Spring Wind', 'The Red Seed', 'Jiangnan Red', 'Seizing the Seal' and 'Li Shuangshuang'; medium-length works and 'xuan hui' (selected episodes) able to be performed independently include 'The Old Guardian', 'Seizing the Child in the Hall', 'Praying for Rain at the Xuandu Temple', 'Reasoning the Case in the Flower Hall', 'Striking the Grain Boat in Anger', 'Recognizing the Mother in the Nunnery', 'We Must Definitely Repair the Huai River', 'Heroes at Sea', 'The Green Reeds', 'The New Pipa Ballad', 'The Bloody Grievance of the White-Robed' and 'The Big-Footed Empress'.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Because performers differ in their use of language and in such matters as 'qi juese', different styles and schools have formed. Suzhou Tanci is a form of 'xiao shu' storytelling in the quyi tradition, performed in the Suzhou dialect in an alternation of speech and song. It originated in and remains popular in the Wu-speaking areas of southeastern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang and Shanghai, centred on Suzhou, and took shape roughly in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Because many musical schools grew up in the course of transmission, the 'shu diao' is also called the 'basic tune'.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Suzhou Pingtan · Suzhou Pingtan · Suzhou Pingtan.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In recent years audiences for Suzhou Pinghua have fallen off sharply, storytelling houses have contracted, large numbers of performers have dispersed, the survival and development of the art face a crisis, and urgent support and protection are needed. Xing Yanzhi (as recorded in the official file of associated inheritors): Female, Han nationality, born in 1948, native of Suzhou, Jiangsu. After many years of practice and dedicated study, Xing Yanzhi incorporated the 'Qi tune' and the art of the Yang school into the foundation of the 'Yu tune' and created the 'Yanzhi tune'. She formulated the artistic theory that 'the pitch follows the turning of the emotion and the characters follow the turning of the melodic mode', applied scientific methods of vocal production and widened her range, becoming the representative leading melody of the innovative school among female voices in the Suzhou Pingtan world today. Her performance is rich in feeling, her narration is clear and articulate, and her voice is clear, sweet and rounded, full of individuality, artistic expressiveness and power to move the audience. She has many times gone abroad for study and visits and taken part in international artistic exchange. Representative works include the long-form tanci 'Yang Naiwu and the Little Cabbage', 'The Horse-Trading Tale' and 'Three Mothers'. Representative inheritor of the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou Tanci), first-grade performer, recipient of the Wenhua Performance Award and the Quyi Peony Award, enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council. Xing Yanzhi is now a professional teacher at the Suzhou Pingtan School. During more than twenty years of teaching Pingtan she has carefully trained successors, set up key classes for transmission, boldly explored original teaching approaches and concepts, and devoted herself to cultivating research-oriented talent. She has twelve disciples, distributed across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places. Jin Lisheng (as recorded in the official file of associated inheritors): Male, Hui nationality, born in 1944, native of Xiantao, Hubei. In 1962 Jin Lisheng became a disciple of Li Zhongkang, the famed tanci artist and second son of Li Wenbin, founder of the 'Runyu Society', one of the three great trade organizations of the tanci world. The celebrated classic long-form tanci 'Yang Naiwu and the Little Cabbage', in one hundred chapters, was created by Li Wenbin in the early twentieth century. Li Zhongkang is generally acknowledged by the Pingtan world as the person most able to inherit his father's repertory and technique in full. Owing to the impact of the market economy, the Pingtan cause once fell into a trough, storytelling houses dwindled and students went over to other occupations. Jin Lisheng has carried on the transmission of the art by serving as a guest professor at the Suzhou Pingtan School, teaching, holding individual performance showcases and publishing personal singing albums. His narration is lucid and clean, his articulation strong, his voice high, resonant and bright. In traditional works he applies techniques drawn from operatic performance, while in modern works he draws on the performance characteristics of spoken drama. Representative works include the long-form tanci 'Yang Naiwu and the Little Cabbage' and 'Moon over the Qin Palace'. Representative inheritor of the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou Tanci), deputy head of the Suzhou Pingtan Troupe, first-grade performer, enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council. Jin Lisheng currently has three disciples, and the task is urgent.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Xing Yanzhi 02-0707
• Jin Lisheng 02-0708
• Wang Yuexiang 03-1151
• Xing Yanchun 03-1152
• Zhang Guoliang 03-1153
• Jin Shengbo 03-1154
• Yang Naizhen 03-1155
• Chen Xian 03-1156
• Yu Hongxian 03-1157
• Jiang Wenlan 04-1700
• Zhao Kaisheng 04-1701
• Gao Jun
• Wang Zhenghua

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Suzhou Pingtan (Suzhou, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Xing Yanzhi · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Jin Lisheng · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗