Xihe Dagu Drum Balladry
01 · Historical Records
Xihe dagu is also known as 'da gu shu', 'Xihe diao', 'meihua diao', 'xianzi gu' and 'Hejian dagu'. It grew out of wooden-board dagu and xianzi shu and circulates mainly in Hebei Province and the regions around it. In the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, Liu Chuanjing, Zhao Chuanbi and Wang Lu of Baoding first created the paired performance of wooden-board dagu with xianzi shu.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It was passed on to the wooden-board dagu performer Ma Sanfeng, and gradually took shape as Xihe dagu. Zhu Hualin, the first disciple taught by Ma Sanfeng, created the Zhu school of art and made an important contribution to the development of Xihe dagu. In performance a single performer strikes the bronze plates and the story drum himself while narrating and singing, accompanied by a separate musician playing the sanxian. Its vocal style is plain and vigorous, half speaking and half singing, with a distinctive flavour. The traditional repertoire covers long, medium and short works: more than 150 medium and long works are known, and there are over 370 shumao opening pieces and short passages. The content is mainly stories of historical warfare and popular folk romances, with intricate plots and vivid language; it is an outstanding folk art widely circulated in the north.
Wooden-board drum with string books
In the Qianlong reign three Baoding singers first paired the wooden-board drum with string-book singing, the direct forerunner of the Xihe dagu.
The Zhu school
The school founded by Zhu Huaxin, first disciple of Ma Sanfeng, which shaped the genre's tunes and repertoire.
Long tales in Langfang
Titles commonly performed around Langfang, representative of the long and medium-length repertoire.
Preludes and the three lengths
The traditional repertoire spans long, medium and short pieces, with over 150 longer works and more than 370 short pieces and preludes.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Within Langfang the transmission of Xihe dagu is centred on the Wen'an, Bazhou and Yongqing area. Wen'an County lies in the lower reaches of the Daqing River and was precisely the place through which performers had to pass on their water route to Tianjin along the 'Xihe'; in former times the storytelling sheds at the wharves, temple fairs and markets were its main performance venues. In the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, Liu Chuanjing, Zhao Chuanbi and Wang Lu of Baoding first created the paired performance of wooden-board dagu with xianzi shu; it passed to the wooden-board dagu performer Ma Sanfeng and gradually took shape as Xihe dagu. Zhu Hualin, the first disciple taught by Ma Sanfeng, created the Zhu school of art, which became an important source of lineage for the Langfang branch. Local performers tell both long works and short passages: the long works are mostly stories of warfare such as Xiangma Zhuan (The Tale of the Mounted Robbers) and Hujia Jiang (The Generals of the Hu Family), while the shumao short passages are used to open the show, test the voice and hold the attention of the audience. The Cultural Centre of Wen'an County, Hebei Province is the protecting unit for this item, responsible for collecting old gramophone records and song books and for organising training for young performers. At present few performers in Wen'an and its surroundings can still deliver a long narrative work in full.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xihe Dagu Drum Balladry · Xihe Dagu Drum Balladry.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
From the day of its birth Xihe dagu was loved by the masses of the areas where it circulated. It has produced in turn famous performers such as Ma Ruihe, Zhu Hualin ('Zhu the Great Official'), Mao Ben ('Wang Zhenyuan'), Wang Zaitang ('Zhanyan Wang') and Zhang Shuanglai, together with classic repertoire works such as Xiangma Zhuan (The Tale of the Mounted Robbers) and Hujia Jiang (The Generals of the Hu Family), and it has a high historical and cultural value. At present the transmission and development of Xihe dagu faces an unprecedented crisis: creation and performance have declined and the line of inheritors has been broken, so it urgently needs rescue and protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Zhenying 02-0714
- Zhang Lingdi 02-0715
- Hao Xiujie 05-2477
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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