Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry

01 · Historical Records

At the beginning of the twentieth century Dongbei Dagu had already differentiated, in the course of transmission, into a number of artistic schools, among them the Fengdiao, the Dongcheng diao, the Jiangbei school, the Nancheng diao and the Xicheng diao; the vocal style and the traditional repertoire of each school are distinctive in their own way.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Dongbei Dagu is a local quyi art combining drum narrative singing (gushu) with drum tunes, and it circulates chiefly in the three northeastern provinces of China; in the course of history it has also been known as Fengtian Dagu, Liaoning Dagu and other names. It began as a form in which a single performer both spoke and sang and accompanied himself on a small sanxian; it later developed into a form in which one performer beats the story drum and wooden clappers himself and sings in the northeastern dialect, with a musician accompanying on the sanxian. Fuzhou Dongbei Dagu already has a history of three hundred years in the Wafangdian area, and its famous performers include Guan Yong'an, Zhao Wenyi, Nie Tiansheng, Lin Zhengxin, Song Yuxi, Chen Shixin and others. Xiuyan Dongbei Dagu has a history of nearly one hundred and fifty years to the present, and its book titles are chiefly long ones. It is sung in ban-styles such as sidakou (the four-section opening), chengqing ban (the clarifying ban) and liushui ban (the flowing ban), which enriched the vocal repertoire of dagu and strengthened the artistic means of depicting characters. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xiuyan Dongbei Dagu formed three major schools centred on Ma Delian, Cui Guanglie and Tang Guozhi, vying with one another in artistry, each holding its own stage. Xicheng-school Dongbei Dagu is centred on Jinzhou, and its performance falls mainly into two styles, represented by Song Xiuren and Chen Zhongshan respectively. The Song master and disciple are elegant and moving, singing one line and sighing three times, and they excel in the parting grief of men and wronged women; the 'New Xicheng' school of Chen Zhongshan and his daughter, by contrast, is handsome, beautiful, delicate and ingenious, playful and humorous, flexible in the balance of singing and speaking, with punchlines that ring out crisply, and it suits books of several layers of feeling. Besides dizi books, Three Kingdoms sections and a number of traditional long and middle-length book titles, Xicheng-school Dongbei Dagu also has exclusive titles such as Huilong Zhuan (The Return of the Dragon), Huibei Ji (Tale of the Returning Cup) and Daming Wuyi (Five Loyal Men of the Great Ming) of the Song school, and Xue Dingshan and Fan Lihua, The Cao Family Generals and Romance of the Sui and Tang of the Chen school. Its book titles and pieces are both plentiful, with works of long, middle and short length which by subject matter fall into such categories as long robe, short fight, legal case and strange tale. This dagu likewise has many tune patterns, with more than twenty of them in common use. Wuchang Dongbei Dagu belongs to the 'Jiangnan school' of the northern dagu schools; it incorporates many elements of local Manchu music and also absorbs a large quantity of ancient tunes sung in Manchu shamanic rites, its vocal style graceful and melodious, rising and falling, its diction clear and its expression moving and true, and it is highly lyrical; Yizhenfei, Daiyu Lamenting in Autumn and Lulei Yuan are among its representative works.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Fuzhou Dongbei Dagu is centred on Wafangdian, follows the line of the long narrative book, and is handed down from master to disciple.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry · Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Dongcheng school of Dongbei Dagu at Yushu has been handed down through five generations over a span of more than two hundred years. The various schools of Dongbei Dagu hold an important place in the cultural life of the people wherever it circulates; the titles and the music of dagu have exerted a considerable influence on other local arts, and the art is of high reference value for the study of northeastern folk customs and history and culture. At present fewer and fewer performers sing Dongbei Dagu in each locality, the old artists are passing away one after another, most performers have moved into other occupations, and the survival of Dongbei Dagu as a whole is close to the endangered state, so that protection and transmission are urgently needed. Chen Shifang (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, of Manchu nationality, born in July 1962, native of Fu County, Liaoning Province. At the age of twelve she began to learn Dongbei Dagu from her elder sister Chen Shixin; after four years of study she had basically mastered the various ban-styles such as da'an ban, liushui ban and erliu ban, and later, with instruction from Lin Zhengxin, a Fuzhou Dongbei Dagu artist, her skills advanced further and she came thoroughly to grasp the essence of Fuzhou Dongbei Dagu; her singing is accurate in diction, round and graceful in tone, and full of voice and feeling, and she is skilful in using kouzi (linking phrases) and baofu (punchlines), especially in the singing style of sidakou (the four-section opening) and sixiaokou (the four-part short section), which is highly praised among her peers. Her representative works include the long book titles Yang Jia Jiang (The Yang Family Generals), Xue Jia Jiang (The Xue Family Generals), Hu Yang He Bing (Hu and Yang Joining Forces) and Wang Hua Mai Die (Wang Hua Buys His Father), and the short pieces Ye Su Hua Ting (Night Lodging at the Flower Pavilion), Yan Qing Mai Xian (Yan Qing Sells Thread), Cao Chuan Jie Jian (The Straw Boats Borrow Arrows) and Zhao Jun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Passes the Frontier). She is a representative inheritor of Dongbei Dagu (Fuzhou Dongbei Dagu) of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Xia Xiaohua 02-0716
• Chen Lijie 04-1702
• Huo Dashun 05-2478
• Chen Shifang 05-2479
• Wang Lianke 05-2480
• Qiu Shuhua 05-2481

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Dongbei Dagu Drum Balladry (Wafangdian, Liaoning) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Chen Shifang · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗