Xianxiao
01 · Historical Records
Liangzhou xianxiao took shape in the area around Wuwei, and its origins are bound up with the tradition on the Hexi Corridor of blind people chanting and singing exhortation books to urge people towards good: in former times blind people here made their living by storytelling, gathering at temple fairs, markets and tea stalls in town and country, and stringing together the baojuan, popular tunes and Buddhist and Daoist exhortation stories current in the Liangzhou area into long-form sung-and-narrated pieces. These passed by oral teaching from master to apprentice, generation after generation, and down to the present ancient tune patterns such as the Liangzhou zadiao survive among them. Because the repertoire sets out the purpose of extolling the worthy and fulfilling filial piety and of concealing evil and promoting good, listeners called the art xianxiao, or exhortation storytelling; and because the performers were constantly on the move through Liangzhou's towns and villages, this genre has come down to us under the name Liangzhou xianxiao.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Liangzhou xianxiao, also called “Liangzhou exhortation storytelling”, is an ancient and long-standing form of folk quyi storytelling that circulates in the urban and rural districts of Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, and in parts of the neighbouring Gulang, Minqin and Yongchang County of Jinchang City. According to the relevant historical sources, its history can be traced back at least to the late Yuan and early Ming. Historically the performers of Liangzhou xianxiao were mostly blind people, who passed the art on from master to apprentice by oral teaching. Its content consists mainly of stories about heroic worthies, chaste wives and virtuous maidens, filial sons and worthy grandsons, emperors and ministers, and talented scholars and beautiful ladies, embodying within it the aims of concealing evil and promoting good, admonishing the age, teaching the karmic law of cause and effect, and exemplifying the worthy through filial piety; hence the name “xianxiao”. The performance form of Liangzhou xianxiao is for one person to sing and narrate while accompanying himself, that is, the spoken narration, the chanting and the accompaniment are all normally done by the same person. In performance the artists exchange words with the audience while improvising on the spot, and their wit often comes out in a string of brilliant remarks. The music and vocal styles of Liangzhou xianxiao are very rich, and it preserves many ancient tune patterns: it has the “Liangzhou zadiao”, and it has also absorbed the tunes of local folk songs, fusing and adapting them into a style of its own. When xianxiao artists come to a household to tell stories, the host need only set out a stool and a cup of tea; the artist, cradling a sanxian, sits in the main room or under the eaves and begins to sing, with the listeners seated around. At the critical moments of the story a listener may interject, and the artist answers as asked, adding or trimming lines on the spot. Long story cycles are performed section after section, one section a night; on funerals, thanksgiving vows, birthday celebrations and temple fairs they go on for several nights running. Short passages serve to open the performance or to fill a request from the host, and usually begin with a maxim exhorting to goodness or with something from the affairs immediately to hand.
The Liangzhou miscellany tunes
A group of archaic tune titles preserved in the genre's singing, fused with local folk-song melodies.
The Blind Singer Regains His Sight
A signature piece of the blind inheritor Feng Lanfang, noted for her deft sanxian playing.
Master-to-apprentice transmission
Historically sung by blind performers, the art passed orally from master to apprentice on the road and at fairs.
Tales of heroes and virtuous women
The core subject matter: heroes, chaste wives, filial sons, emperors and ministers, all carrying a moral of reward and retribution.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The language of the sung text is chiefly the Liangzhou dialect, plain and easy to understand, and rich in humorous wit.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xianxiao · Xianxiao.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As society has developed, for some time now the audience base of Liangzhou xianxiao has been steadily slipping away, the performances no longer have fixed venues, and the ranks of artists are failing to be renewed, so that the survival of this ancient quyi form is being tested and its development is fraught with difficulty; it urgently needs support and protection. Feng Lanfang (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han nationality, born in 1965, native of Wuwei, Gansu. A blind artist. She is skilled at playing the sanxian, is thoroughly versed in the traditional xianxiao repertoire, and has a plain, unadorned singing style. Representative works include “Liangzhou Xianxiao” and “The Blind Artist Regains Her Sight”. Representative inheritor of Xianxiao (Liangzhou Xianxiao), the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Feng Lanfang 02-0730
- Shen Yongning 04-1705
- Wang Weixue 05-2486
- Li Hongsheng 05-2487
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。