Henan Zhuizi

01 · Historical Records

It is popular in the Central Plains region of Henan and other areas and in parts of the provinces and cities of North China, and took shape in about the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty. In the early years of the Republic of China, artists such as Sun Minde, Feng Zhibang, Dang Zhifa, Liu Shilu, Cheng Wanlin and Gao Zhian were already famous in the Kaifeng and Zhengzhou areas. Before long Henan zhuizi was carried into such large cities as Beijing and Tianjin, and its influence went on expanding. In the late 1930s Qiao Liyuan and his wife Qiao Qingxiu, who were well known in the Nanle, Daming and Qingfeng areas of Henan, were invited to Tianjin to perform, and famous performers such as Dong Guizhi and Cheng Yulan followed them there. By the time of the War of Resistance against Japan, Henan zhuizi had passed in turn into Shanghai, Shenyang, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing and Hong Kong, becoming one of the most widely spread quyi forms in China. Since the late twentieth century the survival and development of Henan zhuizi have met with unprecedented difficulty, the performers have sharply declined, performances are few, and it urgently needs support and protection.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Henan zhuizi is a rather distinctive quyi form, popularly called “zhuizi shu”, “jianban shu” or “xiangban shu”, named for the use of the zhuizi strings (also called the zhuizi fiddle) for accompaniment. Henan zhuizi is sung and narrated in the Henan local accent, chiefly in song with spoken narration interspersed; the vocal styles used include the flat style (pingqiang), quick zaban (kuaizaban), martial board (wuban), five-character kan (wuzikan) and piled board (duoban). The early performers were all men; the best known were Guo Chengde, who carried zhuizi shu to Taihe in Anhui, and Xue Yuxiang, Zhao Mingtang, Hu Mingshan, Xu Zhendong and Ai Baolian, who changed from daoqing chanting to performing zhuizi shu. Programmes commonly performed in Henan zhuizi include the short “duan'er shu” pieces such as “Stealing the Pomegranate”, “The Virtuous Young Sister-in-Law”, “Three Beatings and Four Admonitions” and “Wang Ma Divorces His Wife”, and the long “changpian shu” works transplanted from daoqing chanting such as “The Return of the Dragon”, “The Tale of the Galloping Horse”, “The Five Tigers Campaign in the West” and “The Swapped Prince and Kitten”. After the Xinhai Revolution, as the idea of equality between men and women took ever deeper root, female performers began to appear in Henan zhuizi; the earliest known group of female performers included Zhang Sannni and Yin Fengbao, who began their careers at the Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng. Their appearance and the formation of family troupes meant that, besides the usual form of accompanying oneself, Henan zhuizi performance also came to include a man accompanying and a woman singing, or antiphonal singing by a man and a woman. They held regular performances in Tianjin and also made gramophone records, and their influence steadily grew. Among them, the partnered performance of Qiao Qingxiu and Qiao Liyuan had a style of its own, with fluent rhythm, crisp articulation and a mellow vocal line, and was called “small-mouth”, “clever-mouth” or the “Qiao school”; Cheng Yulan's singing was distinguished by regular beat and eye, deep and restrained, and was called “old-mouth” or the “Cheng school”; Dong Guizhi's singing had a rounded, plain and bright voice and was called “big-mouth” or the “Dong school”. The appearance of female performers pushed the development of Henan zhuizi in the big cities towards short sung pieces; this enriched the vocal melodies, widened the vocal range and improved the accompanying technique, but it also lost the character and the advantages of long-form sung narration. In Henan itself the better known artists of the time included Zhao Yanxiang, who specialised in “fengqing shu” books of love and marriage, Zhang Zhikun, who specialised in “Three Kingdoms” passages, and Li Fengming, one of the “four great performers” of Shangqiu; the female artists included Liu Mingzhi, noted for the delicacy of her performance, Liu Guizhi, famed for her bewitching manner, and Liu Zongqin, famed for her bold and uninhibited delivery. All three were at the same time famous for performing the great long books, and were called at the time the “three Lius of Zhengzhou”. The accompanying instruments of Henan zhuizi include the foot clappers and the zhuihu used by full-time accompanists, and the jianban, jiaozi, low-footed storytelling drum and waking block used by the singing and narrating performers themselves. Of these, performers who changed from daoqing to Henan zhuizi mostly mark the beat with the jianban, those who changed from sanxian shu to Henan zhuizi mostly use the jiaozi, and those who changed from dagu shu to zhuizi mostly use the low-footed storytelling drum; the waking block is mostly used when singing the long books. Besides the early “single-mouth” form performed by one person and the “paired-mouth” form developed later for two people, there is also the “group-mouth” form performed by three partners, and each of these forms suits different kinds of programme. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the creation and the performance of Henan zhuizi became more self-conscious, and a large number of famous masters and celebrated works appeared. Wang Shude and his “Huangdao Fanshen Bridge”, Liu Zongqin and her “Li Kui Seizes the Fish”, Zhao Zheng and his “Picking Cotton” and “The Old Woman with Twin Guns”, Song Aihua and her “Two Carts Racing” and the like are representative works among them.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The centre of diffusion of Henan zhuizi lies in Shangqiu, Kaifeng, Zhoukou, Xuchang, Zhengzhou and northern Henan, and it was carried along the railways and waterways into southwestern Shandong, northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu, Beijing and Tianjin. In each locality the artists are rostered into units based on tea sheds, storytelling sheds and temple fairs, each performing group being assigned its own shed, with the long books divided into sections, one section a night; in the countryside it is customary on temple fairs, thanksgiving vows and birthday celebrations to engage a storytelling troupe to tell stories for several days on end.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Henan Zhuizi.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Liu Zongqin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Her voice is broad, full and powerful, her vocal style is high and unrestrained, and her performance is bold and unpolished; she is a great master of singing about heroes and gallant men. Representative works include “Li Kui Seizes the Fish” and “Generals of the Yang Family”. Female, Han nationality, born in 1928, native of Henan, representative inheritor of Henan zhuizi of the second national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. She joined the Henan Province Quyi Troupe in 1954, was rated a first-class actress after her retirement in 1984, and has been devoted to education in Henan zhuizi. Song Aihua (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han nationality, born in September 1941, native of Yucheng County, Henan Province. She began to learn the art from her mother Liu Shihong in 1953. Her vocal style is quick and bright, in the grand manner, and she makes skilled use of the penkou and guankou techniques; in performance she also drew on the eastern-branch zhuizi vocal style, the lively timbre of the Qiao school of zhuizi and Xu Yulan's “gedatang” style as her shuaiqiang, gradually forming her own characteristics of lyrical and cheerful, gentle and smooth, grand and bold, witty and fluent singing, and she enjoys wide renown in the Henan–Anhui–Jiangsu region. She has sung and worked over more than two hundred passages, among them the representative work “The Lynx-mouthed Matchmaker”. After her retirement she trained more than fifty young quyi performers in turn. Representative inheritor of Henan zhuizi of the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Liu Zongqin 02-0731
• Song Aihua 03-1163
• Ma Fuqin 05-2488
• Chen Shengli 05-2489

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Henan Zhuizi (Henan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Liu Zongqin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Song Aihua · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗