Henan Zhuizi
01 · Historical Records
Henan zhuizi took shape in Henan and is widely current in Henan and in neighbouring provinces such as Hebei and Shandong. Linzhang County belonged to the jurisdiction of Anyang City, Henan Province, before 1953. Through long years of transmission it gradually took shape as the genre known as Henan zhuizi, and to the present day it has a history of more than 210 years. From the 1970s onward, with the disbanding of the Linzhang County quyi troupe, the performance activity of the professional Linzhang County quyi teams and storytelling clubs and associations largely disappeared, and the performances of folk artists also declined day by day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It has a very deep mass foundation in Linzhang County, Hebei Province. Henan zhuizi shu is a performance form based mainly on singing and narration, in the Central Plains dialect. At first there was only one person, who both sang and accompanied himself; later two people appeared who sang in antiphon with a dedicated accompanist. Its vocal styles and tunes belong to the banqiang (metrical) system, the principal ones being pingban, jinban, duoziban, manban and yunbai; its vocal timbres being qiangdiao, dahanchang, xiaohanchang and woqiang; and its accompanying instruments the zhuihu (sanxian), jianban, waking block, foot clapper and storytelling drum. The format of the sung text is basically the nine-character and seven-character rhymes and tangkou ci (linking formulas). The story cycles of Henan zhuizi shu are counted in “hui”, one hui or several hui standing for one chapter or several chapters of the story. It normally takes an artist three or four hours to get through a zhuizi shu; a long book is made up of a number of hui and is called a “main book” or a “linked book”. Its representative traditional story cycles include “Judge Bao's Cases”, “Judge Liu's Cases”, “The Body in Cao's Camp and the Heart in Han”, “The Red Lantern”, “The Great Saber”, “Guns on the Plain”, together with such short works as “Wang Feilun the Matchmaker” and “Little Er Dreams a Dream”. In former times those who performed Henan zhuizi shu were all poor people, one person, or two or four banding together, with no society or troupe organisation. The villagers' sacrifices, thanks to the gods, thanksgiving vows, weddings, birthday celebrations and births were the principal occasions for performance; a “storytelling troupe” was engaged to tell stories for several days, three, six or nine days being regarded as the best. After the founding of New China, the Linzhang County Quyi Troupe was established, made up of six small quyi performing teams. It created and performed new story cycles such as “Guns on the Plain”, “The White-Haired Girl”, “The Story of Wind and Dust”, “Battle on the Plain” and “The Hui Detachment — Ma Benzhai”. Beyond the traditional way of performing while standing, the Linzhang County Quyi Troupe also developed a manner of performing while moving about. At the same time the accompanying instruments came to include the erhu, drum boards, clappers, electronic keyboard, sheng and the like.
Yinggeliu
The precursor of Linzhang zhuizi, a folk tune learned from Anhui and current there by about 1796.
The Great and Lesser Five Heroes
Long serialised tales sung by the inheritor Ma Fuqin, with recorded chapter counts for each title.
The county troupe's moving performance
After 1949 the county's storytelling troupe of six teams introduced moving performance and added new instruments.
Hiring the storytelling troupe
The rural custom of hiring a storytelling troupe for rites, vows, weddings and birthdays, for three, six or nine days.
The genealogies of the zhuizi families
Family records of the zhuizi lineages: Guo Xiaotun village was famed as a nest of the art, and Ma Fuqin came from three generations of singers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Old artist Wang Yulan of Guoxiaotun Village, which bears the reputation of a “cradle of zhuizi”, recounted in the family genealogy of zhuizi artists as follows: around the twenty-fifth year of the Jiaqing reign (1796) zhuizi was already flourishing throughout the county, and the predecessor of Linzhang Henan zhuizi was called “yingge liu”, a folk ditty learned from the area around Anhui Province.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Henan Zhuizi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The formation and the present state of Henan zhuizi in Linzhang. After the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the old artists growing older and dying off one after another, performances are extremely rarely to be seen in daily life, there is no way to train young people, and Henan zhuizi shu in Linzhang County is on the verge of disappearing; it urgently needs rescue and protection. Ma Fuqin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, Han nationality, born in December 1938, native of Linzhang County, Hebei Province. She comes from a family of zhuizi performers, three generations above and below her all living by singing zhuizi. From the age of sixteen she apprenticed in turn to the old artists Fan Xiucheng, Song Liancheng and Chen Laosi, laying a solid foundation and beginning to sing short passages. At the age of twenty-one she apprenticed to Liu Shaolan to learn the singing of middle-length books, improving her singing and performance technique, and she also formed her own troupe. In 2013 she provided important materials and sung text for the Linzhang County Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film, Television, Press and Publication when it compiled the book “Henan zhuizi”. Her representative works include more than thirty linked long books totalling twelve hundred hui, eighty middle-length books and forty short books; among the linked long books are “The Great Five Righteous Men” in fifty hui, “The Small Eight Righteous Men” in fifty-six hui, “The Biography of Lord Ji Gong” in forty-eight hui, “Judge Shi's Cases” in sixty hui, “Judge Liu's Cases” in sixty hui, “Generals of the Yang Family” in eighty hui and “Judge Bao's Cases” in sixty hui. Representative inheritor of Henan zhuizi of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. After she grew too old to perform, she began to work as a director, giving guidance and running troupes, and trained several hundred students, many of whom became backbone performers.
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
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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