Shandong Qinshu Balladry
01 · Historical Records
By the middle of the Qing dynasty, "qinzheng qingqu" — pure melodies for zither and guzheng — gradually broke out of the small circle of literati and connoisseurs, changing from the original practice of carrying the instrument round to visit friends into the self-amused "zhuangjia shua" of the slack farming season, also called "wanju", and began to flourish in the villages around Yuncheng.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shandong Qinshu Balladry is a linked-singing form built on folk little melodies, of which it has more than two hundred; at its height the number of sung and instrumental tune patterns reached as many as three hundred, with Shanghe Diao, Fengyang Ge and Meihualuo the most commonly used. The instruments that accompany the singing have also grown more numerous, with the yangqin as the principal melodic instrument, joined by the zheng, the zhuqin, the jinghu, the banhu, the soft-bowed hu, the four-string fiddle, the small cymbals and the large wooden clappers. The traditional repertoire falls into three categories: paced tunes, medium-form pieces and long-form pieces. There are more than a hundred titles in all, together with more than six hundred shumao openings, poems and prefaces. Shandong Qinshu Balladry arose in Yuncheng at the beginning of the Ming dynasty and has a history of roughly six hundred years to the present day. The Yuncheng County Gazetteer records that "qin melodies first came from families of scholars"; they were called "qinzheng qingqu". In this period, emphasis in singing fell on the beauty of the competing vocal styles, on the number of tune patterns, and on the level of instrumental technique. In order to meet the needs of listeners, the repertoire had developed from singing short passages to singing long passages, and on to short, medium and long story catalogues.
Qin and zheng chamber songs
The early form in Yuncheng, recorded in the county gazetteer as having arisen among scholarly households.
Shanghe and Fengyang tunes
Among the most used tune titles, generally opening a piece and with Duozi Board or Meihua Luo closing it.
The soft-bow fiddle and four-string lute
Two of the accompanying instruments used beside the lead yangqin, added or dropped according to the occasion.
Openers, poems and introductions
Short preludes, poems and introductions — over six hundred of them — used before or between the main tales.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yuncheng lies in southwestern Shandong, adjoining Heze, Juancheng, Juye and Liangshan, and is the earliest place where the southern line of Shandong Qinshu Balladry was transmitted. Locally this seated singing form is called zhuangjia shua or wanju; it is generally set up on tables in a circle during the slack farming season, at festivals and at temple fairs, with the singers accompanying themselves and the listeners gathered close, joining in with the refrain whenever the performance reaches a stirring passage. Yuncheng qinshu performers travel out along the roads to neighbouring villages to tell stories as their main way of earning a living; for the fulfilment of a vow, a birthday celebration, a marriage or the birth of a child, the host family engages a qinshu troupe to come, for a single night or for several days of continuous singing.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shandong Qinshu Balladry · Shandong Qinshu Balladry.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Shandong Qinshu Balladry has a rich cultural deposit and provides living material for studying the developmental patterns of Chinese folk art; many traditional titles still bear deep imprints of their age, it plays an important part in the study of folk culture, and it has high historical, cultural and academic value. He Shuling (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in October 1946, native of Yuncheng County, Shandong Province. In 1963 she was admitted to the Yuncheng County Quyi Troupe and began to study Shandong Qinshu Balladry. In 1964 she studied in the training class on the excavation of tune patterns organised by the Yuncheng County Cultural Centre. In 1969 she studied under Li Suyun. Her singing is precise in diction, steady and dignified, and rich in expression and variety. She is skilled in the playing techniques of five accompanying instruments, and is also active in creating repertoire. For many decades she has been devoted to the transmission and development of Shandong Qinshu Balladry. Representative inheritor of Shandong Qinshu Balladry, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national-level batch. Her works "The Woman Stockman", "Delivering Warmth over a Thousand Li" and "My New Home" have won awards many times at national and provincial level. Since 1997 she has trained a number of Shandong Qinshu Balladry inheritors in succession, so that many Shandong Qinshu Balladry tune patterns have been handed down complete.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Xiangyun 02-0732
- Yao Zhongxian 02-0733
- Liu Shifu 04-1706
- Zhu Lihua 04-1707
- Wang Zhengang 05-2490
- He Shuling 05-2491
- Hu Huashan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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