Yangzhou Qingqu
01 · Historical Records
Yangzhou Qingqu is a form of quyi singing developed on the basis of the folk tunes and xiaodiao popular in the Yangzhou area during the Ming and Qing periods. It is also called Guangling Qingqu or Weiyang Qingqu, and is popularly known as xiao chang (singing little tunes) or chang xiaoqu. It is mainly current in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Shanghai and other places in Jiangsu Province, and is performed in the local Yangzhou pronunciation. It had already taken shape at the beginning of the Qing period. The performers who have exerted the greatest influence since the twentieth century include Li Ziyun, Zhong Peixian, Pei Fukang, Wang Wanqing and You Qingle.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The traditional performance form is seated singing by one or two up to eight or nine people, each holding a pipa, sanxian, yueqin, sihu, erhu or yangqin together with danban wooden clappers, saucers, wine cups and the like, and self-accompanying; once the singers move onto a raised platform, it is usually five people singing seated and self-accompanied on pipa, sanxian, erhu, sihu and yangqin. The vocal melodies are drawn from the various tune patterns. Early on, the principal ones used were [Pipo Yu], [Yin Niu Si], [Si Da Jing], [Dao Ban Jiang], [Die Luo Jin Qian], [Ji Xiang Cao], [Man Jiang Hong] and [Xiang Jiang Lang]; later the principal ones used were [Ruan Ping], [Li Diao], [Nan Diao], [Bo Yang], [Chun Diao], [Bu Gang], [Xian Hua Diao], [Yang Zi Diao], [Yang Liu Qing] and [Xue Yong Lan Guan]. The programmes are divided into two types: danpianzi, sung to a single tune pattern, and taoqu suites, in which two or more tune patterns are linked or joined into a suite. Suites are further divided into small suites and large suites; a suite taking [Man Jiang Hong] as its principal tune is popularly called five-petalled plum. Yangzhou Qingqu singing is divided into professional and self-amusement types. Formerly the professional kind was practised by individuals or families who went from street to street selling their art, or performed on passenger boats plying the inland waterways; later it was mainly performed by full-time actors of professional quyi troupes. The self-amusement kind was mostly taken up by shop assistants, small handicraftsmen and townspeople of the educated class who sang as amateurs; some of them even made substantial contributions to writing song texts and to reforming and organizing the musical tunes, and some carried out theoretical collation and research, for example Wang Wanqing, who wrote Yangzhou Qingqu: Art of Singing and Reciting. Representative traditional programmes include the danpianzi Ten Cups of Wine and Being Human Is Hard, and the suites Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, The West Chamber, Dream of the Red Chamber, The White Snake, The Pearl Pagoda, Daiyu Lamenting Autumn, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, Qin Qiong Selling His Horse, Su San's Release, Bamboo and Wood Contending, The Flower's Own Lament and The Mouse Files a Suit. New programmes staged after the founding of the People's Republic of China include Liu Hulan and Workers, Peasants and Soldiers. According to Li Dou's Record of the Yangzhou Pleasure Boats, the well-known early performers of Yangzhou Qingqu included Li Dianchen, Chen Jingxian, Liu Tianlu, Liu Luguan, Mou Qi, Jin Gu, the Taoist Pan Wu, Zheng Yuben, Zhu San and others. Yangzhou Qingqu is a long-established form of quyi singing; many ancient folk tunes from the Yuan and Ming periods onward, including the original words of some of these tunes, have been well preserved in it. Because it has circulated for a long time, in its transmission it exerted influences of varying degrees on many similar tune genres in other regions.
Single pieces and suites
The division into pieces set to a single tune and suites linking two or more tunes.
Five-petal plum
The popular name for suites built on the Manjianghong tune, the most representative large-suite structure.
Early tune titles
The early tune titles of the genre, later replaced by a new set of principal tunes.
Performers recorded in the Yangzhou huafang lu
Li Dou's eighteenth-century record names early masters such as Li Dianchen, Chen Jingxian and Liu Tianlu.
On the art of Yangzhou qingqu
A treatise by the performer Wang Wanqing, one of several written by educated amateur singers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yangzhou Qingqu is centred on the urban area of Yangzhou and spreads along the Grand Canal and the Yangtze waterways to Zhenjiang, Taizhou, Huai'an, Nanjing, Shanghai and the counties of the Lixiahe region, performed in the local Yangzhou pronunciation. Singers fall into professional and amateur categories: the former, in former times, went from street to street as individuals or families or performed their art on passenger boats plying the inland waterways; the latter were mostly shop assistants, small handicraftsmen and scholars who gathered in teahouses and private courtyards in their spare time to sing for enjoyment, and some of them also took part in collating song texts and tunes. Teahouses and musical societies were the principal places of transmission, and the Li Dianchen, Chen Jingxian and Liu Tianlu recorded in the Record of the Yangzhou Pleasure Boats all came from musical societies in the city of Yangzhou in the Qing period.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present this representative ancient tune genre, for various reasons, has fallen into an endangered state with its performers scattered and no successors, and is in urgent need of rescue and protection.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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