Daur Wuqin Narrative Singing
01 · Historical Records
Uqin was originally narrative poetry composed in Manchu and recited in a chanting style; in the Qing dynasty Daur literati used it to record campaigns, garrison farming and village affairs, and later folk artists began rendering these manuscripts aloud as spoken-and-sung performance, so that 'uqin' came to change from the name of a literary form into the name of a genre. The Nen River basin is its main area of transmission, and it is also current in Morin Dawa, Qiqihar, Fularji, Fuyu and Longjiang, as well as among the Daur settlements of Tacheng in Xinjiang.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Uqin is a Daur genre, also called 'wuchun', meaning 'folk narrative poem'. It is sung in the Daur language and is widely current among the Daur people of the Nen River basin. Uqin mostly deals with productive labour, social life, resistance to oppression, and instruction and admonition; a single work may run from a few stanzas to more than a hundred. This minority genre has no fixed chanting tune, but its performing styles are rich and varied: some low and sonorous, some cheerful and bright, some plaintive and elegiac. Daur uqin was performed at first purely from the mouth; it later developed into a form in which the performer holds a 'huachangsi' (four-stringed fiddle) and both plays and sings it himself. The spoken-and-sung narration of uqin is chiefly in rhymed verse, combining unrhymed and rhymed passages. Its lines follow a fixed format: four lines to a stanza, rhyming on the head rhyme, with a rhyme falling every two lines or every four lines. No padding syllables are inserted among the lines, so that when chanted the sounds and the metre are harmonious and rich in rhythm. Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Wang Guo Wu Qin (The Kingdom Uqin)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Ying Ying Zhi Ge (The Song of Yingying)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Hong Lou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Shi Mei (The Thirteenth Sister)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Xi You Ji (Journey to the West)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Si Ji (The Four Seasons)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Bing Ying Zhi Ge (The Song of the Barracks)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
Shao Lang Yu Dai Fu (Shaolang and Daifu)
Uqin has a large repertoire, among which representative works are those adapted from historical stories — Wang Guo Uqin, The Song of Yingying, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Thirteenth Sister and Journey to the West — together with The Four Seasons, which reflects productive labour, The Song of the Barracks, which reflects social life, and Shaolang and Daifu, which depicts the struggle against oppression.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Morin Dawa, uqin is mostly sung at gatherings on New Year days and at celebrations on auspicious occasions; listeners crowd onto the heated kang of village homes, sitting cross-legged, and listen to the artists for days and nights on end. The programme divides by subject into several lines — Morigen heroic stories, love and marriage, scenery and landscape, and myths and fairy tales — of which Shaolang and Daifu has the character of an epic; there are also long works adapted from Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, as well as short pieces such as Fishing, Woodcutting and Going to the Ganjur Temple Fair to Shop.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Daur Wuqin Narrative Singing.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Uqin is a legacy of the ancient folk narrative-singing art of the Daur people, and has important value for research into social history and art. Tumure (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): the uqin he performs include Fishing, Woodcutting, Going to the Ganjur Temple Fair to Shop, Abstinence from Wine, Abstinence from Lust, Abstinence from Anger and Record of a Patrol of the Argun River Basin. Besides these, he also wrote and published works such as Daur Wuchun and Daur Folk Tales. Male, Daur, born in August 1927, died in May 2018, a native of Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, Inner Mongolia. Representative inheritor of Daur uqin in the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Sere 02-0766
- Nayintai 02-0767
- Tumure 05-2499
- Taoguishui 05-2500
- Elingqiao
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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