Jingyun Dagu Drum Balladry

01 · Historical Records

In the late Qing and the early Republican period, drum-book artists Hu Jintang (stage name “Hu Shi”), Huo Mingliang, Song Yukun (stage name “Song Wu”) and later Liu Baoquan and others reformed the wooden-clapper dagu of the Hejian area of Hebei. They added the sihu and the pipa to the original sanxian to form the accompaniment, at the same time changing the Hejian dialect used for singing into Beijing pronunciation, and further absorbing the diction techniques and part of the vocal styles of Beijing opera, making extensive use of the “qingyin zidishu” script books that had circulated among the sons of the Eight Banners in the Qing dynasty. Out of this reform Jingyun dagu came into being with its distinctive flavour.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Jingyun dagu is mainly popular in Beijing, Tianjin, northern China and the Northeast; in the course of history it has also borne such names as “Jingyin dagu” and “Xiaokou dagu”. Jingyun dagu combines speech and song, with speech inside the singing and singing inside the speech, so that refined and popular taste are both satisfied. A single vocal style is often used for many different pieces, and the performance lays stress on rendering the spirit and the mood. As soon as it appeared it quickly won over its audience with a style that joins the firm to the gentle. Over the following decades the genre kept maturing, and important performance schools appeared one after another, among them the “Bai school” founded by Bai Yunpeng and the “Luo school” founded by Luo Yusheng (stage name “Xiaocaiwu”). The sung texts of Jingyun dagu basically take seven-syllable lines, and from time to time inserted syllables, padding syllables and piled-up short lines are worked into a line; each set of sung texts runs to roughly a hundred and fifty lines. Its rhyme-shifting follows the thirteen rhyme categories of Beijing pronunciation, and a sung passage is generally carried on one rhyme from beginning to end. Rhymed speech lays stress on intonation and flavour, half spoken and half sung, and joins the vocal style with great naturalness. In performance one performer stands and sings and strikes the clappers to keep the rhythm, and at the side there are generally three accompanists on the large sanxian, the sihu and the pipa, sometimes with a low-register hu added. Jingyun dagu lays stress on singing; its vocal styles belong to the clapper-based system, and it is used exclusively to sing short works. Its repertoire consists mainly of more than a hundred traditional narrative pieces such as “The Single Sword Meeting”, “The Battle of Changsha”, “White Emperor City”, “The Killing of Tang Qin”, “Visiting Qingwen”, “Daiyu Burns Her Drafts” and “Homeward by Boat in Wind and Rain”, together with short pieces that describe scenery and express feeling, and newly composed works on modern and historical subjects.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Tianjin is the home ground of the “Luo school” of Jingyun dagu, and the Tianjin Quyi Troupe concentrates on training successors of the Luo school.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Jingyun Dagu Drum Balladry.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China Jingyun dagu made great strides forward and trained generation after generation of young performers. At present, however, the genre has run short of successors, and its protection and transmission are urgently needed. Lu Yiqin (as recorded in the official file on the associated inheritor): The adopted daughter of the Jingyun dagu performing artist Luo Yusheng and a close disciple of Luo Yusheng. In 1950 she became a pupil of Master Cheng Shutang and studied stage posture and movement. In 1951 she joined the Tianjin Quyi Performance Troupe. In 1952 she was admitted to the Central Song and Dance Ensemble. In 1955 she was transferred back to the Tianjin Quyi Troupe. In between she undertook professional vocal training and mastered scientific vocal production. She worked to develop the lyrical side in which the Luo school excels, taking a step in the direction of a more delicate, more supple and more gentle manner; she also fully brought out the characteristics of the Luo school of transmitting feeling through the voice and joining the firm to the gentle, with a vocal style that is high and resonant, powerful and stirring, in which voice and feeling blend. Her stage performance is exquisite, achieving the ideal that when she does not move there is nothing, but once she moves there is drama. She pursues the artistic realm of suggestion, leaving the audience a rich space for imagination. Female, of Han nationality, born in June 1934, died in August 2018, a native of Tianjin. A representative inheritor of Jingyun dagu among the national-level intangible cultural heritage projects in the fourth batch. Liu Chun’ai (as recorded in the official file on the associated inheritor): Female, of Han nationality, born in March 1949, a native of Tianjin. A national first-class performer. Her voice is broad and rich and she is gifted. She has well inherited the spirit of the Luo school of Jingyun dagu and keeps exploring, singing with feeling leading the voice, sincere and heartfelt, with voice and feeling in full flood and passion abundant, which gives her a distinctive charm. After retirement she opened Jingyun dagu classes at a university for senior citizens to spread quyi, and these have been well received by the public. A representative inheritor of Jingyun dagu among the national-level intangible cultural heritage projects in the fourth batch. In 2000 she won the performance award of the first China Quyi Peony Award, presented by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Quyi Association, for the Jingyun dagu work “Hearing the Bells at Jiange”. She taught for more than twenty years at the Northern China School of Quyi and trained six successive cohorts of students of the Luo school of Jingyun dagu.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Lu Yiqin 04-1716
• Liu Chunai 04-1717
• Zhongyujie 05-2505

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Jingyun Dagu Drum Balladry (Quyituan, Tianjin) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Lu Yiqin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Liu Chunai · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗