Changsha Tanci Balladry

01 · Historical Records

Changsha tanci grew out of yugu daoqing and was at first sung by two people who performed itinerantly in the streets, a practice popularly known as "beating the street" (da jie).

02 · Core Techniques & Process

In performance, one performer holds a yueqin (moon-shaped zither) while another holds a yugu drum cylinder, clappers and a small gong, these instruments together being called the "three sounds" (sanxiang). It later developed into teahouse performance known as "sitting in the stall" (zuo peng), which can be presented either as a "single act" (dan dang), with one person playing and singing for himself, or as a "double act" (shuang dang), performed cooperatively by two people. Its vocal style is sweet and rounded, resonant and vigorous, easy to sing and exact in every word. Its "live question-and-answer" performance is uniquely characteristic, improvised on the spot, and can truly be called a wonder. Changsha tanci covers a wide range of subjects and has thousands of pieces, essentially embracing the content of every historical period; it has played a positive role in spreading historical knowledge. Its representative works include The Five Tigers Pacify the Southwest, The Chronicle of the Moon Tang, The Late Tang and Five Dynasties, The Generals of the Yang Family, Ciyun's Flight from the Realm, Water Margin and The Chronicle of the Seven States.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Changsha tanci was originally called "tanci" and is also known as "chang jiang", "jiang ping" and "ping jiang qu"; it has now a history of more than a hundred years. Its transmission reaches the principal towns and villages of Huxiang, and it has devoted listeners even among the Chinese communities of Hong Kong, Taiwan and places in Southeast Asia such as Singapore. Based on the Changsha dialect, with each character sung to its own tune, Changsha tanci has the artistic characteristics of being "antique, plentiful, broad, emotive and harmoniously witty". In the course of its long development, Changsha tanci formed the three traditional schools of Liao, Zhou and Shu. The later eminent blind tanci performer Peng Yangkun drew on the strengths of many masters, standardising the nine ban and eight qiang, the eighteen sets of tunes and the thirteen rhyme categories of the local dialect, and further assimilating musical elements such as the high-pitched singing of Hunan opera, kunqu, xiaoqu and mountain songs, to form a distinctive "Peng school" that enriched the performing art of Changsha tanci.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In the past twenty years the teahouses and storytelling stalls on which Changsha tanci depended for survival have all become a thing of the past; a number of professional performers have died in turn, and those still living are too old to go on performing. This excellent form of folk quyi has no successors and urgently needs protection. Peng Yankun (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Visiting professor at Changsha College of Commerce and Tourism. He loved quyi from childhood. At the age of ten he lost both eyes in an accident, devoted himself to studying tanci, and travelled around Changsha reciting and singing it. He later became a disciple of the veteran Changsha tanci performer Hu Zhaolin, incorporating the vocal styles of Hunan opera, flower-drum tunes, silk-string xiaoqu, Huangmei opera and Peking opera into his speech and singing, and on the basis of the level, cheerful, gentle, sorrowful, greatly sorrowful, angry and immortal styles created a "lanqiang" of his own, giving Changsha tanci a deeper and more lingering flavour. He put into order the nine ban and eight qiang, the eighteen sets of tunes and the thirteen rhyme categories of the local dialect in Changsha tanci, and in his vocal style fused musical elements of many kinds, including the high-pitched singing of Hunan opera, kunqu, xiaoqu and mountain songs, forming a distinctive "Peng school" and carrying forward the improvised speech-and-song function of Changsha tanci, enriching and developing its performing art. Male, of Han ethnicity, born in May 1937, died in November 2016, a native of Changsha, Hunan Province. Representative inheritor of Changsha tanci in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Peng Yankun 03-1170

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Changsha Tanci Balladry (Changsha, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Peng Yankun · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗