Hangzhou Storytelling
01 · Historical Records
Its historical origins can be traced back to the ancient quyi forms of the Southern Song period in Lin'an (the ancient name of Hangzhou) such as shuohua, jiangshi and xiaoshuo. Hangzhou pinghua in its modern sense took shape gradually at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty; by the Daoguang and Xianfeng reigns of the Qing dynasty this folk quyi form had matured further, and a batch of famous artists appeared, including Wang Chunqiao, Xie Wanchun and Shen Pubao. In the early 1960s the artists adapted and performed more than twenty long-form modern repertoires, a useful attempt at the development of Hangzhou pinghua.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Hangzhou pinghua, also called 'Hangzhou dashu', is popular in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and the surrounding area. It is performed by a single speaker in the Hangzhou dialect; in the narration, simulated voiced speech can be inserted from time to time, so that narrative and comment alternate. The part that simulates in the first person the speech, tone and intonation of characters in the book is called 'bai'; the part that tells the progress of the story in the storyteller's voice and describes, analyses and appraises the characters, events and setting is called 'biao'. Narration also commonly makes use of the seven-character rhymed 'fuzan' (colloquially 'fuer') to strengthen the rhythm and heighten the atmosphere; the Marshal Hall Rhapsody, the Garden Rhapsody, the Armour Rhapsody and the Battle Rhapsody are all classic passages of this kind. The storytelling houses of Hangzhou pinghua are mostly set up in teahouses and on temple stages, and a single long book often takes several months to tell; artists emphasize 'weight on narration, skill in reasoning', and long-form repertoires are divided into four classes: history-telling, case stories, chivalric tales and myth.
The descriptive set pieces
Rhymed seven-character descriptive passages used to heighten rhythm and atmosphere on the stage.
Speech and narration
Speech impersonates the characters in the first person while narration describes and judges events as the storyteller.
Four categories of long books
More than fifty traditional long books fall into history, crime case, chivalric and mythic categories.
Song-dynasty storytelling
Its ancestry reaches back to the storytelling arts of Southern Song Lin'an and it took modern shape in the late Ming.
Nineteenth-century masters
The noted performers of the Daoguang and Xianfeng era, who set the model for later Hangzhou storytellers.
The Eastern Han in 125 chapters
Li Zixin's restoration of the traditional Eastern Han cycle runs to 125 instalments and was filmed in 2009.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Long-form Hangzhou pinghua includes more than fifty traditional repertoires, among them Western Han, Eastern Han, Three Kingdoms, The Generations of the Yang Family, Water Margin, The Romance of Wu Song and The Biography of Yue Fei, which can be divided into the four great classes of history-telling, case stories, chivalric tales and myth.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Hangzhou pinghua is an exotic flower in the garden of Jiangnan arts, with high artistic, historical and cultural value. At present Hangzhou pinghua has few successors and is gradually declining, so it urgently needs protection and transmission. Li Zixin (as recorded in the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in May 1933, a native of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. He joined the Yuhang County quyi troupe in 1978 and was transferred to the Hangzhou Quyi Troupe in 1984. His performance style places weight on narration and reasoning, achieving both form and spirit; the traditional long-form Hangzhou pinghua repertoire Eastern Han which he inherited and collated runs to 125 chapters, was performed in Hangzhou for three months in 2009 and was preserved on videotape. He has been dedicated throughout to the performance of Hangzhou pinghua, and after retirement remained active telling stories in the various storytelling houses of Hangzhou, taking part many times in the municipal quyi touring shows, exhibition performances and pinghua training programmes. Representative inheritor of Hangzhou pinghua of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. In the early 1960s Hangzhou artists adapted and performed more than twenty long-form modern repertoires; the Eastern Han inherited and collated by Li Zixin runs to 125 chapters, was performed continuously for three months in Hangzhou in 2009 and preserved on videotape, and after retirement he still told stories year-round in the storytelling houses of Hangzhou.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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