Sichuan Yangqin

01 · Historical Records

The period from 1912 to 1949 was the heyday of the development of Sichuan yangqin, and it produced representative noted performers such as Li Liansheng.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Sichuan yangqin is also called "Sichuan qinshu". It is popular in the Han areas of Sichuan Province and is named for its use of the yangqin as the principal accompanying instrument. According to tradition, storytelling-and-singing performances accompanied by the yangqin had already appeared in Sichuan during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. In performance a single performer both played and sang unaided, mainly speaking and only secondarily singing; the vocal style was comparatively simple, and a striking block was used during the spoken passages, so it was called "speech-and-drum yangqin". Traditionally, Sichuan yangqin is performed by five actors divided into the five role types of sheng, dan, jing, mo and chou, which in trade parlance are called the "five-way people". Performance generally takes the form of seated singing, but standing performance is also possible. The performers speak and sing on stage while accompanying themselves on their own instruments. When a work contains more characters than can conveniently be allotted, one person may sing several roles. Yangqin vocal styles fall into two categories, the sheng tune and the zhou tune. The sheng tune refers to the yangqin vocal styles of the Chengdu area, which in turn divide into the "great tune" and the "moon tune" (also called the "yue tune"); the great tune belongs to the metrical-pattern system and has such patterns as "one character", "fast one character", "two flow" and "three boards". The moon tune belongs to the tune-pattern system and has nearly twenty tune patterns such as [Moon Opening] and [Cascading Broken Bridge]; the zhou tune refers to the yangqin vocal styles of the areas outside Chengdu, also belonging to the metrical-pattern system, with such patterns as "clear board", "two flow" and "three boards". Li Liansheng excelled in singing stirring and heroic works such as The Fisherman's Farewell and Crying in the Peach Garden; when he performed Huarong Dao he used the "langyan sanban" vocal manner and achieved an excellent effect, becoming momentarily famous far and wide. Those who came after him, such as Li Decai and Ye Nanzhang, also gave outstanding performances and likewise contributed to the development of Sichuan yangqin. The traditional repertoire of Sichuan yangqin numbers over one hundred works, including Breaking into the Palace, Drunkenness, Autumn River and The Boat Meeting; the Anthology of Sichuan Yangqin Lyrics and the Selection of Sichuan Yangqin Vocal Styles compiled and printed for internal use run to as many as 13 volumes.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The sheng tune branch is centred on Chengdu, while areas outside Chengdu such as eastern and southern Sichuan generally use the "zhou tune".

Other submitting regions for the same item: Sichuan Yangqin · Sichuan Yangqin · Sichuan Yangqin.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The yangqin art carries the history and culture of the Bashu region and holds special value for sociological and cultural studies. At present this genre has few successors, its outlook is worrying, and it urgently needs protection and transmission. Xu Shu (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): a woman of Han ethnicity, born in December 1937 in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. She is the leading figure of the "full-robed" school in the field of Sichuan yangqin. She studied under the Sichuan yangqin master Li Decai and is proficient in all the vocal styles of Sichuan yangqin. When performing she can accompany herself on the yangqin, and she is skilled at varying the traditional runqiang approach to suit the content of each work; she has made useful explorations and reforms in many technical details of the traditional repertoire, forming a vocal style of her own character and enriching the runqiang methods and artistic expressiveness of Sichuan yangqin. She is a representative inheritor of Sichuan yangqin, a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. She has been engaged in performance, teaching and creation in Sichuan yangqin for over sixty years, has studied and created or performed more than two hundred works, and has performed in more than twenty countries and regions; the Sichuan yangqin inheritors she has trained number nearly twenty, including national first-class performers, winners of the Peony Award for New Performers and for Programme Awards, and professional performers. In 2009 she was awarded the title of quyi artist of outstanding contribution by the China Quyi Artists Association. In January 2013 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Bashu Literature and Art Award from the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Liu Shiyan (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): a woman of Hui ethnicity, born in August 1942 in Mianzhu County, Sichuan Province. She is a national first-class performer. After graduating from high school in 1961 she joined the Sichuan opera troupe of Mianzhu County to learn the boudoir dan role. Building on the ornate and charming flavour of the De school's yangqin vocal style, she boldly absorbed the strengths of the female-role vocal art of Sichuan opera dan roles, ventured to explore and practised assiduously, forming her own vocal character of gentle delicacy and reserved depth, and developing and enriching the performance techniques of Sichuan yangqin. She is a representative inheritor of Sichuan yangqin, a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. She has long remained on the front line of creation, performance and teaching in Sichuan yangqin, devoting herself actively to training inheritors of Sichuan yangqin and working to carry forward the art of Sichuan yangqin.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Xu Shu 03-1187
• Liu Shiyan 03-1188
• Chen Zaibi 04-1722
• Ye Jishu 05-2512

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Sichuan Yangqin (Quyituan, Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Xu Shu · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Liu Shiyan · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗