Sichuan Qingyin

01 · Historical Records

It took shape in the late Ming and early Qing period, has long been transmitted in the Han areas of Sichuan Province, and has a history of more than three hundred years.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Sichuan qingyin was once nicknamed “chang xiaoqu” (singing short tunes); because it is mostly accompanied by the yueqin or the pipa when sung, it is also called “chang yueqin” (singing to the yueqin) or “chang pipa” (singing to the pipa). In performance a single performer stands and sings, striking the beat with a tanban clapper, while the instrumentalist or a small ensemble accompanies at the side and sometimes joins in the chorus as well. Besides single-tune vocal styles, Sichuan qingyin also has multi-tune vocal styles such as “yue diao”, “bei gong” and “matou diao”. These have also formed the ban-form modulating styles “han diao” and “fan xipi”, which draw on many out-of-province folk tunes and ditties, such as “Wuxi Jing”, “Macheng Ge”, “Wuchang Diao”, “Bianguan Diao”, “Fengyang Diao”, “Shan Wugeng”, “Tanhuang Diao”, “Sizhou Diao” and “Dongbei Feng”. Sichuan qingyin also absorbs vocal styles from Sichuan folk songs such as Shu Gema (Counting the Toads), Qingye (Green Leaves) and Shibashanzi (Ten Folding Fans), and adds such items as the “fan xipi” and “qijuban” of Sichuan opera together with the “yue diao”, “pingban”, “banbianyue” and “duozi” of Sichuan yangqin, making more than two hundred tune patterns in all. Sichuan qingyin preserves more than a hundred works, including traditional pieces such as Nigu Xia Shan (The Nun Descends the Mountain), Zhaojun Chu Sai (Zhaojun Goes Beyond the Frontier), Guan Wang Miao (The Temple of the Warrior Guan), Duan Qiao (The Broken Bridge), Si Fan (Longing for the Secular World), Bei Qiu (Lamenting Autumn) and Huo Zhu Sanlang (Capturing Sanlang Alive), as well as new works produced after the May Fourth Movement under the influence of the new culture, such as Dian Ke Ku (The Sharecropper’s Hardship), Shuang Tan Mei (Two Visits to the Younger Sister) and Xiao Zhangfu (The Little Husband).

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In the Chengdu line of Sichuan qingyin the “Li school” is the best known. Cheng Yongling studied and inherited the art of the Li school over many years, preserving both the ornate and agile singing and the correct diction and rounded tones of the Li school while adding a graceful and fresh quality of her own; her representative works include Xiao Fang Zhengfeng (The Little Girl Flying a Kite) and Shu Xiu Guniang (The Girl of Shu Embroidery). Xiao Shanyu, by contrast, applies bel canto technique and similar skills to qingyin singing, giving her a clear and bright voice that is bold and vigorous yet still ornate and smoothly cantabile. Besides the single-tune form, Sichuan qingyin also has multi-tune vocal styles such as “yue diao”, “bei gong” and “matou diao”, together with the ban-form modulating styles “han diao” and “fan xipi”, gathering more than two hundred tune patterns in all; these include out-of-province folk tunes and ditties such as “Wuxi Jing”, “Macheng Ge”, “Fengyang Diao” and “Tanhuang Diao”, as well as the “fan xipi” and “qijuban” of Sichuan opera and the “yue diao”, “pingban” and “duozi” of Sichuan yangqin. The Chengdu Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Centre is the protecting unit of this project.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Sichuan Qingyin.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

At present Sichuan qingyin is declining more and more, has few successors and is close to dying out, so a workable plan for its rescue and protection is urgently needed. Cheng Yongling (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): A national first-class performer, vice-chairwoman of the China Quyi Association, vice-president of the China Shuochan Wenyi Society and honorary chairwoman of the Sichuan Provincial Quyi Association, she is an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council. Over many years she studied and inherited the art of the “Li school”, continually absorbing the artistic techniques of folk-song and operatic vocal performance, and in long practice formed a distinctive singing style that keeps both the ornate and agile singing and the correct diction and rounded tones of the Li school while adding a graceful, fresh quality — beautiful without affectation and lovely without excess. Her representative works include Xiao Fang Zhengfeng (The Little Girl Flying a Kite) and Shu Xiu Guniang (The Girl of Shu Embroidery). Female, of Han nationality, born in October 1947, died in August 2021, native of Jiangjin County, Sichuan Province (now Jiangjin District of Chongqing Municipality). Representative inheritor of Sichuan qingyin in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Xiao Shanyu (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han nationality, born in December 1936, native of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. A national first-class performer. Her voice is clear and bright, and she applies bel canto technique and similar skills to qingyin singing, singing in a manner that is bold and vigorous yet still ornate and smoothly cantabile, and so has formed her own distinctive singing style. Her works have been recorded in the Dictionary of Chinese Opera and Quyi, the Dictionary of Chinese Artists and other reference works. Representative inheritor of Sichuan qingyin in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Over the course of several decades she has trained a large group of successors in Sichuan qingyin; her influence reaches every region where Sichuan qingyin is transmitted, and many of those she trained have become the backbone of its transmission and development.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Cheng Yongling 03-1190
• Xiao Shunyu 03-1191
• Li Jingming 04-1726
• Ma Guanghua

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Sichuan Qingyin (Chengduyishujuyuan, Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Cheng Yongling · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Xiao Shunyu · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗