Jinhua Daoqing

01 · Historical Records

Jinhua daoqing is transmitted in Jinhua City of Zhejiang Province and the surrounding areas. It took shape in the late Ming and early Qing periods, and its traceable history runs to at least three hundred years. Jinhua daoqing originated in Yiwu City, where it began as the verse-praise form of jingyun chanted inside Taoist temples; after absorbing the music of other tunes and qupai, it developed into the xin jingyun chanted when lay preachers went out among the people, also called daoge. From the Southern Song period onward, the xin jingyun was accompanied by the yugu daoqing barrel drum and by finger-claps, and this form has been widely transmitted since the Ming and Qing dynasties. By the period of the Republic of China, Yiwu daoqing had already become highly mature, and famous masters such as Luo Zhanglin had appeared.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

In performance, Jinhua daoqing is sung by a single seated singer in the Jinhua dialect, in several ways: mixed speech and song, speech inserted into the singing, and a plain tune inserted between phrases. Its tonality mostly uses the zhi mode; the structure is complete, with a beginning and an end; the rhythm is varied, and may be fast or slow or of moderate pace. The vocal styles are divided into the pingdiao, or plain tune, the beidiao, or lament tune, the kudiao, or weeping tune, and so on. The plain tune has a level range and a steady rhythm and is mostly used for the long sung passages that narrate the plot of a story; the lament tune is low and desolate, as though weeping and complaining, and is mostly used to describe a character's painful experiences; the weeping tune imitates a woman's sobbing and is chiefly used to intensify a character's sorrow and to render a tragic atmosphere. Jinhua daoqing is accompanied by the qingtong, also called the yugu or fisher drum, which is made of golden bamboo, and by the jianban, a simple clapper made of two bamboo pieces. In performance the percussion serves as an overture leading into the sung passage. Besides this, the accompaniment can also mark the pauses and divisions between phrases, provide interlude connections, and present melodies that recur and return upon themselves.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Jinhua daoqing is transmitted in the Jinhua urban area and in the counties and cities of Yiwu, Dongyang, Yongkang, Lanxi and Wuyi, and its source lies in Yiwu. It began as the verse-praise form of jingyun chanted inside Taoist temples, and after absorbing the music of other tunes and qupai it developed into the xin jingyun chanted when lay preachers went out among the people, also called daoge. From the Southern Song period onward, the xin jingyun was accompanied by the yugu daoqing barrel drum and finger-claps, and it has been widely transmitted since the Ming and Qing dynasties. Performers carried the qingtong and jianban from village to village and from door to door, narrating and singing long works at temple fairs, in markets and in the halls of farm households, with subjects drawn from history, criminal cases and family ethics alike. The Jinhua Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection and Information Center is the protecting unit for this item, and Zhu Shungen has long been active on the front line of rural quyi performance, devoting himself to training young lovers of daoqing.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Jinhua Daoqing.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

There are 425 traditional Jinhua daoqing works still extant, among them The Golden Record, Welcoming the Gold, The Golden Melon, The Silver Terrace and The Token of Hu. Their content touches on the evolution of society, politics, the economy and folk customs in Jinhua and the surrounding areas over more than three hundred years, and they have extremely high research value for history and culture. At present the older generation of daoqing performers is growing old and there are few successors; some daoqing works have already been lost, and the work of protection and rescue is urgent. Zhu Shungen (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnicity, born in December 1942, a native of Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province. His representative works include Special-Price Eggs and New Practices in Suoyuan. He has devoted himself to the transmission of Jinhua daoqing and has cultivated a large body of young Jinhua daoqing enthusiasts. Representative inheritor of the Jinhua daoqing item in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. He has always been active on the front line of rural quyi performance, his performances are deeply loved by audiences, and he has won awards many times in quyi performance gatherings.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Zhu Shungen 03-1192
• Ye Yingsheng 03-1193

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Jinhua Daoqing (Jinhua, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhu Shungen · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗