Jinqianban

01 · Historical Records

Jinqianban is transmitted in the Han areas of the Bashu region. It took shape during the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty and to this day has a history of close to two hundred years.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

At first it was nothing more than a plain vocal style used to recite admonitory texts for the world, with performers singing in the streets to earn their living. Through subsequent development and improvement it gradually became an independent genre of quyi. Jinqianban is performed by a single person, combining speech and song, and the final line of each passage is usually given with a slightly drawn-out cadence. While speaking and singing, the performer holds a striking board in one hand and a bottom board and a face board in the other, and strikes the three bamboo boards together to produce sounds in a great variety of rhythms to accompany the singing. Its vocal style is marked and highly individual: it adopts Sichuan opera tune patterns such as [laodiao], [gou nian yang], [fugui hua], [hong nao'ao], [mantanghong] and [jiangtougui], and at the same time absorbs music from kunqu as well as from Sichuan folk songs, mountain songs, xiaoqu and haozi labour chants. The lyrics are plain and easy to understand and rich in rhythm; the number of characters in a line is unrestricted, most pieces rhyme on a single rhyme from beginning to end, and change of rhyme occurs only occasionally. The traditional performing repertory of jinqianban is comparatively rich. Works such as Battle at Dongjia Temple, Battle at Dongting and Battle at Piludang, together with Rouge Match, Hibiscus Match, Dragon and Phoenix Match, Golden Cicada Match and Filial Piety Match, are the classics among them, conventionally called the "three battles and five matches". Besides these, there is also a large body of representative works such as Disturbing Ya'an, The Story of Despising the Poor, the Uprising of Lan Dashun, Wagang Stockade, Judge Bao's Cases and The Tale of Yue Fei.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Jinqianban is transmitted in the Han areas of the Bashu region; Chengdu and Chongqing are its two main centres, and in Chengdu itself performances flourish above all in teahouses and storytelling venues. According to the project file, the Chengdu Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Centre carries out transmission with Chengdu as its base. Since the twentieth century Zou Zhongxin has carried jinqianban onto the stage and the radio through more than two thousand works he created and adapted, and his closed-door disciple Zhang Xu has continued along this line since entering the Chengdu Quyi Troupe in 1977.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Jinqianban.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The art of jinqianban is one of the vehicles of Bashu history and culture; it embodies the local customs and social character of the Bashu region and has a certain value for cultural research. At present jinqianban has few successors, its development has stalled, its survival is in crisis, and urgent rescue and protection are needed. Zou Zhongxin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): He formerly served as vice-chairman of the Sichuan branch of the China Quyi Artists Association. He created and adapted more than two thousand Sichuan jinqianban works, representative pieces including The Cold Gun Battle and The Sichuan White-Haired Woman. His performances took him across the whole of Sichuan Province, and he worked throughout to promote and popularise the art of jinqianban. Male, of Han ethnicity, born in April 1924, died in May 2013, a native of Anyue County, Sichuan Province. Representative inheritor of jinqianban in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. In 2006 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the fourth China Quyi Peony Award, presented by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Quyi Artists Association. Zhang Xu (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in May 1957, a native of Chengdu, Sichuan Province. A national first-class performer. He entered the Chengdu Quyi Troupe in 1977 as the closed-door disciple of the jinqianban master Zou Zhongxin. He composed jinqianban sung passages in 1979 and began studying quyi theory from 1981; his speech and singing have full rhymes, harmonious rhythm and a distinctive style. People's Daily (overseas edition) and dozens of other media throughout the country have published various interviews and reports about him, and photographs of his performances are included in the Encyclopedia of China (volume on Chinese opera and quyi). Representative inheritor of jinqianban in the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects. He has received more than thirty national, provincial and ministerial level awards. He has been granted honorary titles such as Outstanding Young and Middle-Aged Quyi Performer, conferred by the China Quyi Artists Association, and Outstanding Expert with Outstanding Contribution to Chengdu, conferred by the Organization Department of the Chengdu Municipal Committee.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Zou Zhongxin 03-1198
• Zhang Xu 03-1199
• Dingzhangfu 05-2518

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Jinqianban (Chengdu, Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zou Zhongxin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Zhang Xu · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗