Shulaibao
01 · Historical Records
According to legend it had already taken shape in the Ming dynasty, and lines of transmission such as those of Suo, Li and Zhu appeared in the area of Beijing. From the 1930s to the 1950s, as performance venues for quyi in Beijing grew more varied, Shulaibao appeared not only in street singing and luodi (ground) performance but also in shuchang (teahouse storytelling houses) and amusement halls; radio stations vied with one another to broadcast Shulaibao programmes, and Shulaibao thus became an important form of entertainment and aesthetic pleasure for the city's residents. There is also a variant apparatus called the "salaji": three long bamboo slats, two held in the left hand and one in the right, fitted with a folding fan made of ox scapula bone, popularly called "halaba", to which 13 bells are tied. The number 13 signifies the 13 guilds of Ming-dynasty Shulaibao performers and also symbolises the administrative division of China at the time into "seven provinces in the south and sixty-three in the north".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shulaibao, also called "kuaiban", is a form of quyi performance that narrates in rhythmic recitation using Beijing local accent, accompanied by bamboo clappers and other percussion instruments marking the beat. Its performance calls for fluency of speech, rhyming that follows the rhyme categories, improvisation, and witty humour. Shulaibao passed through three stages: walking the streets, performing on the ground for a living, and appearing on stage. Because performers had to go from door to door, their audience consisted mainly of shops and business houses and wealthier households. The name derives from praising the goods a shop sells as rich and fine, so that in "counting" them it seems as though "treasures" have been "added" — hence the name Shulaibao. Shulaibao is performed in three formats: solo (dankou), paired dialogue (duikou) and group (qunkou), of which the paired form is the most common. Modelling itself on the pengdou (punch-and-parry) technique of xiangsheng, the two performers, known as Jia and Yi, typically trade jabs back and forth, full of lively wit. Today the interplay of the Jia and Yi performers is no longer confined to a simple duopeng (jab-and-support) relationship; continuation and alternation between them are now common. Solo Shulaibao usually keeps to a single rhyme from beginning to end and is used mostly for encores and opening numbers, with droll, playful passages predominating. Principal works include "Zhuge Liang Escorts the Treasure", "Slaying the Younger Cousin" and "Do Not Be Anxious". Shulaibao lyrics are flexible and varied; performers must draw on nimble wits and rich experience to "take feeling from the scene before them" — the eye watches, the mind composes, the mouth sings. The lyrics are strict about rhyme categories and mostly use "mixed rhymes", changing the rhyme every two lines. Lines follow the "three-three-seven" and "two-two-three" patterns. Experienced performers can add padding syllables, filler words, inset words, and techniques such as "three-character heads" and "four-character stacked lines", making the lines highly varied, jaunty and amusing. Accompaniment at first used three boards: two bamboo clappers plus a narrow saw-toothed board, also called the "kaishu board". In war years as in peacetime it has always served as a "light cavalry of literature and art"; through lyrics that reflect the people's hardships, expose the darkness of the old society, touch on current affairs and news, and spread new civilising trends, it has played a positive social role.
Three stock items
Three of the principal items, drawn from folklore and street life and prized for improvisation and humour.
The seven boards and the jiezi
Its clappers began as three boards; today most performers use seven, two in the right hand and five small ones, the jiezi, in the left.
The 3-3-7 and 2-2-3 line patterns
Its lines follow 3-3-7 or 2-2-3 patterns with frequent rhyme changes, and skilled artists add padding, inlays and stacked phrases.
The Suo, Li and Zhu schools
The form is said to date from the Ming, with the Suo, Li and Zhu lineages in Beijing; a related variant hangs thirteen bells.
From street to stage
The three stages of street-door begging, open-ground busking and stage performance, with radio broadcasts from the 1930s to 1950s.
Comic partnering
Duets dominate, borrowing xiangsheng's feed-and-punch technique, though contemporary pairs also use relay and rotation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shulaibao fully embodies the character and humour of the Beijing dialect, is the crystallisation of the wisdom and creativity of folk performers, and has always been a form the broad masses of the people delighted in and readily accepted.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today, apart from the few who beat ox-bone or jade clappers, most performers beat "seven boards": two large boards struck with the right hand, and a "jiezi" (beat-board set) of five small boards struck with the left.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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