Meihua Dagu Drum Balladry
01 · Historical Records
Meihua dagu is a form of quyi performance circulating in Tianjin municipality, Beijing municipality, Hebei Province and other places. It originated in Beijing, flourished in Tianjin, and emerged in the middle of the Qing dynasty, when it was called "meihua diao". It was first sung by amateur enthusiasts (piaoyou) as a "qingke chuan" (an amateur gentleman's performance), so it was also known as "qingkou dagu". In the early twentieth century the singing of "qingke chuan" spilled into the streets and became a means of earning a living, and well-known performers emerged such as Jin Wanchang, Han Yongzhong, Han Yonglu and Su Qiyuan. The "meihua diao" they reformed and used for street performance was called, according to the region in which it circulated, "nanban meihua diao" or "meihua dagu"; the "meihua diao" originally performed as "qingke chuan" was instead called "beiban dagu". In the early twentieth century Jin Wanchang went to Tianjin to perform, bringing Meihua dagu into the city and singing there for many years. He formed a style of his own, popularly called the "Jin school".
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lu Chengke, a noted string-player from Tianjin who had accompanied Jin Wanchang, further improved and enriched the vocal styles, melodies, singing methods and accompaniment of Meihua dagu around 1930. He enriched the accompaniment with many fresh and lively guomen (interludes), and in particular added the "sanfan" interlude, making the singing fiery and animated as well as mellow and pleasing, and forming a new style known as the "Lu school" or the "Hua school". Meihua dagu pieces are all short drum ballads. It belongs to the banqiang (metrical) system; each short sung section generally runs to no more than one hundred lines. Each set of lyrics is generally divided into four or five sections, each of which is musically called a "luo". The lyrics take the form of corresponding upper and lower lines. In the upper lines, apart from the opening line which takes a level tone (the starting rhyme), the final character of each line is an oblique tone. The final character of each lower line is a level tone and rhymes; except in "Wang Erjie Longing for Her Husband", the same rhyme runs all the way through. The lyrics consist mainly of seven-syllable and ten-syllable lines. It has three metrical forms — "manban", "erliuban" and "shangban" — and three basic vocal styles, each of the three taking its name from its own metrical form. Its principal accompanying instruments are the sanxian, sihu and pipa; the yangqin and cello were added later. Meihua dagu has two kinds of interlude: the small guomen between musical phrases, and the large guomen between one luo and the next, composed in the "manban" vocal style. The melody of the first two bars of the small guomen often varies somewhat. There are two large guomen, the "upper sanfan" and the "lower sanfan"; normally, at the end of a luo the upper line of the "manban" vocal style is followed by the upper sanfan and the lower line by the lower sanfan. In accompanying, the performers not only "support the vocal line and preserve its melody"; interlude passages such as the "five-tone (hand-changing) linked plucking" also have their own corresponding independent performing effect.
The sanfan interludes
Lu Chengke's reforms added lively interludes, notably the sanfan; the upper and lower sanfan follow the slow-mode lines ending a stanza.
Three metres
The three metres double as the three basic tunes, each named after its metre; a text divides into four or five musical stanzas.
Wang Erjie Pines for Her Husband
A traditional item; the genre's short pieces run under a hundred lines and keep one rhyme throughout, with this piece the exception.
Five-tone hand-changing ensemble
An interlude passage with its own concert effect, joining the small links between phrases and the large links between stanzas.
The Jin and Lu schools
Jin Wanchang brought the form to Tianjin and founded the Jin school; his accompanist Lu Chengke's reforms founded the Lu or Hua school.
Modern representative pieces
Signature pieces of the inheritor Ji Wei, who trained under Hua Wubao and won three national drum-song prizes in the 1980s.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Meihua dagu originated in Beijing, flourished in Tianjin, and spread to Hebei and parts of Northeast China; Beijing and Tianjin each have their own line of transmission, with slight differences in singing method and in the choice of repertoire.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Through the transmission and development of generations of quyi performers, Meihua dagu has formed a relatively complete system of performance. It is a comparatively influential genre in northern quyi, has a fairly broad popular base, is an important vehicle for the thought, ideals and moral ethics of the people, and possesses high artistic, social and cultural value. Ji Wei (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Female, of Han nationality, born in May 1956, a native of Renqiu City, Hebei Province. National first-class actress; recipient of the special government allowance of the State Council. In 1987 she became a disciple of the noted Meihua dagu master Hua Wubao and received comprehensive, systematic professional training. She has a good voice and strong comprehension, and has inherited very firmly the aesthetic style of Meihua dagu singing described as "sad, bewitching and brittle". Her stage appearance is graceful and her manner noble and elegant; her singing is understated and deep, soft yet firm, mellow and expansive, and highly expressive. She is familiar not only with a great many traditional classic Meihua dagu pieces but is also skilled at innovation. Her representative works include "Erquan Yingyue" (Moon Reflected on the Second Spring), "Banping Shan" (Half a Screen of Mountains) and "Shuiren" (The Sleeping Beauty). She is still active on the stage today and is dearly loved by audiences. Representative inheritor of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage project Meihua dagu. In the 1980s she won first prize for performance three times in the national drum-ballad competition.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jiwei 05-2527
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。