Heianchuan
01 · Historical Records
In 1984, after the long poem The Story of Darkness was discovered in Shennongjia and reported in the press, it drew wide attention from scholarship. Singing The Story of Darkness had long been prevalent among the people, but in the course of history, because of its important subject, complex structure and content closer to a recounting of human origins, folk singers gradually turned it to the occasion of funeral songs. The Ming Baokang Gazetteer is the earliest extant document recording in writing the singing of The Story of Darkness. In 1986 a brush manuscript of The Story of Darkness was found at the home of the folk artist Qu Dingchao, then over eighty, of Dahengxi in Maqiao; in 1992 a manuscript of The Story of Darkness of the first year of Guangxu, 1875, more than two thousand one hundred lines long, was found in Xiema town; and afterwards a Qing manuscript of The Story of Darkness, ninety-six pages and thirty chapters, more than three thousand lines long, with Hetu Luo book and eight-trigram diagrams, was found in Dianya town and considered by Professor Liu Shouhua of Central China Normal University the most complete manuscript. These versions had already reached Shennongjia in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2005 more than ten manuscripts of The Story of Darkness have been found in Maqiao and Xiema.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Baokang county lies in the heart of the Jingshan mountains in the north-west of Hubei. Baokang and Shennongjia are linked by hills and waters and share the same cultural root. The Story of Darkness is widely current in Baokang. Baokang is a home of folk song, its folk songs rich in content and varied in form. They are divided mainly into the two great categories of yang songs and yin songs. Yang songs are the weeding gong-and-drum, mountain songs, love songs, festive songs, revel songs and beam-raising songs sung by day. Yin songs specifically mean funeral songs, the night gong-and-drum song and the mourning song. The folk singers Wu Kechong, Tang Guoying, Wan Zude, Chen Changwei, Yang Pingfa, Zou Wenfang and Zhu Guangtian can all sing The Story of Darkness through.
The Manuscript of The Story of Darkness of 1875
The manuscript of 1875 found in Xiema town, more than two thousand one hundred lines long.
The Manuscript The Story of the Primal Ancestor
The Qing manuscript found in Dianya town, ninety-six pages and thirty chapters, with Hetu Luo book and eight-trigram diagrams.
Weeding Gong-and-Drum
One of the yang-song kinds sung by day.
Funeral Songs (Night Gong-and-Drum, Mourning Songs)
The kind specifically meant by yin songs, the main occasion of singing The Story of Darkness.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Story of Darkness is widely current in Baokang; Baokang is a home of folk song, its folk songs divided into the two great categories of yang and yin songs, yin songs specifically meaning funeral songs. Baokang is one of the important places of discovery and transmission of The Story of Darkness, with the greatest number of manuscripts and singers.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Heianchuan.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Story of Darkness is a Han epic in the broad sense; Baokang is one of its important places of discovery and transmission, with the greatest number of manuscripts and singers, and should be protected.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Kecong 05-2020
- Chen Qiesong 05-2021
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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