Panwang Grand Song
01 · Historical Records
The Panwang Grand Song is the summation of Yao folk ballads, composed of prelude songs, inserted songs, main songs and miscellaneous songs; its main content concerns the Yao forebears' view of nature, of the cosmos and of history, and from the origin of mankind to the emergence of the Yao, from the Yao migrations to the pioneering of the ancestors, it comprehensively records the history, culture, customs and beliefs of the Yao, and may be called the “encyclopedia” of the Yao people. The Panwang Grand Song of the Jianghua Yao autonomous county includes mainly the following content: first, creation myths about the opening of heaven and earth and the origin of all things, such as The Flood Covers the Sky and The Gourd Song; second, heroic ancient songs about Yao history and migration, such as The Birth of King Pan and The Song of the Thousand-Family Cave; third, songs about labour and production, such as Releasing the Hunting Dog, reflecting the Yao hunting life, The Great Drought, expressing farming life, and Lu Ban Makes a Cart, describing handicraft labour; fourth, songs about love, such as The Sun Rises Early and The Sun Rises at Noon; fifth, songs reflecting the deities worshipped by the Yao, such as King Pan and the Thunder King; and sixth, songs showing a humorous and amusing life, such as Seeing a Great Marvel and The Song of What Thing. It was begun in primitive society, took shape in the Jin dynasty, was formed in the Tang and Song, and matured in the late Ming and early Qing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Panwang Grand Song circulates mainly in the Nanling (also called the Five Ridges) region, including the Jianghua Yao autonomous county of Yongzhou city, Hunan, the Yao autonomous county of Ruyuan and the Zhuang-and-Yao autonomous counties of Lianshan and Liannan in Guangdong, the Yao autonomous counties of Fuchuan, Du'an, Dahua, Jinxiu, Gongcheng and Bama in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and the Yao autonomous county of Hekou in Yunnan. The Panwang Grand Song of Jianghua county is a general collection of Yao poetry; the poems it gathers are mostly in the ancient style and use several forms together; their lines vary in length and their forms are diverse, mostly seven-character; the songs are inseparable from feeling and both song and feeling are rich; songs and tunes coexist, the songs having names and the tunes having labels, such as the “Seven-Tenure Tune”, the “Long Immortal Label” and the “Spoken Song”; it often uses the distinctive method of comparison and evocation to shape artistic images, describes history and figures in long-tempered language, and sings in traditional ethnic vocal style, and is deeply loved by the Yao people, with a broad popular base. The Panwang Grand Song of Jianghua county is an ancient song and historical lay widely collected, sorted and created by Yao folk artists and used to sacrifice to King Pan. The Panwang Grand Song is both an important oral cultural heritage and historical memory of the Yao and the wellspring of Yao cultural and artistic creation.
The Flood Covers the Sky and The Gourd Song
The creation myths about the opening of heaven and earth and the origin of all things among the Panwang Grand Song.
The Birth of King Pan and The Song of the Thousand-Family Cave
Heroic ancient songs about Yao history and migration.
Tunes such as the Seven-Tenure Tune and the Long Immortal Label
The musical system in which the songs have names and the tunes have labels.
The Panwang Festival and the Sitting-Song Hall
The sacrificial and singing-contest occasions at which song masters and song maidens lead the singing of the Panwang Grand Song.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Panwang Grand Song is centred on the Jianghua Yao autonomous county of Hunan and circulates in the Yao areas of settlement in Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Panwang Grand Song spans a thousand years and its lineage of transmission is relatively complex. In Jianghua and the neighbouring Yao areas the bearers recorded in historical materials include Pan Yuan and Zheng Kaiyuan and others. For a long time, as an important part of the Yao's telling of the “root” or tradition, the Panwang Grand Song has been widely current among the Yao people and has had a broad and profound social influence in the Nanling region, playing a positive role in transmitting the ethnic history and culture, rousing the ethnic spirit and raising cultural confidence, and safeguarding ethnic unity. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Zhao Gengmei, female, Yao, born June 1950, a native of the Jianghua Yao autonomous county, Hunan, a singer of the Panwang Grand Song. She can sing more than twenty tunes, including the high-mountain Yao songs, the spoken-song tune sung at the sitting-song hall, the mountain-crossing sound, the lahua tune, the waliu tune and the stacked-song tune, the mountain songs “High Mountain Dripping Water” and “High Mountain Note”, the “Seven-Tenure Tune” chanted by the ritual masters in the Panwang Grand Song, and the “Long-Sound Label”, “Short-Sound Label” and “Waiting for the Poem” sung by the song maidens. In 1964 she sang Yao songs in the Great Hall of the People, and has presided more than twenty times over Yao “sitting-song halls” and singing contests. In 1979 Hunan radio recorded her Yao song Standing on Yao Mountain Looking toward Beijing, sung in Beijing, and broadcast it on the Central People's Broadcasting Station. She is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Panwang Grand Song.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhao Gengmei 05-2029
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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