Lisu Folk Songs

01 · Historical Records

Lushui lies in the southern section of the great Nujiang gorge and is one of the core areas of Lisu settlement. From the Tang and Song periods the Lisu forebears moved west by stages from the Jinsha and Lancang river basins into the Nujiang basin, and their folk songs spread with them among the mountain stockades of Lushui. From the Ming and Qing onwards, with the loosening of the clan villages and the flourishing of such folk activities as the Denggeng bathing-pool song contest, the three great song tunes of the baishi, the mugua and the youye formed in the Lushui area a stable pattern of transmission and became an indispensable part of local Lisu weddings, house-warmings and festivals.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Lisu folk songs include such song kinds as the mugua, the baishi and the youye. The “mugua” is one of the most important and most widely current of the Lisu folk-song kinds, circulating in the Lisu areas of settlement of the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Yunnan. In the Lisu language “mugua” originally referred generally to all songs and tunes, and later gradually became the specific name for the narrative ancient song; other songs and tunes of the mugua class are generally prefixed by their content, such as the achimugua (the goat tune) and the qiben mugua (the three-string tune). The mugua is used mainly for traditional narrative long poems of serious content and solemn atmosphere, and is mostly sung at national festivals, gatherings and similar times and occasions. Representative sung contents include The Creation, The Song of Production, The Shepherd's Song and The Song of Fleeing Marriage, and its tunes are plain and deep, with a bleak and ancient style. In antiphonal singing one person from each side leads and the many accompany: the leader sings a line and the accompaniers answer a line, and the chanting is enlivened with wine, drinking and singing together. The mugua antiphonal singing also has the character of a contest; if both leaders are masters of song, the contest may last several days and nights. The Lisu traditional narrative ancient songs sung antiphonally in the mugua manner touch widely on ethnic origins, human reproduction, production and life, customs and manners, love and marriage, religious belief and intercourse between peoples, vividly reproducing the broad panorama of Lisu social history and possessing relatively high cognitive and aesthetic value. The long narrative song The Song of Fleeing Marriage, for instance, reflects the Lisu marriage customs of “betrothal before birth” and “cattle as betrothal gift”, the social custom of fleeing marriage to win freedom and love, the primitive beliefs of killing a sheep to summon the soul, swearing by a dog's head and cursing over sprinkled wine, and also the spirit of unity in mutual exchange and mutual help among the various peoples and the level of the Lisu's productive forces and their conditions of production. With the passing away one after another of the older generation of singers, few people today can sing in full the content of the Lisu mugua historical songs and long narrative songs. The “baishi” and the “youye” are the two most representative kinds of Lisu mountain song in the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Yunnan. The baishi is widely current in the Lisu areas of Lushui county and Lanping county and is sung in ordinary times and on festive occasions such as festival gatherings, celebrations of harvest and marriages; its lyrics are wide-ranging and its tune warm and unrestrained, well suited to the expression of inner passion, and it is deeply loved by the Lisu people. The baishi is mostly antiphonal singing between groups of men and women, and may also be sung by one person as a solo for self-enjoyment. The “duowo” sings mainly traditional narrative long poems, while the “xiawo” is improvised according to the partner in the singing, mostly on love and current affairs. Representative pieces of the baishi include The Bamboo-String Song, Song of Recalling Bitterness and Tears of the Orphan. The annual Denggeng “bathing-pool song contest” of Lushui county is a grand occasion of baishi antiphonal singing. The youye is current mainly in the Lisu villages of Fugong county and is divided by content and form into two kinds: one, in which the middle-aged and elderly sit round the fire pit drinking and singing antiphonally, has as its main content the recalling of past sorrows and suffering, with a low tune, slow tempo and even melody; the other, lighter and livelier in tune, is the chief means by which young men and women express their feelings, and may be sung antiphonally between man and woman or between persons of the same sex. The first kind of youye is now seldom sung, while the second is still widely current. Common youye pieces include The Hunting Song, Whispered Words and The Firewood-Cutting Song. The baishi and the youye are outstanding representatives of the Lisu oral literary art; through the creations of generations of singers they have long accumulated an extremely rich sung content touching almost every aspect of social life and folk activity. They have also created many artistic means of expression full of ethnic character—the sentence patterns, rhymes and rhetorical features of Lisu poetry, for instance, are chiefly embodied in these folk songs—and they reflect the typical musical features of Lisu folk song, for such things as the Lisu's multi-voice singing, vibrato singing and use of padding words are all fully embodied in the baishi and the youye.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The mugua is generally sung antiphonally by middle-aged and elderly men divided into two sides, sitting cross-legged round the fire pit and questioning and answering in the roles of man and woman. Its sung content is divided into the two kinds of the “duowo” and the “xiawo”.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Lisu Folk Songs.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

If it is not rescued and explored in good time and the training of a younger generation of singers taken in hand, the mugua will face the situation of having no successors. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Wang Li, male, Lisu, born 1929, a native of Nujiang, Yunnan. In 1937 he began to take a master and learn the singing of Lisu folk songs and the playing of the qiben, and mastered all the original-ecology vocal styles of the Lisu folk songs, so that he could sing different songs on different occasions—festival celebrations, house-warmings, weddings and funerals. The Lisu folk songs he sang were complete in content and great in influence; the most influential are the “three great tunes” of the Lisu folk song (the baishi, the mugua and the youye), and he was especially skilled in qiben playing and singing, with a high level of technique. In 2002 he was named a “Yunnan provincial folk artist” by the Yunnan provincial department of culture. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Lisu folk song. Li Xuehua, male, Lisu, born January 1952, a native of Lushui county, Yunnan. From childhood he loved to sit among the elders and listen to them sing. Nurtured by his parents and the artists of the village, he mastered the singing techniques and the sung content of the Lisu folk songs and could sing different tunes on different occasions. Whether the traditional “youye” expressing the true feeling of man and woman, the “mugua” chanting ancient songs and narrative long poems, or the improvised “baishi”, he could sing them all at will. At the same time he applies his distinctive singing techniques with great skill: in singing short notes he uses much vibrato, and in singing long notes he is full of rise and fall, beautiful and mellow, abundantly passionate and moving. In 1999 he took part in founding the Lushui Lufeng folk art troupe and served as its deputy head, leading the troupe all year round in performances and competitions. He is a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Lisu folk song.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Wang Li 02-0240
• Li Xuehua 03-0816
• Achengheng 05-2039

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Lisu Folk Songs (Lushui, Yunnan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Wang Li · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Li Xuehua · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗