Chuanbeihaocao Gong and Drum

01 · Historical Records

The northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum arose in the field labour of the mountain country of the northern Sichuan basin. Qingchuan county lies at the junction of the three provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi; the mountains are high and the woods dense, and when weeding the second crop of maize or hoeing the soya beans the peasants worked in bands, and so they took the form of one man beating the drum, one striking the gong and the song master leading the singing to unify their pace and regulate their mood, handed down from generation to generation to become a fixed institution.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Qingchuan county lies in the mountain country of the northern Sichuan basin at the junction of the three provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi and is known as the “home of the giant panda”. The northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum is generally carried out when weeding the second crop of maize or hoeing the soya beans: one man beats the drum, one strikes the gong, and the gong-striker, the song master, plays the role of commander among the weeding band of several dozen people. The course of a day's performance of the weeding gong-and-drum is roughly divided into the stages of drawing the thread, fitting the lid (starting the song head or arranging the song head), settling the five directions (or saluting the five directions), telling the main text, playing the song and making the handover. Representative pieces of the northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum include The Story of Han Xiang, The Picture of the Eight Immortals, Twelve Branches of Flowers, Herding Cattle and Fighting the Tiger and The Nine-Stroke Hammer. The gong-and-drum beats of the weeding gong-and-drum are chiefly the seven-beat, the nine-beat, the twelve-beat and the flower beat. The tunes and lyrics are divided by the number of characters into the seven-character score and the ten-character score; there are also the five-character score and other tunes, as well as the traditional lyrics handed down orally and improvised lyrics. The northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum played the role in field work of directing the labour, enlivening the atmosphere on the spot and regulating the workers' mood.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum is distributed mainly in the four counties and three districts of Guangyuan city, of which the Qingchuan weeding gong-and-drum is the most representative.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum · Weeding Gong and Drum.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

It has a frank and plain musical individuality and a rich store of thousands of pieces, and in its bright and concise musical idiom it preserves a great deal of the musical-cultural information of ancient manual labour, with relatively high academic research value. Today, under the influence of modern modes of production, the traditional ways of production and life find it hard to keep pace with the times, and the living space of the northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum is shrinking day by day, with the danger of being lost: the old singers have died one after another, most young people have gone out to work and the labour force has migrated in great numbers, so that the ranks of singers lack continuity. Protecting and transmitting the northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum has therefore reached a critical moment. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Wang Shaoxing, male, Han, born 1942, a native of Qingchuan, Sichuan. Since 1959 he has led the weeding gong-and-drum team of his production team in performance; the team's gong-and-drum beats are clearly marked and its vocal melodies fine, and with the addition of many mountain-song tunes it is deeply loved by the common people. He can sing the traditional five-character, seven-character and ten-character scores, such as Two-Sided Ash Willow Leaves and In the Third Month All the Hundred Grasses Are Green. At every farm household event he often appears in the role of song master or master of ceremonies, with an excellent reputation. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the northern Sichuan weeding gong-and-drum. He began learning the weeding gong-and-drum with his grandfather Wang Yingji in 1955, being the fourth-generation bearer of the Wang family weeding gong-and-drum of Banqiao Tielu village. Since 1980 he has trained bearers, holding that the traditional manner of singing the weeding gong-and-drum should be inherited and combined with the times, taking its essence for our use.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

• Wang Shaoxing 02-0252
• Meng Fanlin 03-0824
• Wang Aimin 03-0825
• Zhang Zhongxiang 05-2047
• Fang Yougen 05-2048
• Leng Haoran 05-2049
• Li Decui
• Xiao Shiqin
• Zhang Yuzhen

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Chuanbeihaocao Gong and Drum (Qingchuan, Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Wang Shaoxing · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗