Weeding Gong and Drum
01 · Historical Records
The Wuning drum-song formed in the Qianlong reign of the Qing; it is a folk musical form gradually formed after the weeding song of Hubei was introduced, and has a history of more than three hundred years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The weeding gong-and-drum, also called the “racket song” and commonly known as “making a racket”, is a folk-song form current in the Tujia areas of settlement. In the weeding season the Tujia gather scores or even hundreds of people for collective labour, and at such times two singers are usually invited to perform facing the weeding crowd, one beating the drum and one striking the gong, singing and dancing to the sound of gong and drum while the weeding crowd joins in the chorus. In dancing, the hands sway with the steps, the left hand with the left foot and the right hand with the right foot—light and lively, soft yet firm. The tunes of the weeding gong-and-drum are flexible and varied, and the song master can change the lyrics according to the time of day and the hour, so as to enliven the atmosphere and turn the monotonous and toilsome farm labour into a fiery and cheerful collective activity. The Wuning drum-song has rich and varied drum rhythms: it is generally in four rounds of drumming, each round with changes of pace from light to heavy and from slow to urgent, and the metre includes the free beat and 2/4, 4/4, 3/4, 5/4 and 6/4, varying flexibly with the person, the time and the place. Its melodies are simple and lively, basically formed of variations on two phrases, upper and lower, with the yu and zhi pentatonic modes alternating, taking yu, zhi and gong as the skeleton tones and ending the whole piece on the zhi tone. Its structural organization is free in joining and dividing: there are long narrative poems, such as the three-hundred-and-sixty-stanza The Plum Blossom Three Hundred and Sixty, short lyrical poems, such as the ten-stanza Ten Partings and Ten Longings, and also small poems of one stanza of lyrics, called locally “song chicks”. Its means of expression are varied, among which the vivid comparison, the bold exaggeration and the flexible padding words are common, and the treatment of the end of each stanza of lyrics is often unexpected and of inexhaustible charm. Under the influence of modern popular culture many young people are unwilling to learn the drum-song, and at the same time artists of deep attainment, old and infirm, have died one after another.
The Plum Blossom Three Hundred and Sixty
A three-hundred-and-sixty-stanza long narrative drum-song.
Ten Partings, Ten Longings and the “Song Chicks”
The ten-stanza short lyrical poems and the small poems of one stanza of lyrics.
The Four Rounds of Drumming and the Free Beat, 2/4, 4/4 Metres
The drum rhythms, each round with changes of pace from light to heavy and slow to urgent, varying flexibly with the person, the time and the place.
The Singing Procedure of Song Head, Invitation of the Gods, Raising Song and Sending Off of the Gods
The content structure of the Wuning drum-song lyrics, in a single rhyme throughout.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The lyrics are mostly in a single rhyme throughout, and their content is divided into the parts of the “song head”, commonly called the “prelude”, the “invitation of the gods”, the “raising song” and the “sending off of the gods”. It is distributed mainly in the various townships of Wuning county in Jiangxi and in Xiushui, Ruichang and De'an and the neighbouring Yangxin and Tongshan of Hubei; the folk drum artisans are concentrated mainly in the townships of Chuantan, Donglin, Shangtang, Lixi, Yangzhou, Luxi, Henglu, Luoxi and Shimenlou in Wuning. By kind, the drum-song may be divided into the topical song, the love song and the custom song.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Chuanbeihaocao 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
The Wuning drum-song is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the people of Wuning through the ages and has important research value in folk literature, musical historiography and ethnomusicology. Today people's manner of labour has changed greatly and the drum-song is gradually losing the folk soil on which it depended for survival. This ancient folk musical form faces the crisis of being lost and must be saved and protected as soon as possible. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Meng Fanlin, who in 1945 learned to sing the drum-song with his father, uncle and other elders of the older generation of drum-song artisans, continually improving his skill in practice and performing more than a thousand drum-songs, including Coming to the Hills, with solid drumming and singing skill, widely current across northern Jiangxi. The Wuning drum-songs he sang have been listed as teaching material by the conservatories of Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, and the neck-straining song he sang has been included as an entry in the Dictionary of Chinese Music. Male, Han, born December 1927, died November 2015, a native of Wuning county, Jiangxi. He was a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the weeding gong-and-drum (Wuning drum-song), and over many years trained nearly a hundred drum artisans and nearly a thousand amateur singers for the Wuning drum-song. Fang Yougen, at the ten-thousand-people song fair and academic seminar held by the Wuning county government in 1986, sang such pieces as Coming to the Hills to the high praise of the experts present. Some of his pieces have been included as entries in the Dictionary of Chinese Music. In 2006 he was specially engaged as a drum-song instructor, teaching the drum-song in the county's primary and middle schools. Male, Han, born October 1941, died June 2020, a native of Wuning county, Jiangxi. He was a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the weeding gong-and-drum (Wuning drum-song).
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
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。