Weeding Gong and Drum
01 · Historical Records
The Yichang weeding gong-and-drum is an important component of Yiling folk song; it is distributed mainly in the townships of Fenxiang, Xiabaoping, Wuduhe and Longquan in Yiling district of Yichang city, Hubei, and has a history of more than one hundred and fifty 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 Yichang weeding gong-and-drum may be named for the different farm activities, such as the rice-transplanting gong-and-drum, the weeding gong-and-drum and the firewood-cutting gong-and-drum; it may also be named for the number, or establishment, of gongs and drums: one gong and one drum is called the “one-gong drum” or “single-gong drum”; two gongs and one drum, or three gongs and two drums, is called the “mixed gong-and-drum”; two gongs and two drums is called the “paired gong-and-drum”; that made up of gong, cymbals, horse gong and drum is called the “four-kind gong-and-drum” or “beating the four pieces”; adding a suona to the “one-gong drum” or “four-kind gong-and-drum” is called the “wind gong-and-drum”; and so on. A large wind gong-and-drum ensemble of eight people and ten instruments is called the “silk-string gong-and-drum”, a rare kind among weeding gong-and-drums, current in Yaqueling and Longquan in Yiling. The Yichang weeding gong-and-drum belongs to the banqiang linked-qu form, generally made up of more than ten vocal styles and tunes, with as many as eighty-odd in the fullest cases, whence the saying “nine styles and eighteen beats, thirty-six calls and seventy-two kinds of tune”. A single three-note-mode song has the three structural forms “561, 612, 613”, commonly called the “three-note song”. In particular the three-note song formed of two minor-third intervals has the lingering manner of the ancient songs of Chu.
The Rice-Transplanting Gong-and-Drum, the Weeding Gong-and-Drum and the Firewood-Cutting Gong-and-Drum
The categories of the Yichang weeding gong-and-drum named for the different farm activities.
The One-Gong Drum, the Mixed Gong-and-Drum, the Paired Gong-and-Drum and the Four-Kind Gong-and-Drum
The categories named for the number, or establishment, of gongs and drums.
The Silk-String Gong-and-Drum and the Wind Gong-and-Drum
The large ensemble of eight people and ten instruments, a rare kind among weeding gong-and-drums.
“Nine Styles and Eighteen Beats, Thirty-Six Calls and Seventy-Two Kinds of Tune”
The banqiang linked-qu system, whose vocal styles and tunes may reach more than eighty.
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”. Because the people of Yiling are used to the two ways of singing “fitting the tune to the words” and “fitting the words to the tune”, the Yichang weeding gong-and-drum has formed four different “musical dialects”: the intonation melody, the rhyme melody, the song-tune melody and the song-manner melody.
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 Yichang weeding gong-and-drum is transmitted in the two ways of master-to-apprentice instruction and village continuity. Further uncovering and sorting it is of great significance for advancing the study of the local folk customs, language and literature and ethnic music. Because of the change in modern modes of production, the ageing of the artists and the general indifference of the younger generation to tradition, the weeding gong-and-drum faces a crisis of survival and urgently needs saving and protection.
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)
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