Napo Zhuang Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Napo Zhuang folk song is the ballad sung from generation to generation by the Heiyizhuang (“Black-Clad Zhuang”) living in Napo county, Guangxi, on the Sino-Vietnamese border. The Heiyizhuang call themselves “Min”, “Zhong” and “Ao” and are named for their all-black dress, and to this day they preserve folk ballads that are simple and ancient, complete and wonderfully varied. In their long development these folk songs have coexisted with local customs of marriage and mourning, sacrifice and festival, forming a singing tradition of relatively stable procedure and strikingly original character, praised as a “rich mine of Guangxi ethnic music” and a “living fossil” of Zhuang folk song.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Heiyizhuang are a group of the Zhuang of singular colour; they call themselves “Min”, “Zhong” and “Ao”, number about 51,800 at present, and are named for their all-black dress; they live mainly in Napo county, Guangxi, on the Sino-Vietnamese border. The Napo Zhuang folk song is the folk song they have sung from generation to generation. In the long course of history the Heiyizhuang have preserved to this day folk ballads that are simple and ancient, complete and wonderfully varied, and are praised as a “rich mine of Guangxi ethnic music” and a “living fossil” of Zhuang folk song. Representative pieces include Sui to Entertain Guests, Lun Zao, The Wine Song, The Questioning Song and The Ancestor-Sacrifice Song. In content the Napo Zhuang folk songs include chiefly narrative songs of myth and legend, biography, environmental change and historical event; bitter songs pouring out suffering and accusing oppression; farming songs reflecting nature and the experience of life; songs of praise longing for beautiful scenery; songs of etiquette for receiving people and handling affairs; custom songs expressing traditional habits; sacrificial songs of condolence and mourning; and toast songs celebrating marriage, the first month of a baby's life, the completion of a new house and the birthdays of the old. The richest of all are the love songs, which include more than twenty kinds of content—lyric, first love, joining in love, teasing, wagering love, betrothal, pledging, praise, longing, constancy, parting, exhortation, grief, nostalgia, reunion, bitter love, lament, rivalry and growing old together. In its long development the Napo Zhuang folk song has formed the features of coexistence with folk custom, relatively stable procedure, rich and varied content and original character.
Sui to Entertain Guests
Representative pieces of the Napo Zhuang folk song include Sui to Entertain Guests, Lun Zao, The Wine Song, The Questioning Song and The Ancestor-Sacrifice Song.
Lun Zao
A representative piece of the Heiyizhuang folk song of Napo county, Guangxi, sung at village gatherings.
The Wine Song
A representative Napo Zhuang folk song of the toast-song group, sung at weddings and the completion of new houses.
The Questioning Song
A representative Napo Zhuang folk song belonging to the group of custom and social songs.
The Ancestor-Sacrifice Song
A representative Napo Zhuang folk song of the sacrificial group, sung in rites of ancestor worship.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Napo Zhuang folk song, of long history, may by different tonal styles be divided into six great kinds—the Suimin, the Lun, the Aidiya, the Spring Ox tune, the Invitation to the Immortals Song and the Panrui—amounting to more than a hundred and sixty suites.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Besides its functions of intercourse, publicity, education and entertainment, the Napo Zhuang folk song has at the same time historical, academic, artistic and practical value, for it is a survival of the ancient ballad culture of the Zhuang. Because the cultural space on which it depended for survival and development has changed, because the chief channel of transmission is disappearing, the places of activity are gradually shrinking and the master-pupil line is broken, the ballads of the Heiyizhuang face a severe crisis of transmission. To save, explore, collate and protect the ballads of the Heiyizhuang therefore brooks no delay. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Luo Jingchao, male, Zhuang, born 1943, a native of Napo, Guangxi. He began training singers in 1980 and in 1988 began collecting and collating mountain songs in the course of singing; he has now collected and collated thirty-two traditional mountain songs. His representative works include The Three Represents Are Three Flowers and Singing of the Sixteenth Party Congress. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Napo Zhuang folk song. He knows the Zhuang script and his singing is melodious and pleasing; in 2002 he was awarded the title of “Guangxi song king” by the publicity department of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regional committee and the regional department of culture.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ajiawen 02-0261
- Luo Jingchao 02-0262
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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