Baojuan Sutra Telling
01 · Historical Records
Baojuan is a kind of popular preaching text evolved from the Tang transformation texts and the Song scripture-telling; from the Ming and Qing it embraced a great deal of folk legend, folk song and social custom, becoming a folk literary form at once sacred and secular, grave and humorous, chiefly narrative and combining verse and prose. In January 2007 Jingjiang was named by the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association a Home of the Transmission of Chinese Baojuan Culture.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The old texts of Jingjiang baojuan number more than a hundred kinds, of which over sixty kinds of printed and manuscript copies survive. The city now has more than a hundred and twenty baojuan chanting artists, and more than three thousand sessions of scroll-chanting are held each year. The Jingjiang baojuan texts are mostly old block-printed, lithographed or manuscript copies; of great age, some are already incomplete, worm-eaten or lost, and have fallen from more than a hundred kinds in the past to more than sixty. Third, young listeners are decreasing.
The Precious Scroll of the Three Mao
One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan.
The Precious Scroll of the Great Sage
One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan.
The Precious Scroll of the Guanyin of Fragrant Mountain
One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan.
Fourth Sister Zhang Makes Havoc in the Eastern Capital
One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan.
The Ten Gold-Folding Fans
One of the representative texts of the Jingjiang baojuan.
Jiangjing (Xuanjuan)
The Jingjiang custom of telling and singing baojuan; the city now has more than a hundred and twenty chanting artists.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The chanting of baojuan was once current over the vast area from Gansu and Shaanxi to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and most flourished in the Wu dialect area of the lower Yangzi, commonly called jiangjing or xuanjuan, with a history of nearly three hundred years to the present.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hexibaojuan · Hexibaojuan · Baojuan Sutra Telling · Baojuan Sutra Telling · Baojuan Sutra Telling.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
From the content of such scrolls as The Precious Scroll of the Three Mao, The Precious Scroll of the Great Sage, The Precious Scroll of the Guanyin of Fragrant Mountain, The Fate of the Flower Lantern, Fourth Sister Zhang Makes Havoc in the Eastern Capital, The Record of the Blood-Stained Shirt, Selling Medicine Through Nine Halls and The Ten Gold-Folding Fans, as well as The Record of the Uprising at the Jiangyin Fortress, it can be seen that the Jingjiang baojuan combines art, religion and folklore in one; its multi-genre folk literary form, its colourful folk custom and its rich folk knowledge supply a great deal of material for the study of folk literature, folklore and cultural history, and it is called the living fossil of Chinese popular literature. The Jingjiang jiangjing baojuan is still transmitted, but has also become endangered: first, the texts are damaged and lost; second, the transmitting ranks are weakening, with a latent crisis of no successors. In a few more years, as the elderly listeners pass away, the chanting of baojuan will inevitably decline and urgently needs protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Qiao Yuan 01-0010
- Li Zuobing 03-0780
- Zhang Donghai 05-1991
- Rui Shilong 05-1992
- Daixingwei 05-1993
- Liu Zhengkun
- Zhao Xufeng
- Wang Lijuan
- Pei Luping
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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