Baojuan Sutra Telling

01 · Historical Records

The Wu-region precious scrolls are a traditional narrative-singing form combining literature, music and performance, evolved from the popular preaching of the Tang transformation texts and the Buddhist scripture-telling of the Song; they are current throughout the Wu dialect area south of the Yangzi and in the Suzhou region circulate mainly in Tongli town of Wujiang district, Fenghuang town of Zhangjiagang, Jinxi town of Kunshan and Shengpu sub-district of the Suzhou Industrial Park, and are generally chanted in dialect at village temple fairs, farmhouse weddings, birthdays, house-movings and a baby's first haircut.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

From the Ming Xu Xianzhong's Collection of Anecdotes of Wuxing, which records that recently village custom has inserted Buddhist scriptures into exhortatory texts and colloquial speech, gathering in groups of ten or so and answering one another in song, calling it xuanjuan, it can be seen that the Wu-region precious scrolls have a history of at least five hundred years. In the Wu-region scrolls one leading singer sings the main part and two to eight supporting singers, together with the band, join in. The leading singer, standing or sitting, sings, recites, speaks and acts, while the others sit on either side of the square table. Each time the leading singer sings a line the supporting singers chant in response together. The Wu-region scrolls current in Suzhou were at first called wooden-fish xuanjuan. In the 1920s and 1930s the range of chanting continually expanded, the number of performers increased, and silk-and-bamboo instruments accompanied them; the tunes also absorbed, on the basis of the wooden-fish xuanjuan, some tunes from Suzhou tanhuang, huangdiao and the ditties of Jiangnan and pingtan, and traditional folk stories and myth were added, making the literary quality more evident. The Suzhou Wu-region scrolls are mainly in seven-character and ten-character verse interspersed with prose. Among the scroll texts are folk-belief kinds such as The Fragrant Mountain Scroll, The Opening-and-Closing Scroll and The Mulian Scroll; folk-story kinds such as The Record of the Jade Pendant, The Pearl Pagoda and The Record of the Golden Lock; and myth kinds such as The Luoyang Bridge, The Eight-Treasure Mountain and The Carp Spirit, more than three hundred kinds in all. Besides basic tunes such as the Mituo Tune, the Weituo Tune and the Haihua Tune, they also fuse with the melodies of local folk song, opera and narrative-singing, adding the Four Seasons Tune, the Silver Silk Tune, the Suzhou Scenery Tune, the Purple Bamboo Tune, the Silk-String Tune and the Cross Tune. The chanting of the Wu-region scrolls has strict ritual rules: before the opening a rite of inviting the Buddha is held, and after the end a rite of seeing off the Buddha. The Suzhou Wu-region scroll librettos have vivid plots and beautiful tunes and a fairly clear line of transmission, handed down from generation to generation through individuals and scroll troupes. Their content touches morality, ethics and custom, reflects the life, ideals and feelings of the people of Jiangnan, and is important material for folklore. Their stories mostly praise honesty, exhort people to goodness and sing of love, playing a positive role in cultivating character, harmonising the community and enlivening the cultural life of the masses.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

It is sung in the Wu dialect, easy to understand and warmly welcomed by the people.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Hexibaojuan · Hexibaojuan · Baojuan Sutra Telling · Baojuan Sutra Telling · Baojuan Sutra Telling.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Wu-region precious scrolls are handed down from generation to generation through families and scroll troupes; their librettos have vivid plots and beautiful tunes and their content touches morality, ethics and local custom, so that they are at once a record of the life and feelings of the people of Jiangnan and important living material for the study of the folklore and narrative arts of the Wu region; yet the transmitters are growing old and successors are lacking, so that protection urgently needs strengthening.

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

1. Baojuan Sutra Telling (Suzhou, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Rui Shilong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗