Shifan Music
01 · Historical Records
The Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi circulated in Shaobo Town of Jiangdu City, Jiangsu Province, is a form of folk instrumental music with distinctive character in the central Jiangsu region. It originated in the Ming dynasty, took shape in the Qing dynasty, developed during the Republican period and flourished in the early years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it has a comparatively long history of development.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shifan music is also called "ten classes" or "five pairs", taking its name from the ten instruments played, which are made of silk, bamboo, leather, wood and metal. This music is light and lively, strongly rhythmic, harmonious in pitch and pleasing to the ear, and it is widely circulated in Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other parts of China. Most shifan melodies come from folk minor tunes and huapa (suona pieces); they have also drawn much nourishment from opera, quyi storytelling and song tunes. Their performing forms are divided into seated performance, marching performance and dancing performance, and the player in charge of the clapper boards normally acts as the conductor. The performance of Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi is divided into zuotai (seated on a platform) and caijie (marching in the street). Zuotai refers to seated performance on an erected platform, the form used by the Guanyin association and the Ullambana association; caijie refers to street processional performance, used chiefly in the temple-fair procession of the Dongyue Temple on the twenty-eighth day of the third lunar month each year. Displaying virtuoso technique is a major feature of luogu xiaopaizi. In the history of luogu xiaopaizi, the high-register huqin player Yan Qi's "playing the erhu on top of his head" and the gong-and-drum player Cheng Helin's "nao and bo — a gourd bobbing up out of the water" caused a sensation in their day and drew enthusiastic applause. Characteristic light percussion is another feature of luogu xiaopaizi; its performers all have strong expressiveness, such as being able to strike small porcelain dishes and small wine cups with chopsticks held in the teeth. Most of the tune patterns played by luogu xiaopaizi are local folk minor tunes rich in rustic flavour. According to surveys and statistics it has more than thirty tune patterns, with twelve representative paizi pieces including Ba Duan Jin, Shi Ba Sheng, Shi Ba Sheng Jia Tang Zi and Ying Wu Ge; all of these have been included in the Jiangsu volume of the Collection of Chinese Folk and National Instrumental Music.
Ba Duan Jin
One of the representative paizi pieces of Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi, included in the Jiangsu volume of the Collection of Chinese Folk and National Instrumental Music.
Shi Ba Sheng
One of the representative paizi pieces of Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi.
Shi Ba Sheng Jia Tang Zi
One of the representative paizi pieces of Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi, being the jiatang linking variant of Shi Ba Sheng.
Ying Wu Ge
One of the representative paizi pieces of Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi absorbed the essence of Daoist music, of the coarse-and-fine shifan (silk-and-bamboo music) and of the local "New Year gong and drums", linking multiple tune patterns into suite pieces and alternating sizhu music densely with percussion, forming a distinctive musical school among the Yangzhou and Lixiahe paizi tunes. Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi takes the folk ensembles of the Shaobo Town area as its main body, and its performance is divided into zuotai and caijie: zuotai is seated performance on an erected platform, used by the Guanyin association and the Ullambana association; caijie is street processional performance, used chiefly in the Dongyue Temple fair procession on the twenty-eighth day of the third lunar month each year. It has more than thirty tune patterns, with twelve representative paizi pieces in all, which have been included in the Jiangsu volume of the Collection of Chinese Folk and National Instrumental Music; as a musical genre it also absorbs the essence of Daoist music, of the coarse-and-fine shifan and of the local "New Year gong and drums", linking multiple tune patterns into suite pieces.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shifan Music · Shifan Music · Shifan Music · Shifan Music · Shifan Music · Shifan Music · Shifan Music · Shifan Music.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi has been handed down through the generations, and it incorporates the folk customs and mores of the Yangzhou area, providing invaluable material for the study of music history and of the history of folk custom. At present the performing ranks of Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi are ageing and there is a gap between the old and the young; several virtuoso techniques are on the verge of being lost, the prospects for the survival of this traditional folk instrumental music are worrying, and protection is urgently needed. Wang Rongtang (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han nationality, born in August 1937, native of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. He served as a music master in a theatre troupe and could play bamboo flute, erhu, pipa, sanxian and xiao; he mastered every percussion instrument — ban drum, big drum, hall drum, gong, nao and bo, small plate and small wine cup. He performed pieces such as "nao and bo — a gourd bobbing up out of the water", "reaching out to gather the moon" and "a single horse" on the small porcelain dish with great facility. He took the lead in setting up the Gantang Culture Activity Centre, founded a transmission and study institute for Shaobo Town folk instrumental music and folk song singing, and taught in person; the folk instrumental pieces he collected and collated, such as Shi Ba Sheng and Ba Duan Jin, were included in the National Collection of Folk and National Instrumental Music. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Shifan Music (Shaobo luogu xiaopaizi).
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Yingmu 02-0286
- Louzhengshou 03-0843
- Wang Rongtang 04-1524
- Li Zhenyu 04-1525
- Fang Yuanwang 04-1526
- He Hanpei 05-2076
- Liu Guangrong
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。