Jizhong Sheng and Guan Ensemble
01 · Historical Records
Junlu village belongs to Yangshuiwu Township, Anci District, Langfang City, Hebei Province. The musical tradition here has a long history: as early as before the Boxer Movement at the end of the nineteenth century, the village already had an organisation of folk musicians called a music society, which was active among the local people for a long time.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Besides wind instruments such as the sheng, guan and flute, Jizhong sheng-and-guan music also uses such percussion instruments as cloud gongs, drums, nao, cymbals and clapper bells. The pieces of sheng-and-guan music fall into three kinds: suites, short pieces and independent sets of percussion music; of these the suites are of great length and complex structure, and form the main part of the whole performing repertory. Feng Zhaolai, the senior brother of the Boxer movement, was skilled at blowing the guan and was a principal member of the Junlu village music society. After the Boxers set up their altar and rose at the Sanguan temple in Junlu village, all the members of the music society joined the movement. Feng Zhaolai held that the Boxers should combine martial and civil, killing the enemy with arms and lifting the morale of the soldiers with music. On the basis of this idea he enlarged the scale of the music society, turning it into the “military band” of the Junlu village Boxers, and, according to the different emotions the music was to express, selected, worked over and adapted the existing pieces so that they would serve the needs of the movement. The Junlu village music society is divided into civil and martial sections, and the performers are usually ten, five in each section. The civil section consists of one guan, one flute, one cloud gong and two sets of sheng; the martial section consists of one pair of cymbals, one pair of small cymbals, one hall drum or flat drum and two pairs of nao.
Tang Tou Ling
One of the more than thirty pieces of the Junlu village music society preserved in gongche notation.
Wang Jiang Nan
One of the pieces surviving in the Junlu village music society; the name of the tune pattern derives from a ci tune of the Tang and Song.
Lang Tao Sha
One of the pieces surviving in the Junlu village music society; the name of the tune pattern derives from a ci tune of the Tang and Song.
Dou An Chun
One of the pieces surviving in the Junlu village music society.
Dao Bing Ji
One of the pieces surviving in the Junlu village music society, bearing traces of its service to martial affairs during the Boxer Movement.
Cui Zhu Lian
One of the pieces surviving in the Junlu village music society, shared with the other music societies of Jizhong sheng-and-guan music.
Civil and martial ensemble
The performers are usually ten, five in the civil section and five in the martial section: the civil section is one guan, one flute, one cloud gong and two sets of sheng, the martial section cymbals, small cymbals, a hall drum or flat drum and two pairs of nao.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jizhong sheng-and-guan music is current in nearly thirty counties and cities south of Beijing, west of Tianjin and north of Cangzhou and Dingzhou; it is a drum-and-wind music peculiar to the Jizhong Plain, popularly called a “music society” by the people, and, because it is led by the guan and accompanied by the sheng and other instruments, also called “sheng-and-guan music”. Jizhong sheng-and-guan music is found all over the Jizhong Plain; the farmers of this region form societies by village, borrowing instruments to meet, and play in local sacrificial rites, funerals and other folk activities, handing it on from generation to generation in their own distinctive way. The Junlu village music society springs from the folk and is closely bound to the struggle and life of the local people, showing a marked zeitgeist and regional character, and it is of important documentary value for the study of the Boxer Movement and the related history, culture and folk art.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Junlu village music society used to play many pieces, a good number of which are now lost. The scores left by Feng Zhaolai were burned during the “Cultural Revolution”; those that have been passed on, recalled by old musicians and written up in gongche notation, number more than thirty pieces, including Tang Tou Ling, Wang Jiang Nan, Lang Tao Sha, San Jiao, Dou An Chun, Gua Jin Suo, Liu Han Yan, Dao Bing Ji, Cui Zhu Lian, Qiao Tiao Shen, Tao Jin Ling, Dao Ti Jin Deng, Die Luo Jin Qian and San Zhi Jian. At present the transmission of the music society is far from satisfactory; there is a break in the succession and a shortage of successors, and urgent rescue and protection are needed.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Feng Yuechi 02-0302
- Cai Yurun 02-0303
- Shangxuezhi 02-0304
- Hu Deming 02-0305
- Xia Laofei 03-0849
- Liu Qin 03-0850
- Wang Ruhai 03-0851
- Hu Guoqing 04-1528
- Shi Junping 05-2083
- Shao Shutong 05-2084
- Cai Baoheng 05-2085
- Zhang Zhanmin 05-2086
- Jia Tingxin
- Lizhanglin
- Pan Desen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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