Jizhong Sheng and Guan Ensemble
01 · Historical Records
The Xin'anzhuang folk music society is the earliest folk music society in Renqiu, Hebei. It was founded in the nineteenth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty (1421) and has a history of nearly six hundred years. In the twenty-first year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1756), the Xin'anzhuang music society received imperial honour for the piece Guan Gong Ci Cao, and from that time written records of it appeared.
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. From that time on, all the objects used by the music society for erecting its banner and making its flags were made in the yellow colour formerly reserved for the imperial court. The Xin'anzhuang music society is also one of the music societies of Renqiu City, Hebei Province that preserves the most complete repertory; more than thirty sets of pieces survive, accounting for nearly half of all the repertory preserved by the music societies of the city. The Xin'anzhuang folk music society has a strong performing line-up, with more than forty players, and gives more than twenty large-scale performance activities in an average year. The performing style of the Xin'anzhuang music society is elegant, placid, natural and flowing. Its main instruments include the guan, sheng, curved flute, cloud gong, great cymbals, small cymbals, great drum, small drum and dangzi, some of which have been handed down from the early days of the society — among them a set of cloud gongs, already several hundred years old, which not only can play beautiful music but also has considerable archaeological value. At present the backbone of the music society is seriously ageing, there is a lack of successors, and funds are scarce.
Guan Gong Ci Cao
In the twenty-first year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1756) the Xin'anzhuang music society received imperial honour for playing this piece, and written records arose from it.
Long Teng Hu Yue
One of the works composed by the inheritor Cai Baoheng.
Niao Yu Hua Xiang
One of the works composed by the inheritor Cai Baoheng.
Wen Jiu Zhan Hua Xiong
One of the works composed by the inheritor Cai Baoheng, drawn from a story in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Imperial-yellow banner regulation
After receiving imperial honour, all the objects used by the music society for erecting its banner and making its flags were made in the yellow formerly reserved for the imperial court.
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.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The performing technique of the music society was first transmitted by master and apprentice, and afterwards passed on unbroken from generation to generation chiefly through family inheritance. Thirty-five sets of ancient scores of the Xin'anzhuang music society have now been collected and collated, and every tune pattern in them contains a fine historical legend or allusion, giving them the dual aesthetic value of music and of literature. Transmitted through six hundred years of hardship, the Xin'anzhuang folk music society still shows a tenacious vitality; it is rooted in the soil, deeply loved by the people, and has high artistic and historical and cultural research value. Of the thirty-five sets of scores collated, ordinary musicians can perform only eight of them complete, and only a few elderly old artists can perform the remaining twenty-seven complete. This shows that the Xin'anzhuang folk music society faces the danger of being lost, and a series of effective rescue and protection measures is urgently needed. Cai Baoheng (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in January 1936, a native of Renqiu City, Hebei Province. He regards music as his life; he has kept the scores and instruments of the music society all along, and has remained unchanged in his original purpose through all the hardships of transmission. He persisted in collecting and collating the folk scores, and translated the gongche notation into numbered notation to popularise the music, and composed such works as Long Teng Hu Yue, Niao Yu Hua Xiang and Wen Jiu Zhan Hua Xiong himself. He is not only a performer of the Xin'anzhuang music society but also its organiser. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Jizhong sheng-and-guan music (Xin'anzhuang folk music society). He has done everything possible to train newcomers and has passed on his exquisite skills to his pupils without reserve.
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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