Hejian Geshi
01 · Historical Records
It is recorded that the Hejian song-poems originated in the Han and were practised through the ages. The Hejian song-poems are an outstanding representative of oral folk literature since the Han, and villages such as the Shijing village of Hejian have kept alive the living culture of chanting the Book of Songs. From the ancient songs of the Han through Qiu Bengu of the Ming, the Hejian song-poems were continually sung, with a clear line of transmission.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Hejian lies in the heart of the central Hebei plain in the central-southern part of Hebei, and takes its name from lying between the Hutuo and Zhongbu rivers, another account saying between the nine rivers. The fifteen Airs of the states of the Book of Songs are one of the classic representatives of pre-Qin oral literature. The Mao version of the Songs was transmitted to the world by the uncle and nephew Mao Heng and Mao Chang, and its birthplace is present-day Hejian in Hebei. Along with the transmission of the Book of Songs there appeared song-poems at Hejian. To this day Hejian still transmits folk songs such as Guanju and Liaoe from the Book of Songs chanted in ancient tones. Generation after generation of scholars of the Book of Songs have made indelible contributions to the development of its culture.
Chanting Guanju
A folk song from the Book of Songs still chanted at Hejian in ancient tones.
Chanting Liaoe
A folk song from the Book of Songs still chanted at Hejian in ancient tones.
The Mao Academy
An academy built in the Yuan that trained talents and left inscriptions related to the Book of Songs.
The Explanatory Commentary on the Book of Songs
Written by Mao Heng at Hejian on the basis of collating the ancient-text Book of Songs.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Hejian song-poems take villages such as the Shijing village of Hejian as their core area, practised from generation to generation by families and villages and chanting the Book of Songs in ancient tones according to the words; the relics of the Mao Academy and the tomb of Lord Mao, together with the related village and place names, form the spatial vehicle of Hejian's Book of Songs culture and foster a local tradition of loving, chanting and studying the poems.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At first many schools transmitted the Songs; the Lu, Qi and Han versions were lost and only the Mao version came down. When Qin Shi Huang burned the books and buried the scholars, most of the classics of the various schools were destroyed, and Mao Heng, a disciple of Xunzi, came to Wuyuan county of the state of Hejian, present-day Hejian, to live in seclusion. On the basis of collating the ancient-text Book of Songs he began to write the Explanatory Commentary on the Book of Songs. The Hejian song-poems are an ancient comprehensive art form combining folk literature and music, a unique vehicle by which the Book of Songs has been transmitted orally among the people for a thousand years, and an important part of contemporary Book of Songs culture. The Book of Songs culture of Hejian is shown mainly in: first, the appearance and circulation of the song-poems; second, the related legends of historical figures and some village names that arose in the course of transmitting the Songs, forming a place-name culture; third, the Mao Academy built in the Yuan, which trained many talents and left successive ages' poems, prose, odes and couplets and inscriptions related to the Songs; fourth, the long tradition and strong cultural atmosphere of loving, writing and studying poetry formed locally, with a group of poets appearing. Hejian is both the birthplace of the Mao version and a place of teaching and study of the Book of Songs culture. But now the transmitters are advanced in years and hard to sustain, and the work urgently needs salvaging and protection.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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