Mashan Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Mashan folk songs are passed down in Mashan town in the north-west of Jingzhou city, Hubei Province, and radiate to the surrounding townships of Jinan, Jiudian, Chuandian, Libu, Baling, Guanyandang and Mishi and to the area bordering Jingmen, Yicheng, Dangyang and Zhijiang. Mashan folk songs are the surviving remnant of the ancient folk field songs of Yingzhong; in the Warring States period Song Yu's “Questions Addressed to the King of Chu” describes the Yingzhong field songs in the words “there were guests singing in Yingzhong, who began with Xia Li and Ba Ren, and several hundred people in the state answered and sang along”; from then on the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties all leave records of the transmission of the Yingzhong field songs.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Mashan folk songs are passed down mainly in Mashan town in the north-west of Jingzhou city, Hubei Province, and, centred there, radiate to the surrounding townships of Jinan, Jiudian, Chuandian, Libu, Baling, Guanyandang and Mishi and to the area bordering Jingmen city, Yicheng city, Dangyang city and Zhijiang county. The Mashan folk songs of Jingzhou have a long history and are the surviving remnant of the ancient folk field songs of Yingzhong. In the Warring States period, in the reign of King Xiang of Chu, Song Yu's “Questions Addressed to the King of Chu” briefly described the Yingzhong field songs in the words “there were guests singing in Yingzhong, who began with Xia Li and Ba Ren, and several hundred people in the state answered and sang along”. After that, the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing periods all leave records of the transmission of the Yingzhong field songs. Mashan has practised rice agriculture since ancient times, which produced a great many field songs and formed the custom of singing while transplanting seedlings, pulling out the weeds, harvesting and threshing. Mashan folk songs are of many kinds, with beautiful melodies, a distinctive style and broad content, love being the most frequent subject. Of the 142 folk songs already collected, more than seventy are field songs, accounting for over 50 per cent, and there are also labour songs, xiaoqu, lantern songs, children's songs, custom songs and primal religious songs. Among the field songs, the “five-line songs” are further divided into “Han Wu Ju”, “Chuan Wu Ju” and “Gan Wu Ju”; their basic melodies differ little, but their formal structures differ considerably. Mashan folk songs are strongly melodic; their tunes are developed mostly from variations on the three notes 5, 1 and 2, and in performance they are accompanied by drum, gong, cymbals, small gong and suona; when they were taken to the stage after the founding of the People's Republic of China the erhu, yangqin, pipa and bamboo flute were added as well.
La Ba Diao
One of the most widely circulated tunes of the Mashan folk songs, adopting a structural form combining one voice leading with all responding and a main clause with interlined clauses; it is a representative piece of the inheritor Wang Zhaozhen.
Ding Dang Diao
One of the most widely circulated tunes of the Mashan folk songs, and a representative piece of the inheritor Wang Zhaozhen.
Xiu He Bao tune
One of the representative folk songs sung by the inheritor Wang Zhaozhen.
Gan Wu Ju
One of the representative folk songs sung by the inheritor Wang Zhaozhen.
Five-line and interline songs
The “five-line songs” among the field songs are further divided into “Han Wu Ju”, “Chuan Wu Ju” and “Gan Wu Ju”; their basic melodies differ little but their formal structures differ considerably, and they are of one piece with the “Yangge” and the “Yingzhong field songs” of the Chu region recorded in historical texts.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Among these field songs, the “five-line songs” and the various “chuan ju zi”, the interlined phrases sung with one voice leading and all responding, are highly characteristic of the locality, and are of one piece with the “Yangge”, the raised songs, and the “Yingzhong field songs” of the Chu region recorded in historical texts.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The most widely circulated of them, La Ba Diao, Huo Ji Diao, Di Di Diao, Ding Diao, Tian Tian Diao, Ha Ma Diao and O He Diao, all adopt a structural form combining one voice leading with all responding and a main clause with interlined clauses of filler words and filler phrases; they show distinctive artistic value and are an important object of study in ethnomusicology. For various reasons the Jingzhou Mashan folk songs are now in an endangered state, and rescue and protection cannot wait. Wang Zhaozhen (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in November 1938, a native of Jiangling county, Hubei Province. She loved singing and dancing from childhood, and learned Mashan folk songs from her aunt Wang Jinxiu as a child. The representative folk songs she sings include the xiaoqu, the Xiu He Bao tune, “Xiu Yi Ge She Hui Zhu Yi Hao Qian Cheng”; the field song chuan haozi “Xi Qing Feng Shou Hao Re Nao”; the field song Hao Cao Ge “Wo Shuo Lao Ban Shi Tou Niu”; and the mountain song Gan Wu Ju “Han Wo Qing Ge Chi Huo Shao”, La Ba Diao, Ding Dang Diao and “Qing Za Qi Lai Lian Chao Dong”, which have given a great impetus to the transmission of Mashan folk songs. Representative inheritor of Mashan folk songs in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. In 1956 she took part with the Hubei provincial folk song delegation in the National Mass Arts and Literature Performance and won first prize, and was then selected to give a special performance at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Zhaozhen 03-0863
- Huang Qingfang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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