Xiushan Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County lies at the junction of Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei on the southeastern outer edge of the Sichuan basin. It has always been “remote within Shu” and, since ancient times, a land barred off for a hundred li. Xiushan folk songs have been circulated here for a long time, and their origin can be traced back to the Ba-Yu song and dance of antiquity, so their history is very long. In the course of their development Xiushan folk songs directly gave birth to the music of the Xiushan flower lantern song and dance; a preliminary survey shows that Xiushan folk songs number over a thousand, and the Xiushan flower lantern songs alone comprise twenty-four great tunes with more than a thousand pieces.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County lies at the junction of Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei on the southeastern outer edge of the Sichuan basin. It has always been “remote within Shu” and, since ancient times, a land barred off for a hundred li. Xiushan folk songs have been circulated here for a long time, and their origin can be traced back to the Ba-Yu song and dance of antiquity, so their history is very long. In the course of their development Xiushan folk songs directly gave birth to the music of the Xiushan flower lantern song and dance; a preliminary survey shows that Xiushan folk songs number over a thousand, and the Xiushan flower lantern songs alone comprise twenty-four great tunes with more than a thousand pieces. Solos and antiphonal duets are generally sung without instrumental accompaniment, but in weeding gong and drum performances the song masters must sing in duet or in canon to the accompaniment of gong and drum. The accompaniment of the flower lantern songs is more complex, using mainly the hall drum, the bamboo flute, large and small suona and the datong; the datong is made from a bamboo tube covered with snakeskin fitted to a neck made of bamboo pole. The interjections and refrain cadences of Xiushan folk songs are very distinctive; common interjections include “yeli hou”, “nu de jiao”, “xiao qing ge” and “ge ya ha li ya”, witty and humorous and intensely local. Besides this, Xiushan folk songs are particularly fond of using flowers as auxiliary syllables. The refrain cadences vary in length and are used in flexible and various ways. In the course of long transmission Xiushan folk songs have produced many outstanding singers. A single song, Huang Yang Bian Dan, once carried Xiushan folk songs across the country and won them wide renown.
Huang Yang Bian Dan
The outstanding representative of the mountain song category of Xiushan folk songs, which once carried Xiushan folk songs across the country.
Shang Tian Hao
A representative weeding song in the labour song category of Xiushan folk songs, sung by the song masters in duet or canon to the accompaniment of gong and drum.
Hua Chuan Diao
A representative piece in the labour song category of Xiushan folk songs.
Huang Hua Cao
A representative piece in the custom song category of Xiushan folk songs, expressing young people's dissatisfaction with feudal arranged marriages.
Zhua Zhuang Ding
A representative piece in the daily-life and current-affairs song category of Xiushan folk songs, accusing the old society of the crime of pressing men into the army.
Huadeng song accompaniment
The flower lantern songs use mainly the hall drum, the bamboo flute, large and small suona and the datong; the datong is made from a bamboo tube covered with snakeskin fitted to a neck made of bamboo pole.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Xiushan folk songs fall into four large categories, labour songs, mountain songs, custom songs and daily-life songs, with the mountain song Huang Yang Bian Dan as the most outstanding representative. Labour songs include weeding songs, boatmen's chants, stonemasons' chants and farm songs, such as Shang Tian Hao and Hua Chuan Diao; mountain songs include antiphonal songs, pan songs and love songs; custom songs are divided into filial songs and marriage songs, such as Huang Hua Cao, which expresses young people's dissatisfaction with feudal arranged marriages; daily-life and current-affairs songs include works that reflect real life, such as Zhua Zhuang Ding, which accuses the old society of the crime of pressing men into the army. Xiushan folk songs are monophonic; most works have a regular rhythm, the overwhelming majority are in zhi mode, followed by yu mode, shang mode and gong mode, and there are a few in jue mode.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This ancient art form embodies many elements of Hunan and Guizhou regional culture, and is of important reference value for research into local history and the development history of folk art. At present Xiushan folk songs have no successors and are on the verge of extinction, so carrying out emergency rescue and protection has become the pressing task of the relevant departments.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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