Banyun Work Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Longgupo taigong haozi, also called the taibang haozi, is a song sung by porters at work in Wushan County, Chongqing Municipality; it originated in Miaoyu Town in Wushan County and has a history of more than a thousand years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Porters' work songs are a form of folk song that arose in heavy manual labour such as loading and unloading by hand, carrying on the shoulder and pushing or pulling goods; in collective transport labour they can unify the pace, regulate breathing and raise spirits. Most porters' work songs have no fixed lyrics; one voice leads and the others respond, or the leading and responding voices overlap, producing a polyphonic form of singing. When the road is level and wide and easy to stride up, the fast-step songs are used; they are rich in content, witty and humorous, with lively, high-pitched melodies, and their representative pieces include Zhuozhuo Haozi and Daocai Cha. When the mountain path is rugged, climbing steeply and descending in twists and turns, the slow-step songs are used; they are flexible and mobile, have no fixed lyrics, and mostly report the situations met on the way by means of question and answer; their representative pieces include Yohe Haozi and Bao Haozi. In the Longgupo taigong haozi the lead is taken by the jianzi, the central figure of the porters' team; only a person of good individual skill, high prestige and senior standing in age and generation can win this position, and he directs the team by leading the singing, coordinating the pace and controlling the speed of the march. The Longgupo taigong haozi is primitive and plain, with regular rhythm, symmetrical leading and responding voices and an even tempo; only the leading voice varies slightly at the opening of each line, while the responders accompany on the same melody with refrain words, and only at the close is the rhythm stretched and abruptly stopped, marking the end of one section and the start of another or the announcement of a rest. Because it is group cooperation, the singing is full of vigour, the voices loud and resonant, and the melodic contour rising and falling, so that it seems full of deep meaning and rewards savouring.
Zhuozhuo Haozi
When the road is level and wide and easy to stride up, the fast-step songs are used; they are rich in content, witty and humorous, with lively, high-pitched melodies, and their representative pieces include Zhuozhuo Haozi and Daocai Cha. When the mountain path is rugged, climbing steeply and descending in twists and turns, the slow-step songs are used; they are flexible and mobile, have no fixed lyrics, and mostly report the situations met on the way by means of question and answer; their representative pieces include Yohe Haozi and Bao Haozi.
Daocai Cha (Picking Tea Backwards)
When the road is level and wide and easy to stride up, the fast-step songs are used; they are rich in content, witty and humorous, with lively, high-pitched melodies, and their representative pieces include Zhuozhuo Haozi and Daocai Cha. When the mountain path is rugged, climbing steeply and descending in twists and turns, the slow-step songs are used; they are flexible and mobile, have no fixed lyrics, and mostly report the situations met on the way by means of question and answer; their representative pieces include Yohe Haozi and Bao Haozi.
Yohe Haozi
When the road is level and wide and easy to stride up, the fast-step songs are used; they are rich in content, witty and humorous, with lively, high-pitched melodies, and their representative pieces include Zhuozhuo Haozi and Daocai Cha. When the mountain path is rugged, climbing steeply and descending in twists and turns, the slow-step songs are used; they are flexible and mobile, have no fixed lyrics, and mostly report the situations met on the way by means of question and answer; their representative pieces include Yohe Haozi and Bao Haozi.
Bao Haozi (Reporting the Way)
When the road is level and wide and easy to stride up, the fast-step songs are used; they are rich in content, witty and humorous, with lively, high-pitched melodies, and their representative pieces include Zhuozhuo Haozi and Daocai Cha. When the mountain path is rugged, climbing steeply and descending in twists and turns, the slow-step songs are used; they are flexible and mobile, have no fixed lyrics, and mostly report the situations met on the way by means of question and answer; their representative pieces include Yohe Haozi and Bao Haozi.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Longgupo taigong haozi is generally sung by a group of several or several dozen strong young and middle-aged men; by musical tempo it is divided into two main classes, the fast-step songs and the slow-step songs.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Banyun Work Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Longgupo taigong haozi is transmitted chiefly through the master-apprentice and gang-leader succession. The Longgupo taigong haozi embodies the distinctive spiritual outlook and modes of thought of the Wushan people; it is both a witness to history and a reflection of reality, and has research value in many fields such as folklore, psychology and ethnomusicology. With the appearance of modern production tools, especially large transport machinery, the formerly heavy carrying and transport methods have dwindled day by day, the porters' work songs have lost their environment for survival and fallen into an endangered state, and they urgently need protection and rescue. Wu Mingyu (per the official record of the associated inheritor): A man of the Han nationality, born in March 1950 in Wushan County, Chongqing Municipality. The men at the middle carrying pole in the work-song team answer with a work song in response to the jianzi's report, showing that they know the state of the road. He masters both the fast-step and the slow-step songs of the Longgupo taigong haozi, and is also skilled at making the poles, cross-beams, yokes, ropes and fastenings used by the porters, and is familiar with the way these carrying tools are connected. Representative inheritor of Porters' work songs (Longgupo taigong haozi) for the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Besides taking part in the labour, he has taken an active part in teaching in the training classes for the transmission of the Longgupo taigong haozi, and has also gone from village to village and from house to house teaching the Longgupo taigong haozi to young people, doing all he can for its transmission and spread.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wu Mingyu 05-2109
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。