Pipa Art
01 · Historical Records
In the long course of its historical evolution the pipa underwent a transformation from being held horizontally and plucked with a plectrum to being held upright and played with the fingers. The Tang dynasty was the high period of the art of the horizontally held, plectrum-plucked pipa; by the Ming and Qing dynasties pipa artists had made great contributions to the composition of pipa pieces and especially of large suites, and many famous pipa playing schools had formed. In the 1930s Mr Liu Tianhua made bold reforms to the pipa and originated the thirteen-fret six-phase pipa. The pipa of the Pudong school is a school of pipa playing art created by several generations of pipa masters in Nanhui district of Shanghai city by absorbing the essence of the playing of their predecessors; its founder was Ju Shilin of Huinan town in Nanhui county during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. In the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing dynasty the position of the Pudong school was formally established; its transmitters were distributed mainly in Nanhui county in the Pudong area of Shanghai, and the range of their activity extended to Shanghai and the whole of the Jiangnan region, and even as far as the capital. Shen Haochu, a transmitter of the fourth generation, devoted himself to studying the essentials of the playing of his predecessors and in 1929 printed the Yangzhengxuan pipa score in gongche notation, making an important contribution to the further development of the pipa of the Pudong school. This score was transcribed into staff notation by his student Lin Shicheng and was reissued in 1983. Mr Lin Shicheng, a transmitter of the fifth generation, was appointed professor of pipa at the Central Conservatory of Music in 1956; he trained a large number of influential students, so that the influence of the pipa of the Pudong school reached every corner of the globe.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The pipa is an ancient plucked string instrument of China; the two characters “pipa” are first found in Xu Shen's Shuowen Jiezi of the Eastern Han. “Pi” and “ba” are two playing techniques of this traditional instrument, corresponding to what are now called “tan” (to pluck) and “tiao” (to strike upwards with the thumb); the instrument was named after the technique and was called “piba”, which was later written as “pipa”. From the Qin and Han to the Sui and Tang the pipa was the general name for a number of plucked string instruments. After the founding of the People's Republic of China the development of the pipa reached a new peak. Today, besides solo playing and the national instrumental ensemble, the pipa is also the principal instrument of such genres as Jiangnan sizhu, Guangdong music, Chaozhou xianshi and Fujian Nanyin. Chen Zijing, a transmitter of the pipa of the third generation of the Pudong school, was summoned by the Qing court to the capital to teach Prince Chun; he was granted a third-rank hat and girdle and received the title “the finest pipa under heaven”. The pipa of the Pudong school has nevertheless continued without interruption among the people. The playing technique of the pipa of the Pudong school is highly individual: the tremolo and roll on all four strings, the doubling of strings, the large and small divisions, the sweep and the flick, the dragging glissando, the pinched plucking and the pinched sweep, together with a variety of vibrato techniques and gong-and-drum strokes, are all its salient features. The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill. Among them the martial pieces are magnificent in momentum and the literary pieces are calm and fine; the martial pieces generally call for the large pipa, with a full bow and very great force, and in this process some playing methods characteristic of the Shanghai school have been preserved. To revitalise the pipa playing art of the Pudong school, the strength of the people alone is plainly not enough; all sections of society must pool their wisdom and efforts and work out a great plan together.
Sunset Flute and Drum
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
The Moon Is High
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Yangchun Baixue
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Pu'an Zhou
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Ambush from Ten Sides
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
General's Order
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
The Flower Fair
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Dance of Youth
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
Students' Drill
The Pudong school has many representative pieces, including the literary suites such as Sunset Flute and Drum, Elegant Rhymes of the Martial World and The Moon Is High, the large pieces such as Yangchun Baixue and Pu'an Zhou, the martial suites such as Ambush from Ten Sides, Wild Geese Alighting on the Sandy Shore and General's Order, as well as more than thirty newly composed pieces such as The Flower Fair, Dance of Youth and Students' Drill.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The pipa is the essence of the art of Chinese national music, and the pipa of the Pudong school is an important school within pipa art, whose influence has reached every corner of the globe.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Pipa Art · Pipa Art.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, in Nanhui of Shanghai, the birthplace of the pipa of the Pudong school, the transmitters of the school can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Lin Jiaqing (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): male, Han, born in July 1956, a native of Beijing city. A national first-class performer, he comes from a family of musicians and as a child learned the pipa and other instruments from his father Lin Shicheng. Through several decades of stage practice he gradually formed a Pudong school pipa art that combines “family teaching” with “broad learning”. In 1975 he was engaged by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra to play the pipa. He has recorded and published the VCD discs, music tapes and articles Thirty Lessons on the Pipa, the Lin Jiaqing Pipa Solo Music Album, How to Choose a Pipa, A Discussion of Guangdong Music and A Simple Discussion of Graded Examination Pieces. Representative inheritor of pipa art (Pudong school), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the third national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yin Rongzhu 03-0876
- Lin Jiaqing 03-0877
- Zhu Dazhen 03-0878
- Zhou Lijuan
- Wang Zhen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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