Sheng and Guan Ensemble

01 · Historical Records

The Fuzhou double pipe was brought to the Fuzhou area of Liaoning Province by immigrants from Shandong sometime during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. At first it accompanied scripture chanting and ritual services in Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries; later it spread widely among the people, moving gradually from Fuzhou town into the Wafangdian area and becoming an indispensable part of local weddings, funerals and festival celebrations. Before the single pipe and the double pipe were introduced, Fuzhou already had drum-and-wind bands. After the single pipe and the double pipe were introduced, the drum-and-wind bands used the suona and the double pipe together as their principal instruments. From the late Qing to just before the September 18 Incident of 1931 was the golden age of the Fuzhou double pipe; representative players were Song Changling, Guan Xiren, Qin Changling, Gao Jishun, Zhou Wuzi, Diao Dengke and others.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Sheng-and-guan music generally consists of the guan, the sheng, the flute, cloud gongs and such other instruments, together with percussion instruments such as the drum, the nao and the gong. The principal instrument is the guan, called “bili” in ancient times; it is a double-reed aerophone, usually made of wood, with eight finger-holes in the upper part, seven in front and one behind, and a double reed of hard reed cane; its pitch is often tuned by changing to reeds of different sizes. In the court music and temple music of successive dynasties the guan was always the principal instrument, and was called the “head pipe”. Sheng-and-guan music is the most solemn and refined musical art within folk drum-and-wind music. It differs from the suona-and-percussion music whose principal instrument is the suona: the special flavour that comes from its combination of instruments enables it to create the clear, empty and tranquil atmosphere that religious occasions require, so it was generally adopted by the temples and Taoist shrines throughout China and became a common form of instrumental music in the old religious rites. The Fuzhou drum-and-wind bands have five or six hundred years of history to this day. They consist chiefly of the suona, the sheng, the small ox horn, the gourd head, the erhu, the four-stringed fiddle, the drum and the cymbals, with the suona as the principal instrument. Especially when playing tunes that are high, bold and rugged or low, soft and beautiful, the double pipe plays an indispensable role. The Fuzhou double pipe combines strength and tenderness: its tone has both a rough and bold side and a deep and tender side, and it can express a wide range of complex feelings. In its development to the present, the drum-and-wind bands no longer use the small ox horn or the gourd head. A band decides how many players to send according to the fee the employer pays: a poor household generally engages four players, a wealthy one six, and on grand occasions as many as a dozen or more. What is played and where it is played are also generally settled by the employer's status and the reason for the engagement: in a drought, when prayers for rain are made, the band plays in front of the Dragon King temple or on the seashore or by the river; when a rich man celebrates his birthday, it plays indoors or in the courtyard. After the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan and until the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China the Fuzhou double pipe resumed its activity, but on a far smaller scale than before.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

According to the thickness and length of the body the pipe is divided into large, medium and small; the small pipe has a sharp, high tone and a whole series of playing techniques such as beaten notes, trills, scrubbing tones, flutter-tongue, glissando and harmonics.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Sheng and Guan Ensemble · Sheng and Guan Ensemble.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Fuzhou double pipe combines with local folk custom, greatly enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the people; it has research value for folklore, ethnomusicology and related fields. Since the reform and opening-up, because of the advocacy of changing obsolete customs and simplifying funerals, the Fuzhou double pipe has gradually lost the basis on which it survived and is close to disappearing; it urgently needs rescue and protection. Diao Dengke (from the official file of the associated inheritor): in 1958 he became a player in the song-and-dance troupe of the Guangzhou Military Region; the double-pipe piece Qi Che Bing that he composed and played was praised by Marshal Ye Jianying. In 1964 he was seconded to the Beijing company of the large-scale music and dance epic The East Is Red, serving as leader of the folk orchestra and as soloist; the famous double-pipe number Jiang He Shui, current among the people of the northeast, which he played drew an enthusiastic response. After decades of study and accumulation his technique of tongyin (spitting out the notes) has reached a perfectly refined state, and his chord-playing technique is regarded in the profession as unrivaled. Male, Han, born in October 1923, died in August 2011, a native of Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province. He is the representative inheritor of sheng-and-guan music (the Fuzhou double pipe), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the third national-level batch. After retiring in 1978 he settled in Fuzhou town and trained a large body of double-pipe players, including Diao Fengge, Hu Chunbo, Qiao Zhongxin, Li Chao and others. Qiao Zhongxin (from the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in May 1934, a native of Wafangdian City, Liaoning Province. He was born into a local family of drum-and-wind musicians and learned folk “wind-and-percussion music” from childhood; he later became a disciple of the famous double-pipe player Diao Dengke and studied the technique of double-pipe playing systematically. He has fully mastered the technique of double-pipe playing: in performance he can not only render the delicate, tender, soft and lingering mood, but also shape lofty, deep, bold and full musical images; representative works include Jiang He Shui, San Ji Zi, Chao Tian Zi and others. Over the years he has collected, sorted out and unearthed more than twenty double-pipe scores, and has also taught these traditional pieces to more than forty disciples while actively carrying out transmission activities in local primary and secondary schools. He is the representative inheritor of sheng-and-guan music (the Fuzhou double pipe), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the fifth national-level batch.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Diao Dengke 03-0880
• Wang Guoqing 03-0881
• Qiao Zhongxin 05-2128
• Li Shaojun 05-2129

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Sheng and Guan Ensemble (Wafangdian, Liaoning) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Diao Dengke · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Qiao Zhongxin · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗