Daoist Music
01 · Historical Records
Taoism within Cangnan traces its origin to the Eastern Wu; at the end of the Tang dynasty the Taoist priest Ma Xiang and his disciples moved to the western hollow of Songshan to cultivate there, and Taoist music began to be introduced.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
This heritage item advocates harmony between heaven and humanity, and, through good works in the ritual arena, spreads a humanistic sensibility, pursues an ideal life, and warns against mean and evil conduct. The tune patterns of the Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan Taoism have such melodic devices as repetition, contrast, variation and extension, and have a distinctly local character. Traditional Taoist tune patterns such as “Huang Feng Chu Dong”, “Shun He Diao” and “Xuan Jing Ji” fuse with folk tune patterns such as “Jiang Jun Ling”, “Shi Ba Pai” and “Shui Long Yin”, and with tune patterns of Wenzhou nanxi such as “Bu Bu Jiao”, “Wang Zhuang Tai” and “Shan Po Yang”. Its musical style is complete, combining harmony, stillness, clarity, distance, antiquity and lightness in one. Its popular style, by contrast, fuses Wenzhou nanxi music, ouju music and southern Zhejiang folk ditties with traditional Taoist music, forming its distinctive transitional “buxu yun”, its outstanding “sung” rhyme style, and a performing method in which the civil and the martial blend together. This heritage item integrates court music, folk music and operatic music in one; through the alternation of strong and weak, fast and slow, and through the different timbres of the various instruments it renders different situations and shapes different musical images, and it has a certain historical and artistic value.
Huang Feng Chu Dong
One of the traditional Taoist tune patterns of the Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan.
Shun He Diao
One of the traditional Taoist tune patterns of the Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan.
Xuan Jing Ji
One of the traditional Taoist tune patterns of the Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan.
Fusion with folk tunes
Traditional Taoist tune patterns such as “Huang Feng Chu Dong”, “Shun He Diao” and “Xuan Jing Ji” fuse with folk tune patterns such as “Jiang Jun Ling”, “Shi Ba Pai” and “Shui Long Yin”, as well as with tune patterns of Wenzhou nanxi such as “Bu Bu Jiao”, “Wang Zhuang Tai” and “Shan Po Yang”.
Transitional and sung modes
The popular style fuses Wenzhou nanxi music, ouju music and southern Zhejiang folk ditties with traditional Taoist music, forming its distinctive transitional “buxu yun”, its outstanding “sung” rhyme style and a performing method in which the civil and the martial blend together; its musical style combines harmony, stillness, clarity, distance, antiquity and lightness in one.
Shuinan sect and Sunhu Daoist village
At the beginning of the Song dynasty Lin Ni and Lin Lingzhen founded the Shuinan school of Taoism, which made Sunhu a renowned Daoist village known far and wide, and Taoist music there flourished and was transmitted without interruption; the Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan has been transmitted by the master-and-disciple method and has now reached the twelfth generation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan is the traditional music used in Taoist ritual services; it is current mainly in the Min-speaking area of southern Zhejiang Province, and especially in the mountainous townships of Mazhan, Fanshan, Qiaodun, Lingxi and Zaoxi in Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province, extending to places such as Jinxiang and Qianku and to the mountainous areas of Pingyang County. In performance, Taoist priests, xigong and hongshi use different dialects and local vernaculars — Wenzhou speech, Jinxiang speech, Man speech, Southern Min speech, the She language and so on — according to the different townships and the different audiences.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At the beginning of the Song dynasty Lin Ni and Lin Lingzhen founded the Shuinan school of Taoism, which made Sunhu a renowned Daoist village known far and wide; Taoist music there flourished and was transmitted without interruption. The Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan has been transmitted by the master-and-disciple method and has now reached the twelfth generation. The people have organized the Cangnan Yu Music Troupe, carried out the collecting, sorting and transmitting of the scores of Taoist music, and edited and published an anthology of classic scores. The Zhengyi school liturgical music of Cangnan has inherited the essence of Taoist musical culture and merged into many aspects of the social life of the Cangnan people, combining the depth of history with the vigour of the times in one. In the countryside the Cangnan Taoist music most often appears with organized bands for ritual services such as prayer for blessing, appeasement of calamity, requiem for the dead and thanksgiving for the land; the musicians double as players of the dagu, the suona and the sizhu, and the number of players is increased or reduced according to the scale of the ritual; in the vocal line, the transitional “buxu yun” and the “sung” rhyme style alternate, and between the civil and the martial sections the gong and drum mark the beginning and the end.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Yubao 03-0894
- Li Manshan 03-0895
- Shi Jitong 03-0896
- You Wuzhong 03-0897
- Zhang Minggui 03-0898
- Wu Bingzhi 04-1537
- Feng Yingzhan 05-2153
- He Chunsheng 05-2154
- Wu Lixun 05-2155
- Zhan Heping 05-2156
- Zhang Jintao 05-2157
- Huo Dezhong 05-2158
- An Baohui 05-2159
- Wu Huyong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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