Xiansuole
01 · Historical Records
Heze string-and-plucked music has been handed down generation by generation in the villages and market towns around Yuncheng and Juancheng. Most of its musicians are village musicians who farm and make music in turn; they commonly join in ensemble playing at temples, family courtyards and the like when attending temple fairs, celebrating the New Year or during the slack winter season, and they often borrow from and lend to local music genres such as Shandong qinshu and Shandong ancient zheng music.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Heze string-and-plucked music is an ensemble form in which several plucked and several bowed string instruments are combined in performance. Because of its elegant style it is honoured with the name “elegant music”, and because of its long history it is also called “ancient music”. Heze string-and-plucked music is normally performed as an ensemble of silk-string instruments such as the zheng, the yangqin, the pipa and the huqin (also called the “ruyi gou”, a bowed string instrument whose neck is carved with the ancient courtly “jade ruyi sceptre”); sometimes only the zheng and yangqin play together, or the zheng plays with the yangqin and pipa, and there are also ensemble forms that add instruments such as the soft-bow hu and the zhuihu. The combination of instruments is flexible and varied, and instruments may be added or reduced. Heze string-and-plucked music has ten suites of ancient pieces, each of which is a suite in the “eight-beat section” form, popularly called “peng ba ban” (clashing eight-beat sections). Because of its structural form, in which each of the eight phrases of a piece has eight beat sections and four more sections are added to the whole, it is also called “sixty-eight beat sections”. Folk musicians say that the sixty-eight sections were devised by the ancestors on the basis of the sixty-four hexagrams of the Zhou Yi plus the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter. The instruments used in “peng ba ban” form different vocal parts, and the melodies of these parts are all derived from the mother tune “Ba Ban”; for that reason they can be “clashed” together to form a single, unified and harmonious whole. Its melodies and modes are elegant and beautiful, and its harmonic texture is rich and stirring; it has both an antique, time-worn style and a vivid local colour. Among the people, string-and-plucked music is a form of self-amusement for the musicians, commonly performed at temple fairs, during New Year celebrations or in the slack winter season, at temples, family courtyards and other places. Most of them can play two or three instruments, so that when hands are short they can pick up another instrument and play. Representative figures over the years have included Ma Yiwen, Wang Leyong, Li Bangrong, Zhang Nianzhong, Shi Dengyan, Zhang Weitai, Zhang Yingyi, Zhang Liangzhi, Zhang Xiaolun, Zhang Xinshan and others.
Ten ancient Peng-ba-ban suites
Heze string-and-plucked music has ten suites of ancient pieces, each of which is a suite in the “eight-beat section” form, popularly called “peng ba ban”.
Sixty-eight-beat structure
It is called “sixty-eight beat sections” because of its structural form, in which each of the eight phrases of a piece has eight beat sections and four more sections are added to the whole. Folk musicians say that the sixty-eight sections were devised by the ancestors on the basis of the sixty-four hexagrams of the Zhou Yi plus the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Derivation from the mother tune
The instruments used in “peng ba ban” form different vocal parts, and the melodies of these parts are all derived from the mother tune “Ba Ban”; for that reason they can be “clashed” together to form a single, unified and harmonious whole.
Zheng, yangqin, pipa and huqin ensemble
It is normally performed as an ensemble of silk-string instruments such as the zheng, the yangqin, the pipa and the huqin; sometimes only the zheng and yangqin play together, or the zheng plays with the yangqin and pipa, and there are also ensemble forms that add instruments such as the soft-bow hu and the zhuihu. The combination of instruments is flexible and varied, and may be added to or reduced.
Ruyi-gou huqin
The huqin is also called the “ruyi gou”; it is a bowed string instrument whose neck is carved with the ancient courtly “jade ruyi sceptre”.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It is distributed mainly in the villages of Yuncheng, Juancheng and other counties of Heze City (historically called Caozhou) in Shandong Province.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
It has high academic research value, artistic value and aesthetic value. In recent years, as some traditional cultural spaces have gradually disappeared, a number of accomplished folk musicians have become elderly or passed away one after another, and those able to play the ancient pieces and to command the traditional performing techniques in full are already few; protection and transmission are urgently needed.
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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