Fishing Songs
01 · Historical Records
The origin of Shengsi fishing songs (yuge) was basically synchronous with the formation of the local fishing grounds and the scaling-up of commercial fishing.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shengsi County lies in the northeast of Zhejiang Province, at the place where the Yangtze estuary meets Hangzhou Bay. Its sea area is vast, and it is the centre of the Zhoushan fishing ground, the largest fishing ground in China. Shengsi fishing songs are short and concentrated in form; their musical style is rugged and high-pitched, and they use plain, colloquial lyrics. By artistic means they portray fishing labour scenes, the phenological signs and celestial phenomena of the fishing grounds, the whole panorama of fisherfolk life, and the spirit and temperament of the fishermen, so that they carry a distinctly maritime character. Production-related fishing songs include "The Fishing Song", "Net-Weaving Ballad", "Oar Ballad", "Awning Ballad" and "Weather Lore"; life-related fishing songs include "Fifth-Watch Tune", "Singing the Flower Cards", "Henpecked-Husband Tune" and "Twelfth-Month Fish Ballads". Forms of performance include solo, antiphonal singing, one-lead-many-response, linked verse singing and chorus. The singing manner of Shengsi fishing songs is free and spontaneous, and is less constrained by musical notation or fixed texts: melodic cross-modulation, mixed-together lyrics and mixed metres are all common, which leaves singers a broad space for free interpretation and invention. The late-Qing poet Chen Wenfen, in his "Ten Views of Penglai", which depicts the Zhoushan area, has the line "Fishing songs sung at dusk startle the weary birds; fish is cooked and wine sold as the slanting sun glows", which shows that fishing songs had already taken shape in the Zhoushan area at that time. Later Shengsi fishermen absorbed a great many song-balls, small tunes and the like, discarding the coarse and keeping the fine, so that these gradually became "Shengsi-ized". As oral music, both the lyrics and the vocal style of Shengsi fishing songs are handed down by the fishermen themselves, taught by oral transmission from heart to heart and transmitted collectively.
Production songs
One class of Shengsi fishing songs, classified by subject matter, expressing fishing labour scenes and the phenological signs and celestial phenomena of the fishing grounds. Representative pieces are "The Fishing Song", "Net-Weaving Ballad", "Oar Ballad", "Awning Ballad" and "Weather Lore".
Life songs
One class of Shengsi fishing songs, classified by subject matter, expressing the whole panorama of fisherfolk life and the spirit and temperament of the fishermen. Representative pieces are "Fifth-Watch Tune", "Singing the Flower Cards", "Henpecked-Husband Tune" and "Twelfth-Month Fish Ballads".
Newly composed Yuge
New fishing songs composed by Shengsi County over the past decade or so: "Winds from East, South, West and North", "My Elder Sister's Child", "Hairtail Cooked with Winter Greens" and "He Is the Sampan, She Is the Mooring Cable".
Sixty-plus collected songs
Shengsi County has actively carried out protection work on fishing songs and collected and sorted out more than sixty traditional fishing songs; the Shengsi County Cultural Centre and other bodies have further strengthened protection and transmission through recording and archiving, staged presentation, media publicity and the release of albums.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shengsi fishing songs is the collective name for the various fishery ballads circulating in the Zhoushan archipelago area, with Shengsi County of Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, as its core area. It is folk music created, accumulated and handed down from generation to generation by fishermen in the course of fishery production and daily life. Shengsi fishing songs is rooted in the local dialect: its lyrics are colloquial, its content plain, and it is easy to understand. The words come first and the music follows them: accompaniment is written to dialect lyrics taken as the leading element, so that words and music achieve harmony. Shengsi fishing songs is sung in the local dialect and is strongly regional in character; it has reference value for the study of the language and local literature of the Yong-Zhou area. Rooted in the folk and fused with folk custom, and running through the whole course of fishery development, it reflects local production and life, phenological signs and celestial phenomena, natural scenery, customs and human relations. It not only serves to warn and admonish but also conveys the fisherfolk's folk rules, conventions, customs and sentiments. In promoting correct values and a harmonious society it plays a positive role.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Fishing Songs · Fishing Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Over the past decade or so Shengsi County has actively carried out protection work on fishing songs, collecting and sorting out more than sixty traditional fishing songs, and creating new ones such as "Winds from East, South, West and North", "My Elder Sister's Child", "Hairtail Cooked with Winter Greens" and "He Is the Sampan, She Is the Mooring Cable". The Shengsi County Cultural Centre, the Daocheng Art Choir of Caiyuan Town, Shengsi County, the Shengsi County Music Association and other bodies have also strengthened protection and transmission through recording and archiving, staged presentation, media publicity and the release of albums, achieving certain results.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Su Shaoqin 05-2173
- Shu Xinhu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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