Xunyang Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Xunyang Folk Song Collection, collated and assembled in the 1980s, gathered 868 folk songs, of which 34 were included in the Collection of Chinese Folk Songs, Shaanxi Volume. Its colours are rich and varied; it embodies the cultural fusion produced by the great migration among Sichuan, Shaanxi and the Central Plains in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and has historical, cultural and social value that cannot be underestimated.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xunyang folk songs are a traditional form of musical expression circulating among the villages and townships of Xunyang County, Shaanxi Province and radiating to the neighbouring counties and districts; they are an important component of Shaanxi folk music, and are especially widespread along the Han River and in the more densely populated market towns within Xunyang County. They have simple melodies, forceful and ringing rhythms and intense emotion, such as the work chants of the Hanjiang boatmen. The second is the mountain song, songs that freely express the feelings of labourers during work in the mountains and fields, also called "chang diaozi", singing the tune. Their pitch is high and resonant and their rhythm relaxed and free; they can be sung at full pitch by one person alone, sung in chorus by several people, and can also take the form of a contest in questioning between two sides. The third is the xiaodiao, or small tune, which is the most numerous of the Xunyang folk songs. Its formal structure is regular, most of it being stanzaed songs with formulaic padding words and padding refrains; its forms of expression are varied, and it often embeds meaning in the narration of a story, or gives expression to feelings about mountains, rivers and scenery, or draws on legends of ancient sages. The fourth is song-and-dance music, such as the accompanying songs of the various folk dances in the lantern society shehuo performances, and folk minor operas. The fifth is customary song, including the New Year sacrifice songs "Welcoming the God of Wealth" and "Wine Song". Xunyang folk songs integrate song, dance and music, with speech and singing side by side; they have both the masculine vigour of Central Plains culture and the feminine delicacy of Jiangnan culture, and are highly plural. Their melodies belong mostly to the zhi mode, with the gong and shang modes also occurring; the intervals move chiefly by step, the notes rarely leap, and the melodies are flowing, easy to learn and easy to sing. The Gazetteer of Xunyang County compiled in the Qianlong reign of the Qing records: "Its Manchuanguan adjoins Xundong, and the customs are broadly the same. Now when the villagers of the district weed the grass, one man beats a drum to urge on the work, or matches it with a zheng, singing; so that they forget their fatigue and join forces in cooperation — this is called huangong, and it is precisely a survival of what was done before..." What is described here is exactly the Xunyang grass-weeding folk song. As migrants from various places entered and water transport developed, the content, forms, styles and genres of Xunyang folk songs also developed step by step, and were handed down generation by generation through oral teaching from master to apprentice.
Work chants
One of the categories of Xunyang folk songs; they have simple melodies, forceful and ringing rhythms and intense emotion, typified by the work chants of the Hanjiang boatmen.
Mountain songs
Songs that freely express the feelings of labourers during work in the mountains and fields; their pitch is high and resonant and their rhythm relaxed and free, and they can be sung at full pitch by one person alone, sung in chorus by several people, and can also take the form of a contest in questioning between two sides.
Minor tunes
The most numerous of the Xunyang folk songs, with a regular formal structure, most of them stanzaed songs with formulaic padding words and padding refrains.
Dance songs
One of the categories of Xunyang folk songs, such as the accompanying songs of the various folk dances in the lantern society shehuo performances, and folk minor operas.
Customary songs
One of the categories of Xunyang folk songs, including the New Year sacrifice songs "Welcoming the God of Wealth" and "Wine Song".
Xunyang Folk Song Collection
It was collated and assembled in the 1980s, gathering 868 folk songs, of which 34 were included in the Collection of Chinese Folk Songs, Shaanxi Volume; in recent years, through the efforts of all parties, more than 1,200 Xunyang folk songs have been collected and organized.
Representative pieces
Representative works of Liu Quanxue, bearer of Xunyang folk song tradition.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Xunyang folk songs are divided into the following categories: first, the work chants that accompany the various kinds of labour. Xunyang folk songs are the crystallisation of the collective wisdom of the working people of the locality; their rich content makes them a vivid testimony to the social development history and the folk ways and folk conditions of the locality. They have a complete range of song types and diverse forms, and they express the spiritual outlook of the local people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, through the efforts of all parties, more than 1,200 Xunyang folk songs have been collected and organized. Liu Quanxue (official archival record of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in October 1965, native of Xunyang County, Shaanxi Province. At the age of 15 he could already sing more than 480 Xunyang folk songs in different styles. In 1979 he organized more than thirty folk artists in the northern part of Xunyang County to form a folk song performance troupe. He is an all-round performer of Xunyang folk songs: the work chants he sings are ringing and forceful and hot and unrestrained; the mountain songs he sing have a high pitch and are remote and moving; the xiaodiao he sings are witty and humorous, with padding words and refrains of their own flavour; the flower-drum songs he sings are cheerful and lively, with a strong local colour. He is also good at taking female roles in reverse, singing with a tender and lingering feeling. His representative works include "The Lad Across the Door Is Killing a Golden Pheasant" and "Do Not Let the Girl-Child Be Dried in the Sun". To transmit Xunyang folk songs he has taken more than thirty apprentices and run more than twenty free training classes. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the Xunyang folk songs intangible cultural heritage project.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Quanxue 05-2174
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。