Lingyun Zhuangzuqishierwudiao Music
01 · Historical Records
Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes is a traditional form of music handed down through generations by Zhuang women, and a component of Zhuang traditional music. It is mainly transmitted in Sicheng Town, Lingyun County, Baise City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and is also found in the Zhuang villages of the neighbouring townships of Xiajia, Lingzhan, Chaoli and Jiayu. Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes are a rare group of folk tunes characterised by female performance, bearing traces of a matrilineal clan society. It took root in the shamanic religion of the ancient Yue people, took shape in the middle of the Ming dynasty and flourished in the Qing dynasty. It has a history of more than 500 years and is still transmitted among the people today through masters teaching apprentices.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes are performed mainly by a single singer, accompanied by bells and the sound of stamping feet. They fall into two categories, accompaniment and vocal music; the accompaniment includes instrumental beating, body percussion and vocal backing, while the vocal music comprises three types: chanting tunes, rhymed singing tunes and lyric singing tunes. The structure is mostly single-section, with a few pieces in two-section form. The scales include a four-tone series and pentatonic modes (pentatonic gong, pentatonic shang and pentatonic zhi modes). The rhythms include ordered and unordered movement, and different styles emerge in modulation. Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes are bound by countless threads to Zhuang folk music-and-dance and folk ballads. Their highs are clear, their middles bright and their lows full, giving them exceptionally rich expressiveness. Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes were originally the music used by Zhuang women in prayer-for-blessing rituals. They are sung by Zhuang women in the Zhuang language, and the lyrics are mainly narrative, drawing on the seventy-two cultural and natural landmarks of Lingyun County to pray for blessings and ward off disaster, to cherish life, and to bring human beings into communication with nature and with one another. In subject matter they either reflect the natural environment, or the low social standing and hard fate of women, or sing of social ethics and women's codes of conduct, or pray for the birth of children and good health, or express views of nature, philosophy and aesthetics, or pray for abundant harvests. The content is rich and diverse, and the influence is far-reaching. Because the music is highly appealing to the ear, later generations adapted it, and the repertoire developed. There are both traditional pieces and works which folk artists have rearranged and newly composed out of elements of the shaman tunes.
Chanting tune
One of the three types in the vocal part of Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes.
Rhymed singing tune
One of the three types in the vocal part of Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes.
Lyric singing tune
One of the three types in the vocal part of Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes.
Accompaniment sources
Performed mainly by a single singer and accompanied by bells and the sound of stamping feet, they fall into two categories, accompaniment and vocal music; the accompaniment includes instrumental beating, body percussion and vocal backing.
Seventy-two local landmarks
The lyrics are mainly narrative, drawing largely on the seventy-two cultural and natural landmarks of Lingyun County to pray for blessings and ward off disaster, to cherish life, and to bring human beings into communication with nature and with one another.
Four-tone and pentatonic scales
The structure is mostly single-section, with a few pieces in two-section form; the scales include a four-tone series and pentatonic modes (pentatonic gong, pentatonic shang and pentatonic zhi modes), the rhythms include ordered and unordered movement, and different styles emerge in modulation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhuang women in the area of Sicheng Town, Lingyun County, transmit the seventy-two shaman tunes by the method of "song masters taking apprentices". Singing is mostly done at prayer-for-blessing and warding-off-disaster ritual occasions, sung in the Zhuang language and accompanied by bells and stamping feet, and it frequently takes its inspiration from the seventy-two cultural and natural landmarks within the county.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lingyun Zhuang seventy-two shaman tunes are closely bound up with the ethnic and cultural history of the Zhuang people, and have high value for historical, folklore, artistic and religious research. This heritage item has rich artistic expressiveness. It embodies the ideal beliefs, ethical concepts, moral sentiments and aesthetic psychology of the Zhuang people, especially Zhuang women, and serves as a bond maintaining the emotional ties and cultural identity of the community, giving it social and cultural value that cannot be underestimated.
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。