Jianchuan Baiqu
01 · Historical Records
Historical records show that Jianchuan bai qu has a history of more than a thousand years. The Qing-dynasty Bai poet Zhao Huaili of Jianchuan wrote in "Chaoshan Qu": "Three-stringed lutes of the idlers of Sanying, meandering mountain songs broken and joined again.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jianchuan bai qu is famous throughout the world for its beautiful melodies and wide circulation. It is a traditional form of music widely transmitted in Bai residential areas with a long history, found mainly in Jianchuan County and Eryuan County of Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, and in Lanping Bai and Pumi Autonomous County of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of Lijiang City, and other places. Jianchuan bai qu includes creation-myth ancient songs, sacrificial songs, ritual-custom songs, labour songs, love songs, single-syllable songs, reverse-meaning songs, songs praising objects, songs carrying allegory, daily-life songs, children's songs and others. Love songs are the category with the highest artistic attainment among them. They are improvised in the Bai language, are widely circulated, are very numerous, and are rich in expressiveness and ardent in feeling. Jianchuan bai qu is divided into three registers, namely high-register bai qu, middle-register bai qu and low-register bai qu, matched respectively with lyrics in a high-level, a middle-level and a lowered pitch. Its performance form is distinctive: one person holds a dragon-head sanxian and sings while accompanying himself; alternatively one person accompanies while another sings, or one person accompanies a man and woman singing in antiphonal dialogue. Four lines make one section, and a number of sections make one song. The most common short tune has eight lines to a song. Impromptu antiphonal singing is often done in the mountains, by the lake, at the edge of fields and on the headlands, as well as at the Shibaoshan song festival and ethnic festivals such as the Torch Festival. Hundreds or thousands of listeners join in, one voice leading and all responding, singing through the night until dawn, in a magnificent spectacle. The basic word-pattern of the long song is also the "mountain-flower form", the longest running to more than 3,000 lines. Long songs mostly have a story plot, but not a complicated one; they are mainly lyrical. Traditional works include more than 50 pieces, such as "Hongyan Daishu" and "Huangshi Nu Dui Jingangjing". Ancient Bai-script manuscript copies, which used Chinese characters as ideographic and phonetic notation, circulate widely among the people, and a large quantity of precious documents survives. "The bodhisattva bows his head and Maitreya smiles, the boundless assembly under the Naihe heaven" truly records the splendour of bai qu singing at that time.
Love songs
The category of Jianchuan bai qu with the highest artistic attainment, improvised in the Bai language, widely circulated, very numerous, rich in expressiveness and ardent in feeling.
Other genre categories
Jianchuan bai qu also includes creation-myth ancient songs, sacrificial songs, ritual-custom songs, labour songs, single-syllable songs, reverse-meaning songs, songs praising objects, songs carrying allegory, daily-life songs, children's songs and others.
Three register styles
Jianchuan bai qu is divided into three registers, namely high-register bai qu, middle-register bai qu and low-register bai qu, matched respectively with lyrics in a high-level, a middle-level and a lowered pitch.
Short songs and long songs
The most common short tune has eight lines to a song; the basic word-pattern of the long song is also the "mountain-flower form", the longest running to more than 3,000 lines, mostly with a story plot but not a complicated one, and mainly lyrical.
Traditional long works
Representatives among the more than fifty traditional works of Jianchuan bai qu.
Dragon-head sanxian self-accompaniment
Its performance form is distinctive: one person holds a dragon-head sanxian and sings while accompanying himself; alternatively one person accompanies while another sings, or one person accompanies a man and woman singing in antiphonal dialogue. Impromptu antiphonal singing is often done in the mountains, by the lake, at the edge of fields and on the headlands, as well as at the Shibaoshan song festival and ethnic festivals such as the Torch Festival.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
It can be divided into two major categories, short tunes and long songs. The lyric structure follows the "seven-seven-seven-five" pattern, that is, the first, second and third lines each have seven characters and the fourth line has five characters, commonly called the "mountain-flower form".
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The main way Jianchuan bai qu is transmitted is through master-and-apprentice succession; today there are also group transmission and other modes. Jianchuan bai qu has wide influence nationwide. Its rich content and broad subject matter vividly reflect the production and life, ethnic customs, character traits, aesthetic tastes and ideal aspirations of the Bai people. It is called the encyclopaedia of the Bai ethnic group, plays a positive role in maintaining community harmony and promoting cultural identity, and is an important reference for studying Bai history, language and folklore. Jiang Zongde (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): A male of the Bai ethnicity, born in July 1965, native of Jianchuan County, Yunnan Province. He began learning to sing bai qu at the age of five. He has consistently worked at singing and training in Jianchuan bai qu, travelling from village to village to collect and organise bai qu on the verge of being lost. He has also been invited to take part in exchange activities on bai qu singing and Bai dragon-head sanxian performance at conservatories such as the Central Conservatory of Music and Yunnan Arts University. He is a representative inheritor of Jianchuan bai qu, a project of the fifth national-level batch intangible cultural heritage. He began singing bai qu in 1985 and was repeatedly invited to sing at song contests all over the country, winning prizes. The more than twenty apprentices he has trained have become locally well known. In 2004 he won the Best Singer award at the second China North-South Folk Song Contest.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jiang Zongde 05-2178
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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