Yangjiajiang Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Yang family generals chanting is a Han folk narrative-singing form current in the area of eastern Guangling county, Shanxi, adjoining Yu county, Hebei. It evolved from the ancient narrative-singing art, is grand in scale and full of ups and downs, and preserves the tradition of alternating oral narration and verse singing; its libretto runs to about three hundred thousand lines and its complete performance can last six hundred hours.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yang family generals legend shows the group-portrait of a heroic family. At the moment of foreign invasion and national peril the Yang family stepped forward before a strong enemy and fought a bloody battle, their fierce, strong and self-sacrificing heroism displaying the unyielding national spirit of the sons and daughters of China. As a part of the Yang family generals legend, the Mu Guiying legend expresses the joys and sorrows and the loves and hates of a woman long tested on the battlefield and conveys the deep love of the broad masses for the beautiful and brave heroine Mu Guiying. The Yang family generals chanting is a Han folk narrative-singing current in the area of eastern Guangling county, Shanxi, adjoining Yu county, Hebei; grand in scale and full of ups and downs, its plot vivid and winding, it preserves in performance the feature of the ancient narrative-singing art in which oral narration and verse singing alternate, telling and singing with both voice and feeling. The chanting is chiefly the creation of the Han people but fuses the wisdom of Khitan and Mongol folk artists of history; a deep study of its thought, dialect and idiom, rhyme scheme, narrative form, method, structural feature and descriptive technique will surely enrich our understanding of traditional Chinese culture. The chanting is a cultural treasure left to us by our forebears; its scale is grand, its libretto about three hundred thousand lines in all and its performance capable of lasting six hundred hours.
The Upper Part of the Yang Family Generals Chanting
One of the two great parts already collated, about a hundred and seventy thousand lines.
The Lower Part of the Yang Family Generals Chanting
One of the two great parts already collated.
Alternating Verse Singing and Oral Narration
The performing feature of the ancient narrative-singing art preserved in the Yang family generals chanting.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yang family generals chanting takes in a great many local dialect words and idioms; vivid and plain, humorous and witty, it teaches through entertainment and has strong artistic power, helping patriotic education and enriching the cultural life of the people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yangjiajiang Legend · Yangjiajiang Legend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yang family generals (Mu Guiying) legend has important historical and cultural value and is at the same time rich in ideological and educational significance. At present two great parts, an upper and a lower, have been collated, about a hundred and seventy thousand lines, capable of a performance of three hundred and twenty hours. Today the singers have no successors, and the Yang family generals chanting faces the danger of being lost and urgently needs protection and transmission. The Yang family generals chanting in the Guangling and Yu county area is transmitted chiefly within families and from master to disciple, its singing bleak and stirring, with a distinctive north-eastern Shanxi dialect character.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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