Tujia Sayeerhe
01 · Historical Records
Wufeng was formerly called Changle County; in the thirteenth year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty, the system of native chieftains was replaced by the administration of appointed officials, a county was established, and its territory was the former land of the Rongmei tusi. The funeral song-and-dance of the Tujia villages is repeatedly recorded in the old gazetteers. The local funeral dance shares the same origin as that of other Tujia areas of the Qingjiang basin; the routines of the wen chang (civil register) are simple and elegant, while those of the wu chang (martial register) are largely drawn from the forms of wild beasts in the mountains.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qingjiang Tujia are descendants of the Linyun Man, one of the five surnames of the ancient Ba people, and they revere the white tiger. The Tang-dynasty "Manshu" records: "The Ba sacrificed to their ancestors, beating drums as they did so; they were descendants of the white tiger. They beat drums to voice their grief; their singing must be wailing, and the whole gathering must dance. The Qing-dynasty "Changle County Gazetteer" records: "When a family had a death, neighbours came to mourn and did not leave till nightfall, which is called accompanying the dead. Beside the coffin they beat drums and sang folk songs to one another..." The Qingjiang Tujia, the birthplace of the Linyun Man, still follow the customs of their ancestors. The Tujia "Sayeh" of Wufeng is a ritual song-and-dance. The Tujia believe that life and death are like the changes of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, natural and spontaneous; the passing of an old person who has lived out his appointed span follows the law of nature and is worth celebrating. In the Tujia villages deep in the mountains, when news arrives with the sound of the three-barreled gun, neighbours hurry to the mourning family to "watch the news". "When a person dies, it is the affair of the whole neighbourhood; one beat of the funeral drum means two hands of help. If we cannot afford tofu and cannot afford the gift, then we dance the funeral drum all night to repay the kindness. " Gathering before the coffin of the deceased in the mourning family's hall, the men sing and dance at the same time while the women, dressed in bright clothing, watch and cheer them on, through the whole night, expressing with wonderfully expressive song and dance their praise of life, their understanding of the relationship between human beings and nature, and their open-minded view of life and death. When dancing "Sayeh", the song master beats the drum and calls the song; the core dance passages use a 6/8 rhythm carrying syncopated notes, rare among folk-song genres, mixed and transformed together with 2/4, 4/4 and 6/8 rhythms. The dancers respond to the beat and dance in time, and their carriage shows the characteristics of smoothness, curvature and tremor. The dance style is divided into wen and wu: the wen register has 20 basic routines such as running the field and rolling the body, simple and elegant, combining hardness and softness; the wu register has 8 routines such as the fierce tiger descending the mountain, with movements strong and vigorous, full of tiger-like energy. The Tujia "Sayeh" of Wufeng is an art in which song, dance and music are perfectly fused into one. Its vocal style uses the male voice an octave higher with vibrato; the tune is an ancient characteristic third, and the structure of the musical form carries the lingering traces of the ancient sacrificial music and songs of the Ba-Chu region. The five-line love songs it sings are a distinctive genre with high historical and artistic value.
Civil and martial sequences
The dance divides into civil sequences — running the field, rolling the body and eighteen others — and eight vigorous martial ones such as the tiger descending.
The three-barrelled salute and 'reading the news'
At the sound of the three-barrelled salute villagers hurry to the mourner's house; 'a death is the whole village's loss' goes the saying.
Mixed six-eight, two-four and four-four
Its core drum figures use a rare syncopated 6/8, mixed with 2/4 and 4/4, over which dancers move with same-side, curved and trembling gestures.
The five-line love song
The distinctive five-line love songs preserve something of ancient Ba-Chu ritual melodies and are sung in a high trembling male register.
Swan guarding eggs and lazy dragon turning over
The inheritor Mao Fangming revived over ten nearly lost routines and recorded more than six hundred five-line song texts.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
"Sayeh", meaning "dancing the funeral, beating the funeral drum", is the traditional Tujia song-and-dance of the Qingjiang basin in western Hubei and has a long history. It is transmitted mainly among the Tujia villages in the middle reaches of the Qingjiang basin in Hubei Province, and is widespread in most parts of Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County and Changyang Tujia Autonomous County of Yichang City, Hubei Province, and Badong County of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. The Tujia "Sayeh" of Wufeng is a folk activity in which the local Tujia people can all take part. It has been handed down as a practice of village-group transmission, has a broad mass basis, and is in a good state of preservation.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tujia Sayeerhe · Tujia Sayeerhe · Tujia Sayeerhe.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At the same time, this heritage project expresses the distinctive folk customs and the open-minded life consciousness of the Tujia people, their simple philosophy of following nature, and their positive attitude towards life expressed through the closeness of neighbouring clans; it has high cultural and social value. Mao Fangming (as recorded in the official file of associated inheritors): Male, Tujia, born in February 1964, native of Wufeng Tujia Autonomous County, Hubei Province. As a boy he learned "Sayeh" from his grandfather Mao Kaishan and other elders, and later studied the martial-register routines with Du Shou'an, reviving more than ten routines that had been nearly lost, such as "the swan holding the egg" and "the lazy dragon turning over". He has long been active at the sites of folk activities among neighbouring clans, and has recorded and organized more than six hundred sets of five-line "Sayeh" lyrics. He has spared no effort in inheriting and spreading "Sayeh", travelling many times to Wufeng, Yichang and Wuhan to give performances. Representative inheritor of the Tujia Sayeh in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tanziyou 02-0365
- Zhang Yanke 02-0366
- Mao Fangming 05-2225
- Huang Zaixiu 05-2226
- Zhou Chunqin 05-2227
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。