Qinghai Pingxian

Qinghai Pingxian

Qinghai Pingxian, also known as Xining Fu Zi, is one of the new local folk songs in Qinghai Province. It is popular in Xining, Huangzhong, Datong and Mutual Aid Agricultural Areas. Qupai is known as "eighteen mixed tunes" and "twenty-four tunes". The flat-stringed instruments are mainly three strings, accompanied by yueqin, pipa, dulcimer, flute, etc. The singer holds chopsticks and holds porcelain dishes in one hand to beat each other to master the rhythm. The melody is graceful lyric, gentle and tactful, with strong local characteristics. It is prevalent in the eastern agricultural region of Qinghai Province.

On June 7, 2008, "Qinghai Pingxian" declared by Xining City of Qinghai Province was listed in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

historical origin

Qinghai Pingxian Opera is a newly born local opera after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It developed on the basis of sitting and singing Pingxian Opera (formerly known as "Xining Opera", "Xining Fu Zi"), which evolved from folk songs introduced into Qinghai by Beijing-Tianjin geisha girls about 100 years ago. The main characteristics of Pingxian Opera art are its euphemism in singing and localization in pronunciation. It is mainly Xining Mandarin, but the rhymes of Sheng and Dan absorb the pronunciation of Beijing Opera and Qin Opera. Pingxian is a traditional sitting and singing art popular in Hehuang area with Xining as the center. It is one of the local music types in Qinghai Province. It is formed by the sitting and singing art of the combination of Qupai and Qupai. It is named for the "Pingxian" in the folk chord-setting method because its main accompaniment instrument is the three-stringed format. Pingxian's traditional repertoires are mostly rhymes of 7-character and 10-character sentences, which are rich in content and are based on traditional folklore and stories. Its singing form has a bright rhythm and beautiful melody.

About the origin of Qinghai Pingxian opera, one is that it was introduced from northern China during Jiajing and Longqing periods (1522-1572) of the Ming Dynasty. According to the local old artists, the earliest known Qinghai Pingxian artist is called Liang Shouwa, nicknamed Lord Liang Buddha, born around 1850. Later, Li Hanqing and Chen Houzhai (both of whom were born around 1890) were influential in both teaching and singing. According to this calculation, the latest time was in Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1862-1874). This kind of music has begun to be popular. Its repertoire is mostly selected from classical novels and operas such as Records of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Biography of White Snake, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Story of the Western Chamber. Judging from the structure of flat string and the form of its words and songs, we can see that its origin comes from various channels. The names of the flat-string tunes are mostly found in Nishi Continuation Spectrum published in the sixty years of Qianlong (1795) of the Qing Dynasty and Baixue Remaining Sound printed in the eighth year of Daoguang (1828). Most of the melodies are the same as those of Beijing and Tianjin, and some of them are similar to those of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

After liberation, with the care and strong support of the Party and the government, the traditional music was collected and sorted out, and the flat-string performance group was organized.

Xining Opera

In July 1959, the first Pingxian Folding Opera "Hundred Days Margin", "Qiujiang" and "Central Margin of the Cabinet" rehearsed by the elementary school students of the Pingxian Class of Xining Opera were put on the stage with the finishing touch, and met with the audience of Xining City, which was warmly welcomed and praised by all walks of life and the masses. "Qinghai Daily" and "Xining Daily" have published many articles and pictures, such as "Special Flowers", "New Flowers Blossom Brilliant, Qinghai Pingxian Stage" and so on. They warmly praise the formal birth of Qinghai Pingxian Opera, a local opera in Qinghai. On the National Day of the same year, Pingxian Opera was performed again. Thereafter, while researching and reforming, the traditional plays of teaching and rehearsing performances included "Marriage", "Road Striking", "Kite Error", "An Tang Recognition of Mother" and "A Tour Garden Shocked Dream". Modern dramas such as "Little Two Quarrels", "Little Red Heart" (Big), "Picking up Wheat Spikes" and "Carpenter Welcoming Kids". Among them, "A Dream in the Garden" was filmed by Qinghai Film Studio in 1960. In order to strengthen the practice, the trainees often performed in the countryside, factories, mines and the army, which was warmly welcomed by the audience.

In the past two years, the teachers and students of Pingxian Class have basically been in the stage of exploration and discussion in art: they have basically maintained the form of the set of music cards in the aspect of musical singing, but in structure they have broken the original set of methods of sitting singing (i.e. fork-divert-back divergence), instead, they have gradually changed to choose suitable singing based on the development of plot and the needs of characters'feelings. The tune and music cards are designed and combined. The original "bitter" and "flower" music tunes in Pingxian Opera were studied and innovated, which enriched and developed the "flower" tunes of Pingxian Opera and enhanced the expressive force. In the aspect of pronunciation, due to the influence of the national language standardization at that time, Putonghua was first spoken, but it was soon found that the style of performance was incongruous. They changed to Xining Mandarin. For the more distinguished characters in traditional operas, there is a slight rhyme in the tone; for percussion instruments, we have tried to use Qin Opera percussion instruments and Peking Opera percussion instruments. On March 1, 1961, on the basis of the former Xining Opera Pingxian Class, the Qinghai Pingxian Experimental Theatre Troupe was formally established after the adjustment and enrichment of personnel, especially the strengthening of the creative research and directive force. The regiment's policy is as follows: 1. Continuously develop and improve the local opera of Qinghai Province - Pingxian Opera. 2. Walking on two legs: rehearsing both modern and traditional plays. 3. While serving the urban audience, facing the countryside and serving the vast rural audience in Qinghai.

Because the troupe has accumulated a considerable number of repertoires, and opera is an artistic form that mainly expresses its complex and sharp dramatic conflicts and characterizes characters through musical singing, from the 1962 rehearsal of "Civet Cat for Prince", in terms of musical singing, the troupe has boldly broken through the set structure of music, drawing lessons from, creating and developing the board and string music such as guide board, Allegro board and scattered board. Board head, percussion music, string and so on. At the same time, they retain the essence of all kinds of tunes in the original flat chord, so that the structure of the Qupai of the Ping opera is transferred from the quad couplet to a comprehensive way that is supplemented by plate changes. In addition, it also absorbs some singing tunes and music cards from Meihu and Xianxiao in Qinghai, and uses them together. It also absorbs Suona cards from Qinghai people, enriches itself, enriches its expressive force, and adds high difficulty requirements in the aspects of pronunciation, performance and physical training.

After the "Cultural Revolution" began in 1966, the business activities of Pingxian Opera Troupe were basically at a standstill. By the end of 1970, the troupe was dissolved and all the performers were changed. In 1975, various local operas transplanted "revolutionary model operas" and held performances in Beijing. Qinghai provisionally organized "Xining Amateur String Opera Group", borrowed more than 50 business personnel (including some of the original Pingxian Opera Troupe) from 25 units, and transplanted and rehearsed "History of Revolutionists in Pain", "Deep Mountain Asking Pain" and "Deep Similar to the Sea". In the same year, 7. She went to Beijing in January to attend the concert and was well received. Among them, "Deep Mountain Questions" was re-selected to participate in the National Day Tour in Beijing at the end of September. After returning to Ningxia, the troupe performed a number of condolences in Xining, Huangzhong, Datong Mutual Assistance and other places. In late October of the same year, "Xining Amateur Pingxian Opera Group" announced its dissolution, which lasted for eight months. Due to the success of Pingxian Opera performing in Beijing, the "Xining Pingxian Opera Troupe" was formally established in May 1976 at the request of the masses, and only a few professionals of the former provincial Pingxian Opera Troupe participated. Modern plain-string plays such as "March 3", "Mountain Veterinarians" and "Sharing Sweets and Pains" were rehearsed one after another, and performed in Xining, Huangzhong, Minhe and Ledu. Soon after, because the guiding ideology of the regiment was not clear and there were divergent opinions on the development of Pingxian Opera, it was finally changed to "Xining Local Arts and Works Group" in the summer of 1977, and then to "Xining Opera Troupe". Xining Pingxian Opera Troupe has existed for one year. So far, Pingxian Opera in Qinghai Province has experienced three ups and downs in its embryonic stage, which has caused great losses to the development of art and the cultivation of talents.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in 1979, with the approval of the Ministry of Culture and the support of the leaders of departments at all levels in Qinghai Province, the original "Qinghai Pingxian Experimental Opera Troupe" was restored, which marked the rebirth of "Qinghai Pingxian Opera", the only new local opera in Qinghai. In October 1979, the Qinghai Provincial Culture Department resumed the preparatory group of the "Provincial Pingxian Experimental Theatre Troupe". Most of the original personnel returned to the troupe. In addition, more than 20 trainees were recruited to train with the troupe. After more than half a year's business practice and rehearsal, in August 1980, a large-scale traditional drama "False Son Rising the Dragon" was staged in Xining, which was warmly welcomed by the literary and artistic circles and the broad audience.

Shaanxi Pingxian

Shaanxi Pingxian tunes and other related art also have a great influence on Qinghai Pingxian. From Fengxiang County Culture Museum of Shaanxi Province in 1963

In the book Fengxiang Folk Song-Pingxian Opera, we can see that although Fengxiang's Pingxian Opera has not formed a form of opera art, we can find that some of its tunes, lyrics, music tablets and Qinghai Pingxian Opera belong to the same name and different names, such as "Jianjianhua" (Qinghai Pingxian is called "Cutting Indigo Flowers") and "Baban" (Eight Panels). The songs are the same as the "Bapuer" of Qinghai Pingxian, the "Five Robins" and the "Yu Mei Ren" (the same as the "Yang Dianhua", "Da Kaimen", "Da Kaimei" of Qinghai Pingxian). A considerable part of them are very similar to the traditional folk tunes in Qinghai. From the history of population change, according to the "Feng's genealogy" of Xiachuankou, Minhe County, Qinghai Province, it is recorded that "during the Hongwu period of Daming Dynasty, people moved from Fengxiang and Baoji County, Shaanxi Province." From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, along with the migration of immigrants from all over the country and the entry of the army, and the businessmen from Shanxi and Shaanxi came to Qinghai to do business and settle down in Qinghai, it also brought a lot of folk songs, operas and operas from other places to settle down in Hehuang area of Qinghai Province, and began to blend with the local folk arts, evolve and develop. For example, Qinghai Pingxian's "Dalian Flower" and "Taiping Tune" are basically the same in melody and structure as those in Shaanxi and Qinghai Meihu, and "Shili Dun" and "Yaya Eryue" are the same as those in Qinghai Meihu's "Eastern Tune" and "Gang Tune" (Qinghai Meihu is also from Shaanxi Meihu). The flat-string tunes of "Yang Dianhua", "inverted paddle", "Jasmine" and "Narcissus" are similar in melody, mode and name to some southern folk songs, and some even lyrics are exactly the same. This may be related to the legendary distribution of Xining in Qinghai by the residents of Nanjing Blooming Purple Lane. In a word, the music of Qinghai Pingxian Quyi has southern tune, northern tune, Qinghai characteristic, Gansu and Shaanxi flavor, and its composition is more complex.

Inheritance Significance

Qinghai Pingxian Opera: an important part of intangible cultural heritage, contains rich regional culture. The content of Qinghai Pingxian Opera has a broad vision of life and rich ideological connotation. It reflects the reflection of Qinghai nationalities on people's lively life, their yearning for spiritual homeland, their reflection on the course of life and the display of the change of life values, leaving behind a visualized spiritual product, thus enriching the ideological treasury of Qinghai local opera culture. Qinghai Pingxian local opera creation retains a number of flesh-and-blood artistic images of Qinghai national opera, excavates the complex and rich inner world of the people in the play, and displays the rich regional culture and folk culture of Qinghai at various levels with unique expression methods and artistic techniques.

Inheritance and Protection

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the relevant departments have attached great importance to Qinghai Pingxian. Since 1951, the relevant departments have organized efforts to collect and sort out its music tunes, and have published monographs. In 1954, Qinghai National Opera and Dance Troupe tried to rehearse Qiujiang and Lou Tai Hui with their tunes. In the first half of 1958, the Qin Opera Troupe of Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province, also tried to put Pingxian on the stage. The Qin Opera performers rehearsed the large-scale traditional opera Orphan Zhao, which was performed in Huangzhong, Xining and Lanzhou. In the second half of the same year, the Qinghai provincial government and the provincial cultural administrative leading departments made the decision to "put the flat string singing art on the stage and develop it into a local opera genre", and set up a "flat string class" in Xining Drama School. Since October of the same year, more than 40 students have been recruited, and nearly 20 flat string artists, opera shape training, rehearsal teachers and new literary and artists have been selected and invested. The experimental research work of putting the art of sitting and singing flat strings on the stage.

Pingxian music and singing art have been developed and improved, becoming a popular local music, adding a flower to the stage of Chinese drama, ending the history of Qinghai's no local opera.