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Jingyun Dagu (Beijing Drum Ballad)

At the beat of the drum, tales of the Three Kingdoms and the Red Chamber

Introduction

Short drum ballads sung standing at the drum in Beijing speech

Jingyun dagu is a drum-ballad form of Beijing and Tianjin: one singer stands and keeps time on drum and clapper, accompanied by large sanxian, sihu and pipa, and the pieces are short, mostly on a single rhyme. In the late Qing and early Republic Hu Shi, Song Wu, Huo Mingliang, Liu Baoquan and others reformed the wooden-clapper drum ballad of the Hejian area in Hebei, switching to Beijing pronunciation, borrowing Peking opera singing and taking many texts from the bannermen's zidishu; the name was standardised after 1946. Liu Baoquan, Bai Yunpeng and Zhang Xiaoxuan founded its three main schools, later joined by the Young Bai and Luo schools, and its signature pieces include The Single-Sword Meeting, Battle of Changsha, Daiyu Burns Her Poems and Hearing the Bells at Jiange. Its sister form meihua dagu grew from the meihua tunes of mid-Qing Beijing.

Timeline

Late Qing and early Republic to present
1900 · OriginIn the late Qing and early Republic the drum-ballad singers Hu Jintang (Hu Shi), Huo Mingliang, Song Yukun (Song Wu) and Liu Baoquan reformed the wooden-clapper drum ballad of Hejian in Hebei, adding sihu and pipa and switching to Beijing pronunciation, and jingyun dagu took shape.1946 · EvolutionAfter 1946 the form, earlier called jingyin dagu, xiaokou dagu and other names, was standardised as jingyun dagu.1985 · EvolutionIn 1985 the TV series Four Generations Under One Roof was broadcast, and Luo Yusheng's jingyun dagu song 'Rebuild the Land for the Generations to Come' spread across the country, introducing many young viewers to the form.2008 · ImpactIn 2008 jingyun dagu entered the second national list (V-48), and in 2014 meihua dagu, nominated by Tianjin, entered the fourth (V-116).
  1. 1900OriginIn the late Qing and early Republic the drum-ballad singers Hu Jintang (Hu Shi), Huo Mingliang, Song Yukun (Song Wu) and Liu Baoquan reformed the wooden-clapper drum ballad of Hejian in Hebei, adding sihu and pipa and switching to Beijing pronunciation, and jingyun dagu took shape.
  2. 1946EvolutionAfter 1946 the form, earlier called jingyin dagu, xiaokou dagu and other names, was standardised as jingyun dagu.
  3. 1985EvolutionIn 1985 the TV series Four Generations Under One Roof was broadcast, and Luo Yusheng's jingyun dagu song 'Rebuild the Land for the Generations to Come' spread across the country, introducing many young viewers to the form.
  4. 2008ImpactIn 2008 jingyun dagu entered the second national list (V-48), and in 2014 meihua dagu, nominated by Tianjin, entered the fourth (V-116).

Heritage Listings

  1. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage2nd batch · V-48 Jingyun dagu · no. 741 · nominated by Beijing Song and Dance Theatre Co. and the Tianjin Quyi Troupe
  2. 2014National list4th batch · V-116 Meihua dagu · no. 1290 · nominated by Tianjin