MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Jiangnan Sizhu

Strings and flutes in conversation round a teahouse table

Introduction

Silk-and-bamboo chamber music of southern Jiangsu, western Zhejiang and Shanghai

Jiangnan sizhu is the silk-and-bamboo ensemble music of southern Jiangsu, western Zhejiang and Shanghai, played by a few to a dozen or more seated musicians on erhu, dizi, xiao, pipa, yangqin, sanxian, qinqin and similar instruments. In the Jiajing and Longqing reigns of the Ming, while Wei Liangfu was reshaping the Kun tune at Taicang, Zhang Yetang organised a full sizhu ensemble, and the xiansuo music formed around Suzhou at the end of the Wanli reign is regarded as its forerunner. Its pieces grow by variation from parent tunes such as Lao Liuban, with the 'Eight Great Pieces', among them Zhonghua Liuban, Sanliu, Xingjie, Sihe and Yunqing, at the core, and the parts ornament and give way to one another. By the early 20th century Shanghai was its centre.

Representative works

  1. Sihe RuyiIts forerunner Sihe appears in an 1860 pipa manuscript; later players dropped the gongs and drums.
  2. SanliuA Qing-era prelude to Suzhou tanhuang singing, printed in 1895 under the borrowed title Meihua Sannong.
  3. Zhonghua LiubanThe most important elaboration of the old tune Lao Liuban, also known as the Warm Breeze Tune.
  4. XingjieA tune for playing on the move; its original score was printed in the 1919 Guosheng Ji.
  5. YunqingGrew out of one section of the percussion suite Luogu Sihe; printed in the 1919 Guosheng Ji.
  6. Ornamented Three-SixOne of the Eight Great Pieces of Jiangnan sizhu, made by slowing and ornamenting San Liu
  7. Song of JoyOne of the Eight Great Pieces of Jiangnan sizhu, moving from a slow opening to a lively close
  8. Slow Six BeatsOne of the Eight Great Pieces of Jiangnan sizhu, grown from Lao Liu Ban by slowing and ornamenting

Timeline

Jiajing–Longqing reigns of the Ming to present
1567 · OriginIn the Jiajing–Longqing period, as Wei Liangfu created the 'water-mill' Kun tune at Taicang, Zhang Yetang led the forming of a full sizhu ensemble playing from gongche notation.1615 · EvolutionAt the end of the Wanli reign a new genre called xiansuo formed around Suzhou, regarded as the forerunner of Jiangnan sizhu.1925 · EvolutionIn the 1920s Wang Xunzhi founded the Hangzhou Guoyue Society on Gushan by West Lake, and Shanghai became the centre of sizhu activity, spreading the arranged repertoire.2006 · ImpactListed in the first national batch in 2006 (II-40) from Taicang and Shanghai, with a Hangzhou extension added in 2008.
  1. 1567OriginIn the Jiajing–Longqing period, as Wei Liangfu created the 'water-mill' Kun tune at Taicang, Zhang Yetang led the forming of a full sizhu ensemble playing from gongche notation.
  2. 1615EvolutionAt the end of the Wanli reign a new genre called xiansuo formed around Suzhou, regarded as the forerunner of Jiangnan sizhu.
  3. 1925EvolutionIn the 1920s Wang Xunzhi founded the Hangzhou Guoyue Society on Gushan by West Lake, and Shanghai became the centre of sizhu activity, spreading the arranged repertoire.
  4. 2006ImpactListed in the first national batch in 2006 (II-40) from Taicang and Shanghai, with a Hangzhou extension added in 2008.

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · II-40 Jiangnan sizhu · no. 71 · nominated by Taicang · Jiangsu and by Shanghai
  2. 2008National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage, extension itemII-40 Jiangnan sizhu: Hangzhou · Zhejiang · safeguarding body Hangzhou Art School