Liuzi Opera

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Liuzi Opera

Applicant: Shandong Province

Project No.: 187

Project No.: Ⅳ - 43

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Traditional Drama

Region: Shandong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Shandong Province

Protection unit: Shandong Liuzi Troupe

Introduction to Liuzi Opera

Applicant: Shandong Province

Liuzi opera, also known as Xianzi opera, is popular in Shandong, Henan, Northern Jiangsu, Southern Hebei and Northern Anhui. It is derived from the popular folk song Xiaoling in the Central Plains since the yuan and Ming Dynasties. Because its main rap tune "Liuzi" is easy to understand and has great influence, it is called Liuzi opera. Liuzi was very popular in the middle of Qing Dynasty. It was once called "Nankun, Beiyi, Dongliu and xibang" together with Kunqiang, Yiyang and Bangzi.

Liuzi opera is mainly composed of folk music and Liuzi. The proportion of folk music is relatively large. There are more than 100 pieces of tunes in existence. The tunes are generally divided into Yuediao, pingdiao, xiadiao, erbadiao, KUNDIAO, Zhuandiao, etc. The folk music is accompanied by such musical instruments as Sanxian, HengDi, Sheng, etc. when singing, the method of "hanging narration" can be used to insert large sections of seven character sentences or cross sentences in long and short sentences to meet the needs of performance. Its music style is euphemistic and pleasant, and can express complex and delicate psychological feelings. Liuzi belongs to the plate style, singing with popular seven character sentences, accompanied by Sanxian and Sheng, showing strong local characteristics. In the process of development, Liuzi opera also absorbed the singing, performance and repertoire of Gao Qiang, Qingyang Qiang, Luantan, Kunqu Opera, Luoluo Qiang, pihuang and other operas. Some people use "nine tunes and eighteen Tunes" to describe the rich and colorful tunes of Liuzi opera.

There are more than 200 existing traditional plays in Liuzi opera, including sun an Dong Ben, Zhang Fei Chuang yuan men, the story of the white rabbit, the story of the golden lock, playing and jumping the boat, holding makeup box, Yanqing beating, beating Dengzhou, whipping Luhua, sawing VAT, etc. The roles of Liuzi opera are divided in detail, including Jingmian Wensheng, jiakesheng, Xiusheng, wusheng and Baihu Laosheng, Danxing includes Qingyi, Hongyi, guimendan and laodan, Jingxing includes Hongjing and heilian, and ugliness includes Wenchou and wuchou. Its performance is characterized by bold and unconstrained, which is very popular with the local audience.

Liuzi opera contains all kinds of ancient tunes popular since Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has more than 600 Qupai, which is of great value in the study of northern Chinese opera and Yuan Dynasty Sanqu. However, due to various reasons, only the Liuzi troupe in Shandong Province, which is known as "the first troupe in the world", is still supporting the appearance of "Dongliu", so it is urgent to protect this ancient drama.