Hexi Baojuan

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Hexi Baojuan

Applicant: Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province

Item No.: 13

Project No.: I-13

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Folk Literature

Region: Gansu Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province

Protected by: Liangzhou Cultural Center

Brief introduction of Hexi Baojuan

Applicant: Liangzhou District, Wuwei City, Gansu Province

Hexi Baojuan is mainly spread in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu Province, which is one of the few areas where there are still speaking and singing activities in China.

Hexi Baojuan is a kind of folk literature based on Bianwen of Dunhuang in Tang Dynasty, Shuo Shuo and Shuo Jing in Song Dynasty. Bianwen, xushuo and Shuo Jing mainly absorbed and followed the structure of Dunhuang Buddhist scriptures, while Liangzhou Baojuan further nationalized, localized and folk at the same time, making it a form of Chinese folk speaking and singing literature. Hexi Baojuan was mature and popular from Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China.

There are four types of Hexi scrolls: Buddhism, historical stories, myths and legends, and fables. The contents reflect the social life of the people. The themes are mostly condemning disobedience and cruelty, advocating filial piety and good deeds.

The main form of Hexi Baojuan is the combination of rhyme and white in the process of speaking and singing, with "receiving Buddha's voice" as the main means to attract the audience to actively participate in singing. Vernacular is a kind of performance technique used by storytellers to narrate the plot, explain the development of events, narrate the relationship between characters, and point out the time and place, which is expressed in the form of "telling" or "saying". The rhyme is a way to express good and evil, promote the development of the story, express love and hate, and exaggerate the atmosphere. It is expressed in the form of "chanting" or "singing". The rhyme style treasure roll integrates various tunes, and also adds some Liangzhou folk tunes, such as crying at the fifth watch, lotus falling, shiquanren, etc.

According to the survey, there are about 30 volumes of Liangzhou Baojuan scripts, most of which are woodcut and manuscripts. In the early 1980s, there were also some oil copies. Jiuquan Baojuan has collected more than 70 kinds of cipai tunes and singing tunes, and more than 140 copies of more than 70 kinds of Baojuan (including cunmu).

Liangzhou Baojuan was developed under the profound influence of Dunhuang folk literature. The study of Hexi Baojuan is helpful to the study of Dunhuang studies. The spirit of persuading people to be good and to help others, filial piety to their parents, harmony with their brothers, friendship with others, and the virtues of industrious production and cherishing food in Baojuan play a certain role in cultivating people's good moral character and promoting the construction of spiritual civilization.

At present, due to the development of rural economy and the change of living customs, few people take the initiative to hold the activities of reciting and singing Baojuan. Nowadays, most of the readers are over 70 years old. With the gradual death of this group in the future, Hexi Baojuan will face the crisis of extinction.