Wu Ge

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Wu Ge

Applicant: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Item No.: 22

Project No.: i-22

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: Folk Literature

Region: Jiangsu Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Protection unit: Suzhou intangible cultural heritage protection and Management Office (Suzhou Cultural Research Center)

About Wu Ge:

Applicant: Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Wu Song is the oral literature creation of the majority of people in Wu dialect area, originated in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, Suzhou area is the center of the emergence and development of Wu Song. Wu songs are handed down from generation to generation with strong local characteristics.

The song of Wu has a long history, and it is recorded in the songs of Chu: evocation of the soul that Wu caiou played a great role. When Guo Maoqian compiled Yuefu Poetry Anthology in Song Dynasty, wu song was incorporated into Wu Shengqu in Qing Shang Quci. In Ming Dynasty, Feng Menglong collected a large number of Wu songs from song and Yuan Dynasties to the middle of Ming Dynasty, and compiled them into folk songs and guazhier. The Qing Dynasty was a mature and prosperous period of long narrative Wu songs. A large number of long narrative Wu songs were preserved by the publication and printing of classics, the biography of literati and the oral transmission of folk artists.

Before and after the May 4th movement, Peking University launched the Ballad Movement. In 1920, the morning paper published a series of Wu songs. Later, it successively edited and published Wu Ge Jia Ji (Gu Jiegang), Wu Ge Yi Ji (Wang Yizhi), Wu Ge Bing Ji (Wang Jungang), Wu Ge Xiaoshi (Gu Jiegang), etc. Since the 1980s, Wu Ge Ding Ji (edited by Gu Jiegang and Wang Xuhua), Wu Ge Wu Ji (edited by Wang Xuhua) and Wu Ge Ji Ji (edited by Lin Zongli and Qian zuoyuan) have been compiled, and a large number of Wu songs have been collected, sorted and studied. Especially the discovery and excavation of the long narrative Wu songs and the compilation and publication of the ballad volume of "three sets of integration of Chinese folk literature", a large number of Wu songs have been salvaged and preserved. In the 21st century, the relevant departments have edited and published several million words of Wu Song oral and research materials, such as China Baimao folk song collection, China luxui folk song collection, Wu Song heritage collection and China Wu Song forum.

Wu Song is performed by folk oral singing, and oral singing is the basic way of its artistic expression. Wu Song is a free song, which is sung without any musical instruments. There are several types of songs, such as lead songs (commonly known as "Song head" and long narrative songs as "Nao head"), labor songs, love songs, life customs and rituals songs, children's songs and long narrative songs. Liu Bannong wrote a preface to Gu Jiegang's Wu Ge Jia Ji, saying that the interest of Wu Ge is nothing more than "language, local customs and art", and "these three things, simply speaking, are the soul of the nation.". Wu Song is not only a folk oral literature form in Wu dialect area, but also a valuable material for the study of dialects.