Pipa Art (Pinghu school)

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Pipa Art (Pinghu school)

Applicant: Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province

Item No.: 618

Project No.: Ⅱ - 119

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Pinghu intangible cultural heritage protection and Management Center

Pipa Art (Pinghu school)

Applicant: Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province

Pipa is an ancient stringed instrument in China. The word "Pipa" first appeared in Shuowen Jiezi written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty. "Pi" and "Ba" are two playing techniques of this traditional musical instrument, which are equivalent to today's "Tan" and "Tiao". The instrument is called "Pi Ba" by its technical name, and later changed to "Pipa". From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Pipa was the general name of a variety of stringed instruments. In the long process of historical evolution, Pipa has experienced the transformation from horizontal holding to vertical holding. The Tang Dynasty was the peak period of the development of hengbaopatan Pipa art. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Pipa artists made great contributions to the creation of Pipa music, especially the large-scale Divertimento, and formed many famous Pipa performing schools. In the 1930s, Mr. Liu Tianhua boldly reformed the pipa, and created the six phase and thirteen grade pipa. After the founding of new China, the development of Pipa reached a new peak. Nowadays, Pipa is not only used for solos and national orchestras, but also the main musical instrument of Jiangnan Sizhu, Guangdong music, Chaozhou string poetry, Fujian Nanyin, etc.

Pinghu Pipa is one of the main schools of pipa playing art in China. It was mainly spread in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In 1957, Yang Shaoyi, a descendant of Pinghu school, came to teach in Xi'an Conservatory of music and introduced Pinghu Pipa to the northwest. The pipa art of Pinghu school is based on Li Zufen (about 1850-1901). Li Zufen is a native of Pinghu, Zhejiang Province. His Pipa art has been handed down for four generations. On the basis of inheriting the traditional ancient music, he collected folk songs, compiled fingerings, expanded repertoire, and finally formed his own theory and performance system. In 1895, he compiled and compiled 13 sets of new Pipa scores of northern and southern Daqu and published them.

Pinghu school's pipa playing skill has a unique style, and the characteristic fingering methods include "down out of the wheel fingers", "butterfly double flying", "wipe and sweep", "seven exercises", "horseshoe wheel", "hanging line wheel", etc. There are two kinds of wheel fingers: up and down. Pinghu school basically uses the lower out wheel, small finger, ring finger, middle finger and index finger play down one by one, and then big finger pick up; it also uses the upper out wheel, food, middle finger, ring finger play down one by one, and then big finger pick up. Pinghu Pipa is famous for its rich, gorgeous, solid and far-reaching style. It plays with dense words, complex sound and long rhyme. Zhu Xingjing and Yang Shaoyi's biography and Ren Hongxiang's thirteen Pipa songs of Pinghu school are the representatives of Pinghu school's performing music. The representative works include Huaiyang Pingchu, Yu lunpao, Haiqing taking swan, etc.

Pinghu Pipa has a very high position in the history of art and has a considerable influence on the formation of various styles of pipa. The origin of the famous song "the night of flowers and moons on the Spring River" is the pipa music of Pinghu school "sunset Xiao Gu".