For 11 years, she has been on the road, walking through the villages of Xingtang, visiting many villagers and old folk artists, just to keep the folk cultural treasures of her hometown. She, An Sujuan, a volunteer for the protection and inheritance of traditional folk culture in Xingtang County, Shijiazhuang, was recently rated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as the "most beautiful volunteer" in the field of culture and tourism, and she is also the only cultural volunteer in our province to receive this title in 2021.
Origin: Only for the hometown of the heavenly song
Walking 10 kilometers northwest along the county seat of Tang County, the west bank of the Gao River passes through the Shangbei monument and is Yang Village. Yangcun is an ancient village, according to excavated cultural relics, as early as the Warring States Period, people lived here. The local Yangcun Yangcun song has a long history, and people sing it to celebrate the festival and promote the harvest, and they can't hear its melody in the fields.
"Maybe many people can't understand it now, but for us, Yangcun Yangge is a natural sound." An Sujuan is a native of Yangcun, and her father An Xiquan was the leader of Yangcun Yangge at that time, singing from the age of twelve or thirteen to the age of 79. Because of his outstanding singing skills and rich vocal feelings, the audience gave him the reputation of "Sha Lu Watermelon". When she was young, An Sujuan grew up listening to her father's songs, and she still remembered her father's superb skills.
Once their father performed Yangcun Yangge in a neighboring county, and the sudden wind blew out the lights on the stage, "I saw that I couldn't perform, but the audience didn't want to leave, and in the darkness I didn't know who shouted a voice 'send a flashlight to the stage', the big guys immediately you and I, and soon more than 20 flashlights were hung on the roof, and the performance could continue." An Sujuan said with a smile that it was this performance that made the Yangge Troupe in neighboring counties very dissatisfied.
In order to retain the oral opera repertoire, since the end of the 1970s, An Xiquan has dictated and asked others to record 6 major books and 15 plays. Her father's love for Yangcun Yangge deeply infected An Sujuan, and also laid the groundwork for her to spontaneously engage in the protection and inheritance of traditional folk culture.
"At first I just wanted to write an article for my father, but I didn't expect it to be out of control." It was 2011, and An Sujuan, who had been working in the county for many years, took a back seat, she planned to write an article about her father and Yangcun Yangge, and also visited many villagers, and when asked which play An Xiquan was best at, many people mentioned "Xingtang Village Famous Song". This ten-minute-long work mentions more than 200 village names in Xingtang, and every time it is sung in the local area, it will win a piece of applause. Later, several experts in the county praised An Sujuan after seeing the "Famous Songs of Xingtang Village" compiled and transcribed by An Sujuan, and asked her the meaning of the lyrics mentioned in it, the location of the place names, and the strange ancient place names, which suddenly stopped her and gave her the idea of interpreting the "Famous Songs of Xingtang Village".
During the visit, An Sujuan also realized that her father had taken pains to record the purpose of the opera, and with the departure of one old artist after another, some of the plays of Yangcun Yangge had been lost. Since then, she has decided to collect and organize Yangcun Operas, including "Famous Songs of Xingtang Village". "Watching the Yangcun Operas that my father and the villagers loved disappear one by one, I couldn't stand idly by." She was 53 years old.
Visits: Four years of searching and writing more than a million words
In 2013, "Xingtang Village Famous Songs" was listed as the intangible cultural heritage of Shijiazhuang City, and the Xingtang Yangcun Yang song was included in the list of provincial and municipal intangible cultural heritage; at the end of 2015, the "Xingtang YangCun Yangcun Yang Song" containing 55 scripts with more than 1 million words and the "Xingtang Village Famous Song Interpretation" with more than 300,000 words were published... Among them are The painstaking efforts and dedication of An Sujuan's 4 years of walking and visiting.
Take the interpretation of the "Famous Songs of Xingtang Village", many of the more than 200 villages mentioned in the "Famous Songs of Xingtang Village" have no sound, some have changed their names, and some have been divided into other cities and counties, which need to be proofread and examined one by one. An Sujuan rushed to the county zhi office, archives and other units, consulted a large number of materials such as "Xingtang County New Zhi" and "Xingtang County Zhi", and compared the new and old county records, Xingtang maps and other relevant materials, and examined the names of the new and old villages one by one. Some precious materials are not borrowed, so she uses the camera to take pictures of the required content and prints it herself. In order to grasp the accurate village name and the origin of the place name, historical and cultural relics, celebrities, traditional skills, etc., she traveled through the mountains, waters, temples, etc. involved in the village song, and visited relevant insiders. "Interpretation of Famous Songs of Xingtang Village" was published at the end of 2015 and republished for the second time in 2017 at the request of a large number of readers.
The collection and collation of other Yangcun Operas is also full of tests. An Sujuan took the book and took the voice recorder to visit the old artists of the Song one by one. "They sang me while taking notes, they said Zhang San appeared, I quickly wrote it down, Li Si appeared, I wrote it down again." Most of the artists are old, slurred, and have lost their hearing, and An Sujuan patiently communicates with them repeatedly, once she talked to an old artist for 4 days. She has traveled to two-thirds of the villages in Xingtang, going out to investigate during the day and sorting out desks at night, which is the norm for her.
As the search deepened, An Sujuan became more and more urgent, "The old artists visited this month may be bedridden due to illness and unable to open their mouths when they go again next month." Some are hard to find, and the inquirer has gone. In this way, some plays have been lost, such as "Trial Second Hall", "Wang Xiao Rushing Feet", "Su Wu Shepherd", "Fenhe Bay Wild Goose", "Su Sanqi Solution", "Shilang Visiting Mother", "Yellow Crane Tower", "Luo Skirt"... Some plays can be performed for three or four hours, which is a pity. ”
Voice: Let the inheritance of the tang local culture be inherited by someone
Someone once said that the persistence and inheritance of a folk skill sometimes really requires a little brute force and stupidity, a sincere heart and a spirit of sacrifice. Acquaintances, relatives and friends said that An Sujuan really had a lot of momentum in her body, and she would do her best no matter what she did.
Since her retirement, An Sujuan has not traveled, shopped, or cared for her children, and has been searching for and sorting out local folk culture with all her heart, and the time, energy and financial resources invested are incalculable. A friend advised her: "People in their sixties, do not earn money or paste money, what are you trying to do?" Most of the time, An Sujuan is reluctant to explain, from the original want to write an article for her father, to now fully protect the traditional culture of her hometown, she deeply understands the value and significance of this, "In our folk culture, there are many content that persuades people to be kind and positive, which is worth our promotion and inheritance." ”
In recent years, An Sujuan has begun to collect and sort out songs, riddles, whispers, after-breaks, colloquialisms, etc. She is pleased that as the atmosphere of promoting excellent traditional culture becomes stronger, more and more people support her. "Some wrote me notes, some emailed me, some texted me, some sent me WeChat, called me, etc., to provide me with materials."
Nowadays, An Sujuan is no longer satisfied with collecting and sorting, she hopes to contribute to the academic research and exploration of folk culture, and launch a series of books on Tang folk culture in the future. "I know my level is limited and I don't know what step I can do, but I won't stop. My greatest wish is to pass on the precious spiritual heritage of my ancestors from generation to generation through collection and collation. I also hope that in this way, there will be successors to the inheritance of Tang local culture. An Sujuan said.
Text/Figure Yanzhao Evening News Rong media reporter Huang Ying
Editor Kaka Editor Old Ke