tanci system based on the Yangzhou dialect. Formerly known as xianci. Popular in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, and the Lixiahe area of northern Jiangsu. Yangzhou tanci and Yangzhou pinghua are sister arts. Tanci was formed relatively late, beginning around the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Yangzhou tanci, formerly known as Yangzhou xianci, is a form of folk art that uses Yangzhou dialect to tell stories and sing. It is popular in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, and the Lixiahe area. Yangzhou tanci and Yangzhou pinghua are of the same origin. Tanci began around the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. In the early days, one person told stories and sang, and played the sanxian for accompaniment, hence the name xianci. In the early Qing Dynasty, pinghua artists often performed xiantong as well. It was not until the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods that they gradually separated. During the period of popularity in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it developed into a double-stage performance, called "dialogue xianci", with the addition of pipa accompaniment. The characteristic is that there is more speaking and less singing, and the lyrics are only narrative performances. The traditional bibliography of Yangzhou Tanci has recorded 8 works, including "Pearl Tower", "Double Gold Ingot", "Japanese Robe Record", "Jade Dragonfly", "Falling Golden Fan", "Legend of the White Snake", etc. Yangzhou Tanci, formerly known as Xianci, is popular in Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing and the Lixiahe area in northern Jiangsu. It is a kind of folk art that is known as Suzhou Tanci. The performance is divided into single and double files. The single file is one person singing and accompaniment is sanxian; the double file is two people singing duet, and the instruments are sanxian and pipa. Yangzhou Tanci performance is mainly based on speaking, supplemented by singing and playing, and pays attention to the correct pronunciation and intonation. The speaking is mostly in Yangzhou dialect, and when playing roles, it also uses "dockyard language" from other places to distinguish and portray characters. In the double file performance, the two people cooperate accordingly, and talk in different tones and tones of different characters, one focusing on narration and the other focusing on singing. The lyrics of Yangzhou Tanci are mainly seven-character sentences in parallel, and the superimposed single sentences are called "Phoenix Nodding". The music tunes come from three aspects: they are derived from the folk songs of the Ming Dynasty; they absorb some tunes of the southern and northern tunes and local operas and reform them; and they are created by artists. The tunes include Suonanzhi, Shuahaier, Sanqilihua, Chenshui, Haiqu, Jianjianhua, Nandiao, etc. The lyrics also have the "opening" before the performance of the correct book. The content is mostly about chanting people, narrating stories, describing scenes and expressing emotions. In addition to mastering the general rhythm, the narration of the storytelling is also divided into fast work (also known as "pushing the pagoda"), slow work, and tongue twisters, among which fast work is the most commonly used and difficult to say. The storytelling requires that people do not feel paused when changing breaths, and must achieve "the book is interrupted but the meaning is not interrupted, the meaning is interrupted but the spirit is not interrupted", "fast but not chaotic, slow but not interrupted". Among the early storytelling artists in Yangzhou, many of them performed both Pinghua and Xianci, such as Zhang Jingxuan and Zhang Jiesan, who had high attainments in these two art forms, so the two arts absorbed and influenced each other and improved together. In modern times, Yangzhou Tanci has formed three major schools. The most influential one is the "Zhang's Tanci" gradually formed by Zhang Jingxuan's descendants Zhang Lifu, Zhang Youfu and their nephews Zhang Jiqing and Zhang Huinong. The books they are good at performing are "Pearl Tower", "Japanese Robe Records", "Double Gold Ingots" and "Falling Gold Fan", which are known as the "Four Treasures of the Zhang Family". The other two schools are represented by Zhou Tingdong and Kong Qingyuan respectively. There are more than 10 traditional books in Yangzhou Tanci. In addition to the Four Treasures of the Zhang Family, the influential ones include "Jade Dragonfly", "Legend of the White Snake", "Double Pearl Phoenix", "Double Haircut", "Big Red Robe", "Golden Seal", "White Crane Picture" and so on. Yangzhou Tanci performance is mainly based on speaking, supplemented by singing. Its performance is roughly the same as Pinghua, the difference is that it pays more attention to the correct pronunciation and intonation; second, the demonstration movement is smaller, even the hand movements are rarely done, and the focus is on facial expressions. Its speaking is mostly in Yangzhou dialect, and when playing roles, it also uses "dockside dialect" from other places to distinguish and analyze the characters. A two-stage performance, two people together, dialogue in different tones and intonations. The upper actor focuses on narration, and the lower actor is mostly responsible for singing. The lyrics of Yangzhou Tanci are arranged in the book lyrics. Commonly used tunes include [Sanqi Pear Blossom], [Zuonanzhi], [Shenshui], [Haiqu], [Daoqing], etc., mostly in Yudiao and Shangdiao. The tune is simple and elegant, antique and has rarely changed over the years. The lyrics have representative and narrative forms, generally three-character sentences or seven-character sentences, which can be appropriately increased or decreased, and are mostly even sentences rhyming. The accompaniment "upper and lower hands" are coordinated and tacit, three-character sentences or seven-character sentences, which can be appropriately increased or decreased, and are mostly even sentences rhyming. The accompaniment "upper and lower hands" are coordinated and tacit, the sanxian plays the skeleton sound, sparse and elegant, while the pipa is smooth, dense and changeable, ups and downs and beautiful, which is called "sanxian bones pipa meat". Yangzhou Tanci is a kind of storytelling art with the most characteristics of quyi, which is "talking and singing, singing with talking, talking and singing, and both talking and singing". Yangzhou Tanci (also known as string ci) was already quite prosperous during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of the Qing Dynasty. Li Dou's famous work "Yangzhou Huafanglu" once recorded several famous "string ci" masters, such as Wang Bingwen, Wang Jianming, Gu Hanzhang, etc. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were still three schools of tanci in Yangzhou, Zhang (Jingxuan), Zhou (Tingdong), and Kong (Zhuangyuan), each of which was a school and flourished in teahouses. Later, the Zhou and Kong families were lost one after another, but the Zhang family's tanci art lineage continued and has been passed down to this day. In the 1960s, the third-generation inheritors of Zhang's tanci, brothers Zhang Huinong and Zhang Huixiang, taught a group of students in the Jiangsu Province Quyi Troupe and Yangzhou Quyi Troupe respectively, and they later became the backbone of Yangzhou Tanci. Among them, Li Renzhen, Shen Zhifeng, Xu Guiqing, Gu Qun, and Li Laimiao are known as the "Five Golden Flowers" of Yangzhou Tanci. They are active in teahouses and bookstores across the country, and are widely popular and extremely popular. The performance form of Yangzhou Tanci art is relatively simple, but the performance techniques are rich and diverse. The technical emphasis is on "speaking, acting, playing, and singing". The performance focuses on the integration of speaking and acting. Especially the long book performance, there are large-scale scene descriptions and character psychological expressions, from thousands of troops to small plants and trees, all kinds of people are performed by one person, not only jumping in and out of many characters, frequently switching, but also changing freely between the actor's "performance" and the character's "speaking", with both the performer's objective comments and the character's subjective feelings. However, the influence of Yangzhou Tanci is much smaller than that of Qingqu. In order to explore the reason, in addition to the factors of differences in the external environment, in terms of art itself, "playing" is not as good as others, which is probably the main reason. The so-called "playing" refers to the musical part of Tanci: singing and accompaniment. The main tunes of Yangzhou tanci include "Sanqi Lihua", "Shenshui", "Lock Nanzhi", "Haiqu", "Daoqing", etc., and "Sanqi Lihua" is the most important and basic tune. It should be said that it is a top-grade tune with beautiful melody, diverse forms, wide range of expression, and large emotional capacity, which is quite popular with the audience. In this case, why do we say "not as good as others"? Perhaps "good to listen to but not good to sing" is an important factor that hinders its spread, making it far inferior to others in terms of popularity. For example, for the audience of Suzhou Pingtan, humming a few lines of Pingtan singing may be a piece of cake, and there are even many people who can play a section of the pipa three-string "ticket". But for the audience of Yangzhou tanci, I am afraid that no one can sing "Sanqi Lihua", because for outsiders, it is really "pear blossoms all over the ground but not open the door", and ordinary people can't hum it, so it is naturally difficult to "resonate". Furthermore, the melody of the Shang mode is too euphemistic and lingering, but not bright and strong enough, which also limits the scope of its emotional expression. The weaker link is the real "playing", that is, the accompaniment. The accompaniment of Yangzhou Tanci and Suzhou Pingtan is a pipa and a three-stringed instrument, which is played by the singer himself. In the long-term practice of Suzhou Pingtan, an accompaniment system of "singing is singing, playing is playing" has gradually been formed, and not all of them simply follow the tune. Sometimes, it is similar to the decomposition of modern music1, interspersed and jumped in the singing, like "jumping beans", which is lively and full of vitality, and very characteristic. Yangzhou Tanci is mostly accompanied by the tune. Because the singing is difficult, the accompaniment is naturally not easy, so it is often not satisfactory. In addition, due to the singing, the tuning of the pipa is a major second lower than the normal tuning, which makes the accompaniment color low and dim. If Yangzhou Qingqu is the art of sitting and playing, and Yangzhou Pinghua is the art of speaking, Yangzhou Tanci is a comprehensive art that emphasizes performance, playing, speaking, singing, and acting, which places particularly high demands on Tanci artists. Looking back at the Tanci she is engaged in, Li Renzhen believes that the appeal of Tanci performances is not strong, mainly because of the music. The traditional tunes and music of Tanci are relatively monotonous and old. For example, "Sanqi Pear Blossom" is a common tune for Tanci, and the joys, anger, sorrows, and joys of the characters are mostly expressed by this song. In this way, singing loses its value, and speaking cannot impress the audience. So Li Renzhen began the road of innovation in Tanci. She successfully applied the palace tune to the performance of Yangzhou Tanci, and created more than a hundred distinctive new tunes for Tanci, forming her own school. At the same time, Li Renzhen used the upper, middle, and lower three handles instead of the upper handle to play the pipa, so that the melody changes more and the voice has a large range of pitch. In 1985, Li Renzhen went to Shanghai alone to perform for two months. The performances were sold out and the public responded strongly. She immediately became famous in Shanghai. Chen Ruheng, a professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, praised Li Renzhen in public: "Yangzhou's tanci is the most refined and authentic. It has declined and now has Chen's skills. Li's tunes are diverse and can be used as references. It is Renzhen who is the pioneer and the successor." Shanghai Radio Station also recorded a special album "Li Renzhen's Yangzhou Tanci Album" for her. With the unremitting efforts of generations, Yangzhou Tanci has gradually stepped onto the elegant stage. In 1985, the Municipal Quyi Troupe was invited to perform in Beijing; in 1990, Li Renzhen went to North Korea with the art troupe to perform, and Yangzhou Tanci went abroad; from 1990 to 2000, Yangzhou Tanci programs such as "Double Pearl Phoenix", "Romance of the West Chamber", and "The Road to Heaven" were broadcast continuously on CCTV, further expanding the influence of Yangzhou Tanci in the country. (No pictures yet, please provide.) (No pictures yet, please provide.)