Jiangnan Sizhu

Elegant and delicate Jiangnan sizhu is a kind of outstanding instrument in China’s history of music. In 2007, Jiangnan sizhu was listed by Shanghai Municipal Government in the list of the first batch of City-level Intangible Cultural Heritage in Shanghai. Sizhu was already popular before 1860. After 1911, many ensembles of Jiangnan sizhu were organized with Shanghai as the center. The heyday of Jiangnan sizhu was the 1940s. In 1954, the name “Jiangnan sizhu” was determined in Shanghai. Jiangnan sizhu is a kind of instrumental ensemble popular in Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and western Zhejiang. The ensembles’ basic instruments are strings and bamboo wind instruments, thus the name sizhu. The composition of a Jiangnan sizhu ensemble is flexible - there may be as many as over ten players, or as less as two or three instruments. The main instruments are qudi (a national bamboo flute), sheng (a reed pipe wind instrument), xiao (a vertical bamboo flute), erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument), pipa (a plucked string instrument), sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument), dulcimer, qinqin (a national musical instrument), clapper, bell and wooden fish. The performance forms include sitting and standing. Jiangnan sizhu is highly entertaining. It is a social fashion in Shanghai where “people play sizhu together after work”. People often play sizhu together in private houses or tea houses to cultivate their taste and exchange skills. Sizhu is also played on occasions such as weddings and funerals, festivals and temple fairs. Just as the ancients said, “In the sound of sizhu, a country is run”. Jiangnan sizhu music has the function of calming down, appeals to all, and can cultivate people’s taste.