Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Tang-era piece: Jiu Huzi《酒胡子》

Tang-era piece:  Jiu Huzi
《酒胡子》
compiled by David Badagnani (rev. 12 May 2024)

In an effort to make this information more accessible, this document contains resources related to the Tang-era piece entitled Jiu Huzi《酒胡子》, which exists in the form of instrumental parts for a single-movement xiao qu (小曲, small piece) consisting of 14 measures of 4/4 (or 2/2), in the Mixolydian mode on D, called Yue diao (越調) in Chinese and Ichikotsu-chō (壹越調) in Japanese.

As preserved in Sino-Japanese sources, this piece is called Shukoshi酒胡子しゅこし)』, and it appears in the following score collections:
1) and 2) Sango Yōroku and Jinchi Yōroku, both of which were compiled in the late 12th century
3) Ko-fu-Ryoritsu-no-Maki『古譜呂律巻』, also called Hōshō-fu『鳳笙譜』(1201)
4) Ruisō Chiyō『類箏治要』(1296 or c. 1261)
5) Rosei Yōroku『蘆聲要録』(perhaps 1661)

In their program note for Jiu Huzi which appears in their 1973 book of arrangements of Tang tunes, Picken and Pont say the following:
"In the seventh and eighth centuries, the Chinese had only recently learned of wine made from grapes.  This knowledge reached them from the Sogdians -- a people on their western borders, related to the Persians.  In the wine-shops of the capital, Ch'ang-an, the Chinese played with a puppet:  a doll in Sogdian dress, blue-eyed, red-haired and hook-nosed.  If the doll fell over and pointed at one of the drinkers, he had to drink a full cup of wine."

In Music from the Tang Court, vol. 4 (1987), pp. 88-91, it is stated that the short treatise about gagaku and bugaku (Japanese court music and dance) entitled Kyо̄kunshо̄『教訓抄』(Selections for Instruction and Admonition), written c. 1233 by Koma Chikazane (狛近真, 1177-1242), asserts that in Tang China the title of Jiu Huzi was Zui Gongzi《醉公子》("The Drunken Lordling" or "The Drunken Puppet"), though there appears to be little evidence to support this claim.

In his The Golden Peaches of Samarkand:  A Study of T'ang Exotics (1963), Edward H. Schafer, paraphrasing the Japanese scholar Ishida Mikinosuke, writes:
"The same young poets who languished over the pretty Iranian waitresses in the metropolitan wineshops laughed at the little puppets representing drunken Westerners, with their peaked caps, blue eyes, and high noses, with which they played in houses of prostitution--when the ridiculous puppet fell over, the guest at whom it pointed had to empty his cup...  These puppets were called chiu hu-tzu [i.e., jiu huzi, 酒胡子] or pu tsui hsien [i.e., bu zui xian, 捕醉仙]."

Another contemporary name for the wine puppet was quanjiu hu (劝酒胡, literally "wine-urging Sogdian").
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Chinese poems and poetic lyrics mentioning the term "Jiu Huzi"

《酒胡子》
(Jiu Huzi)
作者:卢注(唐)
by Lu Zhu (Tang Dynasty)

同心相遇思同欢,擎出酒胡当玉盘。
盘中臲卼不自定,四座清宾注意看。
可亦不在心,否亦不在面,徇客随时自圆转。
酒胡五藏属他人,十分亦是无情劝。
尔不耕,亦不饥。
尔不蚕,亦有衣。
有眼不能分黼黻,有口不能明是非。
鼻何尖,眼何碧,仪形本非天地力。
雕镌匠意苦多端,翠帽朱衫巧妆饰。
长安斗酒十千酤,刘伶平生为酒徒。
刘伶虚向酒中死,不得酒池中拍浮。
酒胡一滴不入眼,空令酒胡名酒胡。


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《酒胡子》
(Jiu Huzi)
作者:徐夤(唐末至五代)
by Xu Yin (late Tang Dynasty/Five Dynasties,  849-938)

红筵丝竹合,用尔作欢娱。
直指宁偏党,无私绝觊觎。
当歌谁擐袖,应节渐轻躯。
恰与真相似,毡裘满颔须。

More information:

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Videos and recordings of Jiu Huzi

● Two recordings of Jiu Huzi, as supervised by Laurence Picken and performed by a small ensemble led by Wu Wu-hsing (Taipei, Taiwan, 1972)
● Studio recording of Jiu Huzi by an unknown ensemble (China, 1998)
● Performance of Jiu Huzi by the Carleton College Tang Song Music Ensemble (Northfield, Minnesota, United States, 2017) (starts at 2:46)

● Performance of Jiu Huzi by the Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble (Ohio, 2018)

● Performance of Jiu Huzi by Xu Ge and his ensemble, with added Western harmony in the shu konghou part (Beijing, China, c. 2019)

● Solo kugo (angular harp) performance of Jiu Huzi by Tomoko Sugawara (New York City, 2020)

● Solo kugo (angular harp) and clapper performance of Jiu Huzi by Tomoko Sugawara (New York City, 2020)

● Cross-cultural performance of Jiu Huzi by the Eurasia Consort (probably New York City, 2020) (starts at 4:36)

● Performance of Jiu Huzi by Xu Ge and his ensemble, with added Western harmony in the shu konghou part (Weihai, Shandong province, China, 2020)

● Solo ryūteki performance of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 盞頻幺 (China, 2022)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1P7411W7Lv/

● Solo Tang-style chiba performance of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 盞頻幺 (China, 2022)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1nt4y1Q7QD/

● Solo sheng performance of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 盞頻幺 (China, 2022)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV15E411E7jR/

● Solo jinghu performance of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 长清居士 (China, 2020)

● Full-ensemble realization of Jiu Huzi done by Tokinori Yanagita using synthesized sounds (Japan, 2021)

● Multitrack recording of Jiu Huzi, performed by Bilibili user Beilin Zhai Zhuren (北林斋主人), bili, heng di, and percussion (China, 2021)

● Full-ensemble realization of Jiu Huzi, revised version 2, done by Tokinori Yanagita using synthesized sounds (Japan, 2022)

● Solo pipa performance of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 桐木D (China, 2022)

● Full-ensemble realization of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 宇文田所 using synthesized sounds (China, 2022)

● Solo Tang-style chiba performance of Jiu Huzi, done by Bilibili user 盞頻幺 (China, 2022)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ae4y1Q7PV/

● Performance of the pipa part to Jiu Huzi, played on electric bass guitar by Bilibili user 扬波-小锤-芥末cookie (China, 2023)

● Performance of Jiu Huzi, played on koto and electric bass guitar by Bilibili user 扬波-小锤-芥末cookie (China, 2023)
● Solo koto performance of Jiu Huzi, demonstrated in both Tang and contemporary Japanese gagaku style by Bilibili user 扬波-小锤-芥末cookie (China, 2023) (dead link)

● Duo performance of Jiu Huzi, played on dizi and xiao by Bilibili user 冯氏羊肉馆 (China, 2023)

● Ensemble performance of Jiu Huzi by the Eurasia Consort (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, 2024)

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Bibliography

● Picken, Laurence, and Kenneth Pont, arr.  Ancient Chinese Tunes:  Nine Pieces for Recorders, Tuned Percussion, Rhythmic Percussion, Plucked Strings, Guitar, and Optional Clarinets in B Flat.  London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
● Picken, L.E.R., and R. F. Wolpert.  "Mouth-Organ and Lute Parts of Tōgaku and Their Interrelationships."  Musica Asiatica, vol. 3 (1981), pp. 79-95.
● Picken, Laurence, ed., with Rembrandt F. Wolpert, Allan J. Marett, Jonathan Condit, and Elizabeth J. Markham, and with Yōko Mitani and Noël J. Nickson.  Music from the Tang Court, vol. 4.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1987.
● Laurence Picken and Noël J. Nickson, eds., with Rembrandt F. Wolpert, Allan J. Marett, Elizabeth J. Markham, Yōko Mitani, and Stephen Jones.  Music from the Tang Court, vol. 5.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1990.
● Schafer, Edward H.  The Golden Peaches of Samarkand:  A Study of T'ang Exotics.  Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1963.

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Filmography

On the Road to Tang (dir. Tom Knott, 2003).  74 min.

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Additional resources

● Web page describing the Tang-era drinking game featuring the Sogdian puppet (2022)

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