''Shengqiang'' () is a concept in Chinese opera which helps to categorize its hundreds of regional genres by the music played during arias. Classifying by the music, as opposed to the regional dialect, also helps to understand a genre's evolutionary history. For example,

Peking opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

and

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

have little in common as far as language or place of origin, but they belong to the same ''shengqiang'' system. Today, the four major ''shengqiang'' (四大声腔

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: Sìdà Shēngqiāng) are '' Bangziqiang'', '' Pihuangqiang'', '' Kunqiang'' and '' Gaoqiang'' (i.e. ''Yiyangqiang''). Not all Chinese opera genres fall into one of these four ''shengqiang'' systems, and many genres can be classified into more than one system. Other ''shengqiang'' in history include ''Yuyaoqiang'' and ''Haiyanqiang''.

Bangzi qiang

Bangziqiang (梆子腔) consists of

Qinqiang Qinqiang (秦腔, pinyin: Qín qiāng, literally "Qin's tune") is a genre of folk Chinese opera originated in Shaanxi Province of Qing China in 1807 and soon took over other genres to be the representative genre of the province. Historically, th ...

(秦腔),

Yu opera Yu opera (), or Yuju opera, sometimes known as Henan bangzi"Bangzi" meaning wooden clappers with bars of unequal length (), is one of China's famous national opera forms, alongside Peking opera, Yue opera, Huangmei opera and Pingju. Henan province ...

(豫剧), Jinju (晋剧),

Hebei Bangzi ''Hebei bangzi'' ( 河北梆子) is a genre of Chinese opera from the northern province of Hebei. It may also be found in the nearby cities of Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in Shandong, Henan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia, ...

(河北梆子), Sixianqiang in Dianju (滇剧的丝弦腔), Tanxi in Chuanju (川剧的弹戏), etc.

Pihuang qiang

Pihuang qiang (皮黄腔, a coinage made from xipi and erhuang) comprises

Huiju Hui opera, or ''Huiju'' (), is a regional genre of Chinese opera originally from southern Anhui. It is popular in the area around Huangshan City and Chizhou, as well as Wuyuan County, Jiangxi, and was formerly also popular in neighboring Zhejian ...

(徽剧 Hui theatre), Hanju (汉剧), Beijing opera (京剧),

(粤剧), Xiangju (湘剧), Chuanju (川剧), Dianju (滇剧), etc.

Kun qiang

Kunqiang (崑腔), also known as Kunshanqiang (崑山腔), or

Kunqu Kunqu (), also known as Kunju (), K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu Opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. Kunqu is one of the oldest traditional operas of the Han nationality, and is also a treasure of Chinese traditional cult ...

(崑曲) was listed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

in 2001.

Yiyang qiang (Gao qiang)

Yiyang qiang (弋陽腔)Yiyang qiang 弋陽腔: Yiyang melody; one of the four major musical systems of the mid-Ming or outside Peking called Gao qiang (高腔) consists of

Teochew opera Teochew opera or Chaozhou opera, Chiuchow opera (especially in Hong Kong), is one of the many variants of Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Chaoshan region. It is popular in eastern Guangdong, southern Fujian, Hong Kong, Macau, Thaila ...

潮剧,

Sichuan opera Sichuan opera (; Sichuanese Pinyin: Cuan1ju4; ) is a type of Chinese opera originating in China's Sichuan province around 1700. Today's Sichuan opera is a relatively recent synthesis of 5 historic melodic styles. Regionally Chengdu remains to ...

川剧, Xiangju (湘剧 also in Pihuangqiang), Ganju 赣剧, Dianju (滇剧 again also in Pihuang qiang), Chenhexi 辰河戏, Diaoqiang 调腔, etc.

References

Chinese opera {{Chinese opera