清代嘉慶年間以來廣東「粵謳」的流變軌跡: 詩文日記、唱詞曲譜與聲音材料的綜合性研究

This article adopts an integrated approach to the studies of Chinese sung oral narratives (quyi) by studying the transformation of “yueou” (literally, Cantonese songs) through an examination of a variety of written, printed, and audio materials. It suggests that this particular genre of Cantonese songs emerged in the provincial capital of Guangdong no later than the first decade of the nineteenth century. An abundance of written and printed materials reveals the details about how yueou might have been performed and appreciated in those years. It also confirms that the compiler of the songbook entitled Yueou was most likely Zhao Ziyong, a Nanhai literary man active in Canton in the 1820s-1830s. Literature published since the 1860s shows that yueou was by then considered out of fashion. By the late Qing, yueou was more like a literature style than a song genre. Fortunately, scores published in the 1920s and 30s document at least one type of singing pattern of yueou, whereas the audio records left by a blind lady singer in Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1980s register another. These two types of literature (scores and audio records) indicate the different roles played by men and women in written and oral traditions in passing down different styles of sung oral narratives. They also serve as important references for singers today to arrange and create their own vocal performances of yueou.