| Tanci | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 彈詞 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 弹词 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Plucking rhymes | ||||||||||
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Tanci is a narrative form of song in China that alternates between verse and prose.[1] The literal name "plucking rhymes" refers to the singing of verse portions to a pipa.[2] A tanci is usually seven words long. On some occasions the length is ten words.[1] Some scholars refer to tanci as "plucking rhymes," "southern singing narrative," "story-sining," "strum lyrics". The local forms of Tanci encompasses Suzhou Tanci, Yangzhou Tanci, Siming Nanci, Shaoxing Pinghudiao, etc.
Tanci consists of both spoken storytelling and sung ballads. Another distinct narrative style is pinghua, a storytelling art form which is purely spoken. The word pingtan is used as a collective term to refer to tanci and pinghua.[3]