Youngsters attend the 3rd China Yinsong Week together with 1,000 Chinese people from home and abroad in 2015. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

The pitch is crucial, as is the rhythm. It is musical, but not essentially music. The words are inspirational and tap into to a deep human yearning that Zhao Fang, 14, and her classmates in Yibin of Sichuan province master with an expertise that belies their tender years. Accompanied by the seven-stringed Chinese instrument the guqin, the children chant an ancient Chinese poem with a confident cadence that pays homage to tradition.

Yinsong, a melodious chanting of Chinese ancient works has survived for about 3,000 years, and provided a form of delivery that allows people to compose and appreciate poems for generation after generation

"Of all the poems I learned to recite, my favorite is Caiwei (Homecoming After the War), a poem from The Book of Songs," Zhao says. The Book of Songs is the oldest collection of Chinese poetry, dating back to the 11th to 6th centuries BC. Zhao chants out the last part of it in Mandarin. "'When I left here, willows shed tears. I come back now, snow bends the bough. Long, long the way; Hard, hard the day. Hunger and thirst, press me the worst. My grief o'erflows. Who knows? Who knows?"'

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The words struck a chord in Zhao. She "doesn't know exactly why", but they simply touched her. Her rendition of the ancient poems and texts ignited a yearning since she first learned to chant them in traditional yinsong two years ago.

Yinsong, a melodious chanting of Chinese ancient works has survived for about 3,000 years, and provided a form of delivery that allows people to compose and appreciate poems for generation after generation.

Zhao and many of her peers, despite their undoubted skill, remain novices. For millennia, Chinese teens have been using a singsong style as an effective tool to compose or memorize poems and prose.

Traditional Chinese private schools, sishu, focused on this art of delivery, as well as many other kinds of academic knowledge and skills to impart. But the tradition nearly vanished due to the closure of many private schools immediately around the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when imperial examinations ended in the 1900s.

However, scholars and enthusiasts have been keen to revitalize and pass down this Chinese intangible cultural heritage in recent years.

Xu Jianshun, a professor from the Capital Normal University, trains local teachers how to practice traditional yinsong, a type of singsonging Chinese poetry at a workshop in Panzhihua, Sichuan province. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Those veteran intellectuals have been teaching the time-honored art in colleges, popularizing it among schoolteachers, and as a result, more and more people have discovered its melodious appeal.

Zhao has signed up for the upcoming 2019 Chinese Classic Recitation Conference, which will open on Thursday in Jinan, Shandong province. More than 3,000 Chinese applicants from home and abroad have registered to take part in the preliminary selection of the event, and uploaded their yinsong videos in the hope of performing later at the annual conference there.

"It was fun to learn ancient poems and prose after the Chinese teacher introduced yinsong to us two years ago," says Zhao.

Chanting a poem actually helps her to remember the words more easily and better understand its cultural connotations, she says.

Zhao's teacher learned the poetic chants from Wu Shiyi, a local teacher instructor from Yibin. Three years ago, Wu became enchanted by the traditional melodious way of reciting poems at a workshop held at the Capital Normal University. Since then, she has been promoting the concept among teachers and students in Yibin city by setting up training courses.

"The unique chanting of ancient poetry gripped me when I was exposed to their beauty, so I decided to introduce it to more people in my city," recalls Wu. She is a woman of vision and right after the workshop she immediately invited an expert from the CNU to lecture and mentor in a class attended by 600 local teachers from kindergartens to high schools.

"I hoped they would integrate yinsong into their Chinese classes, which would help spark student interest in Chinese literature and even history," she says. The delivery, the musical intonation of the singsong approach helps students swim in the stream of emotion, delve into the work's background, and "connect with the author emotionally".

Recognizing its magical powers, teachers like Wu, and college professors and students such as those at the CNU are promoting the skill nationwide.

A research center and inheritance base of yinsong was set up in April at the CNU to preserve and pass on the knowledge. Researchers at the center established a targeted approach, which included pinpointing different schools based on geographic location or dialect, and editing textbooks for learners ranging from beginners to the advanced, according to Leng Weiguo, the center's director.

Separately, more than 100,000 teachers of the subject across the country are attending online and offline training courses offered by the university.

CNU faculty members unveil the research center and inheritance base of yinsong granted by the Ministry of Education in April. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Leng says if students in elementary education master the method to deliver ancient poems and prose, it will be a major breakthrough. "To understand the tonal patterns and prosody will greatly help learners appreciate the literary works in a joyful and instructive way," Leng says.

Over 100 schools in Beijing have included yinsong in their curricula, such as Tsinghua University Primary School, Beijing Luhe High School and Beijing Jingshan School.

Elective courses are also offered for college students in about 50 universities, including the CNU, Guangxi Normal University, Qingdao University, and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

College students, too, have shown interest. Yang Yan, a 25-year-old postgraduate at China Normal University is one of them. She chose to attend an elective course in 2013.

"I never expected that literary works could be studied in such an amazing way. It adds so much charm to ancient literature," says Yang, an ancient literature major.

"We can better comprehend and memorize a poem by learning how to deliver it in measured cadences and varying tones. To me, the melodious chanting is very touching and helps cultivate my aesthetic tastes," she says.

"When I immerse myself in it, I have empathy with the poets, learn from ancient people's experiences, and get closer to the essential spirit of our long-standing culture."

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To share her joy and passion, she even entertains friends and family.

"I often perform yinsong at birthday parties for my elders, wishing them good health and a long life, and they all love it," says Yang.

Contact the writer at xingwen@chinadaily.com.cn