The Origin of Folk Songs in Eastern Hubei

Su Dongpo, a great writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, praised him as "the mountains and rivers are clear, the local style is good, the style of writing is simple but not ugly, and he respects morality and music, which is different from other countries" and is known as "Wu Tou Chu Wei". It is bordered by the majestic Dabie Mountain in the north, the Yangtze River in the south, Poyang in the east and Yunmeng in the west, and borders Anhui, Henan and Jiangxi provinces. Water pouring, water lifting, water pumping, slopping and water scooping run through the territory, with humid climate, fertile land and rich products. In the long historical changes, people in eastern Hubei are in an endless stream. With the spirit of hard work, courage and perseverance, they not only created material wealth, but also created brilliant spiritual wealth, and produced outstanding figures renowned at home and abroad, such as Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao, founders of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, Li Shizhen, author of Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty, Wen Yiduo, a famous professor, Li Siguang, founder of geomechanics in China, and Wang Yanan, an economist. Dong, Chen Tanqiu and Bao Huizeng, one of the representatives of China's * * * producers, Dong and Li Xiannian, People's Republic of China (PRC), and more than 300 marshals and generals can be described as "unique and outstanding".

Folk songs are also a wonderful flower blooming in this magical fertile soil. It is not only the oral poetry creation of the people in eastern Hubei, but also the crystallization of their ideals and wisdom. The content of folk songs is very rich, which truly reflects the social life, customs, productive labor, war corvee, marriage and love in different periods. For example, the modern poet Hu wrote in Yingshan Ci:

The East and West Mountains are full of flowers, but there is less time to sit on embroidered windows. Sister-in-law's tea-picking room is very interesting, singing with Huoshan accent.

Mr. Yu divided the colorful traditional folk songs in eastern Hubei into 1 1 species, namely: anti-tune, folk songs, lantern songs, love songs, folk songs, Taoist songs, children's songs, cattle songs, fishing songs, labor songs and new folk songs. In Luotian County Records published by Zhonghua Book Company, traditional folk songs are divided into eight categories, namely: folk songs, labor songs, transplanted gongs and drums, minor songs, love songs, children's songs lullabies, revolutionary songs and riddles.

The forms of folk songs in eastern Hubei are mainly seven-character and five-character, and the sentences of three-character, four-character and even eight-character are mixed, with uneven length and patchwork. Most of them use the method of Fu Bixing. Their excellent folk songs are lofty in artistic conception, meaningful, philosophical, inspiring, beautiful in language, fresh and natural, full of sounds and emotions, interesting and humorous, melodious and fluent, and full of artistic appeal. For example:

The front and back of the house are green, and there is no hot air in summer.

There are also financial resources and family happiness for the benefit of future generations.

Thin straw rises from tall buildings, and the landlord is old and rich. The blue brick house was still too hot, so I just basked in the sun in the field. I'll throw away my hoe and stop farming. I'll see if you accept the rent.

Heaven and earth were born nameless, and I have devoted my life to fighting against injustice. I won't go to all flat places, I will go to all uneven places.

Little Huang An, everyone is a hero. When the gong rings, it is 40 thousand to 80 thousand. Men can fight and women can deliver meals.

The Soviet area is beautiful, with red flags everywhere. Farmers' associations were formed, and the poor took their property.

Lang didn't come to stand in front of the door and shed a lot of tears. He picked it up and put it on bit by bit. Brother Qing came to show him.

In the past, children in rural areas of eastern Hubei slept in a boat-shaped bamboo cradle, which was placed on a wooden frame that could be shaken. In order to put the child to sleep, the mother shook the cradle and hummed softly: oh-oh-where should I wake up? Well, I'm great! In this process, the lyrics of some children's songs are often hummed, and "Huang Ji Gong Wei Tuo" is the most widely circulated and used one. Why? Because children learn babbling before they can speak, babbling is a bit like singing. To my mother, it sounds like a yellow rooster singing. When the baby babbled in the cradle, the mother praised him (her) for singing, not because his parents taught him specially, but because he bit the song himself. How clever my baby is! The word "bite" means to follow the trend. It is also full of mothers' hope that their children will grow up early and learn to speak.

This piece of music is soft, soothing and full of love. The simple melody contains the feelings of loving mother, and the simple timbre is full of touching power. It is no wonder that some elderly people are in tears when they hear this familiar tone, and they are all immersed in the warmth of childhood, which reminds them of maternal love.

Lotus picking boat is a folk art form of Han people playing with lanterns during the Spring Festival. The raw materials for making lotus picking boats are bamboo and colored paper. First, bamboo is tied into a boat-shaped skeleton, then decorated with colored paper, and the four corners are decorated with lotus flowers. There is a village girl on the lotus picking boat, rocking the boat with the rhythm of gongs and drums and the singing rhythm of paddlers. The person who shakes the oar is a ferryman. This ferryman is the lead singer. He sang, everyone is in harmony. Every time he sings four sentences, he inserts a gong and drum, and the atmosphere is very warm. Some of the lyrics of the Caihe boat are called "colorful words" and some are called "hanging labels". There are conventions and improvisations in colorful lyrics, and most of them are congratulations.

This poem "Lotus Picking Boat" is widely circulated in eastern Hubei. Very simple and easy to learn. Once learned, it is never easy to forget.

According to legend, in ancient times, there was a literati in Dongxiang village who loved the folk songs in eastern Hubei very much. He walked from village to village with a notebook and a pen all the year round, recording the lyrics of folk songs he heard and interviewed along the way. When he recorded 360 songs, he copied them into a booklet called 360 Songs. This booklet has been widely copied by people from generation to generation, and 360 tones have become synonymous with folk songs in eastern Hubei. In fact, there are more than 360 lyrics of the folk songs in eastern Hubei.