What are the main folk dances of the Ming and Qing Dynasties?

The Han folk songs and dances widely circulated in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were mostly performed during the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month. The social fire of the Ming Dynasty and the walking party of the Qing Dynasty were organized to form a comprehensive procession of folk entertainment or skills, such as music, dance, acrobatics, martial arts, and so on. In this kind of procession, dances such as rice-planting songs, running boats, running bamboo horses, big-headed monks, lion dances, dragon dances, king whip, stilts and other performances occupy an important position. These dances have been handed down to the present day through the activities of social fires and walking meetings.

This period of China's ethnic minority areas have preserved many ancient traditional dance, such as Xinjiang Uygur large-scale song and dance song "twelve Mukam", in the Ming Dynasty history books have been recorded, the Ming people made the "Hundred Yi Chuan" recorded the Dai Peacock Dance "in the car music" in the Elephant's Foot Drum Dance, etc.; Zhuang copper drum dance except for the historical records, in the unearthed copper drum artifacts can be seen in the dance of it image; Miao Lusheng dance, copper drum dance, tune dance, Nuo dance, etc. not only have written records, and there are a lot of pictures of the Qing Dynasty can be proved; Yunnan Naxi ritual dance Dongba Dance, in the discovery of the Qing Dynasty, "Dongba scripture" written in the record of the dance of this dance score.

In addition, such as the jumping music of the ethnic group, the Yao long encouragement, the Tujia pendulum dance, the Tibetan potshuang, the Manchu mang style, the Taiping drum dance and so on were also widely circulated in this period. Chinese people of all nationalities in folk songs and dances to sing about history, ancestor worship, education of future generations, praying for a good harvest, confiding in love, praising their hometowns, songs and dances are an essential part of the life of the working people.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, opera had become the most popular and important art form, and dance was an important part of opera performance. Opera dance, directly inherited from the Tang and Song dynasty songs and dances and the ancient traditional dance art, through successive generations of opera artists processing and creation, has formed a complete set of training system and performance methods. In the repertoire of Ming and Qing operas, a rich dance heritage has been preserved. During the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of the Qing Dynasty (1736-1820), numerous colorful local operas were formed in various places on the basis of folk songs and dances, such as Flower Drum Opera, which was formed on the basis of folk songs and dances, Flower Drum Opera, Tea Picking Opera, which was formed on the basis of Tea Picking, Wuyin Drama, which absorbed the nutrients of Rice-planting Song and Flower Drum and Lighting, and Lantern Opera, which was developed from Flower Lanterns and so on, and Taiwan's Songzai Opera, which was developed by the Jinge, Caicha, and Cheguoliang that had been brought to Taiwan from Fujian, which had been brought to Taiwan from Fujian. The Taiwan Gezai Opera was developed from the Jin Ge (锦歌), Cai Cha (采茶) and Che Gu Lang (車鼓弄), which were introduced from Fujian. The above facts fully illustrate that each local opera genre has absorbed and preserved a great deal of classical and folk dance traditions. Opera dance in the Qing Dynasty has been characterized by a strict program, strong expressiveness and high skill.